Provide information on each of the following :
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Illustrate each topic and explain at least one invention from each time period/"man"
Paleolithic Age Excellent site on the Paleolithic Age
Excellent Site for hands on activities
Neanderthals are the best known of the
ancient humans. The Neanderthals lived in Europe and central Asia between
230,000 and 30,000 years ago—longer than Homo sapiens, or modern humans,
have lived on Earth. In addition,the Neanderthals lived during the most
recent Ice Age, when vast sheets of ice covered many northern parts of
the world. The term Neanderthal, also spelled Neandertal, comes from the
Neander Valley near Dusseldorf, Germany. This is where scientists found
the first Neanderthal fossils in 1856.
Explain that scientists believe that Homo sapiens (modern man) first
appeared about 120,000 years ago, which means they coexisted with the Neanderthals.
Scientists have two theories about the relationship between modern Homo
sapiens and Neanderthals: Out of Africa: The theory states that Homo sapiens
first lived in Africa and eventually traveled into Europe and Asia. These
humans had evolutionary advantages that allowed them to outlive—and perhaps
cause the extinction of—all other hominid groups (as opposed to apes) such
as Neanderthal.
Multiregional: The theory states that modern Homo sapiens evolved
from Neanderthal and other hominid groups in Europe and Asia.
Cro Magnon
A early type of modern man, named after the Cro-Magnon cave near
Les Eyzies in the Dordogne, France, where four of their skeletons were discovered in 1868. They have been regarded as the ancestor of the peoples of southern Europe.
Cro-Magnons flourished in southern Europe during the last glacial age. The characteristics that distinguish them from the Neanderthals are high forehead and a well-defined chin. Artifacts left by the race demonstrate clearly that Cro-Magnons had mastered the art of making many useful instruments of bone and ivory as well as of stone.
The Cro-Magnons wore clothes and decorated their bodies with jewelry and ornaments of shell and bone. They were also skilled in carving and sculpturing with bone. A number of colored paintings left on the walls of caves is further evidence of their culture, which centered in the Aurignacian period.