Chapter 3.1Hunter-Gatherers

1. Historians call the early period of human history the “Stone Age”.

• 2. The earliest part of this period was the Paleolithic Age.

• 3. In Greek, paleolithic means “old stone.”• 4. Therefore, the Paleolithic Age is also called the

Old Stone Age. • 5. The Paleolithic Age began about 2.5 million years

ago and lasted until around 8000 B.C.

Surviving in the Paleolithic Age

• 1. The Paleolithic Age did not have roads, farms, or villages.

• 2. Paleolithic people often moved around in search of food. They were nomads, or people who regularly move from place to place to survive.

• 3. These people traveled in groups, or bands, of about 20-30 members.

• 4. They survived by hunting and gathering. The search for food was their main activity and it was often difficult.

• 5. They had to learn which animals to hunt and which plants to eat.

• 6. They hunted buffalo, bison, wild goats, reindeer, and other animals, depending on where they lived.

• 7. Along coastal areas, they fished.• 8. These early people also gathered wild nuts,

berries, fruits, wild grains, and green plants.

Finding Food

• 1. Men hunted large animals• 2. At first, men used clubs or drove the animals off

cliffs to kill them.• 3. Over time, the men developed tools and weapons

to help them hunt.• 4. Traps and spears helped them catch prey a bit

easier.• 5. Women stayed close to the camp, which was

often located near a stream or other body of water

• 6. Everyone worked to find food for the groups survival.

• 7. Some scientists believe that an equal relationship existed between men and women.

The Invention of Tools

• 1. Technology such as tools and methods to perform tasks was first used by Paleolithic people.

• 2. Before this time, sticks, stones, and tree branches served as tools.

• 3. Later, people made devices from a hard stone called flint, (axes).

• 4. Over time, spears, bows and arrows make killing large animals easier.

Changing to Survive

• 1. Climate affected how these people lived. They wore animal skins to keep warm. They lived in caves and rock overhangs, this provided protection from large animals.

• 2. Later, people built huts from animal skins, brush, and wood. Ice and snow was used in colder climates.

• 3. Bones from woolly mammoths were used to build frames for shelters.

• 4. People living in warmer climates, needed little clothing or shelter.

Fire Sparks Changes

• 1. Fire made life easier by providing warmth, light when it was dark to scare away animals.

• 2. Hunters used fire to chase animals from bushes to be killed.

• 3. Cooking became useful as well.• 4. Smoking meat did not have to be eaten right

away.• 5. How did people learn to use fire?

• 6. Archaelologists believe early humans produced fore by friction, (two pieces of wood together).

• 7. Iron pyrite, gave off sparks when struck, against another rock.

Language and Art

• 1. Early people communicated through sounds and physical gestures.

• 2. Communicating through spoken language and through art (drawings) assisted early people to express their thoughts.

• 3. Horses, boars, deer were some of the animal drawings discovered in the 1870’s and 1940’s in caves in Spain and France.

• 4. Early artists crushed yellow, black, and red rocks and combined them with animal fat to make their paints.

• 5. Our historians believe that the paintings were created to record the group’s history or they would have brought good luck to the hunter’s.

The Ice Ages

• 1. The Ice Ages were long periods of extreme cold that affected all of the Earth.

• 2. The most recent Ice Age began about 100,000 years ago.

• 3. As the ice sheets, or glaciers, grew larger, the water level of the oceans were lowered.

• 4. The low sea levels exposed a strip of dry land connecting the continents of Asia and North America.

• 5. This strip of land was known as a land bridge.• 6. This land bridge acted as a natural highway that

allowed people to travel from Asia into North America.

• 7. Ice Age conditions posed a grave threat to human life.

• 8. Proper foods, shelter, clothing were needed for survival of the people.