PRIMATES

HOMO

HOMO HABILIS( THE

TOOL MAKER)HOMO

ERECTUS( THE UPRIGHT MAN)

HOMO SAPIENS( THE WISE MAN)

NEANDERTHALS

CRO-MAGNON

AUSTRALOPITHECUS

Tracing The Beginning Of Human History

Primates are a subgroup of a larger group of mammals.

They have body

hair, a relatively long gestation period following birth,

mammary glands, different types of teeth and the ability to

maintain a constant body temperature.

So, It was during this time i.e. 5.6 million years ago that the higher

primates, including apes and early man, first appeared.

Their hands were different, too. Ape hands were made for climbing

and clinging.

There was a difference between apes and

man.

THE ORIGIN OF EARLY HUMANS

SO,

ACCORDING

TO THE MAP,

WHERE DID

EARLY

HUMANS

ORIGIN?

So it means…we’re all Africans under the skin!!!

But, how do we know

about people who lived so

many millions of years

ago???

Through FOSSILS and ARTIFACTS !

Scientists use many clues to help them put pieces of the past

together. One thing they must know is the difference

between a fossil and an artifact.

Artifacts are

, not remains of

living things.

Fossils are

(plants, animals, people), not things that were

made.

Some fossils and artifacts of early humans

They did not need a boat. The Ice Age was

here! They traveled across giant walkways of

frozen ice, over what later would become vast

rivers and seas.

Ways of obtaining foodEarly humans would have obtained food

through a number of ways such as gathering,

hunting, scavenging and fishing.

would involve collecting plant foods

such as seeds, nuts, berries, fruits and tubers.

probably began later- about 5,00,000

years ago. The earliest clear evidence for the

deliberate, planned hunting and butchery comes

from 2 sites: boxgrove in southern England and

Schoningen in Germany.

was also important as is evident from

the discovery of fish bones at different sites

The large stone boulders were

used to support the sides of the

hut.

It even had a

– fire

provided warmth and light

inside huts and could be used

for cooking. Besides, fire was

used in and could

also be

These tools were found in the

olduvia. The 1st is a chopper. This

is a large stone from which

The 2nd is a hand

axe.

The earliest evidence for making and

use of stone tools comes

It is likely that

the earliest stone tool makers were

the

About 35,000 years ago, improvements in the techniques for killing

animals are evident from the appearance of new kinds of tools such

as The meat thus

obtained was probably processed by removing bones, followed by

Thus, food could be stored for later

consumption.

Oh! My God

what to

do

now!

Among living beings, it is

humans alone that have a

language. some views on

language development are :

1) That hominid language

involved

2) That spoken language was

preceded by vocal but

It has been suggested that the brain of the Homo Habilis

had certain features which would have made it possible for

them to speak. Thus, language may have developed as

early as 2 million years ago! Thus, the evolution of vocal

tract was equally important.

A 3rd suggestion is that language developed around the

same time as art i.e. 40-35,000 years ago.

Hundreds of paintings of animals( done between

30,000 and 12,000 years ago) have been discovered in

the caves of Lascaux and chauvet, both in France

and Altamira in Spain. These include depictions of

bison, horses, ibex, deer, mammoths, rhinos, lions,

bears, panthers, hyenas and owls.

Several explanations have been offered .One is that

because of the importance of hunting, the paintings

of animals were associated with ritual and magic.

Another explanation is that caves

were possibly meeting places for small groups of

people and that

For several million years , humans lived by

hunting wild animals and gathering wild plants.

This led to the

development of farming and pastoralism as a

way of life.