Please pick up the blank map on the back table and silently sit in your assigned seat. Today we will start off mental mapping. To do this, simply fill in and label the map to the best of your ability in 10 minutes. You may include landforms, bodies of water, countries, cities, landmarks, cultural regions, etc. However, it is important that you complete this silently on your own. Do NOT look at your neighbors map or a completed map. You will not be graded on how accurate your map is, but rather we will use this as a launching point for a discussion.

* Bell Work: Mental Mapping * Note Taking Expectations * Video Clip: The Paleolithic Era * Think-Pair-Share: Creation Myths * Lecture: Paleolithic Man * Exit Slip: Dear Absent Student Essential Questions: What is the evidence that explains the earliest history or humans and the planet? What are the theories to interpret this evidence? Homework: Read and take notes on Ch. 1 (pgs ).

* Group up with the three or four students seated closest to you. * Take 3 minutes to look at each others maps. * What patterns do you see on the maps (collectively)? * What types of things were labeled? * Where some regions filled in better than others? * Etc. * Did anyone’s map look notably different? * How can this be a useful tool for you as a student?

* You will be asked to read nightly from your textbook to provide a narrative of the history we will discuss in class. It is strongly encouraged that you take effective notes as you read. * The reading notes serve as a supplement to class discussions and notes – yes, they will overlap some. * Taking notes is NOT a one step process! 1. Preview the reading to identify main ideas 2. Note details to support main ideas 3. Revisit notes to ensure that what you recorded is relevant and noteworthy (edit) 4. Summarize notes to ensure you have not missed the big picture * Format is up to you, but you will be allowed to use your notes on class quizzes (twice a week) 4

When (and how) does human history begin?

* Silently read the slip of paper to yourself. The paper explains the beginnings of human history. * On the back, take a few minutes to SILENTLY write (in complete sentences) an explanation of whether you believe the information to be accurate and true. * Be prepared to share and explain your response.

* Creation Myths What is the purpose of a creation myth? 1. Defines the moral principles of a society 2. Guides their dealings with nature and the supernatural 3. Explains human social systems and daily life * What can creation myths tell us about the people who created them?

* Creation Myths * If creation myths must be taken on faith, then what happens when science begins providing physical evidence that challenges the basis of those myths?

So if we can’t answer the question of how human life began beyond a doubt, maybe we should simply start with what a human is?

* What is BCE? * B.C. * A.D. * Issues with this? * B.C.E. = Before Common Era (Prior to the modern year zero) * C.E. = Common Era (Everything after the modern year zero) 0 C.E. B.C.E

* The work of Archeologists, Anthropologists, and Evolutionary Biologists * Tools: Radio-Carbon Dating, DNA Analysis, and observation * Bone fragments, objects, artifacts, and tools provide these scientists with evidence with which to test their hypotheses.

* Tools can illustrate much about the habits, diet, and interaction between early humans. * Bone fragments, based on how they are worn, can indicate things like posture, which in turn can illustrate lifestyle and habits.

* Even with radiocarbon dating this is a tough question to answer.

* Hominid  primate family; appeared about 7 million years ago * All hominids are warm-blooded, furry, four limbed mammals * Share 98% of DNA with apes

* Unlike other primates all hominids: * Are Bipedal * Are capable of abstract thought, profound emotions, and fine motor movements * Have a larynx capable of speech

* Grab two different color highlighters as I pass out the article to you. * As we read the article together, use one color highlighter to note each hominid species we come across in the reading. * Using the other highlighter, note the characteristics of each hominid.

* “A school of thought emerged that… claimed that only one species of hominid could have existed at a time because there was simply no ecological space on the planet for more than one culture-bearing species.” What did the author mean by this statement? Do you agree? * “Nevertheless… it is clear that from the very beginning the continent of Africa was at least periodically… host to multiple kinds of hominids.” How might accepting this statement change our understanding of human history and development? * “…but it is already evident that our species, far from being the pinnacle of the hominid evolutionary tree, is simply one more of its terminal wings.” What is the author suggesting in this statement?

* “The Neanderthals, in other words, though admirable in many ways and for a long time successful in the difficult circumstances of the late Ice Ages, lacked the spark of creativity that, in the end, distinguished H. sapiens.” How would creativity prove to be the reason for one species biological persistence and the other’s failure? * “The pattern of intermittent technological innovation was gone, replaced by constant refinement. Clearly, these people were us.” If it is this constant technological innovation and refinement that defines us, then what becomes instrumental in the study of early humans? * “It is impossible for us to conceive of thought in the absence of language, and it is the ability to form mental symbols that is the fount of our creativity, for only once we create such symbols can we recombine them and ask such questions as ‘What if…?’” What does this quote suggest about human nature?

* Experts believe that during the Pleistocene Epoch (Ice Age), certain genetic changes in hominids enhanced survival * Skin color, for example, would darken in some environments to lessen sun damage, or became more pale to allow more Vitamin D absorption * Most changes were behavioral rather than physical (I.e., manipulating fire, making better weapons, changing diet, etc.)

* Food Gathering  Mostly vegetable. 1 Sq. Mile for 2 people * Tool Making  2 million to 4,000 years ago used stone tools (also bone and wood) * Hunting: meat choppers  hand axes  Knives, spears, bows and arrows (7 hrs. every 3 days)

The oldest human footprints in the world were unearthed at Laetoli, near Olduvai Gorge, in Tanzinia. These footprints led Owen Lovejoy to conclude that even these early hominids walked with an upright, striding gait just as modern humans do.

Lucy - is one of the oldest and most complete skeletons of human ancestry, which was discovered by Don Johanson in Ethiopia's Afar Triangle.

* Otzi, the oldest mummy ever unearthed, was found in the Italian Alps in Scientists were thrilled to find he had remained frozen, and almost perfectly preserved, for thousands of years.

* He wore clothing made from leather and grasses and carried a copper axe, a bow and arrows. Speculation immediately began about who he was and why he died where he did, but it was hard to do too much checking without damaging his body. Later, an arrowhead was found in his left shoulder, suggesting Otzi did not simply freeze to death while climbing the high mountains, but was shot by a fellow hunter. After studying the corpse's intestines, Italian researcher Professor Franco Rollo, an archaeologist at the Universita di Camerino in Italy concluded last year that the iceman's final meals consisted of venison and ibex meat.

* The people were hunters and gatherers * They lived in small groups of about people * Sexual division of labor * Nomadic people who followed game and ripening fruit * Developed simple tools from stone, bone or wood * Invented clothing * Cave paintings and religious rituals

In a handful of pierced seashells found in a South African cave, scientists believe that they have discovered the world’s oldest known jewelry and the earliest reliabile evidence of creative symbolic thought at work. The 41 tiny shells, unearthed at Blombos Cave, were strung as beads more than 75,00 years ago, making them at least 30,000 years older than any other reliably dated personal ornaments….

Please take a few minutes to complete the Dear Absent Student slip and place it in the homework bin in the back of the room.

Read and take notes on Chapter 1 (pgs ). To turn in today: Student Information Sheet Dear Absent Student Exit Slip