Warm ups 2.28.2017 *Name and briefly describe one of Africa s geographic regions.
Lesson Objective: *describe general time periods that the study of African history can be divided into *describe methods scientists use to create theories about early human history
Eras of African History *for the purposes of this class getting a very brief look into some of Africa s rich history, we will break it into different eras of history
Eras of African History *Prehistoric / early human period *Early Civilizations *Emergence of Kingdoms *Slave Trade / Colonialism *Independence
Prehistoric / Early Human Period *for the record, some of the material in this lesson may be contrary to some of your personal religious beliefs (and that s totally fine) *the purpose is definitely not to change your mind, it s just to look at theories and methods of analyzing early human history
Estimating Time Periods / Age *Does anyone know some of the various methods that scientists use to estimate the age or dates of fossils and other things?
Estimating Time Periods / Age *there are many types of dating that involve the same process of measuring how much of a certain element remains in a fossil, because those elements decay at a predictable rate, like a clock *these include Carbon-14, Potassium-Argon, Argon-Argon, or some others
*basically, all living things have carbon in them C-14 Dating *this carbon decays by half every 5730 years, so they can estimate age based on how much carbon has decayed
Paleomagnetism *What s the difference between true north and magnetic north? *Your compass isn t pointing to the north pole, it s pointing to where magnetic north is, and the location of magnetic north slowly changes over time
Paleomagnetism *scientists use the magnetic particles in layers of sediment to compare to the shifts in Earth s magnetic field to estimate a date
Biochronology *since animal species change over time, dates of archaeological sites can be estimated based on the DNA of animals found there
Early Humans in Africa *the earliest fossils of homo sapiens (you and me), were found at Omo Kibish in Ethiopia, and are estimated to be around 200,000 years old
Early Human Milestones Fire: burned bones leftover from meals have been found in present-day South Africa that have been dated to be between 1 and 1.5 million years old *development of fire changed facial structure (fewer muscles for chewing needed), and allowed much more nutrition, which helped develop our brains
Early Human Milestones Tools: use of stone tools goes back to as long as 2.5 million years ago
Early Human Milestones Art: the expression of symbolic thought shows great brain development *decorated shells have been found in Africa that date as far back as 100,000 years *these are made from snail shells that are only found 800 miles away from where the necklace was discovered!
Humans On the Move *around 60,000 years ago, humans began leaving Africa *this was during an Ice Age, so they estimate that sea levels were about 250 feet lower than they are today
Humans On the Move *this interactive map will show us some specific migration routes that humans are believed to have taken https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/human-j ourney/