Monday 24 September 2012

Monday 24 September 2012

Continuity (Universal):

(Upper Paleolithic)

-          Tools

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Aurignacian (ergonomic)

o   Solutrean (handles, sharp, thin)

o   Magdalenian (bones)

-          Art

o   Cave painting

o   Portable art

-          Self decoration

o   Beads

o   Red ochre

-         Religion

o   Most controversial because it cannot be proven

o   Anthropomorphic

o   Animal worship

o   Proven through cave painting

-          Burials

o   Grave goods e.g. food, beads, animals

o   Red ochre

o   Possible to see signs of status in graves today but not in the Paleolithic period because there was no hierarchy.

Change (unique to a time):

•           Hunter/gatherer
•           Nomadic lifestyle

The Stone Age as a Utopia

•           Absence of major conflict
•           Egalitarian society (equal society)
•           Female power

 Hunting/gathering society

-         Men

o   Hunting

o   Brought in 30% of food

o   Meat

o   Periodically travelling

-          Women

o   Gathering

o   Brought in 70% of food

o   Gives women an economic advantage

o   Grains, pulses, wild vegetables, wild fruits, shell fish, fire wood

o   Best food of the Stone Age: shell fish

o   Women always center of the community

o   Childrearing, passing of cultural tradition

Theories why women were more dominant in Paleolithic times:

Men had little contact with children and could therefore not influence them as much as women could. Men were away while women were at home taking care of the domestic responsibilities. Gender roles are determined by economic systems and society. In Paleolithic times there was a different economic system and society worked and thought differently to today.

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Venus of Willendorf (Germany): oldest human depiction

- Filippa

Monday 17 September 2012

Monday 17 September 2012

The Stone Age:  50 000 BP-10 000 BP

Characteristics:

•          Hunter/gatherers (the economic system of the time)
•          Nomadic/semi-nomadic
•          Tools made from stone, wood and bone

Absence of:

•           Pottery
•           Metals
•           Farming
•          Domesticated animals

Maths of the community:

•         Lived in extended families of five
•         Five of those families lived together to maintain everything they needed
•         They only needed to extend gene pool, therefore an estimated 19 groups of 25 people were in one community

San people of SA:

•           Unchanged for 20 000 years
•           Complete stone age way of life
•           Khoisan still lives today
•           Used wood, stone and bone
•           No domestication of animals
•           No pottery
•          No metals
•          Remained ‘Stone Age’ because they had no contact with the modern world. They   also did not need to change.

The Great Leap Forward: Behavioural Revolution

•           Rapid technological advancement
•           Art
•           Burial
•           Self decoration
•           Religion

1.       The earliest tool kits Mousterian: 120 000-35 000 BCE

Before Neandethal there were no ‘made’ tools.

Neanderthal OR Homo Sapiens modern created this flint tool:

•           Multi purpose tool
•           Stays the same for 90 000 years
•           Does not develop
•           Produced by napping them
•            Flint is theorized to come from sponge that was compressed by earth and old plants over millions of years at the bottom of the sea.

2.       The earliest tool kits Aurignacian: 40 000-30 000 BCE

•           More advanced,
•           More useful
•           Ergonomic – easily held and comfortable
•           Passed on to your children
•         Skills necessary to make them (advanced napping)

3.       The earliest tool kits Solutrean 20 000-17 000 BCE

•         Pressure used to make it, apply pressure on the flint stone to produce flakes like  sharp blades.
•        Developed a handle

4.       The earliest tool kits Magdalenian: 17 000-12 000 BCE

•       Made out of bone
•       Usually used to catch fish
•       First decorated tool, suggests great sophistication

Paleolithic – second part of the Stone Age

Upper Paleolithic Burials

-          Ritualized burials, common practices among groups

-          Use of grave goods

-          Red ochre – a type of dye (liquid iron)

-          No sign of status

-          Female shaman

-          Wrapped in strings of beads – the children had more beads

-          All graves around this time contained goods e.g. tools, arts, jewelry

Upper Paleolithic Art

-          Portable art: 25 000 BP

-          Cave painting:

o   18 000 BP

o   From Lascaux, France

o   Diluted colour in the mouth and spat to create an image

Upper Paleolithic Self Decoration

-          Use of red ochre

-          Production of beads

-          Exchange

-          Purpose

o   Social

o   Religious

-          Different regions make different types of decoration

o    Coastal areas e.g. shells

o   Mountainous areas e.g. semi-precious stones

o   In land areas e.g. (animal products) ivory

Upper Paleolithic Religion

-          Make sense of their world

o   Anthropomorphic imagery – images of animals with human spirits

o   Animism – belief that all objects have spirit in them

o   Apotropia – symbols that protect from evil e.g. dream catchers

o   Ancestor worship – people slept in a tent with a buried ancestor in the middle, displayed skulls in their homes.

