history of america in neolithic and palieolithic ages

1. NORTH
AMERICA
Submitted by
goutham , laxman , siva
,sravya , vaishnavi

2. North America, the
planet’s 3rd largest
continent, includes 23
countries and dozens of
possessions and territories
Positioned in the planet's
northern and western
hemispheres, it's bordered in
the north by the Arctic Ocean,
in the east by the Atlantic
Ocean, in the southeast by the
Caribbean Sea and Gulf of
Mexico, and in the west by the
Pacific Ocean

3. Paleolithic archaeology is concerned with the origins and
development of early human culture between the first
appearance of man as a tool-using mammal, which is
believed to have occurred about 600,000 or 700,000 years
ago, and near the beginning of the Holocene Epoch, about
8000 BC. It is included in the time span of the Pleistocene, or
Glacial, Epoch—an interval of about 2,600,000 years.
Although it cannot be proved, modern evidence suggests
that the earliest protohuman forms had diverged from the
ancestral primate stock by the beginning of the Pleistocene.
In any case, the oldest recognizable tools are found in
horizons of Lower Pleistocene Age. During the Pleistocene a
series of momentous climatic events occurred. The northern
latitudes and mountainous areas were subjected on four
successive occasions to the advances and retreats of ice
sheets (known as Günz, Mindel, Riss, and Würm in the Alps),
river valleys and terraces were formed, the present coastlines
were established, and great changes were induced in the
fauna and flora of the globe. In large measure, the
development of culture during Paleolithic times seems to
have been profoundly

4. Settlement of palelolithic period:Throughout
the Paleolithic, man was a food gatherer, depending for his
subsistence on hunting wild animals and birds, fishing, and
collecting wild fruits, nuts, and berries. The artifactual record of
this exceedingly long interval is very incomplete; it can be
studied from such imperishable objects of now-extinct cultures
as were made of flint, stone, bone, and antler. These alone
have withstood the ravages of time, and, together with the
remains of contemporary animals hunted by our prehistoric
forerunners, they are all that scholars have to guide them in
attempting to reconstruct human activity throughout this vast
interval—approximately 98 percent of the time span since the
appearance of the first truehominin stock. In general, these
materials develop gradually from single, all-purpose tools to an
assemblage of varied and highly specialized types of artifacts,
each designed to serve in connection with a specific function

5.  Introduction of paleolithic age (2,000,000 – 10,000 BCE)
 The Paleolithic (US spelling; also
spelled Palaeolithic) Age, Era or Period is a
prehistoric period of human history distinguished by
the development of the most primitive stone
tools discovered (Grahame Clark's Modes I and II),
and covers roughly 99% of human
technological prehistory. It extends from the earliest
known use of stone tools, probably by hominins such
as australopithecines, 2.6 million years ago, to the
end of the Pleistocene around 10,000 BP. The
Paleolithic era is followed by the Mesolithic. The date
of the Paleolithic—Mesolithic boundary may vary by
locality as much as several thousand years.

6. Manufacture of stone during paleolithic peiod:
 In the manufacture of stone implements, for
fundamental traditions were developed by the
Paleolithic ancestors: (1) pebble-tool traditions; (2)
bifacial-tool, or hand-ax, traditions; (3) flake-tool
traditions; and (4) blade-tool traditions. Only rarely
are any of these found in “pure” form, and this fact
has led to mistaken notions in many instances
concerning the significance of various assemblages.
Indeed, though a certain tradition might be
superseded in a given region by a more advanced
method of producing tools, the older technique
persisted as long as it was needed for a given
purpose. In general, however, there is an overall
trend in the order as given above, starting with simple
pebble tools that have a single edge sharpened for
cutting or chopping. But no true pebble-tool horizons
had yet, by the late 20th century, been recognized
in north america. In southern and eastern Asia, on the
other hand, pebble tools of primitive type continued
in use throughout Paleolithic times.

