Stone Age Lecture Notes

Creatures Before Humans



Explain evolution - theory
birds onto islands
moths in sooty England

Earth = 5 billion years old

1st - Australopithecus (Austra = southern)
5,000,000 to 1,000,000 ya
only found in Africa
new human like animal
walked on 2 legs
brains half size of modern humans
4-5.5 feet tall
no tools
"Lucy"
foraged for eggs, roots, fruit, animals
like similar animals, only found near water since couldn't carry it

2nd - Homo hablis = man handy
2,000 - 1,000,000 ya
only in Africa
first with tools (knives, hand axes)
4.5 feet tall
larger brain, smaller jaw and teeth
found only near water since couldn't carry it

3rd - Homo erectus - man upright
1,500,000 - 250,000 ya
found in Africa and also Europe and Asia
20-30 in a group
taller, larger brain, smaller teeth
first with fire
still always found near fresh water since couldn't carry it

us - Homo sapiens - man wise
250,000 to present
first to domesticate plants and animals
first to care for sick and disabled
first with art
first with musical instruments (drums, flutes)
first with pottery - no longer tied to rivers and lakes

Stone Age People - Geography


Standard: location of human communities that populated the major regions of the world
How humans adapted to a variety of environments
Climactic changes


Where was the first human population?

1st only lived in Africa
migrated through Egypt into Asia, Europe, Australia

How did climatic changed influence human development?

Homo sapiens only around for the last 250,000 years of the Earth's 5 billion year history.
Climate fairly similar to current climate and stable until about 15,000 ya
Ice age - lowered oceans 300'
Created ice bridge to North America
Earliest human fossils in North America only 15,000 ya

How did humans adapt to the variety of world environments?

Fire mastered
Cave and rock shelters
Skins for clothing
Sod houses
Skins over mammoth bones
Sun baked bricks for homes
Bones and rocks for tools
Carry water in skins, baskets, and pottery
farming
Store excess food for famine years (drought, pests, floods, fire, enemies)

Stone Age People - Social Structure

Standards - Hunter-gatherer societies and their characteristics
Tool development
Fire

Social Structure - How people relate to each other.

How did people live before tools and farming (agriculture)?

Small bands of 10-20 people
Nomads - constantly on the move to fresh food sources
Gathering - fruit, berries, eggs, insects, roots, kills from other predators
Stay near fresh water since can't carry it
Children a burden

How did people live once they created hunting tools but before agriculture?

Tools = spears, atlattle, bola, knives, harpoons, fish hooks, fire
Women kept gathering since they were pregnant or nursing and couldn't chase herds
Men followed migrating herd, cattle, elephants, mammoths,
Men and women didn't live together for long stretches of time
Men were strain on limited food supply, women couldn't keep up with hunting parties
Drove large mammals to extinction - mammoth, wholly rhino, giant ground sloth, American camel, saber tooth cat,
Children still a burden

Who were the first farmers?

Women domesticated the plants
Children now valuable source of labor
Men still hunted to supplement food supply
No longer nomadic, now settled villages

How did the invention of the plow change agriculture?

Plow needed pulling, strongest animals around were men
Men now took over farming since heavy labor now required
Women focused on food preparation, spinning, weaving, potter, child rearing
Men and women now both staying in the village

How did agriculture change the social structure of humans?

Excess calories allow some people to focus on organizing and inventing
(wheel, metal work, calendar)
calendar - planting, harvest, when to move flocks, breeding,
4,000 BC first cities = civilization, in near east, between Tigris and Euphrates, Nile
3,500 BC = first writing = start of history, end of prehistory

Stone Age People - Economy

Standards - human modification of physical environment giving rise to domesticated plants and animals and increased sources of clothing and shelter.


What does domestication mean?
Plants and animals changed through either taming or breeding to become more useful to humans.

How were plants domesticated?

Roughly 30,000 ya
Observed seeds sprouting
Seed saved from foods
Weeding
Planting seeds
Watering/damming/irrigating
Saving seeds from best plants
First observed at Tigris and Euphrates river valley & Nile river valley
Annual flooding brought in fertile soil

How were animals domesticated?

Much later than plant domestication
Chase predators away and eat their kills
Creation of hunting tools
Could now hunt for themselves
Chased predators away from herds
Guard herds
Adopt orphans
Move herds to better pasture as people moved to better locations seasonally
Habituate to humans
Selective breeding

What food and fiber was first domesticated?

Wheat, barley, rice, cotton, linen, dogs, sheep (milk, meat, wool, leather), goats, cattle, chicken, pigs

What was the result of farming instead of nomadic wandering?

Increased calories = increased survival
Excess food stored for famine years = increased survival
Huge increase in population
Nomads become settled into villages that grow into cities
Don't need to spend all their effort raising food,
People can now spend time inventing and organizing


Neolithic Revolution

8,000 to 4,000 CBA in Eurasia and later elsewhere

farmers and herders have always expanded into territories useful to themselves.

People that are still hunting and gathering are always moved aside, absorbed, or killed by their more successful neighbors that are moving in with farms or herds.

Farmers and herders then compete with each other for marginal lands

Framers want to grow crops

Herders want to keep the natural grass for pasture for herds of animals

Farmers are ability to produce wealth in form of surplus calories that can support long-term population growths.

Farmers are more successful than herders as long as weather, and soil are suitable.

Farming produces cities, class structure, material goods and technology to improve their lives = civilization

History of human settlements, migration and cultural interacting is a history of displacing the hunter-gatherers by farmers and herders then a combination of both fighting and trade between "civilized" farmers and "barbarian" herders.