Early Human Migration
Ice Ages
Settling New Lands
Clothing and Shelter
Tools and Technologies
Vocabulary
migration
Began 1.6 million years ago
Ice Covered most of the land: 
ice ages
Huge sheets of ice covered much of the earth's land.
Ice sheets were formed from ocean water - ocean levels were lower than they are now (areas under water today were dry then).
Some scientists believe that the ocean level dropped and exposed a land bridge that connected Asia and North America, that allowed Stone Age people to migrate around the world.
Migration took hundreds of thousands of years.
Early hominids migrated from Africa to Asia as early as 2 million years ago.
Early hominids then spread to Southeast Asia and Europe.
Mesolithic Era
As humans began to migrate around the world, earlier hominids died out.
ASIA
Humans began to migrate from E. Africa to Southern Africa and southwestern Asia around 100,000 years ago.
People then moved east across southern Asia.
Scientists are not sure exactly how the first people reached Australia.
NORTH INTO EUROPE
From southwestern Asia, humans migrated north into Europe.
Geographic features (high mountains and cold temperatures) delayed migration northward into northern Asia, but people eventually migrated into that region.
NORTH INTO THE AMERICAS
From northern Asia, people moved into North America.
Scientists disagree on when and how the first people arrived in North America.
Most scholars think people must have crossed a land bridge.
Once in North America, people moved south, following herds of animals and settling South America.
By 9000 BC, humans lived on all continents of the world except Antarctica.
As people moved to new lands, they found they had to adapt to new and different environments.
Fire helped to keep people warm, but they needed more protection so they learned to sew animal skins together to make clothing.
People also needed protection from the environment so they built shelters when caves weren't available.
They learned to build pit houses - a pit in the ground with roofs of branches and leaves.
They also learned to build homes above ground. Some lived in tents made of animal skins. Others lived in more permanent homes made of wood, stone, clay, and even large mammoth bones.
Tools became smaller and more complex than tools from the Old Stone Age or Paleolithic Era.
New tools defined the Mesolithic Era, or Middle Stone Age that began more than 10,000 years ago and lasted until about 5000 years ago.
During this time, people found new uses for bone and stone tools.
People who lived near water invented hooks and fishing spears.
Other groups invented the bow and arrow.
In addition to tools, people developed new technologies to improve their lives, such as canoes made from hollowing out logs and pottery.
People also kept what may be the first pets - they kept dogs to help them hunt and for protection.
Early people adapted to their new environments with new kinds of clothing, shelter, tools, and other inventions.
Vocabulary
Oasis
Definition
Arid
landbridge