7.  The usage of tools:Along the way mankind evolved and in so
doing gradually created and improved numerous
technological developments. Whether we can refer to
early creations such as spears as technological is
debatable but they were certainly clever inventions
for the time. However, whether clever or merely
necessity, it was inevitable that society and
technology did eventually evolve alongside each
other.
 The Stone Age was later perceived as being
enormously long, and so was further sub-divided into
three periods.
 Epochs:
 In geological terms, there are two epochs:
1.The Pliocene
2.the Pleistocene.
 The Pliocene geological epoch was prone to shifting
continents. North and South America for example
became linked through the Isthmus of Panama. This
new formation created a mammoth global
temperature change because the warmer currents of
the aquatic ocean were effectively cut-off. (Pictured,
a Pliocene fossil).
 Thus, the temperature of the isolated Atlantic Ocean
was made cooler by the cold Arctic and
Antarctic. Consequently, the linkage of the north and
south drastically altered the natural fauna of both;
some fauna merged or were colonised into different
areas.

8.  Homo erectus:
for useful developments
came about during this time.
These developments were
very important to the Homo
habilis they helped with
everyday doings including
hunting and cooking. Tools,
the ideas of tools, fire and
shelter are the four
developments that were
introduced to the Homo
habilis. A fifth development
was language, it acted both
as a cultural artifact and
mental change

9.  Homo nenderthalensis:
Neanderthal humans were a prehistoric, stone-tool using species of
human, the last of which are thought to have lived 28,000 years ago.
First published in 1863 from a cave in Germany's Neander Valley,
Neanderthal remains and associated tools have since been found
across Eurasia from Gibraltar to Uzbekistan. The average adult
Neanderthal was much more powerfully built than a modern adult
human, with distinct facial features including low, thick brow ridges.
Neanderthals inhabited Europe during Ice Age periods, surviving
extremely harsh climatic conditions which may have prompted the
evolution of their stout, muscular frames.
Neanderthals buried their dead, and even included flowers with
some burials. When Homo sapiens arrived in Europe 40,000 - 50,000
years ago, Neanderthals were present. There has been much
speculation about contact and even interbreeding between the two
types of human, but genetic surveys have never found modern
humans with DNA that could be matched to DNA recovered from
Neanderthal remains. It is possible that modern humans, using more
refined tools and techniques for hunting, out-competed
Neanderthals for food resources and brought about their extinction.

10.  Homo sepians:
 Anthropologists believe that modern man, or Homo sapiens,
emerged as a distinct species by about 100,000 years ago.
Extensive studies of ancient human remains and shelters seem
to show that groups of Homo sapiens left Africa and entered
Asia via the Middle East around 65,000 years ago.
 The first modern humans to evolve in Africa lived mainly on
meat. By 70,000 years ago, they had switched to a marine diet
consisting largely of shellfish. This new research suggests they
moved along the coasts of the Arabian peninsula into India,
Indonesia and Australia about 65,000 years ago. An offshoot
later settled the Middle East and Asia about 30,000 to 40,000
years ago. (Ref: BBC News 13 May 2005 "Early humans followed
Coast" )
 By 35,000 to 40,000 years ago, modern humans were living
across the Old World from Europe to Australia. About 12,000 to
15,000 years ago, humans crossed into North America from
Asia via Beringia, a now submerged land bridge that existed
during the Pleistocene Ice Age when sea levels were lower.
They rapidly spread across North and South America after the
climate became warmer and the ice sheets retreated.

11.  Physical changes:As hominids developed into
humans (Homo sapiens), they underwent various
physical changes. Most obviously, our ancestors
learned to walk upright on two legs, rather than
alternating between two legs and four legs. This
straightened the spine, and moved the foramen
magnum from the back of the skull to the
underside. Hominin faces flattened, and the space
between the eyes narrowed, so that they could
look forward and see from side to side.
 Our ancestors also developed a taste for a broad
variety of foods. Early hominids,
like Australopithicus robustus, were clearly
vegetarian plant-eaters, based on their teeth and
jaw structure. But later hominids,
including Australopithicus afarensis and Homo
erectus, clearly used their incisors to tear meat
and their molars to chew it.

