Early Humans
Social Studies 10
Let us engage!
What tools do you think would have been necessary for
prehistoric people to have?
Let us engage!
What factors do you think helped lead to changes and
improvements in prehistoric tools?
History
It refers to the study of past events that were
recorded in writing.
Prehistory
It refers to a time before there
were written records.
• Historians rely mostly on documents, or written records, to create their
pictures of the past.
• However, no written records exist for the prehistory of mankind.
• The story of pre-historic humans depends on archaeological and, more
recently, biological evidence.
Prehistory
Archaeology and
Anthropology as
Science
• The evidences gathered are being used to
create theories about the early past.
• They have developed scientific methods to
carry out their work.
• They excavate sites, or carefully dig up land,
at places around the globe to uncover
remains of early humans, ancient cities,
burial grounds, and other objects. They give
a better understanding of the past.
Archaeology
the study of past societies through the analysis of what
people left behind
They dig up and examine artifacts.
Archaeologists
Artifacts are objects made by humans.
Tools Weapons Art Buildings
The study of human life and culture
Anthropology
Culture
• What people wear
• How they organize their society
• What they value
Anthropologists
• They use artifacts and human fossils to
create a picture of people’s everyday lives.
Fossils
• Rock-like remains of biological organisms such as
leaf imprints of skeletons
Dating Artifacts and
Fossils
• One of the hardest jobs
• Helps scientists understand when and where the first
humans lived.
Accurate for objects that are 50,000 years old
Measures the amount of radio-carbon left in an object.
Radiocarbon Dating
Thermoluminescence
Dating
• Used for objects dating back to 200,000
years ago
• The method is done by measuring the
light given off by electrons trapped in the
soil surrounding fossils and artifacts.
• Microscopic and biological analyses of organic remains –
blood, hair, and plant tissues left on tools and weapons
• Tells about the history of hunting and farming
Other techniques
• Studying ancient DNA
provides new information on human evolution
that give insights
into the lives of
early humans
By examining
• Pottery, tools, and weapons
• These scientists learn about the social and military structures of
early societies
• Bones, skins, and plan seeds
• They are able to piece together the diets and activities of early
humans.
Think about two
everyday items that
you currently own.
If future people found
these items at an
archaeological site, what
might they conclude
about your society?
Migration of Early Humans
In recent decades, modern science has produced Early
a clearer picture of how early humans
developed. Development
Revisions of early findings may happen when
new bones or skulls are found.
Hominids to Homo sapiens
• A hominid is a human-like creature that walked upright.
• Earliest hominids lived in Africa 4 million years ago.
• Australopithecus (southern ape)
• Flourished in eastern and southern Africa
• Discovered by Donald Johanson
Louis and Mary Leakey
• Spent most of their time searching for clues about early humans
• Mary made a dramatic discovery of a skeleton at Olduvai George in East Africa.
• She discovered a 1.8 million years old hominid in 1959.
• It was the oldest hominid at that time.
From 2.5 to 1.6 million
years ago…
• A more advanced hominid developed with somewhat larger brain.
• It was named Homo habilis.
• Homo habilis means handy human.
• They may have used stones as tools.
From 1.5 million years
ago…
• Homo erectus emerged.
• Homo erectus means upright human.
• They had arms and legs in modern human proportion.
• Remains in Asia show that Homo erectus was probably the
first hominid to leave Africa.
250, 000 years
ago…
• Homo sapiens emerged.
• Homo sapiens means wise humans.
• They showed a rapid brain growth and
mastered fire.
Between 150,000
and 200,000 years
ago…
• The first anatomically modern humans
• Homo sapiens sapiens means wise, wise humans.
• They probably spread out of Africa about 100,000
years ago.
• They replaced the early population of Hominids in
Europe and Asia.
• This is the explanation of Out-Of-Africa Theory (different
with multi-regional continuity model theory)
• Homo sapiens sapiens replaced the Neanderthals during
30,000 BCE
Neanderthals
• They probably lived between 200,000 BCE
and 30,000 BCE.
• Their remains have been found in Europe
and Turkey.
• The first early people to bury their dead.
• They died out possibly because of conflict
with Homo sapiens sapiens.
• The spread of this first modern humans,
Homo sapiens sapiens ,was a slow process.
spread over the globe as they searched for
food and new hunting grounds.
Homo sapiens Over tens of thousands of years, 2-3 miles of
sapiens movement was enough to populate the world.
Today, all humans – whether they are
European, Australian Aborigines, or African –
belong to the same subgroup of human
beings.
The Paleolithic Age
(Stone Age)
• This age is used to designate the early period of human history (2.5 million
BCE to 10,000 BCE)
• Humans used simple stone tools.
• Paleolithic comes from the Greek words meaning old stone, Hence it is also
known as the Old Stone Age.
Old Stone Age
• Humans relied on hunting for hundreds of thousands of years.
• The people had close relationships with their environment.
• They came to know what animals to hunt and what plants to eat.
• They gathered wild nuts, berries, fruits, wild grains, and green plants.
• Around the world, they hunted various animals including buffalo, horses,
bison, and reindeer.
• In coastal areas, fish and shellfish provided a rich source of food.
