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Module 2 - Lesson 2 - Early Human Migration

The document discusses early human migration from Africa during the Ice Ages, highlighting how climate changes and the formation of land bridges like Beringia facilitated this movement. It also describes the Mesolithic Age as a transitional period where humans adapted to new environments, developed new tools, and began to produce food. By 9000 BC, humans had spread to all continents except Antarctica, showcasing their ability to adapt through innovations in clothing, shelter, and technology.

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3 views

Module 2 - Lesson 2 - Early Human Migration

The document discusses early human migration from Africa during the Ice Ages, highlighting how climate changes and the formation of land bridges like Beringia facilitated this movement. It also describes the Mesolithic Age as a transitional period where humans adapted to new environments, developed new tools, and began to produce food. By 9000 BC, humans had spread to all continents except Antarctica, showcasing their ability to adapt through innovations in clothing, shelter, and technology.

Uploaded by

6fss9thr6y
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Module 2: The Stone Ages and Early Cultures

Lesson 2: Early Human Migration


People Moved Out of Africa
About 1.6 million years ago, many places around the world
began to experience Ice Ages, or long periods of freezing
weather.
In response to these changes, early humans migrated from
Africa to Asia and eventually spread to India, China,
Southeast Asia, and Europe.
The Ice Ages ended about 10,000 years ago.
The Ice Ages are long periods of
time (millions of years) when
global temperatures were
freezing, and most of the Earth
was covered by continental ice
sheets and glaciers.
During the Ice Ages, huge sheets of ice (or glaciers) covered much of the earth’s
land.
These ice sheets were formed from ocean water, leaving ocean levels lower than
they are now.

Glaciers are thick, huge,


and slow moving sheets
of ice.
Scientists think that in some places the
ocean level dropped and exposed land
bridges between continents.

These land bridges allowed Stone Age


people to migrate around the world.

Early humans probably came to


North America across a land bridge
from northern Asia and spread A land bridge is a strip
throughout North America and to of land connecting two
continents.
South America.
That land bridge was known by
Beringia.
The land bridge Beringia connected Asia to North
America during the Ice Ages, and it was formed
out of glaciers.
Stone age people often had to migrate
during the ice ages to find animals to hunt.
Early humans often migrated because of
an example climate change and the need to find
of early new food sources.
humans’
migration For example, scientists have discovered that
large areas of Central Africa experienced
periods of drought many years ago.
A drought is an extended period of time
when an area receives little or no rain.

The southeastern part of the African


continent became warm, wet, and humid at
the same time.
These conditions led early people to move
to the more suitable living environments in
the southeast.
The Mesolithic Age

- Between the Paleolithic and Neolithic eras, there was


a transition stage known as the Mesolithic age in which
there was a gradual shift from the old food-gathering
and hunting economy to a food-producing one.

- There was a gradual taming of animals , and these


changes led to a new period; Neolithic age.
People adapted to New Environments during Mesolithic Period.
- By 9000 BC, humans lived on all continents except Antarctica.
Early people had to learn to adapt to new environments.
The places to which they migrated were often much colder than the places they left, and often had strange plants and animals.

- To keep warm, Mesolithic people learned to sew animal skins together to make clothes.

- At first they took shelter in caves. When they moved to areas with no caves, they built their own shelters. First, these shelters were pits in the ground with roofs of branches and leaves.

- Later, people learned to build more permanent structures with wood, stone, clay, or other materials, even bones from large animals such as mammoths. They covered frames with animal hides or skins to form solid
roofs and walls.
- People also began to make new types of tools.

- These tools were smaller and more complex than tools


from the Paleolithic Era. They defined the Mesolithic Era,
which began more than 10,000 years ago and lasted to
about 5,000 years ago in some places.

- These new tools included hooks and spears for fishing,


and bows and arrows for hunting.
People in the Mesolithic Era (the middle
period of the Stone Age that is marked by the
creation of smaller and more complex tools)
also developed new technologies to improve
their lives.

For example, they learned how to make pots


from clay and how to hollow out logs to make
canoes.
People used canoes to travel on rivers and
lakes.

Developments like these, in addition to clothing and


shelter, allowed people to adapt to new environments.

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