| Term | Definition |
|---|
| anthropology | the study of humans and their societies and cultures |
| archaeology | the study of past cultures by examining artifacts and other data (for example geographic attributes) from earlier times |
| artifacts | human made objects that archaeologists study for clues about past cultures |
| australopithecus afarensis | no true culture lived between 6.8 mya & 1.5 mya were bipedal in east africa were omnivores |
| cro-magnon | earliest homo sapien sapiens found in europe lived from 40,000 to 10,000 years ago named after the place in france where the first skeletons were found. The illustraters of the Lascaux caves |
| culture | is the accumulated habits attitudes and beliefs of a group of people that define for them theirway of life that is transmitted from generation to generation the total set of learned acrivities of people |
| fossils | from L fossus ("dig up") the mineralized remnants or imprints of living organisms |
| genus | in taxonomy a subdivision of a family that includes a group of species that share similar characteristics |
| Great Rift Valley | a vally in east africa running from hadar ethiopia through Kenya and to Olduvai gorge tanzania and laetoli tanzania. the vally is created by the pulling apart of tchtonic plates |
| Hadar, Ethiopia | Located in Afar, Ethiopia part of the great rift valley where Lucy's remains were found |
| hominids | in taxonomy the family that includes humans |
| Homo Erectus | lived between 1.7 mya and 200,000 ya. Began migrating. Cranium grew. Better tools!!! |
| Homo Habilis | the tool making man 3-1.6 mya. lived in southern africa. omnivores; hunter-gatherers. made first good tools |
| Homo sapiens | "symbol making" humans |
| Homo sapiens neanderthalus | lived from 120,000-35,000 cranium size the same as ours organized used fire evidence of burial and ornaments evidence of more sophisticated tools |
| Homo sapien sapiens | Modern man (us)! |
| Homo | The taxonomic genus that includes modern man |
| hunter-gatherer | made food gathering involving hunting and gathering of avaliable wild food sources avaliability of food depends on seasonclimate and ecosystem as well as sophistication of hunting tools |
| "Lucy" | incomplete skeleton of 3.2 mya female austalopiticus afarensis found by Donald Johanson in 1974 Hadar Ethiopia |
| Laetoli footprints | fossilized footprints approximately 3,6 mya of a family of australopithicus aferensis found in Laetoli Tanzania shows bipedal ansestors |
| nomadic | moving from place to place (in order to find food and gather stuffs) |
| Olduvai Gorge | the southern end of the Great Rift Valley a rich area for early hominid fossils |
| Paleolithic era | approximately 100,000-10,000 bce the pre history when man began making stone tools and began a nomadic life |
| phylogeny | evolutionary history of a particular taxonomic group |
| prehistory | the period of human history before the invention of written language |
| species | a taxonomic group whose members can interbreed |
| radiocarbon dating | one of many methods of dating fossils and one of the early tools if anthropologists. today paleontologists have a large array of scientific dating and DNA tools avaliable |
| taxonomy | the science of naming and classifying organisms |
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