Chapter 1: Digging Up the Past

Lesson 1: Early Gatherers and Hunters

Studying Prehistory:

1. Why is the long period of time before the development of written language called prehistory?

2. If two archaeologists saw the same ancient site and the same artifacts from it, they might sketch two different illustrations of life at that site. How is that possible?

3. If your house were buried under stand tomorrow, what artifacts would there be to show an archaeologist in the twenty-firth century how your family lived? How can object we find today tell us about people who lived before written history?

Early Peoples:

1. How did the first humans get to Europe and Asia?

2. Do archaeologist believe that humans moved from East Africa or Europe?

Early Americans:

1. Why are some arrowheads called Clovis points?

2. When did archaeologist find evidence of Clove people in America?

Prehistoric Cave Art:

1. Why do you think cave paintings often showed grazing animals or people hunting?

2. Why do you think this Tassili cave painting shows women and children?

Migration Path:

1. Why is Beringia not visible today?

2. How do archaeologists believe people from Asia came into Alaska?

3. How do archaeologists think people came to New Mexico from Alaska?

4. How does the legend of the Paiute people agree with the theory of an ice-free passage between glaciers?

5. How long ago did the landmass of Beringia exist?

Different Paths:

1. How did artifacts from a site near Monte Verde, Chile, change the theory of when humans first entered North America?

2. How old are pre-Clovis artifacts?

Stone Age Healers:

1. What were some of the procedures Stone Age healers performed to fulfill the responsibility of caring for their patients’ health?

2. What evidence proves that Stone Age healers did these things?

3. In what ways did Stone Age healers use the science and technology of their age to help others?

Lesson 2: Early Farmers

The Stone Age:

1. Why was the Stone Age called the Stone Age by archaeologists and historians?

2. Summarize how tools changed during the Stone Age.

3. What change in technology ended the Stone Age?

4. How do archaeologist group together the artifacts they find?

Early Farming:

1. Why is it difficult to harvest wild plants?

2. How did domestication change the plants?

3. What did humans use plants for?

4. Why do archaeologist study plant remains?

5. Why did farmers domesticate the mint plant?

Domestic Animals:

1. What plant was domesticated in North America?

2. How do wild animals differ from domesticated animals?

3. How did the domestication of some animals affect agriculture?

More Useful Creatures:

1. Why would domesticated animals be especially helpful to nomads?

2. How did early humans decide what animals to domesticate?

Village Life:

1. How did the villagers of Skara Brae obtain food?

2. What led to the development of social divisions?

The Iceman:

1. Which mental was common during the New Stone Age?

2. How do comparing artifacts and using carbon dating help us learn about how early people lived?

Lesson 3: Developing Cultures

Contacting Cultures:

1. If you found a sharp-pointed spear in a prehistoric excavation, what kind of culture might you have found?

2. How might artifacts from a prehistoric culture in the desert differ from artifacts found near a lake or ocean?

3. What evidence suggests that cultures from islands in the Pacific had contact with prehistoric settlements in the Americas?

4. Why did Thor Heyerdahl sail on a raft from South America to islands in the Pacific?

5. What is culture?

Cultures Develop:

1. What were the major crops grown throughout Europe?

2. In Europe, what developed after farming was established?

Prehistoric Art:

1. What animals did prehistoric people in northern Spain and southern France live with?

2. How did prehistoric people make their paintings?

3. What do similar examples of cave art in many different countries tell us about the people living in prehistoric times?