Test topics for revision

Dear 7X,

Your first test for History will not be an ordeal, I promise. My little Stone Age man is being much more critical than I deserve. Besides, I may be old, but I don’t have quite the authority of a tribal elder…

The topics below will help you to prepare for the test. You should also concentrate on the class work in the next few days, before you go on camp next week.

Kind regards,

Ms Green.

TOPICS FOR REVISION:

◦BC, AD, BCE, CE, BP

◦The Stone Age (use the quizzes on this blog to help you revise).

◦The life and death of the Neanderthals; comparisons between them and homo sapiens (us)

Summary: The Neanderthals appeared about 300,000 years ago and died out about 35,000 years ago. Their brains were larger than ours; they were strong and well-adapted to the ice ages; they made tools and they were effective hunters. Perhaps most interesting of all, they buried their dead and looked after the old and infirm. YET they did not survive.

Modern humans, called homo sapiens (wise or knowing man [person]) developed more sophisticated tools than the Neanderthals did. They were the first to create art works as far as we know.  They are generally believed to have developed more complex language skills than Neanderthals. They are the only hominid to farm and learn to write, but they did not begin to do so until long after the Neanderthals had become extinct. For most of their history (that’s our prehistory!) they were hunter-gatherers. That period and lifestyle lasted for almost 2 million years.

◦The Old Stone Age (hunting and gathering) and the New Stone Age (farming and herding)

◦The hunter-gatherer lifestyle that dominated human life from 2 million years ago until about 10.000 years ago, and continued in many parts of the world for much longer

Summary: People moved from place to place. In other words, they were nomads, who followed the migrating herds of wild animals and moved around to find wild plants. They hunted wild animals for meat and gathered wild foods such as berries, nuts, fruits, vegetables and eggs, using stone tools and weapons. Their lives would have been harsh and difficult at times.  They had to find food during the Ice Ages, suffer fractures and injuries caused by hunting and deal with constant uncertainties about food, especially in the less fertile areas.

◦The farming and herding lifestyle that began to develop in the New Stone Age; advantages and disadvantages of each kind of lifestyle

Summary: Farming and herding began about 10,000 years ago in the Middle East and spread inexorably from there to Europe. It also began independently in Asia and the Americas a little later. It changed human societies and lifestyles in many ways. For instance, people could stay in one place and gradually build larger settlements.  People’s jobs began to vary more within more complex societies, with specialists such as builders, potters and leaders, etc. People began to have more possessions, which needed to be protected from theft and conquest. Since the land was being farmed intensively, it could support a denser population. In short, this change to farming and herding, many anthropologists believe, was the basis for more structured and more hierarchical societies.

◦Primary and secondary sources in history

We shall be covering this topic in class this week. We shall also be learning about archaeological methods, and there will be some questions on the test based on Ötzi, the iceman mummy.

Suggested revision: Can you answer all the questions on page 16 of your Stone Age booklet?