Wordle :)

Unit 2 Reflection - Prehistory and Early Humans

1. Describe how you prepared/studied for the unit test.
Do you think your studying strategies were effective?
I tried a bunch of different things for this test, because I really wanted to figure out what way of studying works well for me so I could do it in the future. I tried the "cheat sheet" thing where I just kind of blocked everything onto one page, and when I got to the test I wrote the basics of the cheat sheet down, which I do think kind of helped. I also just typed out the definitions from the word study, because somehow typing things helps me remember them. I reread my notes a couple of times, which I'm not sure was so effective because sometimes I read without actually taking anything in. What I think actually helped the most was when I explained things to my mom, because when I explain things to people, I start to remember them even better because can think of that situation.
How will you prepare next time?
I think studying with other people works better for me than studying alone, because it helps keep me focused and on task. Also, just typing things out really lets them sink in, although it tends to take a while to type all of my notes. The night before the test, reading through what I've written on my cheat sheet or typed up works very well because then my mind processes whatever it's been thinking while I sleep.
2. What was the most surprising thing you learned about during this unit?
Weirdly enough, I didn't know at all about the different type of cavemen. All I had heard about before were the Neanderthals, and I thought that was the extent of cavemen. Now I know about all of these other types, such as Paranthropus, Homo heidelbergensis, Australopithecus Afarensis, Homo habilis, etc.
3. If we had more time to spend on Prehistory and Early humans, what would you want to learn more about?
I would want to learn more about the physical development of early humans, because we didn't really talk about that at all until the last class before the test. We learned a lot about brain development and the development of culture, but nearly nothing about physical development.

Who Were the Hobbits?

The hobbits were a type of early human nicknamed after their height - their real name was, in fact, Homo floriensis, named after the island where the fossils were found. The hobbits were nicknamed after their height because of how small they were - a fully grown person would stand at about the height of an average 5-year-old! However, they had a surprising amount of wit considering the size of their brains. Their brains, as fossils show, were about the size of an orange. According to all other evidence found, this was supposed to mean that the species wasn't smart at all or developed - but new discoveries of Homo floriensis stated otherwise. They were, in fact, very advanced for the time period. Scientists agree that the hobbits were around from 38,000 to 18,000 years ago. Some scientists even think that they were around 12,000 years ago!
Most people believe that the reason the hobbits were so small and their brains were so small is because of the fact that there was nearly no resources, which caused them to diminish in size.

Why were tool-making and language important for the development of human culture?

Tool-making and language were important for the development of human culture because they allowed our ancestors to take full advantage of their surroundings. Homo habilis were the first early humans to create tools, although theirs were simpler than ones created later by other species. The earliest flint stones weren't very complicated, but they were hard to make. Firstly, early humans had to find the right kind of stone. It had to be hard enough so it wouldn't shatter, but not so hard that it wouldn't chip. Then they had to shape the stone into the tool by striking it with another stone. Our more sophisticated ancestor was Homo erectus. Homo erectus made hand axes for killing animals, digging roots, and cutting wood. In other words, Homo erectus made one tool for a variety of purposes whereas Homo sapiens had tools made for specific purposes. Over thousands of years, tools became more sophisticated, including fishhooks, needles, three-pronged fishing spears, and bone tools. With tools, early humans were able to kill animals for meat, dig for roots, cut wood, and create clothes. Tools allowed early humans to build shelters for themselves, an essential factor in surviving. Without tools early humans would have never been able to tame wildfires and create warmth, light, and good food for them. This is because in order to tame fire, it was necessary to create hearths. For this, tools were needed.

With language, early humans were able to not only begin with oral tradition but also share information, work together, discuss the present, past, and future, create leaders, discuss real and imaginary things, invent new words, and many more good things. No one knows when the ability to use language was developed. However, by examining the remainders of brains scientists were able to distinguish a difference in size and complexity of the brain over the years. Scientists connect this with the ability to develop language. Even if the brain were developed enough, the voice box also had to be able to produce all sounds needed to speak. Humans were the only ones with voice boxes that dropped so low that they were able to breathe with their mouths as well as with their noses.

Language and tools were very important developments of humans' cultures. Without them we would be just like the animals around us. We might even have died out without these very important adaptations, which is why it's a good thing that we learned how to use language and how to use tools.

Why did early humans begin to walk on two feet?

