Prehistory vs. History
The study of the time period before written records existed.
What is Prehistory?
The primary way Paleolithic humans acquired their food.
What is hunting and gathering?
The major shift from food gathering to food producing that changed human history.
What is agriculture (or farming)?
The process of population concentration in small areas, leading to the creation of the world's first cities.
What is urbanization?
The scientific and practical process of extracting, melting, and shaping metals into tools and weapons.
What is metallurgy?
The primary type of evidence anthropologists and archaeologists use to study prehistoric humans.
What are fossils, biological remains, or artifacts?
A term used to describe people who have no permanent home and move from place to place following food.
What is nomadic?
Geographic features where early Neolithic populations settled due to water access and fertile soil.
What are river valleys?
This occurs when a food surplus allows individuals to focus on jobs other than farming (like weaving or metalworking).
What is specialization of labor (or specialized labor)?
Two properties that made metal tools superior to stone and wood tools.
What are strength and durability?
The major turning point that historians use to mark the transition from prehistory to history.
What is the invention of writing (or written records)?
The natural material used to carve early tools like hand axes during the Paleolithic Era.
What is stone (or flint)?
The process of taming wild animals and breeding plants for human use.
What is domestication?
Two examples of complex institutions that grew to organize and provide structure to expanding city populations.
What are government and religion (religious institutions)?
The reason early villages developed metal weapons as their settlements grew.
What is to protect their valuable resources (defense)?
This professional focuses on social, political, and economic details of cultures after writing was invented.
Who is a historian?
These underground artistic displays demonstrate early human group structures, feelings, and cultural transmission.
What are cave paintings (artwork)?
The physical appearance change of Neolithic stone tools compared to Paleolithic tools.
What is a polished look?
The division of people into hierarchical groups based on their occupation, wealth, and power.
What are social classes?
The specific age that followed the Neolithic Period, defined by the extensive use of metal tools and complex trade.
What is the Age of Metals?
The literal Greek meaning of the word "Paleolithic".
What is "Old Stone Age"?
Agriculture supported population growth, while this discovery allowed humans to develop advanced tools and weapons, helping societies expand and defend themselves.
What is metallurgy?
This geographical term refers to centers where early cultural ideas, beliefs, and customs originated and spread.
What is a cultural hearth?
The name of the first known written language developed in Mesopotamia.
What is cuneiform?
This development allowed people to create stronger tools and weapons, improving farming efficiency and military defense.
What is metallurgy?