1. Living in the Stone Age

2. Examining History: Prehistory
PRE-HISTORY- period before written history
Approximately 1.75 million years ago, the earliest people first began using small pieces of rock as tools
Oldowan stone tools - earliest known

3. Homo Habilis – the Tool Maker
Lived 2 million years ago
Upright walking
Made stone tools
No clothes, no fire
Brain about 2/3 size of modern
Homo Habilis
Latin for “handy man”
Discoveries in 1930s by Louis and Mary Leakey
Lived in eastern Africa > spread north to Asia
fossilized human bones found with stone tools and animal fossils
Skulls – humans had a flatter head with a brain only 2/3 size; approximately 1.5 m tall
Built shelters of braches and collected bird eggs and wild berries for food; hunted wild pigs
Tools / weapons = rocks, braches, sharp stones
No clothes
Did not know how to use fire

4. Homo Erectus – Fire and Travel
Larger brain than Habilis
Walked upright
Used fire to cook
Ate animals – scavenging or hunting?
More complex tools
First human to leave Africa - spread to Mediterranean, Asia
Homo Erectus Family
Acheulean Hand Axe

5. Homo Sapiens – The Thinker
Lived y.a.
Includes us today
Had
art
rituals
complex tools
language
complex society
Cave painting
Early Homo Sapiens Tools

6. Who Were the Neanderthals?
Variety of early Modern Humans
Large brains
DNA suggests they intermarried with other modern humans
Lived in Ice Age Europe
Reconstruction of a Neanderthal woman - National Geographic
Really did live in caves
Had complex tools
Mousterian tool kit

7. The Great Leap Forward 35 000 years ago
Two Fundamental Changes
Development of modern anatomy
Beginning of innovative behaviour
More complex tools and more sophisticated weapons
Trade for raw materials and ornaments
Art, sculptures, paintings and crafted objects for beauty and religion
Paleolithic Bone tools
Cave Art

8. “Lithos” = stone Paleolithic Age Greek “paleo” means “old”
Upper Paleolithic age was – years ago
Neolithic Age
Greek “neo” means “new”
Neolithic Revolution occurred between 9000 – 4000 BCE

9. Comparing Stone Ages PALEOLITHIC (Older) Small groups of 5-10 families
Nomadic to semi-nomadic
Probably egalitarian
Scottish neolithic house
NEOLITHIC (Newer)
People began farming
Crops planted
Animals domesticated
More complex tools & weapons
Stratification begins
Paleolithic- 1) People lived in small groups of 5-10 families
2) Nomadic to semi-nomadic (hunting and gathering)
3) close relationships between bands of people ie. Cro-Magnon society NEOLITHIC
1) People abandoned semi-nomadic life and began farming
Paleolithic dwelling at Gönnersdorf

10. Social Structure: Neolithic Age
Factors influencing the start of agriculture
End of the Ice Age 9500 BCE
Population growth (cause or consequence?)
Permanent towns and cities
first city was Jericho, in Mesopotamia between 8000 – 7000 BCE
Trade by barter system
obsidian – most valued traded material traded for farm produce
Development of hierarchical class system, occupations
Increasing knowledge of plants and animals allowed more control of food supply
End of Ice Age brought a warmer, wetter climate which brought new wild grasses and grains
As population grew, so did the competition for land
Shift from semi-nomadic to the building of permanent towns and cities (first city was Jericho, in Mesopotamia between 8000 – 7000 BCE)
Trade by barter system was a crucial factor in the origin of cities (obsidian – a volcanic glass was one of the most valued traded materials (tools, weapons, art) would be traded for farm produce
Development of hierarchical class system
Domestication animals (cattle, sheep, goats, pigs)
More occupations emerged with more permanent cities and towns
The earliest agricultural sites

11. Religion & Art in Paleolithic Age
The Paleolithic Age was the first to develop fine art – drawing and sculpture
Cultural explosion
more tools, jewellery, and sculptures/ figurines of clay, ivory and stone emerged
Spiritual practices –
graves found jewellery and spears made of mammoth tusks
suggests a ritual burial with a view of an afterlife
The Paleolithic Age (Cro-Magnon) was the first to develop fine art as drawings
Over 100 European caves showcase CAVE PAINTINGS of deer, horses and animals which are now extinct
Beginnings of cultural explosion in art as more tools, pendants, jewellery, and sculptures/ figurines of clay, ivory and stone emerged
More advanced spiritual practices emerged as graves were found containing beads, ivory jewellery and spears made of mammoth tusks buried with bodies = this suggests a ritual burial with a view of an afterlife

12. Prehistoric Cave Art Painting at Lascaux Caves France 15 000 BCE
Painters used irregularities in cave walls to add a 3-D effect to figures
Clay bison found 900m from entrance of cave at Tuc d'Audoubert, Ariege

13. Venus of Willendorf
Figures similar to this are common at Paleolithic sites
years old
Fertility and goddess worship?

15. STONEHENGE Stonehenge is located on Salisbury Plain in England
Created BCE
Stonehenge is an example of a Neolithic megalith (megalith = Greek for “big stones”)
Exact purpose is unknown: religious rituals, agricultural markers or astronomical observatories?

16. Mystery of Stonehenge Built in 3 major stages over 1300 years
Tribal, Beaker, Battle Axe folk people
Megaliths stones 45 tons and Heel Stone is 31 tons
Understanding of astronomy and mathematics
sunrise, eclipses of sun and moon
Show changing seasons for agriculture?
Religious ritual?

17. Major Innovations of the Stone Age
More complex human societies
from semi-nomadic to permanent cities;
domestication of animals; leisure time
Development of social hierarchies
Development of alliances and cooperation
Marriage customs
Development of trade goods and routes
Religious rituals
Refined sense of artistic beauty

18. All these lead to: The first Civilizations