In The Footsteps Of Cavemen

In the Footsteps of Cavemen  The evolution of Homo sapiens  The Hominids  Australopithecus (4,000,000-1,000,000 BCE)  E. Africa  Walked upright on two legs; well-developed hands  Stone tools; fire later  Homo erectus (2,500,000-200,000)  E. Africa  Large brain; sophisticated tools  Developed language skills  Migrated to Asia and Europe  Homo sapiens  Large frontal lobes for conscious and reflective thought  Spread throughout Eurasia (100,000 BCE)  Ice age land bridges enabled them to populate other continents  The natural environment  used knives, spears, bows, and arrows  Brought tremendous pressure on other species  Paleolithic Era  Hunting-Gathering People  Economic life  egalitarian existence  small bands, about 30 to 50 members  Big game hunting  Some permanent Paleolithic settlements  Natufians in eastern Mediterranean  Jomon in central Japan  Chinook in Pacific NW area of North America  Paleolithic culture  Neanderthal peoples (100,000-35,000 BCE)  Europe and SW Asia  burials: evidence of a capacity for emotion  Cro-Magnon peoples (40,000 BCE)  (Homo sapiens sapiens) The 1st human beings  Venus figurines--fertility  Cave paintings of animals--sympathetic magic  The Neolithic era and the transition to agriculture  The origins of agriculture  Refined tools and agriculture  Women: cultivation of plants

Men: domesticate animals agriculture around 9000 B.C.E. Agriculture: independently around world Merchants, migrants, and travelers spread food Slash-and-burn cultivation: frequent movement of farmers Agriculture more work than hunting/gathering agricultural society Emergence of villages and towns  Jericho, earliest known Neolithic village  Mud huts and defensive walls  Specialization of labor  Neolithic site of Çatal Hüyük, 8,000 people  Prehistoric craft industries: pottery, metallurgy, and textile production  Social distinctions: private ownership  Neolithic culture  Leaned seasonal shifts/ develop calendars  Life cycle deities  Fertility gods  Death gods  Associated gods with animal symbols  The origins of urban life  Emergence of cities  larger and more complex than villages  Centered near water  Jobs to run cities: Bureaucracy  Earliest cities  valley of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, 4000 to 3500 B.C.E.   Early      Early 