12.  Mental changes:
Mental changes in early hominins were substantial.
From Australopithicus afarensis, who had barely 300 cubic
centimeters of brain size, hominin heads eventually
expanded to Homo neanderthalensis's impressive 1950 cubic
centimeters. At least some of this expanded brain power was
shifted from processing scents to processing sights and sound.
Another substantial portion went to controlling the auditory
and language functions. Smell diminished in importance as
more brain power was reserved for looking, listening and
talking.
The modern Homo sapiens brain is actually smaller
than neandethalensis, but paleoanthropologists theorize that
once the brain reached an optimum size for certain kinds of
work, it began specializing, miniaturizing, and integrating. The
result is that the modern human brain may be smaller, but its
critical functions are much more closely packed into a
narrower space, for more efficient functioning. In this way, the
process of evolution continued in early humans.

13. Fire:
 Sometime between 300,000 and 1.5 million years ago, humans also tamed fire.
Taming fire may not be the same as controlling it. Some scientists believe that the
hominid Homo erectusstumbled upon a lightning-struck tree or a forest fire, and
captured a few coals in a basket, a bag or an animal horn. It may not have been
able to put out the fire and re-start it, but it at least had some coals from which it
could keep a hearth fire alive.
 Homo erectus used fire in a number of interesting ways. First, their overnight stops
now included a warm and welcoming light at the center and a fire that kept animals
at bay. Second, that warm and welcoming light also provided enough heat to cook
food. New plants and animal foods became open to humans for the first time as a
result of this tamed fire. Third, the heat and light on a torch could be used to start
large fires, and drive animal prey towards a trap or ambush site. Homo habilis could
now catch a lot more food on the hoof. Fourth, the same fire could be used to drive
away predators. It made camps safer, and it gave hominids a new tool for defeating
rivals who ate the same animals. Finally, fire probably stimulated the creation of
language. As early peoples sat around the fire, they would have enacted stories
from their family history, and discussed new tool types. At first, these conversations
may have been mere gestures accompanied by grunts, perhaps boastful males re-
enacting their daring deeds of the day. However, over dozens or hundreds of
generations, hominids would have developed strong speech centers in the brain,
which would make word banks and grammars possible. The existence of many
language families in the world today is one strong argument for the independent
development of language. Language seems inherently human, a process linked to
thinking and the development of reason.

14.  Shelter:
 Most early hominids probably lived in the open air, near to sources of
food and water. They chose locations that could be defended
against predators and rivals and that were shielded from the worst
weather. Many such locations could be found near rivers, lakes and
streams, perhaps with low hilltops nearby that could serve as refuges
in troubled times. Since water can erode and change landscapes
quite drastically, both in the course of ordinary motion and
catastrophe, many of these campsites are utterly destroyed, and not
even skilled archaeologists can find them, much less reconstruct
them. Our understanding of Paleolithic dwellings is thus necessarily
limited.
 Even so, a few examples of Paleolithic houses exist, although they
only come to light very recently in the Paleolithic era, no more than
200,000 years ago. These "houses" are more frequently campsites
within caves or in the open air, with little in the way of formal
structures for living in. However, as the Paleolithic era progressed,
dwellings became more sophisticated, more elaborate, and more
house-like. The oldest examples are shelters within caves, followed
by houses of wood, straw and rock; a few examples exist of houses
built out of bones.

15.  caves:
 Caves are the most famous example of Paleolithic shelter, though the
number of caves used by Paleolithic peoples is drastically small
compared with the number of hominids thought to have lived on earth
500,000 years ago. Most hominids probably never entered a cave in
their lives, much less lived in one. Nonetheless, the remains of hominid
settlement show interesting patterns. In one cave, a tribe of Homo
neanderthalensis kept a hearth fire burning for a thousand years, leaving
behind an accumulation of coals and ash. In another cave, post holes in
the dirt floor reveal that the residents built some sort of shelter or
enclosure with a roof to protect themselves from water dripping on them
from the cave ceiling. They often used the rear portions of the cave
as middens, depositing their garbage in the back of the cave.
 In the later, more recent Paleolithic period, about 125,000 years ago,
caves ceased to act as houses. Instead, they became religious or
magical places for early peoples to gather for ritualpurposes. Caves,
such as Lascaux in France and Altamira in Spain, became art galleries
filled with elaborate images of horse, bison, buffalo, mammoths and
other animals. Lit by flickering firelight, these images appeared to move
and come alive. Archaeologists do not know whether ancient peoples
worshiped these images or used them for the purpose of working
magical spells on the animals they hunted. Modern visitors to such
caves are awed by the beauty of these ancient artworks, even so.
 Some scholars today believe that these caves were the work of Homo
sapiens sapiens -- our own direct ancestor. As of this writing, no artwork
has yet been found at any Homo erectus or Homo
neanderthalensis archaeological site, anywhere in the world. The
creation of art, and the symbolic thinking that goes with creating
sculptures or paintings, may truly be the mental process that separates
human beings from other types of animals. Other scholars contest this
claim.

