| A | B |
|---|
| B.C. | “Before Christ” used to measure time before the year of Jesus Christ’s birh |
| A.D. | “Anno Domini”, or “the year of the Lord.” used to measure time after the year of Jesus Christ’s birth |
| decade | a period of ten years |
| century | a period of one hundred years |
| millenium | a period of one thousand years |
| age/era | broad time period wiht a shared pattern of life, no definite starting or ending date. |
| prehistory | the period of time before humans learned how to write |
| secondary source | information provided by a person who was notan eyewitness to an event |
| government | the study of how a society regulates the behavior of its citizens |
| economics | the study of how a society allocates it limited resources to meet the wants and needs of its population |
| primary source | information provided by a person who was an eyewitness to an event |
| sociology | the study of how people interact with one another |
| geography | the study of the earth |
| technology | a society’s tools and the knowledge to create and use those tools |
| artifacts | objects shaped by human hands, or other evidence of human activity |
| anthropology | study of the physical features, development, and behavior of hominids |
| archaeology | study of the material remains of prehistoric and historic peoples |
| paleontology | study of ancient animal and human lif |
| carbon dating | method for dating once-living things, based on the rate of decay of carbon |
| evolution | the theory of how species change over time and how new species gradually arise from old ones |
| Charles Darwin | developed the theory of natural selection and evolution |
| creationism | belief that the earth, and life on it were created by a god or other supernatural power |
| Ice Age | last ice age ended about 10,000 B.C. during the ice ages, glaciers spread out from the poles and covered much of the earth |
| Stone Ages | periods of time from about 2.5 million years ago to about5,000 years ago. Began when man first started to use stone tools, and ended when man began to use new tools, such as bronze |
| Paleolithic | “old stone age” 2.5 million -15,000 years ago. |
| Mesolithic | “middle stone age” 15,000-10,000 years ago. |
| Neolithic | “new stone age” 10,000-5,500 years ago |
| hominids | humans and their human-like ancestors |
| homo habilis | “man with ability” lived during the Paleolithic period, had limited ability to use stone tools, obtained food by scavenging |
| homo erectus | “upright man” lived during the Paleolithic period, had greater abilities than homo habilis, including the ability to hunt for food |
| homo sapien | “wise man” began to live during the Paleolithic period and continues through modern times |
| Leakeys | anthropologist husband and wife team who discovered Olduvai Gorge and the Laetoli footprints |
| Lucy | 3 million year old austalopithecine fossil, oldest known fossil of a human ancestor |
| Laetoli footprints | discovered by the Leakeys, provide evidence that hominids existed at least 3.6 million years ago |
| Neanderthal | lived about 130,000-30,000 years ago in Europe and Southwest Asia, buried their dead, survived the Ice Age and may be a direct ancestor of modern humans |
| Cro-Magnon | first appeared around 50,000 years ago and are thought to be a direct ancestor of modern human, they developed cave paintings, fish hooks, sewing needles, etc. |
| cave paintings | first developed by Cro-Magnon men between 25,000 and 12,000 years ago. Possible uses include: magic rituals, teaching tools for young hunters, or use in a coming of age ceremony |
| Olduvai Gorge | discovered by the Leakeys, fossils found there provide possible evidence that homo habilis was a true ancestor of modern humans |
| Piltdown Man | a great hoax, once thought to be the “link between man and ape.” |
| agriculture | farming and raising animals for food |
