The Early Human World

by Robertshaw, Peter; Rubalcaba, Jill

• ISBN13: 9780195161571
• ISBN10: 0195161572
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-02-10
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

A six-million-year-old jaw bone in Ethiopia proves to be a piece of the earliest hominid discovered-so far. Big Mama, who used a tree branch to escape from a zoo in Holland, is found sipping chocolate milk at a local restaurant. Nandy, a 50,000-year-old skeleton surrounded by flower pollen inIraq, casts doubt on the beastly reputation of an early hominid. Found frozen in the Alps, Otzi reveals what people in Europe ate 5,000 years ago. Ardipithecus ramidus kadabba, a chimpanzee, a Neandertal, and the Iceman are just some of the characters who make up The Early Human World. Peter Robertshaw and Jill Rubalcaba tell the story of early human life using an incredible variety of primary sources: 3.5-million-year-old footprints preserved by a volcano provide evidence of our ancestors' walking on two legs. Stone flakes fashioned 2 million years ago prove early hominids usedtools. Bears, lions, and rhinoceroses painted in a cave 30,000 years ago reveal our ancestors' artistic side. An 8,500-year-old dog grave shows the extraordinarily long history of man's best friend. This evidence helps archaeologists decipher not just how we came to be the Homo sapiens we are today,but also what life may have been like for our earliest ancestors. The first Australians encountered freakishly gigantic beasts: kangaroos as big as houses and tortoises the size of cars. The Sahara Desert was once a fertile land, supporting herds of cattle, sheep, and goats. The Early Human Worldtakes readers to sites around the world as archaeologists piece together the clues to our past.For grades 6-8.

Author Biography

Peter Robertshaw is an archaeologist and professor of anthropology at California State University, San Bernardino. His research focuses on the later prehistory and precolonial history of sub-Saharan Africa and has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Geographic Society, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Jill Rubalcaba began her working life as a college- and high-school mathematics teacher, all the while continuing to go to school to study more math, writing, and business. Later she worked as an engineer on the Patriot Missile. Ms. Rubalcaba is grateful to her children, Kelly and Dan, for showing her the joys of writing for children. Jill Rubalcaba is the author of several books for young adults, including The Wadjet Eye, Place in the Sun, and The Early Human World.

Table of Contents

Cast of Characters	9	(3)
Map of the Early Human World	12	(2)
The Cosmic Journey: Our Place in Time	14	(6)
The Big Dig: The Earliest Hominids---So Far	20	(5)
Who's the Fairest of Them All? Our Place in Nature	25	(7)
A Walk on the Wild Side: Bipeds Step Out	32	(4)
Lucy: The Family Bush: More Hominids	36	(6)
Homo Habilis: Toolmaking and the Hammering Hominid	42	(6)
Stones and Bones: The Old Stone Age	48	(7)
Finding Fabulous Fossils: Turkana Boy	55	(5)
Connect The Dots: Peopling the Globe	60	(7)
Once Upon a Rhino Tooth...The Story of Hunting	67	(6)
Will The Real Neandertal Please Stand Up? Neandertal---Beauty or the Beast?	73	(8)
Brain Food: The Middle Stone Age	81	(4)
I've Got You Under My Skin: Modern Human Origins	85	(5)
Duck Hunting---Run! The Peopling of Australia	90	(3)
On the Way to the Mall: Complex Paleolithic Technology	93	(5)
Crawling Through Caves: Rock Art	98	(7)
Doubting Thomas: Peopling of the Americas	105	(7)
Earth's Photo Albums: The End of the Last Ice Age	112	(7)
The Farmer in the Tell: Domestication of Plants and Animals	119	(6)
Dear Diary: Origins of Settled Life	125	(6)
Dead Men Talking: Metals and Monuments in Europe	131	(6)
Got Milk? Farming in Africa	137	(5)
Westward, No! The Peopling of the Pacific	142	(7)
Mutant Ears Take Over: The Origins of Farming in the Americas	149	(5)
An Unauthorized Travel Guide to North America: Complex Societies	154	(7)
Afterword	161	(1)
Timeline	162	(3)
Futher Reading	165	(3)
Websites	168	(2)
Index	170	(4)
Text Credits	174