Who_were_the_first_people

USBORNE STARTING POINT HISTORY\nWHO WERE THE FIRST PEOPLE?\n\nWITH INTERNET LINKS Using Internet links\nThere are lots of exciting places on the Internet where you can find out about the first people. This book contains descriptions of Web sites that you can visit by clicking on links or on the Usborne Quicklinks Web site. Just go to www.usborne-quicklinks.com and enter the keywords \"starting people\". Here are some of the things you can do on the sites described in this book:\n\n* Watch an animation on the history of fire.\n* Take a virtual tour of cave paintings.\n* Listen to mammoth bone music.\n\nSafety on the Internet\nHere are a few simple rules to help keep you safe while you are online:\n\n* Ask your parent's or guardian's permission before you connect to the Internet.\n* Never give out information about yourself, such as your real name, address or phone number.\n* Never arrange to meet someone you started talking to on the Internet.\n* If a site asks you to log in or register by typing your name or e-mail address, ask permission from an adult first.\n* If you receive an e-mail from someone you don't know, tell an adult. Don't reply to it.\n\nCOMPUTER NOT ESSENTIAL\nIf you don't have access to the Internet, don't worry. This book is a complete, superb, self-contained reference book on its own.\n\nSite availability\nThe links in Usborne Quicklinks are regularly updated, but occasionally you may get a message that a site is unavailable. This might be temporary, so try again later. If any of the sites close down, we will, if possible, replace them with alternatives. You will find an up-to-date list of sites in Usborne Quicklinks.\n\nWhat you need\nMost of the Web sites listed in this book can be accessed using a standard home computer and a Web browser (the software that lets you look at information from the Internet). Some sites need extra programs (plug-ins) to play sound or show videos or animations. If you go to a site and do not have the necessary plug-in, a message will come up on the screen. There is usually a button on the site that you can click on to download the plug-in. Alternatively, go to Usborne Quicklinks and click on Net Help. There, you can find links to download plug-ins.\n\nNote for parents and guardians\nThe Web sites described in this book are regularly reviewed and the links in Usborne Quicklinks are updated. However, the content of a Web site may change at any time and Usborne Publishing is not responsible for the content on any Web site other than its own. We recommend that children are supervised while on the Internet, that they do not use Internet Chat Rooms, and that you use Internet filtering software to block unsuitable material. Please ensure that your children read and follow the safety guidelines printed on the left. For more information, see the Net Help area on the Usborne Quicklinks Web site.\n\nFor links to the Web sites described in this book go to www.usborne-quicklinks.com and enter the keywords \"starting people\". USBORNE STARTING POINT HISTORY\nWHO WERE THE FIRST PEOPLE?\n\nPhil Roxbee Cox & Struan Reid\n\nIllustrated by Gerald Wood\nDesigned by Diane Thistlethwaite & Vicki Groombridge\n\nCover design: Russell Punter\nCover illustration: InklinkFirenze\nHistory consultants: Nick Merriman & Anne Millard\nResearch assistant: Georgina Andrews\nSeries editor: Jane Chisholm\n\nCONTENTS\n\n2 Who were the first people? 22 How did they understand each other?\n6 What did they look like? 24 How did they get around?\n8 Did they really live in caves? 26 How did farming change their lives?\n12 Did they hunt dinosaurs? 28 Did they believe in God?\n16 What tools did they use? 30 What goes on at an archaeological dig?\n20 Why was fire so important? 32 Index and Answers Who were the first people?\nNo one knows for sure. They lived such a long time ago. But scientists believe people have been around for about two million years.\nWhat did they look like?\nA little different from us. Most scientists believe that very early people, animals and plants have changed, or evolved, into modern people, animals and plants. This is called evolution.\nThis picture shows a few stages in the evolution of Earth.\nWhat did the first people eat?\nThey fed themselves by gathering plants and, later, by hunting animals for food. Scientists call them “hunter-gatherers”.\nThese animals are walking, swimming or flying along a \"time line\" in groups. The farther to the right their group is, the farther back in time they are. Look at the key to find out what they were called.\nFirst appeared 4,000 to 10,000 years ago. Where in the world did they live?\nAll over the place. Some of our earliest ancestors probably came from Africa. By about 1.5 million years ago, people were living in the Middle East too.\nHalf a million years after that, people lived in Europe and Asia.\nOf course, these places didn’t have these names then. There were no such things as countries.\nHow did they reach these places?\nThey walked. In fact, hunter-gatherers walked just about everywhere.