Chapter 7: Origins of the Genus Homo

Question 0

Lower Paleolithic Period

Answer 0

The first part of the Old Stone Age beginning with the earliest Oldowan tools spanning from about 200,000 or 250,000 to 2.6 mya.

Question 1

Oldowan tool tradition

Answer 1

The first stone tool industry, beginning between 2.5 and 2.6 mya

Question 2

Homo habilis

Answer 2

“Handy human.” The first fossil members of the genus Homo appearing 2.5 mya, with larger brains and smaller faces than australopithecines.

Question 3

gender

Answer 3

The cultural elaborations and meanings assigned to the biological differentiation between the sexes.

Question 4

Homo erectus

Answer 4

“Upright human.” A species within the genus Homo first appearing just after 2 mya in Africa and ultimately spreading throughout the Old World.

Question 5

Acheulean Tool Tradition

Answer 5

The prevalent style of stone tools associated with Homo erectus remains and represented by the hand-axe.

Question 6

archaic Homo sapiens

Answer 6

A loosely defined group within the genus Homo that “lumpers” use fro fossils with the combination of large brain size and ancestral features on the skull.

Question 7

Levalloisian technique

Answer 7

Toolmaking technique by which three or four long triangular flakes are detached from a specially prepared core; developed by members of the genus Homo transitional from H. erectus to H. sapiens

Question 8

Neandertals

Answer 8

A distinct group within the genus Homo inhabiting Europe and southwestern Asia from approx. 30,000 to 125,000 years ago.

Question 9

Middle Paleolithic Period

Answer 9

The middle part of the Old Stone Age characterized by the development of the Mousterian tool tradition and the earlier Lavalloisian traditions.

Question 10

Mousterian tool tradition

Answer 10

The tool industry of the Neandertals and their contemporaries of Europe, Southwest Asia, and North Africa from 40,000 to 125,000 years ago.