UNIT 1 PREHISTORY
1.PALEOLITHIC LIFE:
The first human beings survive because they hunt, fish and gather.
Mammoths, bears, elephants, deer and bisons are some of the animals they hunt. They
have food from their meat and from their skins they make clothes.
These groups of human beings are nomadic: they move from place to place following
the animals and looking for plants.
Depending on the areas they lived in caves, or outdoors in cabins. Cabins were houses
of tree branches and animal skins. They usually make their houses near rivers.
The groups that they form are tribes. The members of a tribe belonged to the same
family.
They don't live very long. A cold climate and common diseases explain why most of
the Palaeolithic men and women lived about thirty five years.
The tools
Paleolithic means Old Stone. In the Palaeolithic objects were made of stone, wood and
animal bones. That is why this period was also called Stone Age.
They used stones to hunt and cut animals, skins and meat. Examples of objects:
harpoons, needles and lances.
The fire.
About half a million years ago they discovered... THE FIRE!!!!. The climate was
extremely cold. With fire they can heat and light their caves, cook their food and
frighten wild animals away.
REMEMBER:
ART:
Palaeolithic tribes decorated their caves walls with paintings. The most famous
prehistorical paintings are in the caves of Altamira, in Spain, and Lascaux, in France.
Most are deep inside the caves where the artist would have needed a lamp. So, this
means the paintings may have had a social or religious significance to these early
people.
The colours most often used were red and black with some yellow, maroon, and brown.
The paint was typically made out of materials ground into animal fats.
They also make sculptures to keep these divinities favourable to them. The Venus
forms are exceptional.
3-NEOLITHIC:
3.1 NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION:
Neolithic Age is the first human revolution. Two concepts - a sedentary lifestyle, and a
food surplus.
Reasons: New discovering.
Human beings discover agriculture and cattle raising about 10,000 years ago in the
Middle East ( Mesopotamia, Egypt). They learn to cultivate plants and domesticate
animals.
The first plants were cereals: wheat in the Middle East and Europe, rice in Asia and
corn in America.
The first domesticated animals are horses, dogs, goats, sheep and oxen.
Tribes need to live near arable land to cultivate cereals. They stopped moving from
place to place and became sedentary. They built villages next to rivers.
There are two innovations in the Neolithic Age: fabrics and pottery.
They produced fabrics from animals wool using tools like bone spindles, and
rudimentary looms.
Pottery was made by hand. They invented new objects, for example: vessels to hold the
grain, bowls for eating and cooking, etc.
Neolithic means New Stone. In the Neolithic Age, people used more specialised tools,
with polished stone. For example hoes to till the soil, sickles to collect the harvest or
hand mills to grind the grain.
3.2 MEGALITHICS:
In the late Neolithic Age, people build the first monuments using big blocks of stone,
called megaliths (Big stones). Types.
4-EXERCISES:
1. How did humans spend their time during the Palaeolithic?
2. Why is fire one of the most important discoveries in the history of mankind?
3. Match the verbs and nouns to describe the different activities people did.
Gather
animals
Make
the fire
Rub
the tribe
Hunt
tools
Tend.
sticks
Defend.
wild fruits
4. Use the following verbs to complete the sentences:
painted, moved, gathered, used, hunted, buried, defended.
a. People _______________ from one place to another.
b. The women ____________ fruit.
c. The men ______________ the tribe and ______________ animals.
d. They _______________ their dead.
e. They ____________ stone axes to cut meat.
f. They ____________ animal on rocks and caves.
7. What is a nomad?
6. Match each noun with its right description:
Altamira cave.
little statues of women made of stone, ivory or bone
Chips.
groups of 20 or 30 individuals who lived together
Venus
cave painting
Tribe.
used as knives to cut and clean animal hides
7. Classify the following words into “Tools‟, “Materials‟, and “Cereals‟:
Plough, millet, loom, barley, wheat, scythe, granite, marble, cotton, axe, maize,
wool
8. What is the Fertile Crescent? Where is it located?
9.Identify the tool in the photo. What was it used for?
a. Digging
b. Cutting grass and crops
c. Cutting wood
10. Find three major differences between life in Neolithic and Palaeolithic.
11. Correct the sentences about the Neolithic Age:
a. The Neolithic Age began around 3500 BC.
b. Human beings went from being producers to predators.
c. With the discovery of agriculture and livestock, human became nomads.
d. They buried their dead without their personal belongings.
