UNIT 5.

PREHISTORY

PRIMARY 4/ Social Science

Pedro Antonio López Hernández
 PERIODS OF HISTORY

Historical sources Historical time

To help us understand historical time we have created ways to

Historians use objects, images, documents and eyewitness
measure it: YEARS (365 days), CENTURIES (100 years), or
accounts to help them understand the past.
MILLENNIUMS (1.000 years).

Historians study the past by ordering historical events in time. The have
In Prehistory writing hadn´t been invented. So to understand it we only have divided history into stages called PERIODS to make this order easier to
material remains or objects. understand.

1.
2. NEOLITHIC 3. THE METAL 4. ANCIENT 5. THE 6. THE 7. THE
PALAEOLITHIC
PERIOD AGE TIMES MIDDLE AGES MODERN CONTEMPORARY
PERIOD TIMES
AGE
Development of
The first hominids Objects are made of The first writing Fall of the Western The French
agriculture and Discovery of
appear metal appears. Roma Empire Revolution
livestock America.

2.000.000 years 5.000 B.C. 3.500 B.C. 476 A.D. 1789 A.D.
80.00 B.C. 1.492 A.D.
ago
 THE WORK OF ARCHAEOLOGISTS

1. They look for a place 2. These pieces are taken 3. Archaeologists and
where historical to a laboratory where they historians study the data.
objects may be are analysed and classified
buried. according to what they are The objects are exhibited in
made of, what they were museums with explanations
They dig up the area and used for or when they date about they where they came
remove the objects or from. from and what we can learn
fragments of objects with from them.
great care.

In our culture we begin to count centuries from the date of the birth of Jesus Christ. If events
happened before the birth of Christ we write the letter B.C.
If the happened after the birth of Christ we write the letters A.D.
 THE PALAEOLITHIC PERIOD

Discoveries and inventions Lifestyle and culture

- This period began when the first hominids appeared in Africa.

- The first hominids lived in tribes and they developed language and social skills.
- They ate vegetables they gathered, small and dead animals
- They travelled from place to place.
they found.
- They lived in caves where they left the first examples of art: paintings and small
sculptures.
1. They made fire by
banging stones together or
3. The first tools were made by carving
twisting a stick in a hole in a 4. They made cave
stones.
tree trunk. paintings using their hands
to print, with brushes or
That meant banging one stone against
blowing through a hollow
another to give it the correct shape.
reed

2. The first hominids learnt

how to distinguish edible 5. They separated animals`
and non-edible fruits and skins using carved stones
vegetables. and used the skins as
clothing.
 The Neolithic period began with the
development of agriculture and livestock.
THE NEOLITHIC PERIOD Discoveries and inventions
Agriculture began when people discovered
seeds and livestock began when people learnt
how to tame animals and kept them for their
Lifestyle and culture - Polished stone: This meant they could make more own use.
specialised tools like the sickle or the millstone.

Human being didn´t need to move from one - Clay baking (Pottery): This meant they could make
place to another because they could produce pots and containers for cooking and keeping food.
their own food.
- Fabric-making techniques to obtain and weave
thread. They made woollen and linen fabrics. 7. They invented the loom
Due to this more settled life the first villages
for weaving wool and
appeared and the first constructions: houses
linen.
and tombs.

3. They built tombs with large stones called

6. They invented
1. The first crops were megaliths. Menhirs were standing stones and
the potter´s wheel
cereals and pulses. dolmens were made of two or more stones.
for mounding clay
pots and the oven
to bake them.

2. They obtained meat, milk, pelts and

wool from animals.
5. They used the polished
4. They used mud, stone, stone technique to invent
sticks and straw to build tools like the hand mill to
houses. grind cereals.
 THE METAL AGE

Discoveries and inventions Lifestyle and culture

- The Metal Age began with the last great discovery of prehistory: - As workers learnt new skill, blacksmiths, potters, cattle herders and farmers
METAL. Man discovered how to melt down metal and then mould and appeared.
polish it. This was how metallurgy was developed.
- Each one made a different product and exchanged it. This trading without money
- Human started to work with metals to make jewellery. Later, tools and is called barter.
weapons were made with harder metals.
- The areas where metal was plentiful got richer and tiny villages became small
- As well as metallurgy, other important developments were new forms town.
od transport like sailing boats and carts with wheel.
- Big walls were built to protect the town and warriors were chosen. One man was
chosen as the chief warrior.

1. Cattle headers kept cows - The power given to these warriors give rise to social inequality.
and other animals and
brought them to graze. 3. Warriors 5. Potters made pots and
stood on the other containers from clay
walls and
protected the
city 4. Blacksmiths made metal
2. Farmer planted seeds
tools and weapons.
and grew crops.