How We Do History

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Three Age System

Archaeology and Physical Anthropology

Stone Age: 2.5 mya - 4,000 BCE

Bronze Age: 4,000 BCE - 1300 BCE

Iron Age: 1300 BCE - 400 CE

What is common in evidence for each?

What assumption is about it?

Problems with the Three Age System

Different Hominids

Different Stone Tools

Different Ways of Life

Scavenger

Hunter - Gatherer

Farmer

Archeological

Period

Dates

Group

Way of Life

Tool

Kit

Historical

5,500 ya (3500 BCE) – Present

Homo sapiens

City

Farming

Craft

Trade

Writing

Construction

Metals

Wheels

Specialized

Neolithic

12,000 ya –

5,500 ya

Homo sapiens

Village

Farmer

Neolithic

Stone Tools

Agriculture

Specialized

Upper Paleolithic

30,000 ya – 12,000 ya

Homo sapiens

Nomadic

Hunter and Gatherer

Upper Paleolithic

Stone Tools

Regional Cultures -

Specialized

Middle Paleolithic

250,000 ya – 30,000 ya

Homo neanderthalensis

Nomadic

Hunter and Gatherer

Stone Tools

Mousterian

Tradition –

Complex

Lower Paleolithic

1.8 mya – 250,000 ya

Homo erectus

Homo ergaster

(Africa)

Nomadic

Hunter and Gatherer

Stone Tools

Acheulean

Tradition

Fire

Paleolithic

2 mya –

1.8 mya

Homo habilis

Nomadic

Scavenger?

Stone Tools

Eoliths

Oldowan Tradition

Bronze Age (Empires)

Sumerian Cities

Empires of Akkad, Babylon

Empire of Egypt

Empire of Hittites

Empire of Mycenaeans

Collapse

Iron Age - Greeks

prehistory periodization

an unhappy compromise