\nA group of them might have walked a few miles and settled in a new place.\nWhen their children grew up, this new generation might then move on a few more miles.\nHow many people were there in prehistoric times?\nThere were probably only twenty or thirty thousand of the first “true” human beings in the whole world. (Scientists call them Homo sapiens sapiens.)\nThis may sound like quite a crowd, but today there are about six billion people on the planet.\nFirst appeared 54 million to 135 million years ago What does \"prehistoric\" mean?\n\"Before history\". This was the time before people left any books or writings behind. Prehistory lasted for millions of years. It’s much longer than history.\nHow do we know anything about prehistoric people?\nOnly through the hard work of archaeologists. These are people who seek out, dig up and study very old objects and remains.\nThis object was found by archaeologists. What is it? A knife? A comb?\nBy comparing it with earlier finds, and studying things near it, archaeologists realized the object was a spearhead.\nFirst appeared 2 million to 54 million years ago. Were they stupid? Certainly not. Today, people build on and improve ideas, inventions and discoveries made by people from earlier times. The earliest people had to find out everything for themselves.\n\nKey\n1 Coryphodon 12 Archaeopteryx 22 Meganeura\n2 Eotrachodon 13 Compsognathus 23 Sea Lillies\n3 Oryctodromeus 14 Turtles 24 Edaphosaurus\n4 Uintatherium 15 Corythosaurus 25 Mi lekosaurus\n5 Coelacanth 16 Dimorphodon 26 Cockroach\n6 Hyrachytes 17 Diplodocus 27 Ichthyostega\n7 Dimetrodon 18 Sabertosuchus 28 Cystoid\n8 Pteranodon 19 Icthyosaur 29 Etyleroid\n9 Plesiosaur 20 Cegasaurus 30 Sea Scorpion\n10 T-Rex 21 Ammonite 31 Trilobite\n\nFirst appeared 135 million to 225 million years ago\n\nHow big were their brains? The more advanced our ancestors became, the bigger brains they had. We know this because the fossils of the skulls of very early people are smaller than later human skulls.\n\nThis fossilized skull was once on the neck of an early man. There wasn't much room for his brain in this skull.\n\nThis is an early Homo sapiens skull. The domed area on top had room for a much bigger brain inside it.\n\nThis is the skull of a modern day woman. You can see that her skull is much bigger to fit her large brain.\n\nThis is the end of the \"time line\" that started at the bottom of page 2. It has taken us right back through time to the very first insect. The names of the animals on these two pages are in the yellow box.\n\nFirst appeared 225 million to 550 million years ago What did they look like? No one knows for sure. Our earliest ancestors didn't paint detailed pictures of each other, or take photographs, so we have very few clues. Most ideas of what they looked like come from studying their remains.\n\nThis scene shows some of our early ancestors back from a cold day's hunting.\n\nThis boy wants his supper.\n\nAnimal fur\n\nHarpoon for spearing fish\n\nThis tiny carving of a person's head is over 25,000 years old.\n\nIt is cold outside, so this fire is needed to keep them warm.\n\nShells for decoration\n\nClothes made from animal skins.\n\nThis early Homo sapiens is only slightly shorter than the much more modern man standing behind him.\n\nThis girl will go hunting with her parents when she is older. Did they bother to cut their hair? Probably. Carvings of heads have been found, showing people with quite fancy hairstyles. How often they washed their hair is another matter.\n\nThese carvings show two very different hairstyles.\n\nDid they wear jewels? Not precious gems. But they did wear necklaces, pendants and earrings made from other things.\n\nWhat did they make necklaces out of? All sorts of things. Mainly fossils, shells, teeth and bones. This shell and bone necklace would have been a treasured possession.\n\nAre archaeologists ever fooled? Yes, they're only human. In 1913, a skull was found at a place called Piltdown in England. It had the head shape of a man, but the jaw shape of an ape. Archaeologists were very excited. 40 years later, it was proved to be a trick. Someone had attached an orangutan’s jaw to a human skull! Did they really live in caves?\nSome early people did, but most couldn't. Unlike houses, caves can't be built, and there weren't enough to go around. Those who were lucky enough to find a cave lived near the opening. Inside a cave, it was dark and there was no chimney to let out the smoke and smells.\n\nHow do we know all this?\nFrom the work of archaeologists who study remains of our ancestors' homes. You can find out more on pages 30 and 31.\n\nThese remains of a prehistoric home have been uncovered by archaeologists.\n\nFireplace\n\nAnimal bones\n\nCooking tools\n\nTools to scrape with\n\nThis shows a settlement of hunter-gatherers.\n\nThese men are building a tent. One of them is smiling because it will be his new home.\n\nBranches\n\nAll the dead animals' flesh is being scraped off the skins so they can be used for clothes.\n\nA bump on the head\n\nFirewood\n\nAnimal skins for the walls.