Unit 2 – Lesson 5 The Peopling of the Earth
Jan 03, 2016
Unit 2 – Lesson 5The Peopling of the Earth
Reviewing What We Have Learned…
Homo sapiens
Between 200,000 and about 100,000 years ago, people who were both anatomically and genetically “like us” emerged in eastern and southern Africa.
This is a reconstructed Homo sapiens skull, found in Israel. It has been dated to about 90,000 years ago.
Locations of Earliest Human
Remains
5
From their African
homeland, Homo sapiens
groups migrated to…
…Where?
When early humans moved out of Africa, where do you think they went?
Migrations of Homo sapiens
Possible coastal routes of human migration
Possible landward routes of human migration
Migrations in Oceania
Human Origins200,000-250,000
years ago
Southwest Asia100,000 years ago
Europe40,000 years ago
Siberia40,000 years ago
Australiaas many as 60,000
years ago
North America12,000-30,000
years ago
Oceania1600 B.C.E.-500 C.E.
Chile12,000-13 ,000
years ago
PUSH
PULL
Why do people move?
Work with a partner to complete the T-chart.
Which of the push and pull factors we identified might have caused early humans to move out of Africa?
To find food
To find food To escape weather patterns
To find food To escape weather patterns
To find space for a growing population
tropical rainforest savanna
desert
taigatundra
alpine forest
taigatundra
alpine forest
steppegrasslands
deciduous forest
steppegrasslands
deciduous forest
Biomes Map
Biomes Map
That’s amazing!
Why were modern humans
able to move into so many
different environments? After all, no other
large animals had
spread so widely!
So what was so
special about us?
Language!
Homo sapiens had language
◦ so they could exchange complex ideas with each
other.
◦ and they could store and add to the ideas of
previous generations.
Because they swapped ideas, they kept finding
◦ new ways of doing things.
◦ new ways of living.
Language SharedIdeas
New Ideas
Learning
Language made collective learning possible.
The stores of knowledge
and skills humans built up
are called “culture.”
No other animal can store
and accumulate
knowledge and skills in
this way.
We call this ability
“collective learning.”
It is what
human history
is about!
It is what
makes us
special!
Video
Online Activity
http://www.phschool.com/atschool/california/webcodes/history_interactive/mwp-1013/common_player.html
Lesson Summary
• Humans were able to move out of their original habitat while other species did not.
• Human migration over the planet took thousands and thousands of years.
• As humans migrated, they learned to live in more varied environments such as deserts and dense forests.
• Humans migrated to new biomes to find food, escape weather patterns, and find space for a growing population.
• Language might have developed in Africa, anywhere between 50,000 and 100,000 years ago. As humans migrated and moved, language likely became more complex and helped people solve new problems.