A Quick Overview:
About 3 million B.C.E
Australopithecus
"Southern Ape"
About 2 million B.C.E
Homo Habilis
"Handy Man"
About 1.5 million B.C.E
Homo Erectus
"Upright Man"
About 500,000 B.C.
Homo Sapiens
"Wise Man" & Neanderthals
About 25,000 B.C.E until about 10,000 B.C.E
Homo Sapiens Sapiens &
"Moderns"
Australopithecus
"Southern Ape"
- Human-like hominids ("Lucy")
- Basic traits of humans.
- Special because it could stand up.
- Main physical difference between early man and apes are the hands.
About 2 million B.C.E
Homo Habilis
"Handy Man"
- First true humans
- Stone tools - the first tool-maker
- Lived in Africa
- Taller, had a larger brain
About 1.5 million B.C.E
Homo Erectus
"Upright Man"
- Made and controlled fire
- The first hunters
- Traveled over land bridges from Africa, to begin to populate the world, about 1 million years ago
About 500,000 B.C.
Homo Sapiens
"Wise Man" & Neanderthals
- Buried their dead with ceremony.
- Stone-tipped spears, bone needles, bone fish hooks
- Sewed their clothes from animal skins, warm boots
About 25,000 B.C.E until about 10,000 B.C.E
Homo Sapiens Sapiens &
"Moderns"
- Cave Paintings
- Cro-Magnon & "Moderns"
- Bow and arrows
- Well constructed huts with central hearths for fires
- Necklaces & pendants
- Cave art
- Little statues made from ivory, antler, bone
- Tools and weapons for hunting and fishing
- Oil lamps
- Used honey to sweeten food.
- End of the last Ice Age about 10,000 years ago.