The First People: Ch. 2, Sec. 1

Anonymous
13 words 8 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. Stone Age
    (archeology) the earliest known period of human culture, characterized by the use of stone implements
    You live 200,000 years ago, in a time known as the Stone Age. A local toolmaker has offered to teach you his skill.
  2. prehistory
    the time during human culture before the written word
    Historians call the time before there was writing prehistory.
  3. hunter-gatherer
    a member of a hunting and gathering society
    Summarizing How did tools improve during the Old Stone Age?
    Hunter-gatherer Societies
    As early humans developed tools and new hunting techniques, they formed societies.
  4. hominid
    a member of a family of primate mammals that includes humans
    She and her husband, Louis Leakey, believed that the bones belonged to an early hominid (HAH-muh-nuhd), an early ancestor of humans.
  5. obsidian
    glass formed by the cooling of lava without crystallization
    They made knife blades and arrowheads—like the one shown below—out of volcanic glass called obsidian.
  6. humans
    all of the living human inhabitants of the earth
    Scientists who study early humans learn a lot about them from the tools and other objects that they made.
  7. Australopithecus
    extinct genus of African hominid
    In fact, the bones belonged to an Australopithecus (aw-stray-loh-PI-thuh-kuhs), one of the earliest ancestors of humans.
  8. anthropologist
    a social scientist specializing in the study of humanity
    To study prehistory, historians rely on the work of archaeologists and anthropologists.
  9. archaeologist
    an anthropologist who studies prehistoric culture
    To study prehistory, historians rely on the work of archaeologists and anthropologists.
  10. scientist
    a person with advanced knowledge of empirical fields
    Scientists who study early humans learn a lot about them from the tools and other objects that they made.
  11. ancestor
    someone from whom you are descended
    She and her husband, Louis Leakey, believed that the bones belonged to an early hominid (HAH-muh-nuhd), an early ancestor of humans.
  12. bone
    rigid tissue that makes up the skeleton of vertebrates
    In 1959 she found bones in East Africa that were more than 1.5 million years old.
  13. theory
    a belief that can guide behavior
    Scientists have many theories about why language first developed.
Created on Fri Oct 09 15:25:40 EDT 2009

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