Highlands Ranch High School - Mr. Sedivy
Highlands Ranch, Colorado

World History - Prehistory
Old Stone Age

Paleolithic
Hunters and Gatherers - Nomads

Ice Age Cave Drawing, Altamira (Spain)

What They Were Like:
1. Didn't build permanent dwellings. Made temporary homes in caves or tents made from branches and animal skins.
2. Had to move when the animals did.
3. Made tools.
4. Used fire.
5. Language to pass on information. Fire provided warmth, cooking, light, smoke to preserve food and made animal skins more waterproof; torches to drive animals off cliffs

Neanderthal
Widespread Paleolithic People. (100,000 -40,000 Years Ago)
Had rituals for a successful hunt.
Buried dead. Left items in the graves showing they believed in an afterlife.

Cro-Magnon Man
Art.
Beads, Necklaces, and Bracelets
Flute - Suggests music

Why Did They Do Cave Art?
Possibly a ritual to help with hunting.

Environment Changes
Late in Stone Age, it got colder. There were four ice ages, each lasted for tens of thousands of years. The last ice age ended about 20,000 years ago. (However, a polar bear skeleton found that is 60,000 years old refutes this. Also, a wolf skeleton was found; wolves needed a warmer climate.)

Homo sapiens sapiens; Flint tools

Hunter Gatherers

1. Tools need to be lightweight to carry easier.

2. Have to cooperate with everyone to get a good hunt - greatest fear was of social ostracism.

3. Little emphasis on material goods or private property.

4. Small groups - no more than 100.

5. Being very young or very old was not good - they were bad food producers.

6. Men hunted, women gathered.