UNIT 8

PREHISTORY
INDEX
1. WHAT IS PREHISTORY? 4. THE NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION
a) Prehistory a) What was Neolithic Revolution?
b) The periods of Prehistory b) The beginning of agriculture and livestock
c) Human evolution farming
d) What were hominids? c) A social revolution
d) Technical changes
2. LIFE IN PALAEOLITHIC AGE. e) Neolithic beliefs and art
a) What was the Palaeolitic Age?
b) What did people eat? 5. THE METAL AGE
c) How did people live? a) The use of metals
b) Other inventions
3. PALAEOLITHIC BELIEFS AND c) Social change
ART. d) Megalithic monuments
a) What did people believe? e) The Metal Age on the Iberian Peninsula
b) Art
1. WHAT IS PREHISTORY?
A) Prehistory
 the period before writing was invented.
 began: evolution of the early ancestors of humans in Africa (5 million year ago)
 ended: when writing was invented (5,000 years ago)

B) The periods of Prehistory

1) Palaeolithic Age:
 began: appearance of early humans (5 millions years ago)

 life: hunting animals and gathering food.

2) Neolithic Age:
 began: invention of agricultura (10,000 years ago)

 life: settled in villages, grew crops and raised animals.

3) Metal Age:
 began: 7,000 years ago.

 life: used metal to make objects.

1. WHAT IS PREHISTORY?
C) Human evolution
 Hominization: a long process of
evolution that finished with the
Homo Sapiens.

 Characteristics:
• Bipedal: they could walk upright
on two feet, so started to use their
hands freely and see further.

• Hands: hold objects and make

tools.

• Brains: grew in size and

complexity, so they think creatively
and use language
D) WHAT WERE HOMINIDS?

 Primates with
some human
characteristics.
 For millions of
years they
appeared and
became extinct.
2. LIFE IN THE PALAEOLITHIC AGE.
A)What was the Palaeolithic Age?

 Old Stone Age

 from: the emergence of early
hominids (5 million years ago)
 to: invention of agriculture (10,000
years ago)

B) What did people eat?

Early humans were hunter-gatherers:

they lived from hunting animals (ate the
meat and made clothes from their skins),
fishing and gathering food (wild plants
and fruit)
 2. LIFE IN THE PALAEOLITHIC AGE.
C) How did people live?

 they were nomads: follow the

animals that they hunted, and
looked for places with food and
wáter.
 home: rock shelters and caves,
or made huts.
 fire was a key discovery (half a
million years ago): it was used
for heating, cooking and driving
wild animals away.
 lived together in tribes or clans
(several tribes): 20 to 50 people.
3. PALAEOLITHIC BELIEFS
AND ART.
A. What did people believe?
 spirits could help or harm them, so
they practise rituals to ask spirits for
assistance.
3. PALAEOLITHIC BELIEFS AND ART.
A. What did people believe?
 burials: the early humans had respect for those who had died (Neanderthals).
B. Art (40,000 years ago)

 Cave painting: early human beings were talented

artists.
 Famous caves: Altamira (Spain) and Lascaux
(France)
 Features:

 They represented animals

 It was realistic

 Polychrome (several colours were used)

 Probably had a religous purpose

3. PALAEOLITHIC BELIEFS AND ART.
B. Art (40,000 years ago)
 Venus statuettes: small stone, ivory or bones statues of
women. Probably fertility simbols.
 Examples: Venus of Willendorf (1st on3)
4. THE NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION.
B. The beginning of
A. What was the Neolithic Revolution? agricultura and
began: 10,000 years ago livestock farming.
Neolithic Revolution: important social and economic
changes  began: in the Middle
East.

 People learned how

to cultivate plants
(agriculture: wheat,
rice, corn, etc.) and
raise livestock
(domesticated
animals: goats,
sheep, dogs, horses,
etc.)
4. THE NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION.

C. Social revolution.

 Changes:
 People became sedentary (they lived in settlements):

 Villages with fences or walls.

 They built storehouses and animal pens.

 They settled near rivers: supply of water.

 Work became specialised: peasants, artisans, etc.

Types of Neolitic houses
Skara Brae :
is a stone-built Neolithic settlement,
located on the Bay of Skaill on the west
coast of Mainland, the largest island in the
Orkney archipelago of Scotland.
D. Technical changes.
 Neolithic = New Stone
 Polish stone for agricultural instruments

 Invention of pottery: clay vessels to store

cereals, and bowls for cooking and eating.

 Invention of loom to
make textiles.
4. THE NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION.
D. Neolithic beliefs and art.
 People belived in natural forces (the Sun, the stars, etc.) and had fertility cults to
favour good harvests.
 Necropolis: was a cementery, where they buried the dead with their personal objects.
D. Neolithic beliefs and art.
 Cave paintings:
• More schematic than in Palaeolithic (lines,

circles, etc.)
• Single colour.
5. THE METAL AGE.
A. The use of metals.
 Metallurgy: 7,000 years ago.
 Metals were used to make tools, weapons and jewellery.
 Metal Age Periods:
 Copper: the first metal to be used.
 Bronze: harder than cooper.
 Iron: more resistant than bronze.
Wheel

B) OTHER INVENTIONS.
B. Other inventions. Primitive
plough
 Plough

Animal traction plough

Sail
5. THE METAL AGE.
C. Social change.
 Trade developed to get metals.
 Trade produced wealth, so cities grew
(shops, workshops, city walls, houses,
etc.)
D. Megalithic monuments.

 When?: at the end of

the Neolithic period
and during the Metal
Age
 Megaliths (large
monuments made
with large blocks of
stone).
 Types:

 Menhirs: single,
vertical stones.
D. Megalithic monuments.

 Dolmens: vertical stones formed

walls which were covered by
horizontal blocks.
D. Megalithic monuments.
 Stone circles (Stonehenge): standing
stones, religious purpose.
F) The Metal Age on the Iberian Peninsula.
 When?: 5,000 years ago.

 Important sites:

 Los Millares (Copper Age) it is a walled settlement in Almería.

Los Millares (Copper Age) Necropolis
F) The Metal Age on the Iberian Peninsula.
 Argar (Bronze Age): bronze weapons and walled settlements.
 Argar (Bronze Age): Necropolis.
 Megalithic monuments: were built on the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands.

TALAYOT
NAVETA
TAULA.