PREHISTORY. English

PREHISTORY

CEIP Santa Ana (Madridejos)

PREHISTORY. 1.- INTRODUCTION TO HISTORY. History is the study of past events and ways of living of humanity throughout time till nowadays.

Archeologists and historians study past events of human beings. They use non-written sources (archaeological sites, monuments… ) and written sources (documents, inscriptions, old coins…)

History needs other sciences like Geography (to locate the events in a place), Chronology (to locate them through time)…

They use different units of time: .- Year: 365 days. .- Five-year period: 5 years .- Decade: 10 years. .- Century: 100 years. .- Millennium: 1,000 years .- Christian Age: the year Christ was born is the year “0” in the occidental culture.

So we date events in this way: .- ‘B.C.’ (before Christ) .- ‘A.D.’ (Anno Domini) 2.- STAGES OF HISTORY. Historians have divided history in different stages: A.- Prehistory: from the beginning of human being evolution (million of years ago), till the invention of writing (about 3,000-3,500 years ago).

B.- History: divided in four ages: b.1.- Ancient History: from 3,500 B.C. (invention of writing), till 476 A.D. (Fall of the Western Roman Empire). b.2.-Middle Ages: from the Fall of Western Roman Empire, till 1492 (discovery of America). b.3.- Early Modern Period: from 1492 till 1789 (French Revolution). b.4.- Contemporary Period: from 1789 till nowadays.

PREHISTORY

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3.- PREHISTORY. It was the first stage in the humanity existence, it lasted through millions of years.

Hominization is the process of evolution of human beings from big apes, it started long time ago. There are lots of fossils all over the world that prove this process.

About five million years ago, ‘Australopithecus’ appeared in Africa. It was the first ancestor of humanity, later there were other ancestors like ‘homo habilis’ till ‘homo sapiens’.

Human evolution Prehistory refers to all the time preceding human existence and the invention of writing. It has got several stages of development: 3.1.- PALEOLITHIC. Paleolithic means ‘old stone’, because the tools found from that period were made of stone. This period lasted till the invention of agriculture. a.- Way of living: .- They were nomads: They travelled from one place to another (during warm weather) looking for food: animals, fruits… .- They lived in caves during cold weather, they were organized in tribes, or family groups. .- They hunted animals, caught fish and collected fruits and vegetables from nature. .- They divided the work to do: all men in the tribe had to go hunting, and women collected fruits and took care of children. .- Life was very hard, and they spent a lot of time looking for food.

Life in the Paleolithic time.

b.- Technical improvements: .- Their first tools were made of stone (They hit them each other to sharpen them). .- Later, they selected the type of stones (silex), that used to make arrows, spear heads, knives… They also used bones, fur, tendons from animals… . . .-They discovered ‘the fire’ in that period.

Tools from the Paleolithic

c.- First Beliefs: .- They believed in supernatural forces like nature and stars, and they made some rites in order to be favoured by them. .- They buried their dead relatives. .- They painted animals, hunting scenes… on caves walls. In Spain there are two areas of paintings:

PREHISTORY

CEIP Santa Ana (Madridejos)

‘Cantábrica’ (Altamira…) where we can see isolated animals, and ‘Levantina’ (where they painted many animals or people forming hunting scenes, dances…)

Cave painting in Levante

Cave painting in the North of Spain

3.2.- NEOLITHIC. About 10,000 years ago, there were groups of people in the Middle East that started to grow plants, and domestícate animals. These techniques were spreading to other groups. This was the so-called ‘Neolithic Revolution’. a.- Way of living: .- They became sedentaries (because of agriculture and cattle farming). They didn’t need to go from one place to another to find food. They planted cereals, legumes… they domesticated dogs, goats, sheep, pigs… .- They built villages (several huts built with natural materials from that place) near rivers to have water for them, their animals and plants. .- The groups of people were doing bigger and bigger with a more complicated social structure. .- Everybody took part in the works to prepare fields to plant, and do fences for animals. .- People started to specialized in different tasks, so there were farmers, cattle farmers, craftsmen, warriors…

b.- Technical improvements: .- They started to make crafts products, like pieces of clothes with wool, or vegetable fibers in looms. .- They used pottery made of clay to cook… They used fire to harden the pieces.

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.- They made tools polishing stones. (stone mills to make flour from wheat… axe heads…). They invented the plough and sickle… They made objects made of esparto… c.- Beliefs: .- They bury their dead people because they believe in another life after death. In these graves they put lots of objects for the dead person ’grave goods’, because they thought that the dead body would need them in the other life. There are also pieces like bracelets, necklaces, earrings… .- They believed in gods related with nature phenomenon and they represent them using simple clay statues.

