Chapter 1: The Rise of Civilizations "Hominid Diffusion"

Introduction
Students have read about the earliest hominids. In this activity students will learn more about one, Homo erectus, and how archaeologists use artifacts to understand and explain what life may have been like long before recorded history.

Lesson Description
Students will go to the Anthropology News Briefs Web site to read a news item about a discovery in the field of anthropology relating to an early species of hominid. They will then answer four questions about what they have read. Students are then asked to write a news item about the invention of the wheel.

Instructional Objectives
1. Students will learn how the use of scientific tools and analysis reveal information about a prehistoric culture.
2. Students will understand the importance of shared scientific knowledge, which allows scientists to develop and prove theories.

Student Web Activity Answers
1. They knew of earlier discoveries in East Africa of very similar tools of about the same age.
2. Flake technology is the shaping of tools so that they are sharper and lighter than a single, shaped rock.
3. Tool-making technology went with hominid migration. Also, scientists found two distinct types of tools, separated by one-half million years, which suggests more than one diffusion from Africa.
4. Students' answers will vary but will probably suggest a land approach along the coastline of Africa to present-day Israel. Based on what they learned in their student text, students know that Homo erectus lived in many areas, though there is no indication they took to water.

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