World History 6th grade Early Humans

Humans are curious creatures. We like to know things even though sometimes it may put us in trouble. Have you ever been in a situation when someone told you not to do something? Do you remember how you immediately felt that you really wanted to do the thing you had been told not to do, simply to see what would happen?

1. Why and where did people migrate?

It seems that curiosity has been a part of our nature for a long time. Driven by curiosity and better living conditions, our Homo Sapiens ancestors spread around the world, although scientists are not sure when exactly and how it happened. They study fossils, genetic information, and artifacts (reminder: artifacts ARE NOT facts about art -- they are objects created by people) in order to answer these questions.

Click here to check what MIGRATION means.

However, recent genetic studies show that the biggest variation in genes can be found among the people in Africa, which supports the idea that Homo Sapiens migrated out of Africa.

Still, there are many questions ???????????????? about how this happened.

From the archaeological evidence, it seems, though, that by the end of the Paleolithic period people who looked exactly like us could be found in Africa, Asia, and Europe.

An approximate timetable of evolutionary events in human history. [1]

 Check yourself: What two theories about human migration have been proposed by scientists?

2. How did people adapt to different environments? Ice Age Hunter-Gatherers.

When people moved, they settled in different environments.

                                         Click here to check what ENVIRONMENT means.

These environments had different weather and habitats (animals and plants who lived in this particular place). In order to survive in different places, people had to get used to the living conditions and learn how to find food there and how to protect themselves.

In other words, people had to adapt to a new environment. They had to figure out which plants and animals are good to eat, how to protect their bodies from the harsh weather, and how to find shelter.

Click here to check what ADAPT means.

"Dramatic changes in world climate started taking place about 1.5 million years ago. Most of the world became cold — really cold. This plunge in temperature began one of four distinct periods of frigid temperatures known as an Ice Age. Each of these frigid periods lasted from 10,000 to 50,000 years. The most recent chilled the Earth just over 10,000 years ago.

The glaciers created in the Ice Age covered much of North America. This Canadian glacier is still retreating.

During this most recent Ice Age, the northern polar icecap moved so far south that massive sheets of ice were created over much of the northern hemisphere. In some areas the ice was several miles thick. About 1/3 of the earth's surface was encased in an icy layer — that's four times the amount of ice normally found on earth today. Naturally, hunting and gathering abilities were interfered with during the Ice Ages."[2]

With so much watered turned to ice, rains became scarce in the southern lands, turning them to deserts. The animals moved to the areas where the food was available and people had no choice but to follow them.

Ice Age hunter-gatherers had to adapt to cold weather. They had to build warm shelters out of wood and big bones. They also learned how to use animal skins for their shelters and how to make clothes out of them. They used animal bones as needles to make clothes. They were very smart at using anything they could find to help themselves survive.

Ice Age people and their shelters. [3]

It was easier for people to hunt in bigger groups, so they began forming clans.

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Such groups of extended family members might have been as big as up to fifty people. It was important for them to cooperate and be in touch with other clans for support. Networks (interconnected groups of people) of clans were used for trade and exchange of information. People traded objects, food, and other resources (such as minerals for painting).

Check yourself: How did the environment change during the last Ice Age period?

4. Developing Art: The Caves of Lascaux and Altamira.

In 1940, in a town of Lascaux, four French boys and their dog made an amazing discovery. They found a cave in which the walls were painted with beautiful images of various animals: bison, deer,  mammoths, and horses.  The place has become famous for its Ice Age art that dated back to 16,000 years ago. Similar caves have been discovered in various places in France and Spain. For instance,  caves of Altamira, Spain, contained paintings of animals and human hands made in charcoal and color paint. They were twice as old as the paintings in Lascaux and their beauty inspired Pablo Picasso, a famous Spanish painter. 

Click here to see the cave paintings of Altamira.

Click here to see the cave paintings of Lascaux.

Such amazing art tells us that people of Ice Age were capable of very complex thought and action, and that their culture must have been very complex. Another example of their ability to think symbolically are famous "Venus" figurines found in many places around Europe.

Click here to check what SYMBOLICmeans

Venus figurine from Willendorf, Austria, dated back to 30,000 BCE.[4]

Archaeologists are not sure what these figurines were supposed to represent. Perhaps, they were images of a goddess of fertility (ability to have babies), or maybe they were meant to act as magical objects helping women to birth children safely. In any case, they are amazing examples of Ice Age people's artistic creativity.

Check yourself: What subjects did Ice Age people represent in their art?

5. Developing Religious Beliefs: Burials.

Burial practices represent another example of the growing complexity of the Ice Age people's culture. Graves dated back to that period contain many objects and some of them even have traces of flowers.

Why would you put flowers in a person's grave? Is it because you are sad? Is it because you want to show love to the dead person? Is it because you to make this place look prettier?

Whatever your reasons are, they must somehow connect to the reasons for which Ice Age people buried their dead with care and attention.

Numerous objects (beads, wepons, toys, dishes, and other things) indocate that, perhaps, the Ice Age people believed in afterlife in which the dead would need to use their earthly possions. These practices go beyond an act of satisfying one's basic needs and can be described as religious and symbolic. The Ice Age people may have also believed in spirits of plants and animals that also dwell in the world -- a form of religion called animism.

Click here to check what ANIMISM means.

In order to paint and bury their deceased, people had to be able to communicate and to use an elaborate language.

By the end of the Ice Age period, humans were able to produce sophisticated tools and artistic objects. They adapted to various environments and learned to hunt and gather all kinds of food. In fact, their diet was more diverse then our diet today.  However, still lived in relatively small groups and had a mostly nomadic  lifestyle.

But this changed at the end of the Paleolithic period, about 10,000 years ago, when people began domesticating plants and animals.

This text is based on Pearson's My World History and Geography textbook adopted in TN for the 6th grade World History class. If not otherwise indicated, the images (modified by the author) come from openclipart.com and clipart-library.com, free clipart sites.