Reading Early Man

Early Man

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Introduction Did early man live at the same time as dinosaurs? The answer to that one is simple. Nah! No way. Not a chance. Nobody knows for sure why dinosaurs disappeared, but they do know that dinosaurs died out about 65 million years ago. The first humans did not appear until 3.6 million years ago. Even if scientists are off a few million years or so, early man simply did not live during the same period in history as dinosaurs. This is not to say that early man had it easy. They did have to face sabre-toothed tigers, cave lions, and woolly mammoths! But, they did not have to fight dinosaurs! . Dinosaurs were long gone before man first appeared. This time period of early man (3.6 million years ago) is considered “Prehistoric” or “Prehistory.” “Pre” means before. Therefore, Prehistoric means history before humans learned to write. Hmmm…. If that is true, how do we know:  Dinosaurs died out about 65 million years ago  Humans did not appear until 3.6 million years ago  Humans did fight saber-toothed tigers, cave lions, and woolly mammoths What we know about humans is based on History (what humans wrote), and on Prehistory (before humans could write). First, let’s look at Prehistory (it came first). Prehistory is what humans left things behind. What? Graves for one thing. In graves we have skeletons. We can obviously tell how tall the person was; we can tell how they died; we can tell what they ate (wearing down of teeth). Evidence that was once alive – such as animals, people, fish, plants, etc.) are called fossils. However, both Prehistorical and Historical people have had a custom of burying people with their possessions; such as jewelry, pottery, weapons. They believed that these things can be used in the afterlife (heaven or h—l). These non living objects are called artifacts. History is easier to be sure of what happened because someone at the time either told someone (oral history), or wrote about what happened (original source document). Let’s learn 3 definition. These are terms you will see quite often!      

Pre history is before humans could write History is the written record of humans. Fossils are remains of living things (plants, animals, people), not things that were made. Artifacts are remains of things that were made, not remains of living things. Oral history are stories passed down Original Source document is something written by someone who was there

What We Know Human like people were scavengers. They waited for an animal (like a tiger) to eat all it wanted. When the tiger left, the human like people would eat whatever the tiger left over. How do we know? A few pieces of evidence. The human skeletons found had (1) animal bones near; (2) no weapon were found; humans are not strong enough to kill animals without a weapon. Yet, humans survived and many animals died out or

Early Man Page 2 of 2 became extinct. Why did humans become dominant? Two basic reasons: (1) ability to think and therefore plan; (2) walking upright – freeing hands to use weapons. As humans got more developed they became hunters and gathers. How do we know? More evidence. Humans started burying their dead. In the graves were found weapons (artifacts). Examining the bodies (fossils), archeologist (scientists who are “detectives” of Prehistory) found berries in the stomachs. Furthermore, animal bones were found at the bottom of cliffs where the evidence lead to the conclusion that the animals were driven over the cliff by humans. In 1974, a skeleton was found in Africa. The bones were those of young female, approximately 20 years old when she died. Archeologist named this "young lady" Lucy. About 3 million years ago, when Lucy was alive, she was rather short, about 4 feet tall, and probably weighed about 50 pounds. Her brain was about the size of an orange. Her bones showed she probably walked erect, although she still had the ability to climb trees easily. There were no signs of broken bones or teeth marks that might show why she died. Scientists suspect that she probably fell into a lake or river and drowned. Archeologists can tell a great deal from a skeleton, whether it's a year old, or 3 million years old! Answer the following question and place this in your notebooks:

1. What is the difference between history and prehistory? 2. What is an example of an oral history? 3. Give some examples of what might be a fossil from today, 1,000 years from now (3,008 A.C.E) 4. Why did prehistoric man have an advantage over animals?

5. What patterns exist in food gathering societies in prehistoric times?