Wordle

Unit 2: Prehistory and Early Humans Reflection

1. Describe how you prepared/studied for the unit test.

For this units test I prepared in many different ways and certainly a lot more than last time. On the night before the test I was looking over my notes a lot and I am glad I put more effort into my notes than last time. I had a lot more notes in my notebook this time than last time and I think it helped me very much and also made the test much easier. I was mostly looking over the graphic organizer that showed which early human was which and the "cheat sheet". 

A) Do you think your studying strategies were effective? Why/Not?

I think that my studying was effective and it did feel much easier to do the test than last time when I barely studied at all. It made me much less stressed and made me feel more confident that I could to much more in much less time. I think I wrote a good amount of writing for the essay question and way more than last time. 

B) How will you prepare next time?

I think that next time I will hopefully study a little bit more and use more sources than a couple sheets of paper. Next time I think I should also study in advance much more because It think I would memorize it better if I studied a week before the test as oppose to cramming it all in the night before the test or the night before that.

2. What was the most surprising thing you learned about int his unit?

I think that the most surprising thing I learned about in this unit was that there are so many different types of early humans that I didn't know about before. The only ones I'd heard of are Homo-Sapiens and Neanderthals. It was interesting for me to learn how all the early humans were different and how they evolved over such a long time. I always thought that all early humans looked exactly the same and didn't differ much in appearance.

3. If we had more time to spend on Prehistory + Early Humans- what would you want to learn more about?

It think that what I would want to learn about is more specifics about early humans, not just Early humans in general. I think that is the only thing that I would want to learn more about.

The Mystery of the Human Hobbit

The Hobbits were a group of early humans evolved that had a condition called "island dwarfing". This mad the people on the island extremely short due to smaller bones. The Hobbits lived for 38,000 to around 16,000 years ago. They had large brains despite their small bones. The hobbits only lived for a relatively short period of time and didn't evolve into a major species although they evolved from early humans. The early humans became so small because of limited resources and if they needed too much food they they wouldn't survive. In Indonesian folklore there are stories of small people which has led archeologists to consider if we crossed paths with the hobbits before and maybe they were too small to survive off the islands or maybe they even evolved. The hobbits evolved over a long period of time and even though they adapted to the island the resources were too limited and eventually led to the extinction of the human hobbit.

Language and tools

It was very important for the development of human culture to develop a language and speaking rather than having no communication and coordination between humans. Language is a gift that was given to humans and because of this gift that we have we managed to become so dominant on the planet. Before humans spoke to each other and developed grammar they couldn't expand into huge cities because they couldn't coordinate rules, or government. Although these came much later none of these developments of government and rules could exist. Before humans could do all this it was hard to achieve having over 30 people in a group because they couldn't keep order. If humans never developed language we would not have achieved this level of dominance on the planet that we have today. Equally as important as language tools were a huge part in the development of the human race. Tools sped up everyday tasks and made life much easier for everybody. At first tools were very basic and were used for many uses, but over time when humans began to develop more tools and more advanced tools they had specific uses. Instead of using axes for cutting trees, meat, and killing animals, they used axes to cut trees, knives to cut meat and harpoons and spears to kill animals. The development of tools helped a lot in the development of the human race and so did language. These two things were essential along with the evolution of bipedalism and fire we have become what we are today.

Walking on Two Feet

Our ancestors have existed for millions of years and because of evolution they evolved into us, but when did they start walking on two feet and why? There are many theories about why our early ancestors began walking on two feet and each have a large amount of evidence so it is hard to decide which theory is correct. Here are three theories with all the supporting evidence that has been found so far.

1. The first theory is that we the males needed to carry more food in order to attract females. At this time it would have made sense that the male that can gather the most food is more likely to mind a mate because he has food to give to the female and all the children they might have. The males that have not as much food wouldn't be able to feed the females and all their children. It would be much easier to carry heavier loads when standing upright than on all fours which would pose a viable reason as to why humans started walking upright.

2. Hunting. Our early ancestors had to get all their food by hunting or farming (which I think came much later) they couldn't go down to the local supermarket and buy their food, they actually had to hunt for it. When early humans hunted it would have been really hard to catch an animal crawling on all fours so humans might have started walking on two legs to catch the animals. 

3. The third and final theory is that they needed to use more tools and they couldn't do this while on all fours. If they were walking on their two legs then their arms are free to carry tools. 

These are all very viable theories with good reasoning and supporting evidence. It could be all the theories combined to be the reason they started to walk on all fours, but really we'll never know.

Playing with Fire

The invention of using fire in everyday life was a major innovation in Prehistoric times. Fire is one of the most important factors of modern day life and if we were still afraid of it or if we never adapted it into our everyday lives then modern life wouldn't be the same. When prehistoric people decided to use fire it changed the way they lived. It let them cook their food and eliminate any parasites or germs. It also created warmth for colder days and even might have encouraged prehistoric people to move from the warm plains of Africa to the cold of Europe. It also created light so they could stay up later and talk with their family and friends. It could have been the start of oral tradition and even religion. The use of fire demonstrated prehistoric peoples' ability to adapt. Fire is something that gave prehistoric people so much more opportunity to do things. Fire let them stay after dark and still have light. Fire was a good adaptation for when they left Africa and went to Europe which was much colder. Fire might have been the reason they went to Europe rather than staying in Africa. The first prehistoric people that experimented with fire move their species forward so much. Fire was something that they were scared of when they happened in the wild. When lightning struck trees they would pick up the parts of the tree that were struck by lightning, these sticks would almost be on fire but not yet. They would put these in a pile with other sticks and surround it by stones, this is called a hearth. Circles of stones were evidence that early people even used fire. Fire was an innovation but hearths were another innovation that made fires safer and probably not as many people were afraid.