01.01 Notes

01.
01 Early Man Deals with the Environment
Prehistory is divided into three ages. The divisions are based on the sophistication of tools and technology of each era. The Paleolithic Age, or Old Stone Age, began about 2 million years ago and ended around 12,000 B.C.E. (B.C.E. means before the common era.) The Mesolithic Age, or Middle Stone Age, is a relatively short few thousand years dating from roughly 12,000 to 8000 B.C.E. The Neolithic Age, or New Stone Age, dates from around 8000 to 5000 B.C.E.
The human species seems to have existed for about 2 or 2.5 million years. In zoology, hominids include humans, gorillas, and chimpanzees. Several species of humans appeared during the Paleolithic Age, around 500,000 and 750,000 years ago, and spread through Africa, Asia, and Europe. Modern humans(Homo sapiens sapiens) originated about 240,000 years ago. An ancestor of modern humans is Homo erectus. Latin for upright man, they were toolmakers and controlled fire. If one thing dominated humans of the Paleolithic and Neolithic Ages, it was their use of stones. They used stones to make tools and sharpened them to make edges to cut with. Stones were also used as fishnet sinkers. Other materials were widely used, particularly animal sinew and bone. Sinew made fibers for sewing, and bone made everything from jewelry and religious objects to simple sewing needles able to pierce hides and piece them together for better-fitting clothing and shoes in cold weather.
The development of agriculture brought about enormous changes to humans. Prior to the latter part of the Neolithic Age, humans were largely nomadic, following the herds and the seasons of wild roots and berries. At the end of the last ice age, some 10,000 to 20,000 years ago, it appears that larger game animals, such as the mammoth, had died off. This may have been due to climate or human hunters. Most of the remaining game was much smaller, less than fifty pounds on average. Men, the hunters, who had been bringing in 20% of the diet with their hunting soon found that there was less food available.
With the development of agriculture, gender roles changed. In hunting-and-gathering societies, men and women had equally important roles and probably treated each other in the same way. But with agriculture, men took on tasks that were more like gathering and may have seemed more feminine. To emphasize their masculinity and to ensure the hunting traditions were not lost, men began to assert dominance over women.
The development of agriculture has been referred to as a Neolithic revolution, and it took over a thousand years to happen.
Agriculture changed society. People no longer needed to be nomadic, but they could settle in permanent locations. Agriculture could support larger communities, and this led to larger populations. Birth rates increased because children could be supported more easily in an agricultural community than in a hunter-gatherer group. Also, children were needed to help their families. Soon after agriculture was established, people began to make tools out of metal instead of stone. Nomads still exist to this day, very much as they have for thousands of years. Pastoral nomads still follow their herds of sheep and goats. Today small groups of hunter-gatherer nomads dot the African savannas.
The first period in human history is known as the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. During this time humans were concerned with basic needs, such as food and shelter. They had to move from place to place in search of these things, which made them nomadic. Humans were completely dependent on the environment. They hunted wild animals and gathered wild food. They lived in small groups known as clans, had an oral language, and used simple stone tools. The Neolithic or Agricultural Revolution put a stop to the nomadic lifestyle. Humans began to manipulate their environment by farming plants and domesticating animals. This new way of life enabled people to settle down and build communities. The Neolithic Revolution created a surplus of food. With more than enough food, people could have different jobs, which led to a more complex existence. The surplus of food created a population explosion. It also caused an increased need for new technology, such as the plow, weaving, and pottery. The use of metal as a more durable material replaced the earlier stone tools. Click here to open PDF In this lesson, you learned about the early years of the Civil War. In particular, you discovered the advantages and disadvantages that each side possessed as well as the strategies that the sides attempted to implement. Also, you learned about Lee's unsuccessful invasion of the North at the Battle of Antietam and how the Emancipation Proclamation shifted the focus of the war.
A Neolithic woman spins a dried yucca stalk against a much-used fire starter to generate heat that will kindle a fire on the dried plant material she has placed under the fire-starting stick.
"Venus" figurine, found at Dolni Vestonice, Moravia, c. 23,000 B.P. Several hundred early female figures have been recovered, but no male figures. This seems to support the thesis that these statuettes were created,
not so much as representation of ideal feminine beauty, but as fertility charmsnotice how the breasts, buttocks, and thighs are emphasized to the exclusion of any individualizing facial traits.
01.01 Early Man Deals with the Environment Key points to remember: The first period in human history is known as the Paleolithic (Old Stone) Age. During this time humans were concerned with basic needs, such as food and shelter. They had to move from place to place in search of these things, which made them nomadic. Humans were completely dependent on the environment. They hunted wild animals and gathered wild food. They lived in small groups known as clans, had an oral language, and used simple stone tools. Agriculture is considered to be a Neolithic revolution, and it put a stop to the nomadic lifestyle. Humans began to manipulate their environment by farming plants and domesticating animals. This new way of life enabled people to settle down and build communities. The development of agriculture created a surplus of food. With more than enough food, people could have different jobs, which led to a more complex existence. The surplus of food created a population explosion. It also caused an increased need for new technology, such as the plow, weaving, and pottery. The use of metal as a more durable material replaced the earlier stone tools.

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01 Early Man Deals with the Environment

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