Midterm Flashcards
How did the skull discovered in Germany differ from our human skulls?
Instead of a forehead like ours, it just had two thick ridges above the eyebrows.
What gives “prehistory” its name?
It comes before history.
Which examples of materials did scientists find that change slowly but regularly over a very long period of time?
Woods and plants and volcanic rocks.
Why do historians call it the “Stone Age”?
The primitive peoples built stone tools.
About how long did the Neanderthal people inhabit the earth?
Two hundred thousand years.
About how long ago did the Neanderthal people appear in prehistory before our ancestors?
Seventy thousand years earlier.
What was the climate like during The Stone Age?
Winters were longer and summers shorter.
Do you know what __________ invented? … They invented talking.
Cavemen.
Which of the following were not invented or developed by prehistoric people?
Clothes, houses and tools, plows to plow with, grains to make bread with, cows for milking, sheep for shearing, dogs for hunting and for company, bows and arrows for shooting and helmets and shields for protection.
How long did The Ice Age last?
Many tens of thousands of years!
What reasoning did the writer give for why cavemen drew and painted in caves?
To summon creatures like a magic spell.
Because forests were dangerous places in those days, home to large numbers of wild animals, such as wolves and bears, prehistoric people built __________.
Pile dwellings.
What were “pile dwellings”?
Huts on stilts rammed deep in the mud in the middle of lakes.
What did prehistoric people invent and decorate with patterns and fire in ovens?
Clay pots.
What did the cavemen learn to do in the warmth once the ice retreated to the high mountains?
To plant grasses and then grind the seeds to make a paste to bake in the fire: bread.
Around 4000 BC, prehistoric people discovered a more convenient way of making tools: __________.
They discovered metals.
Which metal did prehistoric people use that “has a nice shine” but is “soft and gets blunt more quickly than stone”?
Copper.
Prehistoric people “discovered that if you add just a little of another, very rare, metal, it makes the copper stronger. That metal is __________.”
Tin.
Prehistoric people mixed __________ and __________ together to make __________.
Tin, copper, bronze.
Near __________ somebody was once digging a pit when they came across a bone, deep down under the ground. It was a human bone. __________.
Heidelberg, in Germany.
When did Menes rule over Egypt?
5100 years ago.
What were the rulers of Ancient Egypt called?
Pharaohs.
Of what did the Egyptians not sing in praise of their river four-thousand years ago?
You water the plains and have the power to feed all cattle. You quench the thirsty desert, far from any water. You bring forth the barley, you create the wheat. You fill the granaries and storehouses, not forgetting the poor
What was the Ancient Egyptian writing system called?
Hieroglyphs.