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The time period before humans started keeping written records is called pre-history, or the prehistoric period. It lasted for a very long time, but we know relatively little about it.
What we do know has been discovered by a group of historian/scientists called anthropologists. They study the origins and development of people and their societies. Like detectives, they find clues to how people lived, then create theories to fit the facts.
Since these are just theories, sometimes new facts are discovered and the theories must change to fit the new facts. For this reason, History is not a fixed, unchanging thing. It is always growing, expanding, and changing.
One type of anthropologist is the archaeologist. These scientist/historians find and study the material remains of past humans. Things they look at are buildings, homes, and campsites, as well as artifacts such as tools, weapons, pottery, clothing, and jewelry.
Who is a famous movie archaeologist?
Probably the most famous real-life anthropologists are the Leakeys. Mary and Louis Leakey went to Africa, to the country of Tanzania, and searched for prehistoric clues in a canyon called the Olduvai Gorge.
In the Olduvai Gorge in 1959, Mary Leakey found a small skull she said belonged to a human-like creature called a hominid. Hominids include humans and their closest relatives that walk upright on two feet. Today, we are the only hominids left on earth.
The skull Mary Leakey found allowed scientists to reconstruct an entire new species of hominid called Panthropus. This is a replica of that skull.
This is a recreation of how Panthropus would have looked.
In 1974, American anthropologist Donald Johanson made another major discovery in the African country of Ethiopia. He found many pieces of a skeleton about 3 million years old. He named the skeleton Lucy after the Beatles' song "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds." Its scientific name is Australopithicus.
Lucy's upright skeleton.
Scientists say that around 200,000 years ago, homo sapiens first appeared, with two groups: Neanderthal man, like this:
…and modern man, which is us.
About 50,000 years ago Neanderthal man became extinct, leaving modern humans as the only hominids left on earth. Or are we?
Anyway, 30,000 years ago, nomadic humans came to North America from Asia across a land bridge exposed by the last ice age. It was called the Beringia, after the water that now covers it, the Bering Strait.
Those that came to America were the first Native Americans. When the ice age ended, they were cut off from returning to Asia, and they spread out and adapted to their surroundings, forming tribes, villages, and even cities.
And it all started with that long, almost forgotten, mysterious time called Pre-History.