There are many different theories to why early humans began to walk on two feet, and yet scientists are starting to think that this may be something that is simply unknowable. This is because there is no evidence or proof to why humans would have become bipedal when humans and monkeys split. The only resources we have are scientists' brains and the logical conclusions made about each theory. However, there are some things that scientists and historians can agree about - for example, that they did not start walking on two feet for intellectual reasons. Based on the studies made of the brains of early humans we know that they didn't wake up one morning and decide that "Oh, I'm so bored of crawling. It doesn't get me anywhere. I think that I'll try walking because of all of the stuff I have to get done today!"
Therefore, scientists are pretty sure that bipedality came naturally to early humans, starting at least 3 million years ago.
A theory that is not so recent yet is well known is that early humans, when creating tools, realized that they would need their hands and arms to create the tools, and for this they needed to be able to stand up. This could very well be true but there may have been a number of other reasons that early humans decided to stand up. Another theory revolves around one of the most important things in our life - food! When two early humans mated one of them needed to get food while the other parent focused on taking care of the child. Early humans may have learned how to stand up not only in order to make the tools, but also to use the tools to hunt the animals. This also may have attracted the mate even more - when someone is pregnant, the last thing they want is a mate where they have to do all of the work. This implies that the male needed to be able to hunt food and carry food properly in order to attract a mate, and in order to survive in general.
A third theory is that when early humans were migrating across savannas, they needed to stand up in order to go across the tall grass. Africa was once filled with forests, but then the forests started to rapidly disappear and early humans had to go farther and farther each time to get to more forest. In order to do this the humans had to cross the savanna. Early humans found that by standing up, they could travel much better through the tall grass, see where they were going, and notice any possible predators. Similar to this idea, early humans may have also become bipedal to cross streams and even swim in lakes.
In conclusion, there many theories out there, some more likely than others, about why early humans became bipedal. Whichever one is right, scientists know that this was a big step in the process of evolution.

Taming Fire - Setting Humans Apart from Animals

How does the use of fire demonstrate prehistoric people's ability to adapt to their environment?
The use of fire really shows us how humans were different from other animals. This is what started the whole evolution of humans, and tells us why humans became the leaders of the world and why gorillas, for example, didn't. People knew nothing about fire except for the fact that it was dangerous, and yet after a while they decided to question fire, question whether it could be of any use to them. They decided to harvest wildfires, which, although it was a very dangerous thing, helped people start to communicate among each other.
Fire helped early humans to adapt to their surroundings that they had been given in many ways. Fire gave them warmth, cooked food, and light.
It was essential for early humans to be warm for a couple of different reasons. For one, the ice age. The ice age was a very long period of time that required early humans to use what they had in order to create shelter and warmth. Their clothes, however, were not the warmest things around because they were just made of animal hides. This forced early humans to try and harvest wildfires to create fires in their camps. Somehow humans figured out that in order to ensure the survival of the human race, they would need to take some chances.
It was also very important for early humans to have cooked food. Cooked food was health and much more tasty. Without cooked food, humans got diseases and plagues and would very often die off in great numbers. This was because when a lot of food was raw, it would either have a lot of dangerous bacteria on it or it would be poisonous. The death rate increased steadily before the taming of fire and it was considered very old if one lived to the age of 35 or 40. Then, when fire was tamed, the death rate decreased and people learned to take better advantage of their surroundings.
Thirdly, it was important for early humans to get light from fire, because that way they could stay up after the sun went down. This allowed early humans to continue their work of the day after the sun went down. It also enabled them to have social time within their groups/families and start oral tradition, one of our most valuable sources. Fire helped early humans to communicate to each other about hopes, dreams, ideas, rules, and many more things that developed their culture.
In conclusion, our present culture only exists because of this important step in human evolution. The fact that humans actually managed to tame fire and use their brains for it is an incredible step in history. Without fire, we would be in a pretty bad situation here - we'd basically still be cavemen!

Reflection on Unit 1

During this unit I learned a lot about archaeology. I learned about all of the different steps in archaeology, about the different types of archaeology, and I especially learned a lot from the dig we had. I also learned a lot about how vague history really is, and how we will never finish discovering things about the people and the cultures of the past. What I found most interesting was the dig. I thought it was really fun and we learned a lot while doing it. What I learned about myself was that I have to figure out how to do presentations properly beforehand, because otherwise I lose my train of thought.