PREHISTORY CEIP Santa Ana (Madridejos)
PREHISTORY.
1.- INTRODUCTION TO HISTORY.
History is the study of past events and ways of living of humanity throughout time till nowadays.
Archeologists and historians study past events of human beings. They use non-written sources
(archaeological sites, monuments… ) and written sources (documents, inscriptions, old coins…)
History needs other sciences like Geography (to locate the events in a place), Chronology (to
locate them through time)…
They use different units of time:
.- Year: 365 days.
.- Five-year period: 5 years
.- Decade: 10 years.
.- Century: 100 years.
.- Millennium: 1,000 years
.- Christian Age: the year Christ was born is the year “0” in the occidental culture.
So we date events in this way: .- ‘B.C.’ (before Christ)
.- ‘A.D.’ (Anno Domini)
2.- STAGES OF HISTORY.
Historians have divided history in different stages:
A.- Prehistory: from the beginning of human being evolution (million of years ago), till the invention of
writing (about 3,000-3,500 years ago).
B.- History: divided in four ages:
b.1.- Ancient History: from 3,500 B.C. (invention of writing), till 476 A.D. (Fall of the Western Roman
Empire).
b.2.-Middle Ages: from the Fall of Western Roman Empire, till 1492 (discovery of America).
b.3.- Early Modern Period: from 1492 till 1789 (French Revolution).
b.4.- Contemporary Period: from 1789 till nowadays.
PREHISTORY CEIP Santa Ana (Madridejos)
3.- PREHISTORY.
It was the first stage in the humanity
existence, it lasted through millions of
years.
Hominization is the process of evolution
of human beings from big apes, it started
long time ago. There are lots of fossils all
over the world that prove this process.
About five million years ago,
‘Australopithecus’ appeared in Africa. It
was the first ancestor of humanity, later
there were other ancestors like ‘homo habilis’ till ‘homo sapiens’. Human evolution
Prehistory refers to all the time preceding human existence and the invention of writing. It has got
several stages of development:
3.1.- PALEOLITHIC.
Paleolithic means ‘old stone’, because the tools
found from that period were made of stone. This
period lasted till the invention of agriculture.
a.- Way of living:
.- They were nomads: They travelled from one
place to another (during warm weather) looking for
food: animals, fruits…
.- They lived in caves during cold weather, they
were organized in tribes, or family groups.
.- They hunted animals, caught fish and collected
fruits and vegetables from nature.
.- They divided the work to do: all men in the tribe
had to go hunting, and women collected fruits and
took care of children.
.- Life was very hard, and they spent a lot of time
looking for food.
Life in the Paleolithic time.
b.- Technical improvements:
.- Their first tools were made of stone (They hit
them each other to sharpen them).
.- Later, they selected the type of stones (silex),
that used to make arrows, spear heads,
knives… They also used bones, fur, tendons
from animals… . .
.-They discovered ‘the fire’ in that period.
Tools from the Paleolithic
c.- First Beliefs:
.- They believed in supernatural forces like nature and stars, and they made some rites in order to be
favoured by them.
.- They buried their dead relatives.
.- They painted animals, hunting scenes… on caves walls. In Spain there are two areas of paintings:
PREHISTORY CEIP Santa Ana (Madridejos)
‘Cantábrica’ (Altamira…) where we can see isolated animals, and ‘Levantina’ (where they painted
many animals or people forming hunting scenes, dances…)
Cave painting in Levante Cave painting in the North of Spain
3.2.- NEOLITHIC.
About 10,000 years ago, there were groups of people in the Middle East that started to grow plants, and
domestícate animals. These techniques were spreading to other groups. This was the so-called ‘Neolithic
Revolution’.
a.- Way of living:
.- They became sedentaries (because of agriculture and cattle farming). They didn’t need to go from one
place to another to find food. They planted cereals, legumes… they domesticated dogs, goats, sheep,
pigs…
.- They built villages (several huts built with natural materials from that place) near rivers to have water
for them, their animals and plants.
.- The groups of people were doing bigger and bigger with a more complicated social structure.
.- Everybody took part in the works to prepare fields to plant, and do fences for animals.
.- People started to specialized in different tasks, so there were farmers, cattle farmers, craftsmen,
warriors…
b.- Technical improvements:
.- They started to make crafts products, like pieces of clothes with wool, or vegetable fibers in looms.
.- They used pottery made of clay to cook… They used fire to harden the pieces.
PREHISTORY CEIP Santa Ana (Madridejos)
.- They made tools polishing stones. (stone mills to make flour from wheat… axe heads…). They
invented the plough and sickle… They made objects made of esparto…
c.- Beliefs:
.- They bury their dead people because they believe
in another life after death. In these graves they put
lots of objects for the dead person ’grave goods’,
because they thought that the dead body would
need them in the other life. There are also pieces
like bracelets, necklaces, earrings…
.- They believed in gods related with nature
phenomenon and they represent them using simple
clay statues. Neolíthic ‘grave goods’
3.3.- THE METAL AGES:
At the end of Prehistory, about 7,000 years ago, metallurgy was developed. They made tools, weapons,
jewellery… using fire to melt different metals.
