Social Studies

Chapter 1

Ancient Civilizations

The Tools of History

the study of Earth and its people

geography

one of 7 large landmasses on Earth

continent

Antarctica

North Americ

a

South America

Africa

EuropeAsia

Australia

a naturally formed feature of Earth’s land surface

landform

pattern of weather

conditions in a certain location

over a long period of time

climate

plant life in an area

vegetation

measure distance east and west of the

prime meridian

longitude

mea

sure

dist

ance

nor

th

and

sout

h of

the

equa

tor

latitude

an equal half of the globe

hemisphere

this is the western

hemisphere

the eastern

hemisphere is on the

side we cannot see

Maps showing features (i.e.

country boundaries) that people make

political map

Africa

does

not look l

ike

this

from

space

map showing landforms and bodies of water

physical map

map showing a distribution or

pattern

thematic map

a human-made object

artifact

a preserved remain of early

life

fossil

a hum

an or

human-li

ke

creatu

re th

at

walks

on two

feet

hominid

period marked by the use of the simplest tools by

the earliest humans (2.5 million-8,000 B.C.)

Paleolithic Age (Old Stone

Age)

period during which early humans began to control fire and develop

language (10,000 – 6,000 B.C.)

Mesolithic Age (Stone Age)

period marked by the beginning of farming

and the development of pottery and weaving (8,000 – 3,000 B.C.)

Neolithic Age (New Stone Age)

something written or

created by a person who witnessed a

historic event

primary source

an account of a historical event

written by someone who did not witness the

event

secondary

source

an unwritten account of an event passed

on by word-of-mouth

oral history