Study Guide Pre hist

Question 1

Pleistocene environment:

Answer 1

Begins about 2.6 mya
1.7 my BP greater aridity and rainfall seasonality
Glacial period beginning 900,000 years to 10,000 years
BP

Question 2

Holocene epoch

Answer 2

warming period, beginning ~12,000

years BP

Question 3

Homo habilis

Answer 3

2 to 2.5 mya

Question 4

Homo erectus

Answer 4

1.8 mya

Question 5

H. erectus Developments

Answer 5

Acheulian technology
Control of fire
Morphological changes
Geological range

Question 6

Homo erectus skeletal morphology

Answer 6

Larger brain than H. habilis: 960 cc avg.
75% as large as mod human
Tall, heavy
Less sexually dimorphic than
earlier hominids
Head shape is more “human like”:
forehead more vertical;
more globular occipital;
less prognathous jaws than H.
habilis
however,
prominent browridge (supraorbital
torus)

Question 7

H. erectus:

Answer 7

Includes- H. ergaster in Africa
H. erectus in Asia
H. antecessor in Europe

Question 8

Acheulean

Tools

Answer 8

Unlike Oldowan, large flakes in Acheulean
Acheulean handaxe: “Swiss army knife”
weapons, scraping, piercing, chopping, etc.
(however precise use is speculative)

                 possible status symbol

Question 9

Subsistence

Answer 9

H. habilis: small game (some big game),
scavenging and gathering plants
H. erectus: big game hunting more prominent
(also evidence of wooden spears) but also
plants, nuts

Question 10

Zhoukoudian:

Answer 10

Peking Man  (770,000 to 400,000 BP)
             (aka Sinanthropus Pekinensis

Question 11

Zhoukoudian: site

Answer 11

Site has more than 50 individuals-
Men, women and children

Sexually dimorphic and individual
Variability

Question 12

Zhoukoudian: use of fire

Answer 12

burnt macrofaunal remains and discolored sediments
natural fires likely but probably also kindling

 cultural adaptation to colder environments (site occupied 
 during glacial stadial)

Zhoukoudian artifacts lost in 1941- Japanese attack

Question 13

Java: H. floresiensis

Answer 13

The hobbit species (35 kya- 18 kya)
Florees, Indonesia
associated with complex stone tools

  Human with microcephaly? Or 
  different species?
  (microcephaly discarded)

Island dwarfism? 
 Likely reached Flores from mainland
  - low water levels

Question 14

Zhoukoudien use of fire

Answer 14

Swartkrans in South Africa
1.5 mya
burnt bone and rock
- possible campfire

Question 15

H. Heidelbergensis

Answer 15

a little less than 1 mya

 possible transitional human (H. erectus to 
 Neanderthal?)

Question 16

Eocene

Answer 16

(55 mya- 39 mya)

Abundance of prosimians

Question 17

Prosmians occupied

Answer 17

Africa, Asia, Europe, and

North America

Question 18

Oligocene

Answer 18

(35 mya to 23 mya)
- Prosimian population decline with cooler,
drier climatic conditions; still present in Asia and
Africa
- Possibly outcompeted by larger, diurnal monkeys
- Early anthropoid species- probably ancestor
to monkeys, apes and humans
- First New World monkeys-
most probably from Africa

Question 19

The Miocene (23 mya- 5 mya)

Answer 19

Flora and fauna diversification
Warming of climate (mid epoch cooling)
Open vegetation systems (e.g. grasslands)
Ape fossils from Africa, Europe, Asia

Question 20

Sahelanthropus

Answer 20

Fossil discovery: 2001 in Chad - human and apelike features

- no postcranial skeleton                               - missing a lot of information 
- bipedal

Question 21

Levellois technology

Answer 21

focus on flakes themselves rather than
on cores

 - more planning, 
   standardization 

Greater use from core,

• more sharp edges
• more specialized

Question 22

Neanderthal culture

Answer 22

• Mousterian technology
  
  • tools made from retouched flakes
    (rather than cores)
  • more control in flake production

Question 23

No more mousterian tech

Answer 23

Disappearance of neanderthals  coincide 
    with disappearance of Mousterian tech. 
    (28,000  ya)
instead: Aurignacian tech. (H. sapien) 
    - modern H. sapiens: 40,000 ya

Question 24

Oldest Homo sapien sapiens

Answer 24

Omo I and II: Ethiopia

195,000 ya

Question 25

blade tool technology of the Aurignacian

Answer 25

different from Levallois and Mousterian
         - blades are retouched 
            (not flakes) 
         - longer, more sharp edge
         - tool standardization (from site to site)
         - use of antler and bone 
         - pressure