16.  tents and huts:Other than caves, modern archaeologists know few other types
of shelter available to ancient peoples. Some examples exist, but they are quite rare.
In Siberia, a group of Russian scientists uncovered a house or tent with a frame
constructed of mammoth bones. The great tusks supported the roof, while the skulls
and thigh bones formed the walls of the tent. Several families could live inside, where
three small hearths, little more than rings of stones, kept people warm during the
winter. Archaeologists presume that the roof was made of mammoth hides in several
layers. Similar houses existed in France and Germany; all date to about 90,000 years
ago.
 Much more recently than that, around 50,000 years ago, a group of Paleolithic Homo
sapiens camped on a lake shore in southern France. At Terra Amata, these hunter-
gatherers built a long and narrow house. The foundation was a ring of stones, with a
flat threshold stone for a door at either end. Vertical posts down the middle of the
house supported roofs and walls of sticks and twigs, probably covered over with a
layer of straw. A hearth outside served as the kitchen, while a smaller hearth inside
kept people warm.
 Both dwellings could be easily abandoned by their residents. This is why they are not
considered true houses, which was a development of the Neolithic period rather than
the Paleolithic period. However, they give us brief looks at the lives of our most distant
ancestors.

17.  Language and culture:
 In modern eyes, perhaps the most significant technology of
the Paleolithic Age was the development of language.
Language is not strictly speaking a technology—you
cannot hold it or touch it. Instead, it relies upon changes in
the human brain—the development of speech centers to
govern the tongue and lips to produce precise sounds, the
development of memory to hold lists of words, the
development of rules to govern how those words are used
in different circumstances, and the development of hearing
centers in the brain to process foreign sounds as words
within a set of rules. These functions did not come
overnight. Fire may have stimulated some of them: ancient
peoples sat or danced around fires, and they must have
had stories to tell each other of their discoveries. Hunting
stimulated others: needing to catch food that ran away
required co-ordination among different hunters. People
also created language while searching for edible plants,
and plants with medical properties to cure or lessen the
hurts of themselves and their families.

18.  Rock paintings:Rock paintings were "painted" on rock and
were more naturalistic depictions than petroglyphs. In
paleolithic times, the representation of humans in cave
paintings was rare. Mostly, animals were painted: not only
animals that were used as food but also animals that
represented strength like the rhinoceros or large cats (as
in the Chauvet Cave). Signs like dots were sometimes
drawn. Rare human representations include hand prints
and half-human/half-animal figures. The Cave of Chauvet
in the Ardèche département, France, contains the most
important preserved cave paintings of the paleolithic era,
painted around 31,000 B.C.E. The Altamira cave paintings
in Spain were done 14,000 to 12,000 B.C.E. and show,
among others, bison. The hall of bulls in Lascaux,
Dordogne, France, is one of the best known cave
paintings from about 15,000 to 10,000 B.C.E.
 The meaning of the paintings remains unknown. The caves
were not in an inhabited area, so they may have been
used for seasonal rituals. The animals are accompanied
by signs which suggest a possible magic use. Arrow-like
symbols in Lascaux are sometimes interpreted as
calendar or almanac use. But the evidence remains
inconclusive.[3] The most important work of the Mesolithic
era were the marching Warriors, a rock painting at Cingle
de la Mola, Castellón in Spain dated to about 7,000–
4,000 B.C.E. The technique used was probably spitting or
blowing the pigments onto the rock. The paintings are
quite naturalistic, though stylized. The figures are not three-
dimensional, even though they overlap

19.  Sometime between 500,000 and 1 million years
ago, one of the hominids (probably Homo erectus)
discovered that some stones gave off sparks when
they were struck together. They also discovered
that friction can produce heat, and heat can
produce sparks which then generate flame. Four
techniques developed for mastering friction and
sparks. The first of these simply involved jamming
one stick into a groove in another stick, and
rubbing back and forth until the friction produced
a spark or a flame. The second method, the drill
method, involves twirling one stick against another
until the heat produced generates a spark or a
flame. Bow-drilling, the third method, involves
using a bow with a cord strung around the vertical
stick, to speed the friction and increase the
likelihood of flame. The fourth method requires a
naturally occurring ferrous metal and a piece of
flint; when the two are struck together, the resulting
sparks can start a fire.

