considering early man
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CONSIDERING EARLY MAN. ARCHAEOLOGY, ANTHROPOLOGY, & PALEONTOLOGY. Archaeologist: A person who studies the remains of ancient societies to learn about past ways of life. Anthropologist: A person who studies early human beings and the way societies and cultures originate and are organized. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Archaeologist: A person who studies the remains of ancient societies to learn about past
ways of life.
Anthropologist: A person who studies
early human beings and the way societies and cultures originate and
are organized.
Paleontologist: A person who studies life existing in prehistoric times through fossils of plants, animals, and other organisms.
Radio Carbon Dating
+ Organic material, up to 50,000 years. + Rate of decay of radioactive carbon atoms.
Potassium Argon Dating
+ Dates stone, up to 3 billion years.
• Tanzania, 1978
• 3.6 million years
• One of earliest evidences of hominid existence.
• Ash, rain, prints, sun, ash, plant growth.
Mary LeakeyMary Leakey
• How old is she? Where was she found? 3.6 million years, Ethiopia.
• How do we know? Fossilized crocodile and turtle eggs, same sediment level. Potassium argon dating method.
• What is Lucy’s ultimate significance? Oldest, most complete, best preserved skeletal remains of
early hominid existence.
• They think she died at 20 and suffered from severe arthritis.
• How do they know??? Paleopathology
A paleopathologist is one who studies old and diseased things, specifically, diseases of human and animal as inferred from recent or fossilized skeletal remains.
• Location: Ethiopia, Tanzania (“southern ape”)
• Time Period 4-1 million years ago
• Physical Characteristics 3-5 ft. tall, 500 cubic centimeters cranial capacity (1/3 of
modern human
• Technology used objects in crude form
• Special Characteristics 1st hominid? Lucy and Laetoli footprints
• Olduvai Gorge - Area in northern Tanzania where Louis and Mary Leakey unearthed a skull of a Homo habilis.
• Skull fragments: 1.8 million years
• Location: Tanzania (Olduvai Gorge), Leakey’s
• Time Period: 2.5 - 2 million years
• Physical Characteristics 50% larger cranial capacity (750 cubic cm.)
• Technology: stone tools found in Olduvai Gorge
• Special characteristics: Beginning of stone age, (100 lbs of elephant meat carved in one hour!)
• Location: Africa, Europe, S.W. Asia, S.E. Asia
• Time Period: 2-1 million years
• Physical Characteristics Cranial capacity 1000 cubic cm, 6 ft. tall!
• Technology: 1st to use fire
• Special characteristics: 1st to leave Africa
• Take notes on the following during the video.
1. Two theories on the fate of Neanderthal
2. Theories as to why he became extinct
3. Evidence of sophistication
• Location: Europe, S.W. Asia (Neander Valley, Germany)
• Time Period: 200,000-30,000 years • Technology:
Temporary shelters, wood, bone and stone tools, excellent hunters
• Physical characteristics: Cranial capacity of modern humans (bigger?),
10-20% heavier bone mass than modern man, low brow, barrel chest, 5-51/2 feet tall
• Special Characteristics: Burial ceremonies (afterlife?),
evolution, or extinction?, braved the Ice Age
• (Anatomically modern man)
• Archaeologists sometimes call the late Paleolithic period of Cro-Magnon man as “The Great Leap Forward.”
• Compile a list of Cro-Magnon
achievements that might justify this claim.
Atlatl Atlatl (Spear-thrower)(Spear-thrower)
Discovered in 1879. Dates 12,000 – 25,000 BC.
• Location: Africa, Europe, Asia, Americas
• Time Period: 70,000-15,000 years BC
• Physical Characteristics: Modern Man, larynx (organized speech, 50 yr. life
expectancy (Neanderthal=40)
• Technology: (over 100 tools) stone, bone wood=fish hook, spear,
harpoon, atlatl, chisel, sewing needle,
• Special Characteristics: cave art, jewelry, “leap” in technology, creativity
Robert Robert BraidwoodBraidwood
Excavation at Jarmo, Iraq
• 1 of earliest Neolithic villages found
• Settlement of 100-150 people• Stone sickles, bowls• Domesticated goats, sheep
and dogs• 16 layers of sediment• 16th=charred seeds of wheat
and barley dating to 7,000 BC• 1 of earliest known uses of
agriculture
Catal Huyuk – Catal Huyuk – Neolithic Neolithic VillageVillage
• South Central Turkey
• Neolithic villagePopulation 6,00006,000 BCLargest Neolithic village
ever excavated
Shrines for worship, mother goddessEvidence of agriculture, grain storage