Neolíthic ‘grave goods’

3.3.- THE METAL AGES: At the end of Prehistory, about 7,000 years ago, metallurgy was developed. They made tools, weapons, jewellery… using fire to melt different metals.

1º.- Copper Age: it was the first metal that people used. They made copper pieces beating the metal with stones. Copper wasn’t very hard, so they used it to make jewellery and decorating objects.

2º.- Bronze Age: later, they used bronze. It’s an alloy of copper and tin, and they used it because it’s harder.

3º.- Iron Age: iron was very abundant in nature, and very hard.

They made tools to work, weapons and armours to fight, container, jewellery, statues…

Life in the Metal Ages

To produce these objects, they melted metals in enclosed furnaces, and they poured the melted metals into moulds (with the shape of the metal piece they wanted). a.- Way of living: .- Many villages became cities. These cities were protected by fortified walls. Houses were small and most of them made of clay bricks and wood, but the powerful people’s houses were made of stone, they were big and confortable. .-Social differences were increasing, some cities were governed by a King. The richest people were priests and warriors who were privileged people. The rest of population were craftsmen, farmers… that were very poor.. .- Trade appeared at that time because of the increase of products.

At the beginning was a simple exchange of products, but later they invented and used coins.

Coins from the Metal Ages

PREHISTORY

CEIP Santa Ana (Madridejos)

b.- Technical improvements: They used metallurgy, but there were lots of important inventions like ‘the wheel’, they also improved farming techniques and the plough, and also they made progress in navigation like ‘the sail’

Wheel

plough

Weapons from the Metal Ages

c.- Beliefs: Some people started to build religious monuments, or with a funerary purpose with huge stones. These types of constructions are called: Megalithic monuments.

The main types of megalithic art were: .- Menhir: is a large upright standing stone. Menhirs may be found singly as monoliths, or as part of a group of similar stones. .- Dolmen: is a type of single-chamber megalithic tomb, usually consisting of three or more upright stones supporting a large flat horizontal capstone (table), although there are also more complex variants. .- A stone circle is a monument of standing stones arranged in a circle. Their purposes are unknown but probably they were related with religious rites…

Dolmen Menhir

Stonehenge

(Stone circle)

Piece of skull (Atapuerca)

Working at a site in Atapuerca

These phases in Prehistory happened at different times depending on the different places, so while some villages were in the Paleolithic, other civilitations knew writing. Nowadays, in Spain are working in some sites like Atapuerca to try to understand life in prehistoric times.

PREHISTORY

CEIP Santa Ana (Madridejos)

GLOSARY-VOCABULARY: Event: acontecimiento source: fuente B.C.: Antes de Cristo stage: etapa nowadays: nuestros días preceding: que precede writing: escritura to take care: cuidar arrow: flecha to believe: creer isolate: aislado so-called: llamado fence: vallado wool: lana to harden: endurecer wheat: trigo death: muerte would need: necesitaría metallurgy: metalurgia to melt: derretir tin: estaño to pour: verter to become: convertirse priest: sacerdote wheel: rueda upright: vertical tomb: tumba standing: de pie (posición)

throughout: a lo largo de… archaelogoical site: yacimiento arque. coin: moneda locate: localizar A.D.: ‘Anno Domini’ Despúes de Cristo Christian Age: Era Cristiana till: hasta Christ was born: Cristo nació to last: durar Fall of the Roman Empire: Caída del Imper. Romano several stages of development: varias etapas de desarrollo tools: herramientas to hunt: cazar caught: atrapaban improvement: mejora to hit: golpear to sharp: afilar spear head: punta de lanza knive: cuchillo fur: piel (pelo) to be favoured: ser favorecido to bury: enterrar relative: pariente hunting scene: escena de caza grow: cultivar spread: extenderse legumes: legumbres hut: cabaña field: campo (cultivo) craftsmen: artesanos task: tarea warrior: guerrero loom: telar pottery: cerámica clay: arcilla to polish: pulir mill: molino flour: harina axe head: cabeza de hacha plough: arado sickle: hoz grave goods: ajuar funerario bracelet: pulsera necklace: collar earrings: pendientes nature phenomenon: fenómenos naturales to be develope: ser desarrollado weapon: arma jewellery: joyería copper: cobre to beat: golpear alloy: aleación iron: hierro, acero to fight: luchar armour: armadura enclosed furnace: horno cerrado mould: molde fortified: fortificada clay brick: ladrillo de arcilla to increase: incrementar, crecer privileged: privilegiado trade: comercio exchange: intercambio sail: vela (de un barco) purpose: objetivo huge: enorme singly: solo, aislado single-chamber: una sola cámara capstone: piedra de arriba flat: plano although: aunque arranged: dispuestos, colocados