1º.- Copper Age: it was the first
metal that people used. They made
copper pieces beating the metal
with stones. Copper wasn’t very
hard, so they used it to make
jewellery and decorating objects.
2º.- Bronze Age: later, they used
bronze. It’s an alloy of copper and
tin, and they used it because it’s
harder.
3º.- Iron Age: iron was very
abundant in nature, and very hard.
They made tools to work, weapons
and armours to fight, container,
jewellery, statues…
Life in the Metal Ages
To produce these objects, they melted metals in enclosed furnaces, and they poured the melted metals
into moulds (with the shape of the metal piece they wanted).
a.- Way of living:
.- Many villages became cities. These cities were protected by fortified walls. Houses were small and
most of them made of clay bricks and wood, but the powerful
people’s houses were made of stone, they were big and confortable.
.-Social differences were increasing, some cities were governed by
a King. The richest people were priests and warriors who were
privileged people. The rest of population were craftsmen,
farmers… that were very poor..
.- Trade appeared at that time because of the increase of products.
At the beginning was a simple exchange of products, but later they
invented and used coins. Coins from the Metal Ages
PREHISTORY CEIP Santa Ana (Madridejos)
b.- Technical improvements:
They used metallurgy, but there were lots of important inventions like ‘the wheel’, they also improved
farming techniques and the plough, and also they made progress in navigation like ‘the sail’
Wheel plough Weapons from the Metal Ages
c.- Beliefs:
Some people started to build religious monuments, or with a funerary purpose with huge stones. These
types of constructions are called: Megalithic monuments.
The main types of megalithic art were:
.- Menhir: is a large upright standing stone. Menhirs may be found singly as monoliths, or as part of a
group of similar stones.
.- Dolmen: is a type of single-chamber megalithic tomb, usually consisting of three or more upright
stones supporting a large flat horizontal capstone (table), although there are also more complex variants.
.- A stone circle is a monument of standing stones arranged in a circle. Their purposes are unknown but
probably they were related with religious rites…
Dolmen
Menhir Piece of skull (Atapuerca)
Stonehenge (Stone circle) Working at a site in Atapuerca
These phases in Prehistory happened at different times depending on the different places, so while some
villages were in the Paleolithic, other civilitations knew writing. Nowadays, in Spain are working in
some sites like Atapuerca to try to understand life in prehistoric times.
PREHISTORY CEIP Santa Ana (Madridejos)
GLOSARY-VOCABULARY:
Event: acontecimiento throughout: a lo largo de… archaelogoical site: yacimiento arque.
source: fuente coin: moneda locate: localizar
B.C.: Antes de Cristo A.D.: ‘Anno Domini’ Despúes de Cristo Christian Age: Era Cristiana
stage: etapa till: hasta Christ was born: Cristo nació
nowadays: nuestros días to last: durar Fall of the Roman Empire: Caída del Imper. Romano
preceding: que precede several stages of development: varias etapas de desarrollo
writing: escritura tools: herramientas to hunt: cazar caught: atrapaban
to take care: cuidar improvement: mejora to hit: golpear to sharp: afilar
arrow: flecha spear head: punta de lanza knive: cuchillo fur: piel (pelo)
to believe: creer to be favoured: ser favorecido to bury: enterrar relative: pariente
isolate: aislado hunting scene: escena de caza grow: cultivar spread: extenderse
so-called: llamado legumes: legumbres hut: cabaña field: campo (cultivo)
fence: vallado craftsmen: artesanos task: tarea warrior: guerrero
wool: lana loom: telar pottery: cerámica clay: arcilla
to harden: endurecer to polish: pulir mill: molino flour: harina
wheat: trigo axe head: cabeza de hacha plough: arado sickle: hoz
death: muerte grave goods: ajuar funerario bracelet: pulsera necklace: collar
would need: necesitaría earrings: pendientes nature phenomenon: fenómenos naturales
metallurgy: metalurgia to be develope: ser desarrollado weapon: arma jewellery: joyería
to melt: derretir copper: cobre to beat: golpear alloy: aleación
tin: estaño iron: hierro, acero to fight: luchar armour: armadura
to pour: verter enclosed furnace: horno cerrado mould: molde fortified: fortificada
to become: convertirse clay brick: ladrillo de arcilla to increase: incrementar, crecer
priest: sacerdote privileged: privilegiado trade: comercio exchange: intercambio
wheel: rueda sail: vela (de un barco) purpose: objetivo huge: enorme
upright: vertical singly: solo, aislado single-chamber: una sola cámara
tomb: tumba capstone: piedra de arriba flat: plano although: aunque
standing: de pie (posición) arranged: dispuestos, colocados