UNIT 6 PREHISTORY What is Prehistory? - PowerPoint Presentation

UNIT 6 PREHISTORY

What is Prehistory? What is History? What is the difference? PREHISTORY

The term Prehistory designates the period of time that has elapsed since the appearance of the first human being until the invention of writing. Since there are no written documents to study their forms of life, we use material remains. Examples: the human body itself, hunting instruments, paintings, sculptures, etc. PREHISTORY

The Evolution Theory What is it? The theory that considers human beings a result of a process of change and transformation.  This has lasted million of years.  It was proposed by British naturalist Charles Darwin. PREHISTORY

The Evolution Theory Charles Darwin (1809-1882) He studied medicine in Edinburgh  (Scotland) but gave it up.  He researched the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific from 1831 to 1836.  The boat he travelled in was called  “The Beagle”.  When he finished his work, he wrote a book.  This book is called “On the Origin of Species”.  Darwin presents the theory of evolution  in the aforementioned book. PREHISTORY

The process of hominisation Man, like the rest of living beings, has been in a constant state of transformation. Australopithecus They appeared  4,000,000 years ago in Africa.   Their appearance was very similar to that of a chimpanzee, but their hands and feet were the same as ours. PREHISTORY

Homo habilis They could be the last Australopithecus.  Their brains and height were larger than them.  They made tools, that’s why their name come from. PREHISTORY

Homo erectus They lived a little under 1,000,000 years ago. They perfected tool making and learnt to use fire. They spread from Africa to Europe and Asia. PREHISTORY

Homo neanderthalensis They disappeared 30,000 years ago.  They lived in Europe and some places in the East Asia. They were short, wide and muscular.  They had great physical strength and intelligence.  PREHISTORY

Homo sapiens They are a result of million of years of evolution.  They appeared 150,000 years ago.  They spread from Africa across all continents. Sophisticated tools and hunting techniques. PREHISTORY

Prehistory is divided into various periods (according to technologically advanced): Stone Age Paleolithic Period (2,500,000 - 8000 B.C.) Epipaleolithic Period (8000 – 6000 B.C. Iberian Peninsula) Neolithic Period (8000 – 4000 B.C.) Bronze and Iron Age Copper Age ( around 4000 B.C.) Bronze Age ( around 3000 B.C.) Iron Age ( around 1500 B.C.) PREHISTORY

PREHISTORY

Paleolithic ( Video) The Paleolithic is the phase of Prehistory during which tools made from  cut stone, bone and wood  were used.  It is the longest phase of man’s history (99% of it).  The term means Age of the Ancient Stone (παλαιός = paleos , and λίθος= lithos ). PREHISTORY

PREHISTORY

Economy and society (Video) They were scavengers (carroñero).Later, they lived by gathering ( recolectando) wild fruit and hunting wild animals (deer, caribou, bison horses and mammoths). They were predators , they took the resources that they need. The mortality was a very high rate. Fire , they had an improvement. PREHISTORY

Look at the timeline and name the period of Prehistory which the following dates correspond to: Paleolithic Neolithic Bronze and Iron Ages PREHISTORY

Look at the timeline and name the period of Prehistory which the following dates correspond to: Paleolithic 2 500 000 B.C. Neolithic 8000 B. C. Bronze and Iron Ages 3500 B.C. PREHISTORY

Can we use written sources to learn about Prehistory? Why not? What other sources can we use? We cannot use written sources to learn about Prehistory because writing had not been invented yet. We can use fossils, stones and metal tools, or cave paintings as sources instead. PREHISTORY

  In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (…) Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. (…)  So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. The man said, “This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.” Michelangelo´s The Creation of Adam. PREHISTORY

“In considering The Origin Of Species, it is quite sure that a naturalist, reflecting on the mutual affinities of organic beings, might come to the conclusion that each species had not been independently created, but had descended, like varieties from other species. As many more individuals of each species are born than can possibly survive; and as, consequently, there is a frequently recurring struggle for existence, it follows that any being, if it varies however slightly in any manner profitable to itself, under the complex and sometimes varying conditions of life, will have a better chance of surviving, and thus be naturally selected ”. PREHISTORY