-          Questionable theory

o   Assumption – people ‘think’ it is religious

o   Anthropological studies

- Filippa

Monday 10 September 2012

Classwork

Definitions:

Primary evidence – Sources made at the time e.g. photos

Secondary evidence – Sources made afterwards based on impression (subjective) e.g. text book

Australopithecus                                                                                                                                                             Australo – southern Pithecus – ape

Neanderthal – adapted to cold climate. Shorter limbs, flat nose for controlling temperature, recovered from injuries well.

Theories of evolution:

1.       Out of Africa – USA liberals 1960’s – 2000: 200 000 BP 95% DNA from Africa, pattern found around the world

2.       Multi regional – Oldest theory 1880’s

Timeline of how Homo sapien modern diverted

50 000 BP Start making art, jewllery, religious images, sophisticated tools

Today

200 000 BP

                      

Latest evidence:

1.       Homo florensis

2.       Neanderthal – up to 4%

3.       Homo denisovon - ?%

Where do Homo sapiens modern come from?

- Filippa

Monday 3 September 2012

Class work

What do Historians do?

-          Collect evidence

-          Create theories

Theories change over time

-           New evidence

-           New ways of looking at old evidence e.g. carbon dating

-          Advanced technology and science

         Human origin

species	earliest and latest date (where known)	continent/country	earliest date of discovery	skull size in cc	height in cm
Homo Sapiens	130 000 BP	Germany, Europe	August 1856	1450	150
Australopithecus Afarinsis	3.2 million BP	Ethiopia, Africa	1974	400	90-120
Homo Erectus	200 000 BP - 900 000 BP	Indonesia, Asia	1891	900	140
Homo Sapiens modern	75 000 BP - 115 000 BP	South Africa, Africa	1967	1400	157
Homo Habilis	100 000 BP - 7 million BP	Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Africa	1962 - 1964	650	104
Homo Sapien (archaic)	200 000 BP - 500 000 BP	Australia, Oceania	1972	1200	150
Australopithecus Africanus	2 million BP	South Africa, Africa	1924	485	107

Questions:

1.       Based on the evidence available in the 1860’s our ancestors would be thought to have originated from Europe because the first Homo sapiens remains were discovered in Dusseldorf, Germany, which is in the European continent.

2.       Based on the evidence available in the 1890’s our ancestors would be thought to have originated from Asia because the Homo erectus remains were found in the Asian country Indonesia. These later discovery changed the theory that our ancestors originated from Europe.

3.       Based on the evidence available in the 1930’s our ancestors would be thought to have originated from Africa because the Australopithecus Africanus remains were found in South Africa. This discovery of 1924 changed the theory that our ancestors originated from Asia.

  Chronologically organized table:

species	earliest and latest date (where known)	continent/country	earliest date of discovery	skull size in cc	height in cm
Australopithecus Afarinsis	3.2 million BP	Ethiopia, Africa	1974	400	90-120
Australopithecus Africanus	2 million BP	South Africa, Africa	1924	485	107
Homo Habilis	1.5 million BP – 2 million BP	Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Africa	1962 - 1964	650	104
Homo Erectus	900 000 BP – 200 000 BP	Indonesia, Asia	1891	900	140
Homo Sapiens (archaic)	500 000 BP - 200 000 BP	Australia, Oceania	1972	1200	150
Homo sapiens neanderthalis	130 000 BP	Germany, Europe	August 1856	1450	150
Homo sapiens modern	115 000 BP - 75 000 BP	South Africa, Africa	1967	1400	157

One pattern noticeable is that the species’ height increases the closer it gets to a modern Homo sapiens. Another pattern is that the skull size increases up to Homo sapiens, but then decreases for Homo sapiens modern.

Theories of where Homo sapien modern originate from:

Theory 1.

Based on the evidence from the map, Homo sapiens modern originate from South Africa. This is because the earliest human ancestral remains, Australopithecus, were discovered in southern east Africa. We believe that the earliest remains connect to the latest remains because they come from the same part of the same continent. We therefore assume southern east Africa has the conditions for humans to evolve and develop to what Homo sapiens are today.

Theory 2.

All different parts of the world assisted in developing the Homo species in different ways, but the species evolved in Africa because the conditions were right there for survival. When they had developed more they moved around in Africa, but eventually they moved abroad. We think this is because the Homo species differed too much from the Australopithecus to live together. When the homo species were developed enough to be called Homo sapiens modern they retreated back to the place where they first evolved, South Africa, because the conditions were, as mentioned earlier, right there for development.

- Filippa