Homework

• Complete H.W. #3 on the assignment sheet for tomorrow.

• First current events article due September 18.

Aim #5: What were the earliest humans like?

• Do Now: Future historians will want to look back and know what life was like in the 21st century. What three items would you leave to give them an understanding of what youth/teen culture was like during your generation, and why?

I. Prehistory= Period of time before written records existed

(before writing was invented)

A. Sources of prehistorical knowledge: 1. Archaeologist: A person who digs up and studies artifacts (remains of human made objects – tools, jewelry, weapons).

2. Anthropologist: A person who uses artifacts to try to explain what prehistoric cultures were like.

A. Sources of prehistorical knowledge:

3. Paleontologist: A person who studies fossils (remains of living organisms – bones, plant tissues).

Australopithecines (4 million to 1 million B.C.)

• “Lucy-” Discovered in Ethiopia by anthropologist Donald Johanson in 1974. Earliest hominid (human-like being) found up to that time.

Australopithecines (4 million to 1 million B.C.)

• Found in southern and eastern Africa

• Brain size: 500 cm³ (orange)

• Walked upright

• Had opposable thumbs, allowing them to pick up small objects and make simple tools.

Homo HabilisMeans: “Man of Skill”

2.5 million to 1.5 million B.C.

• Lived in East Africa. • First to make stone tools to cut meat and

crack open bones.

Homo Erectus Means: “Upright Man”

(1.6 million to 300,000 B.C.)

• Migration:

• First to use:

• Brain size = 1000 cm³

• Used larger, more advanced tools for digging, scraping andcutting.

• May have developed the beginning of spoken language

Concluding Question

• Would you consider Homo Erectus to be human? Why or why not?