Economy and society e) They lived in clans, small groups. f) They lived in a nomadic life, moving around and hunting. PREHISTORY

Art and Culture Religion appeared when humans tried to find explanations for natural phenomena they couldn’t explain.First known artistic manifestations are around 35000 years old. PREHISTORY

Art and Culture Cave paintings: were done on cave walls in many places. Franco-Cantabrian (polychrome): Altamira (Cantabria) Lascaux (France) Levantine (monochrome): Valltorta ( Castellón ) Cogull ( Lérida ) PREHISTORY

Art and Culture Portable art Engravings (stone or bone) Figurines (stone, wood, bone and ivory) Venus of Willendorf Other objects, like amulets, batons of command and talismans. PREHISTORY

Define Prehistory What is the Paleolithic? What is a biface? Can you name a cave painting with polychrome art? What does the Venus of Willendorf means? PREHISTORY

Venus Knapped stone Bow Biface Harpoon CopperLevantine painting Neanderthal Bronze sword PREHISTORY Bronze and Iron Ages Upper Paleolithic Neolithic Epipaleolithic Middle Paleolithic Lower Paleolithic

Neolithic Period (8000 – 4000 B.C.) Video Where did it appear? The Middle East The Neolithic originated in the Near East, in a place between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, called Mesopotamia. The term Mesopotamia means in Greek "Between rivers". Later it spread to other parts of the planet. Map pag 150 PREHISTORY

First Sedentary societies. Is the Neolithic Age the first human revolution? Hunting wild animals and gathering fruits and plants were not the only way of getting food. They learnt to cultivate plants and domesticate animals.  PREHISTORY

The first plants they cultivated were  cereals : wheat in the Middle East and Europe, rice  in Asia and corn in America . The first domesticated animals were  horses , dogs , goats , sheep and oxen . Tribes needed to live near arable land to cultivate cereals. They stopped moving from place to place to find food and became sedentary. They built villages, usually situated next to rivers. PREHISTORY

Bronze and Iron age Video Began when metallurgy was discovered in the near East 4000 B.C. Human beings made the first metal objects about 7000 years ago. First they used copper  but it was not very strong. Then  bronze  and iron were used. With bronze and  iron  they could make different kinds of objects:  weapons, jewels, statutes , etc. The  wheel , the  sail  and the  plough  were invented in the Middle East about 5000 years ago. We still use them today. PREHISTORY

Bronze and Iron age The wheel had different applications: for transportation being used in carts pulled by bullocks or in pottery wheels to make better ceramic pieces. The sail was used in ships to make a better use of the force of the wind. The plough substituted the hoe to cultivate the land. They could work faster and in greater areas. When the materials were abundant, surplus were exchanged with other village, it is the beginning of  trade . PREHISTORY

Society in Bronze and Iron Ages The prosperity was helped by trade. The buildings were constructed with adobe , and they used stones for the base or plinth. The increasing wealth of some towns led to sackings. The villages used palisades (with wood) or stones walls for protection. The chieftain (jefe tribal) held the most powerful position. PREHISTORY

Megalithic art It is made from big blocks of stone (from “mega”= big and “ litos”= stone). It began at the end of the Neolithic age. Menhir Alignment Cromlech Dolmen PREHISTORY

What do you know about the lifestyles of human beings in Prehistory? Human beings in Prehistory were nomadic hunters, they walked on two legs, they used stone tools, they evolved. Do you know which period came first, the Stone Age or the Bronze Age? The Stone Age came first. PREHISTORY

Which period human beings learn to control fire in? Human beings began to control fire in the Paleolithic Period. When did human beings learn abandon their nomadic way of life and become sedentary?Human beings abandoned their nomadic way of life and became sedentary during the Neolithic Period. Which discovery marked the end of Prehistory? The appearance of writing marked the end of Prehistory. PREHISTORY