The Prehistory

THE PREHISTORY
The term prehistory designates the time period starting with the appearance of the first human being and ending with the invention of writing.  Because no written documents exist that we could use to study their ways of life, we use material remains.  Examples: the human body itself, hunting tools, paintins, sculptures, etc.
THEORY OF THE EVOLUTION.
The theory thatconsiders human beings a result of a process of change and transformation.  This has lasted millions of years.  It was proposed by British naturalist Charles Darwin.  |


Charles Darwin | Charles Darwin (1809-1882) |
| He studied medicine in Edinburgh (Scotland), but gave it up.  He researched the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific from 1831 to 1836.  The boat he travelled in was called “TheBeagle”.  When he finished his work, he wrote a book.  This book is called “On the Origin of Species”.  Darwin presents the theory of evolution in the aforementioned book.  |
Man, like the rest of living beings, has been in a constant state of transformation. |

Look at the images below and read the text closely

Present day man | Present day man We are a result of millions of years of evolution. We appeared 150,000 years ago.  Scientifically, we are called “Homo sapiens” |

NeanderthalsI am a Neanderthal, like you, a Homo Sapien.  I disappeared 30,000 years ago.  I lived in Europe and some places in the East Asia.  I also inhabited la Axarquía (Málaga).  We are related.  We were short, wide and muscular.  We had protruding eyebrow and we didn’t have chins.  |
Homo de Neanderthal |Homo Antecessor | Homo Antecesor They lived a little under 1,000,000 years ago.  They lived in Atapuerca (Burgos). |

Homo Habilis They could be the last Australopitecus.  Their brains and height were larger than them.  They made tools. |
Homo Habilis |


Australopithecus | AustralopitecusThey appeared 4,000,000 years ago in Africa.  Their appearance was very similar to that of achimpanzee, but their hands and feet were the same as ours. |
LIFE IN THE PALEOLITIC AGE
The Paleolithic is the phase of Prehistory during which tools made from cut stone were used.  It is the longest phase of man’s history (99% of it).  The term means Age of the Ancient Stone (παλαιός, paleos=, y λίθος, lithos=).
The Stone Age is a prehistoric cultural stage, or level of human development,characterized by the creation and use of stone tools. The Stone Age is usually divided into three separate periods--Paleolithic Period, Mesolithic Period, and Neolithic Period--based on the degree of sophistication in the fashioning and use of tools.
Paleolithic
Archaeology is concerned with the origins and development of early human culture between the first appearance of man as a tool-usingmammal, which is believed to have occurred about 600,000 or 700,000 years ago, and the beginning of the Recent geologic era, about 8000 BC. It is included in the time span of the Pleistocene, or Glacial, Epoch--an interval of about 1,000,000 years. Although it cannot be proved, modern evidence suggests that the earliest protohuman forms had diverged from the ancestral primate stock by the beginningof the Pleistocene. In any case, the oldest recognizable tools are found in horizons of Lower Pleistocene Age. During the Pleistocene a series of momentous climatic events occurred. The northern latitudes and mountainous areas were subjected on four successive occasions to the advances and retreats of ice sheets (known as Günz, Mindel, Riss, and Würm in the Alps), river valleys and terraces wereformed, the present coastlines were established, and great changes were induced in the fauna and flora of the globe. In large measure, the development of culture during Paleolithic times seems to have been profoundly influenced by the environmental factors that characterize the successive stages of the Pleistocene Epoch.
Throughout the Paleolithic, man was a food gatherer, depending for his...