The Paleolithic EraWORLD HISTORY

SEPTEMBER 11 AND 12

Stinger: Questions from the Reading

1. What kinds of clues have scientists used to describe life in the Paleolithic era?

2. Who is Lucy and why is she important to our study of the Paleolithic era?

3.What happened to constitute the “Neolithic Revolution?”

4. What was one major change to human lifestyles as a result of the Neolithic revolution?

5. How did the advent of farming change religious belief systmes?

Stations Use the information from the stations provided to fill in your chart to the best of your ability.

At each station, use the scaffolding questions as discussion starters and to guide how you fill in the chart.

Stations include: ◦ Cave paintings◦ Sculpture ◦ Tools and Weapons◦ Political Cartoons◦ Article

Spend about 15 minutes at each station

Conclude by writing the paragraph at the bottom of the chart as your exit ticket.

Painting

1. What do the subjects of the paintings tell you about how Paleolithic people produced goods and services?

2. What do the subjects and styles of the paintings tell you about how Paleolithic people spent their days?

3. How do the paintings help you to discover what was important to Paleolithic people?

4. What does the painting of the hands tell you about Paleolithic society?

5. What might these paintings indicate about power structures within Paleolithic groups?

Sculpture

1. What do the subjects of the sculptures tell you about what was important to Paleolithic people?

2. What symbolism do you see in the sculptures that might give you clues to the basic belief systems of Paleolithic people?

3. What do these sculptures tell you about how Paleolithic people spent their days?

4. What do these scultures tell you about the basic knowledge Paleolithic people had regarding the world?

Tools and Weapons 1. What was the purpose of most of the tools and weapons that have been preserved? 2. What do these tools and weapons tell you about how Paleolithic people created goods and services? 3. What do these tools and weapons tell you about how Paleolithic people spent their days? 4. What do these tools and weapons tell you about the basic knowledge Paleolithic people had regarding the world?

Cartoons 1. How do modern cartoonists perceive the Paleolithic era? 2. According to the cartoons, what types of knowledge separate Paleolithic man from modern man?

3. How do the cartoons describe Paleolithic power structures, economic activities, religious beliefs, and social interactions?

4. How do the cartoons match up with the artifacts you observed in other stations (unless you started at this one)?

5. What misconceptions do people seem to have about the Paleolithic era?

Article 1. How does the article confirm or conflict with the migration maps you observed last class? 2. How do the findings in the article confirm or conflict with previous thought regarding Paleolithic lifestyles? 3. What do the findings tell you about how Paleolithic people created goods and services? 4. What do the findings tell you about social relationships or power structures in the Paleolithic era?

Paleolithic earrings found in Interior Alaska among oldest artwork in North America

FAIRBANKS — Archaeologists say they unearthed one of North America’s oldest works of art last year at a site between Fairbanks and Delta Junction: two sets of fish-shaped bone earrings.

Researchers found the matching sets of carved bones in the 2013 field season at the Mead Site, between Fairbanks and Delta Junction, according to Barbara Crass, director of Shaw Creek Archaeological Research.

The group believes the carvings are one of the earliest known examples of art in North America. They came from a site that held stone tools and animal bones that dates from between 11,820 to 12,200 years ago.

“Outside of a few beads there’s nothing else that age and artistic in the New World or at least North America,” she said.

Researchers from University of Alaska Fairbanks and Shaw Creek Archaeological Research found the bone carvings in 2013. They didn’t previously announce the finding because they were hoping to find more in the 2014 field season, she said. They didn’t find more. The finding hasn’t yet been the subject of any scholarly articles. The group plans to do further research on the pieces, she said.

The carvings may appear primitive to the contemporary eye, but would be considered sophisticated for their time period. The news release announcing their discovery describes the smaller carvings as “elegant inverted V-shapes designed for suspension. They have tiny serrations on the interior edges of the V and delicate cross-hatching along the outer edges, possibly representing stylized bird tails.”

The larger pair is similar in structure but appears cruder or incomplete.

The Mead Site has been the site of annual excavations since at least 2009, Crass said. It’s owned by Shaw Creek Archaeological Research and was purchased for the purpose of archaeological research.

The discovery tells researchers more about early-human life in the region as well as about the continued potential for the Mead Site, Crass said.

“It means they had time to decorate things and do ornamentation,” she said. “It also means that this may have been a little more than a hunting camp.”