Power point of the Unit 5 1º ESO

1. PREHISTORY
1º ESO Geography and History

2. HISTORICAL PERIODS
 Historians have divided the
past in different periods or
stages to help people
understand past events:
 Prehistory
 Ancient Age
 Middle Ages
 Early Modern Age
 Contemporary History

3.  Prehistory: is the historical
period that began with the
appearance of the first human
beings on Earth and ended with
the invention of writing (3500
B.C.)

4. STAGES:
 Prehistory is divided in different
stages or ages usually connected
to the material of the tools used
at the time:
 The Stone Age: dividided into
Palaeolithic and Neolithic.
 The Metal Age: dividided into the
Copper Age, the Bronze Age
and the Iron Age.

5. THE PROCESS OF HOMINISATION
 Hominids: upper
primates who walked
upright and all their
descendants, including
human beings.
 The evolution of
hominids does not
follow a direct line.

6.  Hominisation had different stages starred by
different species that developed several features that
distinguish them from apes:
 Bipedalism (upright walking)
 Cranial changes: smaller jawbone and teeth, vertical
forehead, increased brain size.
 Changes in the hand: opposable thumb which made
holding objects easier.

8. PRINCIPAL HOMINIDS
 Australopithecus
 Homo Habilis
 Homo Erectus
 Homo Antecessor
 Homo
Neanderthalensis
 Homo Sapiens

9.  Chronology: 5-1
million years ago
 Geographical
location: Africa
 Height: 1 m
 Characteristics:
 Brain not very
developed
 Bipedalism, walking
erect
 Used tools but did
not make them
(sticks and stones in
their natural state)
Australopithecus

11.  Chronology: 2,5-1,6
million years ago.
 Geographical location:
Africa
 Height: 1,55m
 Characteristics:
 Small brain but bigger
than the Australopithecus
 Legs better adapted to
bipedism.
 First hominid to make
tools (by knocking one
stone against another to
sharpen it)
Homo habilis

12.  Chronology: 1,5-0,3
million years ago
 Geographical location:
Africa and Asia
 Height: 1,70 m
 Characteristics:
 Bigger brain
 Made fire
 Made tools: bifaces (two-
sided stone tool for
cutting)
 Animal hides as clothes
Homo erectus

13.  Chronology: 800 000 years
ago
 Geographical location:
Europe (found in
Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain)
 Height: 1,60 m
 Characteristics:
 Mixed physical features:
old ones as protruding
eyebrows, new ones as fine
jaw.
 Made more evolved tools to
cut, break…
Homo antecessor

16.  Chronology: 130 000-35
000
 Geographical location:
Africa, Europe and Asia
 Height: 1,60 m
 Characteristics:
 Strong complexion
 Big face, protruding
eyebrows, sunken forehead
and no chin.
 Brain similar size to a
human brain today.
 Various stone tools.
 Buried their dead (culture)
Homo Neanderthalensis

18.  Chronology: 195 000-today
 Geographical location:
Europe, Asia, Afirca,
America and Oceania
 Height: 1,70 m
 Characteristics:
 Human beings of today:
spherical skull, straight
forehead, prominent chin
 Developed inteligence: same
size of brain as the
neanderthalensis.
 Varied tools made of stone,
bone, animal horns…
 Art (culture)
Homo sapiens sapiens

21. PREHISTORY IS DIVIDED IN DIFFERENT STAGES:
 The Stone Age:
dividided into
Palaeolithic and
Neolithic.
 The Metal Age: dividided
into the Copper Age, the
Bronze Age and the
Iron Age.

22. THE STONE AGE
 Palaeolithic: 4.2 million
years ago to 10,000 B.C.
 Neolithic: 10.000 B.C. to
3.500 B.C

23. THE PALAEOLITHIC
4.2 million years ago
to 10 000 B.C.

24. ECONOMY IN THE PALAEOLITHIC
 Hunter-gatherers: they
consumed nature’s products
but did not produced
anything by themselves.
 Stone and bone tools.
 Made fire for light, heat and
cooking.
 Used animal hides to make
clothes, bags, vessels, etc.

26. SOCIETY IN THE PALEOLITHIC
 Humans lived in small groups
(20-30 members)
 Nomadic hordes or tribes:
caves and huts. When
resources run out in a place,
they moved to another one.
 Hierarchy within each group:
the strongest warrior, the
wisest old man, the witch
doctor or sorcerer…were the
most important members.

