February 7, 2016 Notes
• In the beginning of the class we do a group activity where we summarizing week one of
the pre-history project.
• We also talked about the mini-lab that will happen on Thursday (2/9)
Lithic Technology
• Border Cave had tools dating back to 44,000 years ago. This site is one of the most
important site when it comes to lithic technology.
• Modern humans created projectile weapons. They were very different than the
Neanderthal spears. They were lighter and slimmer, making them more effective. With
new weapons Homo- sapiens began to kill of many large animals.
• Alt-Alt: was a weapon that has been dated back 17-30 KYA. It was a major advancement
and helped Homo-sapiens hunt with a new sense of accuracy.
• Solutrean: was a tool that has been dated back to 17-22 KYA. It was basically a massive
spear point that was crafted by stone.
• Magdalenian: a harpoon like tool that has been dated back to 9-17 KYA.
• Micro-blade Technology: was also invented by anatomically modern humans in modern
day china before it spread to the “New World”.
• Clovis: a tool that was found in the “New World”. It is a stone projectile. It is one of the
most effective hunting technologies.
Architecture
• Terro Amata (400 KYA): A house like shelter with stone foundations the pre-dates
modern humans. After further review it is questionable if it was actually human
created, since only the rock base was found.
• Mezhyrich (14-25 KYA): a constructed shelter made of mastodon bones that was found
buried in Siberia. It was a Sub-terrain insolated structure.
• Monte Verde (15 KYA): was a swamp environment that preserved remains due to lack
of oxygen in air. Found remains of 12 individual structure that could have housed 20-30
people.
Clothing
• It is believed the modern humans began to wear clothes once their hair began to
disappear.
• It helped to protect them from the colder environment.
• The invention of the bone needle allowed for early humans to be able to manipulate the
animal hides.
• Although no physical evidence of Neanderthal clothing it is believed that they did in fact
wear clothes.
• Many scientist have turned to lice to help identify a time in which the began to wear
clothes.
• They now believe that early humans started to wear clothes while in Africa which
allowed them to travel to the colder environments. Some cave paintings also depict
early humans in clothing.