Cro-Magnon By: Chris, Bennett, Ashley, Summer
Jan 01, 2016
Cro-Magnon
By:
Chris, Bennett, Ashley, Summer
Dates and Places
• The Cro-Magnons remains were first discovered in France. Cro-Magnons spread out over Africa, Asia, and Europe by 30,000 years ago.
• Cro-Magnons had traveled over the land bridges that were there only during the Ice Age to stay at North and South America.
• By this time, every continent but Antarctica had humans populating it.
Fire• Cro-Magnons used fire during the end of the Ice Age, for
the weather was still freezing, so fire was one of the survival elements they depended on.
• Fire was also used to hunt down animals that they ate, but it also protected them from wild animals by scaring them away.
• Fire was the only light they had to use and the only heat to cook their food.
Religion and Ceremonies
• When a person died, all members in the tribe participated in the funeral.
• The body was put into a shallow grave with tools, weapons, and food needed in the afterlife. Then the grave was covered with dirt and stones.
• The shaman, or religious leader, most likely led the ceremony to honor the dead and request a happy afterlife.
Clothing• Clothing was made out of animal hides. They wore robes,
pants, tunics, and dresses.
• The Cro-Magnons also added little beads made from colored rocks or shells into their clothing for decoration.
• With their clothes, they wore stone, shell, fish bone, and eggshell necklaces.
Tools• Cro-Magnons made flint-bladed axes into a tool-like
chisel.
• These new tools could shape stones.
• Awls were made to make holes in animal hide.
• Bone needles were made to sew more refined clothes.
• Straight-backed knives made cutting a finer skill.
• They made spearheads and blades from bones, antlers, and stone.
• 10,000 years ago they used the bow and arrow.
Art• The dearest sign of Cro-Magnons was in their art.
• Cro-Magnons were the first to discover how to paint, sculpt, carve, and use color.
• They carved the first animals and chubby females.
• The earliest paintings were of hunting scenes.
• All the paintings were found in underground caves.
Physical Appearance
• The head of the Cro-Magnons was like modern humans except it was rounder, and more defined.
• The forehead was flat, and they had very slight eyebrow ridges. Noses and jaws were smaller. The teeth were also smaller and closer together.
Food• Cro-Magnons hunted large animals, such as
woolly rhinoceros, mammoths, saber tooth tigers, and wild horses.
• Cro-Magnons gathered wild carrots, beets, onions, turnips, cabbage, celery, fruits, and berries.
• The women also gathered shellfish, eggs, and small animals that got trapped in their handmade traps.
Daily Life• Cro-Magnons had daily hunting and gathering parties.
• Hunting provided them with bones, tools, and shelter.
• Women gathered the seeds and nuts, while men did the hunting.
• Sometimes they had ceremonies and dances for special occasions.
• They had funerals for important deaths.
Shelters
• Sinews from animals were tied into rope and used to secure the huts.
• Tusks and large bones from a mammoth were used to create shelters that were covered in skin.
• Cro-Magnons also used mammoth bones and skulls for supports.
• Their houses were like dome-shaped huts.
Language• Cro-Magnons were able to produce clear speech to
develop a more advanced oral language and means of communication.
• This enabled them to share information, work together, pass down knowledge and traditions, organize hunting and gathering trips, and speak more complex thoughts, including planning for the future.
• Their ability to use language enabled them to make a more advanced culture.