1.1 The First Humans -TEACH-

• History
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 1

Discuss, search and answer:

How do we know how Prehistoric people lived?

Start-of-the-lesson group task:

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Make groups of 2 or 3

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You hand in 1 joint answer.

Start-of-the-lesson group task:
One answer per group:
How do we know how Prehistoric people lived?

1. The Age of Hunters and Farmers

1.1 The first humans

what do you learn today?

how the first humans lived

evolution theory versus creation narrative

how do we get our knowledge of the past: SOURCES

Where do humans come from?

For thousands of years, people answered this question by explaining that a god or a number of gods created humans. A well-known example of this is the story of Adam and Eve. These first man and woman were made by God and lived in paradise until they ate from the forbidden tree. A story like this is an example of a creation narrative.

But scientists have another explanation about the origin of humans. They studied the bones of Lucy and learned that the first humans lived in Africa and that they looked completely different from how we look today. Still, these scientists say that they were our ancestors because they walked on two legs. So they must have changed if they had become like us. How is that possible?

Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden by Wenzel Peter, 19th century, Vatican Museum

Theory of evolution

This was also the most important question that the biologist Charles Darwin asked himself around 1850. On his travels he discovered that species change over time. They adapt themselves to their environment in order to survive. A polar bear is white because it lives in the snow and a giraffe has a long neck to eat leaves on high trees. This process of adaption can take millions of years.

Darwin’s idea is called the theory of evolution. He also wrote that humans and apes have the same ancestors. It took three million years for these first humans to change into the people that we are today. In the family tree below you can see the different human-like ancestors that used to be alive.

Charles Darwin, 1809 - 1882

This is the human family tree, with the different species of early humans.

The Latin word Homo means ‘man’. When we talk about humans we use this word. For example: Homo habilis was ‘the tool using man’ and Homo erectus ‘the upright man’. We modern humans are Homo sapiens sapiens which means ‘very wise man’.

Create the correct story of the video by dragging the texts to the correct place.

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Europe suffered from an Ice Age while Africa became hot and dry.

Neanderthals became extinct.

1 million years ago Heidelbergensis lived 

in Europe and Africa

30,000 years ago Homo Sapiens migrated from Africa 

to Europe

The climate changed:

Homo Sapiens is the only remaining species of humans.

Heidelbergensis could not use imagination as we can

European Heidelbergensis evolved into Neanderthals and African Heidelbergensis into Homo Sapiens

Read the text "Out of Africa"

Describe the Out of Africa theory in your own words.

congratulations