PALEOLITHIC
ERA - 2,500,000 - 10,000 BCE, East Africa
Paleolithic is Greek for Old Stone Age. Paleo means
old, and Litho means stone. During this prehistoric era
(before written history) stone tools
were developed by Homo habilis.
They also made tools from other materials like wood,
antler, and bone. Homo habilis was about four feet
tall, had long arms, and half the cranial capacity
of modern humans.
During the Paleolithic era Homo habilis gradually
evolved into Homo
sapiens (modern humans). By the end of the
Paleolithic era the first works of art appeared,
they engaged in religious rituals, and buried
their dead.
ART STAGES:
1. Lines
are scratched in clay or stone - or drawn on stone.
2. Outline
images are drawn.
3. Outline
images are filled with one color.
4.
Outlines are filled with two colors to create chiaroscuro.
5. Multicolored
drawings appear.
Australopithecus
Afarensis
Australopithecus afarensis is an extinct
hominid that lived between 3.7 and 2.9
million years ago.
NEANDERTHAL
Neanderthal
child from
Gibraltar
(University of Zürich)
Comparison of Skulls
of modern man and Neanderthal.
NEANDERTHAL (200,000-28,000 BCE)
Modern humans (Homo
sapiens) evolved from Cro-Magnon
while Neanderthal
is an extinct member of the Homo genus. The
Neanderthal lived
in Europe, western and central Asia. They are
classified either as a subspecies
(or race) of modern humans (Homo
sapiens neanderthalensis) or as a
separate human species (Homo
neanderthalensis).
The Neanderthal's cranial capacity was larger
than modern humans. They stood about five
and a half feet tall, were stockier, and stronger
than us. Neanderthals were carnivorous.
Carnivores only eat meat. Herbivores only
eat vegetation, and omnivores eat
everything.
Recent discoveries
have lead us to believe that they
were not the physically, or
mentally, sluggish species that we
once thought. This misconception was
partly due to an early find of a
Neanderthal. It had arthritis, and
it's bones were not properly
arranges, so we attributed an
apelike movement to the species.
Here are some examples of their
advances:
- They probably had
religion because they had
ritualistic burials of their
dead.
- Their stone tools might look
simple to make, but scientists had
to use computers to figure out how
they did it. The stone fragments are
uniform - with a sharp edge around
the entire stone. This created a
better cutting tool. The difficulty
of making these tools requires
advanced thinking, and probably a
language to communicate the
technique to others.
- They had an
advanced technical process for
making glue from birch trees bark.
This is the first known industrial
process. The resin was used to fix
sharp stone fragments to sticks. See
below.
This
image is an example of what the
resin looked like. It can be made by
searching trees for reason seeping
from the bark. This is collected,
heated, purified, and molded onto a
stick. It can then be reheated, and
used as a glue.
Darwin
realized that these are all finches,
and that they changed to adapt to
their environment. At the time it
was believed that species don't
change.
The evolution
of the peppered moth over the last
two hundred years has been studied
in detail. Originally the majority of peppered moths had light coloration.
This camouflaged them against the light-colored
trees - and lichens which they
rested upon.
Because of pollution
during the Industrial Revolution in
England, the lichens died
out, and trees became blackened
by soot. As you can see, the change
in tree bark causes some moths to be
camouflaged while others stand
out. Those that are camouflaged are
more likely to survive, mate, and
pass down their genetic code -
causing a change in the species.
The Neolithic Age,
or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of
human technology, farming, and the domestication of
animals. It began around 9,500 BCE in the Middle
East.
The
increase of available food made civilization
possible.
Sumer
(Sumerian) the first civilization, was located in
Southern Iraq (Mesopotamia). It flourished from
6,000 BCE to 1,000 BCE. The Sumerians were the first
to practice intensive year-round agriculture. The surplus of
food allowed the population to settle in one place
instead of migrating. It also allowed for a much
greater population density, and required an
extensive labor force. This led to the necessity of
record keeping - and the development of writing
(3,500 BCE). In addition to the first writing
system, they invented the potter's wheel, then
the vehicular wheel, and mill wheels. They created
the first centralized governments, laws, and
empires, and laid the foundations for the fields of
medicine, astronomy, and mathematics. Sumerian math was based on 60.
We owe our system of
time to them (60 seconds to a minute, 60 minutes to
an hour). Their writing is called Cuneiform.
The Assyrians defeated
the Sumerians 1000 B.C.E.. They were from
the Tigris river, and were in a constant
state of war for 400 years until their
demise.