20. Neolithic (new stone age)
 The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in
the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC
in the Middle East that is traditionally considered the last part of the
Stone Age
 The Neolithic is not a specific chronological period, but rather a suite
of behaviaural and cultural characteristics, including the use of wild
and domestic crops and the use of domesticated animals.
 During most of the Neolithic age, people lived in small tribes
composed of multiple bands or lineages. There is little scientific
evidence of developed social stratification in most Neolithic
societies
 In the America, Neolithic life was first achieved in Mesoamerica and
Peru, but not until 2000 BC. Thus, the rise of Neolithic life throughout
the New World was (as in Sub-Saharan Africa) compressed into the
final two millennia BC
 The Natufian culture is thought to have existed between 13,000 and
9,000 BCE in the Levant Region. It is also thought that the Natufian
communities were descendants of the builders of the region’s first
Neolithic settlement.

21.  Innovation
 Farming gradually spread from the Near East into and
across Europe, arriving in Britain about 4,500 BCE.
Indeed, both farming and animal domestication were
introduced into the West by eastern immigrants and the
skills they brought with them were adopted and
gradually adapted to the needs of various European
cultures.
 Cereals and grains changed the human diet radically
and with the people becoming more settled they
began to live in villages where they cultivated grains
and developed household crafts such as carpentry and
pottery.
 They needed something to contain food and water, so
pots were duly made. The basic early-mid Neolithic pots
were round bottomed and made with plain clay.
However, from around 3,800 BCE different regions
began to create their own special decorated pots,
whereby, from 2,800 BCE the pots were grooved
(pictured)

22.  For ninety-nine percent of the period that humans have been
living on this planet, they have been foragers. In technical
language, "foraging" is the cover term for "hunting" (land
animals), fishing (in rivers and lakes or in the ocean), and
"gathering" (plant materials, honey, some insects, and
shellfish). [Note 1] Foraging communities were limited to the
number of people who could be supported by the animal and
plant foods naturally occurring around their home. Except in
unusual cases (such as the northern European reindeer hunters or
the fishing tribes of the northwest coast of North America), the
population that could be supported was very small, no more
than one or a few families, and constant movement was
necessary as the resources of the immediate area varied
seasonally or became exhausted.

23.  Few inventions could have made more difference
to the human career than one that would allow
human communities both to increase in size and
to remain in one place indefinitely. Larger
population size meant new and more specialized
social statuses and vastly more complex kinds of
relations between people. Not having to move
meant the possibility of permanent buildings
(including and especially food storage facilities)
and the construction of things too heavy to move,
such as pottery, furniture, stone sculpture, or such
industrial equipment as looms, water works, or
millstones.

24.  We shall examine some of the effects in
more detail below. Both larger population
size per community and the ability of
communities to remain in one place
resulted from the practice of agriculture,
and, to a lesser extent, herding. Because
of the dramatic effects that agriculture
had on the possible human ways of life,
the first appearance of agriculture in the
archaeological record is often called the
"agricultural revolution," and the term
"Neolithic" is often applied to this period or
stage in human history

26. Pre historic
Arrival Prehistoric People in North America
 the origin of ancient people in the Americas is still largely a
mystery as well as how long people have lived in this part of
the world.
 The Beringian Land Bridge Theory :the belief was that there
was once a land bridge between Alaska and Siberia called
Beringia. There was also a corridor that formed between two
giant glaciers of thick sheets of ice in North America. These
glaciers covered most of Canada and some of the northern
United States.

27. Since 18,000 years ago, the sea level has risen 300 ft.
due to melting glaciers. Old sites confirming this
theory may very well lie under the ocean, waiting to
be explored