1. Understanding Our Past
Chapter 1 Section 1
Understanding Our Past
Otzi

2. Otzi Video (1st What happened to Otzi? Theories?)

3. How do historians study the past?
Artifacts
Written records
Photographs
Films
Is every piece of evidence reliable? No
Historians have different interpretations and beliefs which can lead to debates
What does it mean to be bias?

4. Anthropology? The study of the origins & development of people
Archeology is a field within Anthropology that studies past people & cultures through material remains
Analyze artifacts in order to learn

5. Discoveries in Africa and Beyond
Mary and Louis Leakey searched the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania
Why the Olduvai Gorge?
Found ancient tools chipped from stone
Example of developing technology to survive
Later they would find a full skull of a hominid
Donald Johanson in 1974 finds evidence of the earliest known hominid
“Lucy”

6. Meet Ida (47 Million Years Old)

7. Early Hominid Groups
First hominids > 7 million yrs ago > Australopithecines
Lived in Africa > scientists believe this is where humans originated from
Homo Habilis > “handy man” > used tools for a purpose
Homo Erectus > “upright man” > larger brains and bones
1st to learn how to use fire
1st hominids to migrate out of Africa > to Asia & Europe
Homo Sapiens > group which modern humans belong
Includes
Neanderthals
Earliest modern humans