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Big Idea

Hunters and gatherers lived during the Paleolithic Era.

Essential Question

What was life like during the Paleolithic Era?

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Words To KnowHunter and Gatherer – people who live in a society in

which most or all food is obtained by foraging (collecting wild plants and hunting wild animals).

Nomads – people who move from place to place searching for food.

Animism – the belief that every living and non-living thing in nature has a spirit.

Migration – the movement of people from one part of the world to another part of the world.

Let’s Set The Stage…

Early modern humans lived toward the end of the Old Stone Age or Paleolithic era. Researchers have pieced together evidence left by early modern humans to paint a picture of what daily life was like for them. Early modern people were nomads, or people who move from place to place to find food. Typically, about 20 or 30 people lived together in small bands, or groups. They survived by hunting and by gathering food. In general, men hunted or fished. Women and children gathered berries, fruits, nuts, grains, roots or shellfish.

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The earliest people lived during the Old Stone Age or Paleolithic era, which began more than two million years ago.Paleolithic people were nomads, or people who moved from place to place, hunting and gathering their food.

Family life consisted of small groups of people who traveled together.

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People living during the Paleolithic era adapted to their environment.This means they found a way to survive in the environment they lived in.

People living during the Paleolithic era made simple tools and weapons, such as digging sticks and spears, from stone, bone or wood.

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During the Paleolithic times, people developed language, which allowed them to communicate and cooperate during a hunt. Paleolithic people invented clothing made of animal skins.They used fire for warmth as well as for cooking food.

Adapting to their Environment

Paleolithic people developed some spiritual beliefs.They began to bury their dead with care, which suggests that they believed in an afterlife.They also buried tools and jewelry, which this picture shows.

Spiritual Beliefs

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Cave paintings around the world show animals and humans. Many believe that our ancestors believed the world was full of spirits and forces that might reside in animals, objects or dreams. Such beliefs are known as animism.

Historians believe the earliest people lived in the Great Rift Valley (East Africa).

Migration

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Mary Leakey was a anthropologist that studied ancient human fossils. She was one of the most important researchers in human evolution, and found the first examples of several extinct species that were our human ancestors.

Mary Leakey

Donald Johanson, an American paleoanthropologist is best known for his discovery of “Lucy,” one of the most complete skeletons (40%) of Australopithecus afarensis known, in the Afar region of Ethiopia in 1974.Lucy is believed to be 3.2 millions years old.

Donald Johanson

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From East Africa people spread all around the world.People migrated north and east into Europe and Asia.

Migration

After many years, some migrated over a land bridge into North America.

Migration

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Some migrated on boats to islands in the Pacific.

Migration

Migration led to cultural diffusion.Cultural diffusion is the exchanging of ideas, beliefs and goods among people.Cultural diffusion also occurred through trade and warfare.

Migration

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Essential Question Answered

What was life like during the Paleolithic Era?

During the Paleolithic Era, people lived in small groups.

They made simple tools and weapons, developed a language and made clothes from animal skins.

They made simple tools and weapons, developed a language and made clothes from animal skins.

People during the Paleolithic era developed spiritual beliefs, such as animism.

Essential Question Answered

What was life like during the Paleolithic Era?

People also migrated from East Africa to parts all over the world.

Migration led to cultural diffusion, the exchanging of ideas and beliefs among people.