welcome to edu - have you ever wondered
about what life was like to the earliest
humans on earth this time is often
called prehistory and you might be
asking yourself if this is part of
history class why isn't it just called
history then history is when people have
written things down to document them
like events technology government and
how people live their daily lives
prehistory is the time before written
language and the time before people
decided to write things down about the
past and the present Herodotus is often
credited with inventing history in the
5th century BCE when he wrote about the
Greeks Egyptians Persians and others
meanwhile in China recorded history
began in the Shang Dynasty around the
17th century BCE which is over a
thousand years before Herodotus was even
alive but the Greeks and the Chinese
weren't talking back then so they both
get credit for history before writing
people told stories and shared
technology with speech since speech
wasn't recorded historians took a look
at physical things left behind by early
people archaeologists are the people
that find ancient items underground
while archaeology may look exciting in
the movies there is a lot of dirt in
that job the time periods are named
after what materials people use to make
tools and weapons and how skillful they
were in making those things have you
ever tried making something from a rock
it is not easy
there are four different materials that
we use to describe periods of time stone
copper bronze and iron science helps
archeologists try to find out when the
different ages in history were as time
passes dust and dirt buildup on the
surface of the earth as archaeologists
dig deeper and deeper on sites where
past humans live what they find gets
older and older archeologists compare
the things they find with each other and
can also use chemistry on some items to
figure out when they were made here's a
timeline of the different ages now
there's a lot of vocabulary and dates
here but at least you didn't have to do
all of that digging and digging and
digging and digging now let's flip that
around since the earliest times are the
farthest from the surface the first age
of the Stone Age the Paleolithic era or
early Stone Age won't even all fit on
our timeline that's because this period
actually makes up 99% of all human
existence it was that long
here we find Spears axes and tools made
from stone that was chipped to be sharp
leftovers of humans using fire to cook
their food evidence that humans
domesticated dogs as pets and helpers
and even very simple sculptures and
paintings of animals and people the next
part of the Stone Age is called the meze
Oh lithic era or the middle Stone Age
this period of time had more advanced
stone carving and pottery and also
created bows and arrows fishing also
advanced with harpoons and fish hooks
the most significant invention of the
meze lithic era was early farming and
domestication of farm animals for milk
and food
people began to grow their own food
burning the ground before planting to
kill pests plowing the earth and then
using the ash to help their crops grow
the last part of the Stone Age is the
Neolithic era or the new Stone Age stone
tools from this age were grounded to
shape and polish rather than chipped
making them look much different art of
this age had more advanced figure
scorers and stronger and more
weatherproof houses were built farming
became more advanced during this period
cereal grains like wheat quinoa millet
and buckwheat were grown which was a big
change for humanity with these grains
people had a stable food source that
encouraged them to settle together near
their crops before moving on into the
Middle Ages let's look at what life is
like in stone Ages people were nomadic
moving from place to place to hunt and
gather food as the seasons changed when
thinking of the Stone Age many people
think of men hunting big animals while
this did happen the most successful
groups lived along rivers and fished
fishing was a good way of life for
people because fish don't tend to attack
people
River is also provided water and
transportation and eventually water for
farming crops while people did have to
defend themselves from wild animals
people worked 35 to 40 hours a week and
had more time to relax than many workers
do today they told stories around the
fire made our pet their dogs and created
the latest fashions
there is evidence of battles between
groups of people then but not much of it
it seems that most groups lived
peacefully people also had a life
expectancy of around 30 years which was
the same for thousands of years after
once people started
to settle and stops moving from place to
place technology started to move faster
people began to develop tools that were
more advanced they could be big and
heavy because they didn't have to be
moved or left behind this is when the
Middle Ages began the metal Ages are
also when writing systems developed so
now we're in history with both a lower
and uppercase H metals were used at
different times in different places but
they were always used in the same order
everywhere because bronze needs more
advanced technology than copper and iron
needs better technology than bronze
let's take a minute to talk a little
about use metal to understand the
materials and technology most of the
metals from these ages was discovered
close to the ground copper was the first
metal used by humans it can be melted
with a charcoal fire but it's also very
soft and can be hammered and bent easily
because it is so soft copper is not very
good for tools and weapons tin was also
used to make copper into bronze tin
melts at a very low temperature a wood
fire can melt it kin is also not as soft
as copper so mixing them together made
bronze stronger than copper and easier
to melt into molds to make tools Tim was
also more difficult to find than copper
without modern mining so it's rare to
find ancient items just made from tin
iron was discovered last by ancient
people Wow it's very common now it's not
a metal that's found often on its own
many of the iron weapons and tools came
from meteors that landed on earth and
this iron was considered very special
iron is very strong but it also melts at
a much higher temperature than copper or
tin making things with iron required
creating hotter
fires too melted and different ways to
create and sharpen tools now that you
understand the science and technology of
these metals you can understand more
about how humans discovered them and use
them daily life in the Middle Ages
became much different than in the stone
Age's people began to live in
civilizations that traded goods with
each other we know this because of
underwater archaeologists some ships
transporting goods for trade sank
leaving them on the bottom of the sea
for underwater archaeologists to find
wait underwater archaeologists really
well it seems not all archaeology
involves dirt now huh the metal ages saw
civilizations that had interconnected
economies and there was also a lot more
war why more Wars
well why Wars happen is always
complicated but people staying in cities
with more nice stuff to steal and better
weapons to fight with does explain part
of those wars since these groups stayed
in the same places we tend to study them
more by group by historical period the
Mycenaeans Minoans Hittites Egyptians
Harappans and Shang China are part of
the main groups of this general time
period and later the Mayans Aztecs and
Incas the end of the metal ages isn't as
clear as its beginning even today our
skyscrapers are made with steel which is
a metal made with iron as time goes on
people create and change technology and
sometimes technology also changes people
as your grandparents might tell you
looking back 99% of all human history is
in the early Stone Age when people
hunted and gathered then people made
better and better tools
and began to change the plants and
animals around them when farming was
able to support groups of people they
settled and continued to create and
refine ways to make tools technology
advanced much more quickly as farming
metals and trade created more
opportunities to create new things these
advancements may seem small now but they
helped us to get where we are today good
bye for now thanks for joining us
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