12. Define the following terms:
a. Nomad
b. Tribe
d. Sedentary
e. Dwelling
13. Why is Neolithic considered a revolution? What new skills did people learn during this era
and what was each of them used for?
14. True or false? Correct the wrong sentences.
a. The paintings in the Altamira cave belong to the Neolithic Age.
b. Ceramic pots were made in the Palaeolithic.
c. During the Neolithic Age, people went from being nomad to being sedentary.
d. Palaeolithic painting was schematic.
e. Humans in the Palaeolithic lived from hunting.
f. The first hominid who knew about fire was Homo habilis.
g. Venus statues represented figures of men.
15. Match the questions and the answers:
a. What are the three stages of the Metal Ages?
b. What is metallurgy?
c. What did they make with bronze?
d. When did the Prehistory finish?
Hard, resistant objects like swords, and knives.
The Copper Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age.
Around 3500 BC.
It’s the extraction of metal from ores.
16. Indicate which of the following words are related to the Metal Ages:
Bronze tools, stone tools, caves, wheels, nomadic life, social differences, swords,
ploughs, Venus figurines.
17. Match each object in English with its correct Spanish translation. Then guess what they
were used for.
Sword
casco
Hammer
martillo
Hoe
espada
Helmet
azada
Biface.
bifaz
Dagger
arado
Plough
puñal
18. Which one of the previous tools were typical from the Metal Ages? Which ones from the
Paleolithic?
19. Match each picture to the correct definition:
a. Menhir: large stone pushed into the ground.
b. Dolmen: several vertical stones forming walls and another horizontal stone making
a roof.
c. Cromlech: group of several menhirs forming a circle.
20. Are they true or false? Correct those ones which are wrong.
a. In the Metal Age people lived from hunting.
b. The Iron Age is the last prehistoric age.
c. Copper was the first metal that people used.
d. Megaliths were used for burials and sanctuaries.
GLOSSARY:
Brush: Brocha
Burial: Enterramiento.
Ceramic vessel: Vasija de cerámica.
Copper: Cobre.
Crop: Cultivo.
Disease: Enfermedad.
Fabrics: Tejidos
Farm: Granja.
Fats:Grasas.
Gatherer/To Gather: Recolector/Recolectar.
Growth: Crecimiento.
Hand mill: Molino de mano.
Harpoon: Arpón.
Harvest: Cosecha.
Hoe: Azada.
Human being: Ser humano.
Hunter: Cazador.
Iron: Hierro.
Jewel: Joya.
King:Rey.
Land: Tierra.
Law: Ley.
Loom: Telar.
Meat: Carne.
Merchant: Mercader
Neddle: Aguja.
Next. Próximo.
Nomadic: Nómada.
Offal: Entrañas, vísceras.
Plough: Arado
Pottery: Cerámica.
Pottery wheel: Torno de alfarero.
Powder: Polvo
Raw materials: Materias primas.
Reindeer: Reno.
Rod: Bastón.
Rubbish: Basura.
Rule: Regla.
Sedentary: Sedentario.
Sickle: Hoz
Skilled: Especializado/a
Skin: Piel.
Spindle: Huso, (para tejidos)
Stomach: Estómago.
Surplus: Excedente.
Tool: Herramienta.
Wall: Muro.
Waste material: Material de deshecho.
Weapon: Arma.
Whealth: Riqueza.
Wheath: Trigo.
Wheel: Rueda.
Wool: Lana
Verbs:
To unearth: Desenterrar.
To farm: Cultivar.
To breed, bred, bred: Producir, engendrar, criar.
To weave/Weaving: Tejer
To frighten: Asustar.
To trade: Negociar, comerciar.
To grind: Moler.
To worship: Adorar.
To belong: Pertenecer
To look for: Buscar
To tilo