Khufu's
unassembled ship was found in
pristine condition. It was sealed in
a pit by the Great Pyramid of Giza.
It would have tied together with
robe made from halfa grass.
The ancient
Egyptian civilization was in eastern North Africa -
along the lower Nile River.
Egypt entered a period of decline, and was conquered
by foreign powers. The rule of the pharaohs ended in
31 BCE when the Roman Empire conquered Egypt, and
made it a province.
The many achievements of the ancient Egyptians
include the quarrying, surveying, and construction
techniques that facilitated the building of
monumental pyramids, temples, and obelisks; a system
of mathematics, a practical and effective system of
medicine, irrigation of the Nile River, and
agricultural production techniques, the first known
ships, glass technology, and literature.
Egyptian art and architecture were widely copied, and
its antiquities carried off to far corners of the
world. Its monumental ruins have inspired the
imaginations of travelers for centuries.
FACTS:
3,150 BCE - EGYPT
Eastern North Africa
Women were painted with light skin.
Men were painted with dark skin.
The pyramids are the oldest
buildings.
They are
40 stories tall, and
80 exist
Akhenaton's wife
was Nefertiti, and his son was Tutankhamun.
Nefertiti had 6
daughters, but there is no mention of a son.
She disappeared
from history.
CHINA'S SHANG
DYNASTY
Ritual Wine
Containers
Qin Shi Huang
-
(259 BCE – 210 BCE)
First Emperor of a Unified China
3rd Rock from the Sun Episode Script
309 - Tom, Dick and Mary
"Oh, wow, the Aztecs! You studying
them in school? No, but I read about them on a
placemat at the pancake house.
You know what the Aztecs' problem was? They were at
the wrong apex of the technological world arc.
I've never heard of that.
Oh, it's my own theory.
You see, technology begins in china in 5,000 B.C.
With, um, literature and architecture and pasta and
alcoholic beverages and fireworks.
Oh! Would you like an Oreo? Oh, thank you.
Oh, please continue.
This is fascinating.
So over the centuries the techno-arc moves through
the middle east, Egypt, Greece, Rome, Florence,
Europe, the Americas, until it gets back to the
pacific rim, but it always travels west.
So you're saying, the earth's rotation affects
civilization.
Exactly! And every dominant society is in sync with
the arc.
And the Aztecs are-- they're off the arc by 2,000
years, and that is why their advancements are never
recognized.
You have a very interesting theory.
Well, for a teenager.
No, for anybody.
Most people dismiss non-Literate cultures.
Well, we live in one."
TIMELINE:
2,500,000
BCE – Stone Tools Appear
200,000-28,000 BCE - Neanderthals Lived
100,000 BCE
– Art and Religion
50,000 BCE
– Neanderthals Use Symbols
30,000 BCE
– First Sculpture, Man from Brno, Czech Republic
p200 -
Venus Figures from France to Russia
- Women from Willendorf
- European Cave Paintings
8,000 BCE –
New Stone Age (Neolithic): Animal Husbandry
6,000 BCE – First Civilization formed in Iraq – the
Sumerians. Gilgamesh
is the oldest written story
3,150 BCE - EGYPT
3,000 BCE – Sumerians
had the wheel.
1,400 BCE –
China’s Shang Dynasty develops writing. P 218
Ancestor Worship
Families were responsible their members'
actions.
Weapons, sculpture, jade,
ceremonial vessels called hu
1,200 BCE -
Olmecs of the Gulf of Mexico flourished.
For Native
Americans, art is skill.
Pre-Columbian or
Post-Columbian - Do you want to know who Columbus
really was? Read an excerpt from a People's History
of the United States by Howard Zinn:
www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Zinn/Columbus_PeoplesHx.html
1,000 BCE –
Assyrians replace the Sumerians. They fell after 400
years of war.
1,000 BCE - First Mexican Art by the Olmecs
Great Pyramid at La Venta
800 BCE – Greek’s
Archaic Period
Kouroi statues (Koo-roy) means male
youth
Position: one foot forward for movement. No contrapposto position
Post and lintel architecture
Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey’s mythical history was
accepted as true.
776 BCE – First Olympic Games
630 - 570
BCE - Sappho – She was an Ancient Greek lyric poet
from the island of Lesbos. The bulk of her work was
lost.
The evolution
of the peppered moth over the last
two hundred years has been studied
in detail. Originally, the vast
majority of peppered moths had light
colouration, which effectively
camouflaged them against the light-coloured
trees and lichens which they rested
upon.
