Aim: How do artifacts help historians uncover history?

Do Now: If you were to create a time capsule for the year 2013, what objects would you include? What would these objects tell about this time period?

Vocabulary1. Artifact: human-made objects (such as tools)

2. Hominid: Humans and other creatures that walk upright

3. Archeology: The study of past human life and culture by the recovery and examination of artifacts

Examples of Artifacts

#1

#2

1. What might it have been used for?

2. What does it tell us about technology of the time in which it was made and used?

3. Can you name a similar item today?

LucyLucy Video

Activity• Read the Time Magazine

interview with Donald Johanson (the archeologist who discovered Lucy)

With your partnerAnswer the following questions in your notebook

1. What important clues do you think fossils like Lucy provide about the past?

2. Why did Johanson believe that Lucy’s species is the common ancestor of modern humans? What was so remarkable about finding Lucy?

3. What is your opinion of Johanson’s statement?: “You are all my descendants and regardless of who we are, we are all, in fact today, Africans.”

Timeline

Summary

How do artifacts help historians uncover history?