Geography and History 1º ESO Unit 5 Prehistory

Geography and History 1º ESO Unit 5 Prehistory

Unit 5 Prehistory

Contents of the unit:

I- Concept of Prehistory

II- The process of hominisation

III- Palaeolithic

IV- Neolithic

V- Metal age

I- Concept of Prehistory

Prehistory is the history of humankind from the appearance of the first human being until the first written documents. Of course this is al lot of time, so historians have considered different periods in order to understand better such a long time. Traditionally these divisions were made due to the technology of each period, so we had the Stone Age and the Metal Age. Nowadays we study not only these facts, but the economy, society, culture, art, etc.

Prehistory is divided into three periods:

The Palaeolithic Age or Old Stone Age began with the appearance of our first ancestors, about 2 million years ago. It was the longest phase of human history, so historians have divided it into lower, medium and upper Palaeolithic. Palaeolithic peoples were generally nomadic hunters and gatherers.

The Neolithic or New Stone Age began when the agriculture was discovered (9000 BC). In this period, groups of human beings started to live in settled villages. They practised agriculture, domesticated animals and invented pottery and textiles.

The Age of Metals began when human beings learned to use metals to make objects (5.000 years BC), mainly copper, bronze and iron. They built monuments with big blocks of stone, called menhirs, dolmens and stone circles.

II- Concept of hominisation

If you think about the definition of Prehistory, you could realise that it is 99% of our existence as specie. We must even think that this period includes the different species of hominids, from Homo Habilis to Homo Sapiens Sapiens. This process of evolution is called “hominisation”, and it refers to the changes which occurred in the new species of hominids. From one shared ancestry (a primate), the different species were developing over millions of years. All these changes were developing during the upper Palaeolithic.

Hominisation started in Africa because of a climate change. The jungle where the primates lived disappeared and became savannahs with fewer trees. This way, the primates had to live on the grassland and only those who adapted survived. The genus Homo adapted to the new life and the mutations passed on the next generation. When this change becomes hereditary we can find a new specie. This theory was announced by the naturalist Charles Darwin in the 19th century, although many people still believed in the Creationism (one God who created the World and the humankind as we known).

Evolutionism Vs Creationism

To sum up, we can say that the main anatomical changes we can find in the different species of hominids were produced because of the necessity of live on the ground and let the former life over trees. The physical changes also created cultural and social changes.

- Bipedalism, which occurred as a result of the necessity of seeing over the high herb of the savannah. The upright position came because of different changes in the anatomy of the pelvis and skull. These hominids walked using their legs and they could use their front limbs to use tools (stones and sticks).

- Opposable thumbs, that is to say the ability of press the thumb against the other fingers and hold objects and create tools with greater precision.

- The upright position enabled the gradual increase of the brain because the forehead could be more vertical. Moreover, the changes in the diet (hominids started to eat meat) increased the energy used in the brain and both combined processes made each specie more intelligent than the precious one.

- Changes in the whole skull and the reduction of the jaw and teeth allowed the development of the larynx. This change and the increased size of the brain was very important for the origin of the articulated language which created more sociable tribes.

The different species appeared throughout the Palaeolithic, most of them in the Upper Palaeolithic, so we have to travel far away to the past to find the first ones of them. It is a period of time with not many sources to study, so every fossilised bone or artefact that arqueologists find can change many of the previously accepted theories. In fact we are still searching for the “missing link” to join our genus, Homo, with the prehominids.

The following species are the most important ones you have to know to understand our origin as specie and the travel of our ancestors during the Palaeolithic:

Australopithecus

It means “southern ape”, because the first discovery took place in South Africa and they were very similar to chimpanzees, they were prehominids. However, they walked on two feet. They were about 1, 30 m tall and their brain was between 400 to 550 cm3. They gathered wild fruit and lived about four million years ago in Africa (For example, Lucy, “grandmother of humanity”).

Homo habilis

It means skilful, because they made stone tools, the choppers. These hominids appeared two million years ago. Their brain was bigger (650- 800 cm3) and they were taller (1, 40 m). They lived from hunting and gathering fruits, seeds, roots, meat, etc.).

Homo erectus

These appeared one and a half million years ago. They walked upright (that is why they are called “erectus”). This was the first species to live outside Africa (in Europe and Asia) because their height was 1.60- 1.80 m and they could travel longer distances by walk in every generation . They discovered fire and made bifaces (a two-sided stone tool). They were excellent hunters.

Homo antecessor

They are the oldest human remains in Europe that were found in Atapuerca, Spain. They are called antecessor because they might be the direct antecedent to the next species, Neanderthal in Europe and sapiens Sapiens in Africa (but this theory must be probed yet). They could have practiced cannibalism. They lived more than 1, 2 million years ago, and their height was 1.60- 1.80 m.

Homo sapiens neanderthalensis (Neanderthal)

The Neanderthal is named after the Neander valley (Germany), where there were found fossils of this specie. They lived in Europe 150.000 years ago. They were stronger that we are but shorter (1.70 m and 100 Kg the males), and their brain size was 1500 cc. Neanderthal was perfectly prepared for living in the Ice Age hunting such big animals as mammoths. They were the first species to bury their dead following rituals and preparing them for the “afterlife”. It seems they were able to speak, play music and paint inside the caves. They lived together with our specie in Europe for almost 10.000 years, and nowadays scientist has discovered that both Neanderthal and Sapiens had offspring, and we all have DNA of them. They disappeared 30.000 years ago, so today our specie is the only one hominid on the Earth.

Homo sapiens sapiens

It means wise man, and maybe that is the reason why some scientist called our specie “the story tellers”. Our specie appeared in Africa about 130,000 years ago. Homo Sapiens were slimmer but taller than Neanderthals, we use less energy when walking and probably are better adapted to different environments. It doesn´t mean that we are more intelligent than them; in fact our brain size is more or less the same (1500 cc.). They spread from Africa across all the continents, and although they were able to make finer tools of bones, horns and flint, probably they copied techniques of Neanderthal to Moreover, they created art and developed different religious rituals.

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