27. RELIGION IN THE PALAEOLITHIC
 Worshipped the natural
elements (rain, thunder,
lightning) as they
depended on them.
 Practised magic rituals to
promote fertility (food and
members).
 Buried and
commemorated their dead

28. ART IN THE PALAEOLITHIC
 Realistic style (tried to copy nature).
 Magical purposes
 Cave paintings
 Mobile art

29.  Cave paintings:
 Colours obtained from natural elements (blood, coal, minerals…)
mixed with grease.
 Isolated animal figures (bison, deer, horse…) and their own hands.
 Used the parts of the rock and the cave ceilings to give an
impression of relief
 Purposes:
 Magical
 Personal expression of what they saw
 Examples:
 Altamira cave (Santillana del Mar, Cantabria, Spain)
 Lascaux cave (France)

32.  Mobile art:
 Portable artistic objects. Animals,
amulets, Venus.
 Venus statues: female figurines
made of stone, ivory or bone.
 Large pregnant bellies and breasts
symbolising fertility.
 Purposes:
 Magical
 Ornamental
 Examples:
 Venus of Lespugue (France)
 Venus of Willendorf (Austria)
 Baston of deer/horse

34. THE NEOLITHIC
10.000 B.C. to
3.500 B.C.
(invention of
writing)

35. ECONOMY IN THE NEOLITHIC: THE NEOLITHIC
REVOLUTION
 It started in the Fertile
Crescent (Middle East) located
between River Tigris and River
Euphrates (Mesopotamia) and
around river Nile (Egypt).
 Invention of farming:
agriculture and livestock.
 Humans became producers:
cereals, goats, sheeps, pigs…
 Animals provided: meat, milk,
hides and dung (fertilise)
 Bartering: exchange of products
among groups

37.  Specialised tools: axes, sickles, mortars, hoes
 Pottery, textiles, baskets to contain the food.

38. SOCIETY IN THE NEOLITHIC
 Sedentary as they produced
their own food.
 Houses made of clay and
wood. Later also of stone
 Population increased:more
food meant more safety.
 Social division according to
their activity (division of
labour)

39. RELIGION IN THE NEOLITHIC
 Worshipped the natural
elements such as the stars and
the sun as their crops
depended on them.
 Believed in spirits.
 Cult of the dead: necropolises
close to the villages. The dead
were buried with their
personal possesions (pots,
jewels, tools, etc.)

40. ART IN THE NEOLITHIC
 Realistic style and abstract
style
 Idols
 Rock painting
 Ceramic pots

41. THE METAL AGE
5000 B.C. to
1000 B.C

42. ECONOMY IN THE METAL AGE
 It started in the Fertile Crescent
(Middle East).
 Metal tools:
 Cooper Age (from 4000 B.C)
 Bronze Age (from 2200 B.C.)
 Iron Age (from 1000 B.C. to the Roman
Empire)
 Metallurgy (extraction an use of
metals)
 More durable and resistant tools
 Weapons
 Agriculture and livestock

43.  Specialised tools: axes,
sickles, mortars, hoes
 Pottery, textiles, baskets
to contain the food.
 Metalworking: the ore was
extracted with stone picks.
The ore was smelted in an
oven and left to cool, then
the slag was removed by
hitting the metal with a
hammer. Then it was
smelted again and poured
into a mould in the shape
of the required object.

44. SOCIETY IN THE METAL AGE
 Permanent settlements in
high places (watch and
defense)
 Surrounded by palisades or
walls.
 Circular or rectangular
dwellings with a stone base,
wooden or adobe walls, and
roofs made of thatch and
branches.

45.  Greater specilisation of labour which brought
greater social differences.
 Metal became a symbol of wealth.
 Conflict and war expanded. Possesing weapons
made some settlements gain power over others.

46. RELIGION IN THE METAL AGE
 Worshipped the forces of nature
such as the stars and the sun as
their crops depended on them.
 Believed in spirits.
 Ceremonies in caves and sacred
places where they offered metal
objects to their gods.
 Cult of the dead: constructions with
funerary function. The dead were
buried with their personal
possesions (pots, jewels, tools,
weapons,etc.)

47. ART IN THE NEOLITHIC
 Megalithic constructions
 Schematic paintings on
rocks and caves

48.  Megalithic constructions:
 Mega =big; lithos=stone
 Funerary function and sanctuaries
 Types:
 Menhir: a big stone standing vertically on the floor
 Alignments: parallel rows of menhirs. Carnac (France)
 Cromlech: stones ordered in a circle. Stonehenge (United
Kingdom)
 Dolmen: large standing stones supporting a larger
horizontal stone.

51.  Schematic paintings:
 On rocks and in caves
 Often in red and black
 Depicting simplified human
and animal figures.
 Signs and geometric figures
(circles, spirals, dots, zigzag
lines…)
 Idols: depicted with big eyes
and triangles with arms and
legs.