These slides discuss the Holocene period in relation to human history.

1. RTPM-DSHS
Compiled by Sue Quirante

2. USAGE NOTES
These slides were prepared by Ms. Sue Quirante, a
secondary public school teacher in the Philippines.
All copyrighted material were lifted by her in the
spirit of fair use. As such, this presentation should
not be used for any commercial purpose.
Last updated October 9, 2016

3. GEOLOGIC TIME
SCALE
The GTS is a system of chronological
measurement that relates rock layers to time.

5. GEOLOGIC TIME
SCALE
Different spans of time on the GTS are
usually delimited by changes in the
composition of strata.

6. GEOLOGIC TIME
SCALE
The geologic history of the Earth is broken up into
hierarchical chunks of time, from largest to
smallest.

11. GEOLOGIC TIME
SCALE

12. GEOLOGIC TIME
SCALE Time Period Name
EON Phanerozoic
ERA Cenozoic
PERIOD Quaternary
EPOCH Holocene

13. PLEISTOCENE
pleistos : most
kainos : new

14. CENOZOIC
ceno : new
zoion : animal

15. HOLOCENE
holo : whole
kainos : new

16. ospanned 2.6mya to 11,
700 years ago
omost recent episode of
glaciation or global
cooling (ice age)
oevolution and
expansion of Homo
sapiens

17. 27% of the earth's land surfaces were covered by ice around 20,000 years ago

18. Glacial
glacier advance
Interglacial
glacier retreat
-dramatic climate
swings
-many animals
driven to
extinction
-humanity
survived by
becoming
more intelligent
and adaptable

19. Old Stone Age
begun 1.2mya and ended 10,000
years ago

20. stone was the most
vital material for
making tools and
weapons
hand axes appeared
700,000 years ago
Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania
found with remains of H.
erectus

21. stone was the most
vital material for
making tools and
weapons
hand axes appeared
700,000 years ago
Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania
found with remains of H.
erectus

22. stone was the most
vital material for
making tools and
weapons
hand axes appeared
700,000 years ago
Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania
found with remains of H.
erectus

23. Nomads (hunter-gatherers)
o hunting and fishing wild animals
o gathering wild plants, berries, nuts,
roots and tubers
o lived in small groups which provided
security and enabled hunting of large
animals
o average life span was 20 – 25 years

24. There was a video here but I took it out to reduce file
size.
It talked about two evolutionary strategies for
surviving colder climates: 1) growing robust bodies
(“toughening yourself up” or 2) growing larger brains
(intelligence allowed humans to develop
cultural/technological adaptations such as use of fire
and clothing in cold climates.
You can view the video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndwzAw8fchU

25. HOW DID WE SURVIVE THE
PLEISTOCENE?
new cultural technology to
deal with cold
environments and
changing food sources

26. HOW DID WE SURVIVE THE
PLEISTOCENE?
problem:
scarcity of plant foods
that humans could eat
during the winters
solution:
ancestors became
more proficient at
hunting animals,
especially large ones

27. Venus of Willendorf (25,000 BCE)
sculpted from limestone
found in Willendorf, Austria
one of many similar female
carvings called Venus Figurines

28. AUSTRIA

29. 1 extraction : digging, the deeper
the older
2 typology : if complex, recent
3 Carbon-14 dating : measure of
amount of carbon-14 in an
object, only works for living
objects

30. Hall of Bulls
(28,000 – 10,000 BCE)
found in Lascaux,
France

31. LASCAUX, FRANCE

32. Cueva de las
Manos
(13,000 – 9,500
BCE)
Patagonia,
southern Argentina

33. PATAGONIA, ARGENTINA

35. current geological epoch which started
some 11,500 years ago when the glaciers
began to retreat, marking the end of the
glacial phase of the most recent ice age

36. HOLOCENE INTERGLACIAL

37. o sometimes called “Anthropogene” or
“Age of Man”
Note: Modern humans had evolved and
dispersed all over the world well before the
start of the Holocene

38. ospread of forests
osubsequent
shrinkage of forests
as mankind’s
demand for timber
and agricultural land
grew

39. Although we think of the
Holocene as a warm time
for the planet, we are still in
an ice age. This is indicated
by the presence of ice caps
at the poles - the planet as
a whole is just in an
interglacial phase.

40. An interglacial period
is a geological interval
of warmer global
average temperature
lasting thousands of
years that separates
consecutive glacial
periods within an ice
age.

41. New Stone Age
attained at the beginning of the
Holocene Epoch 11,700 years
ago until around 1800BCE
gradually occurred across Asia
and Europe from a starting point
in the Fertile Crescent

45. New Stone Age
cultivation and animal
domestication first appeared
in southwestern Asia by
about 9000 BCE
farming and settled villages
had been firmly achieved by
7000 BCE in the Tigris and
Euphrates river valleys

49. New Stone Age
stone tools shaped by
polishing and grinding
dependence on
domesticated plants or
animals
settlement in permanent
villages (sedentism)
appearance of crafts
such as pottery and
weaving

51. What’s the
difference
between
Horticulture &
Agriculture?
(as used in archaeology
and anthropology)

52. HORTICULTURE
distinguished by
the use of hand
tools to grow
domesticated
plants

53. INTENSIVE
AGRICULTURE
use of irrigation,
draft animals,
terracing, natural
fertilizers,
selective breeding,
mechanization,
etc., to grow more
food

55. Why do you think the
Neolithic Revolution
occurred?

56. REFERENCES
University of California Museum of Paleontology
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/exhibit/histgeoscale.php
BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/history_of_the_earth/Holocene
Mr. Giotto’s Site
http://www.penfield.edu/webpages/jgiotto/onlinetextbook.cfm?subp
age=1525824
Brittanica
http://www.britannica.com/event/Paleolithic-Period
Climate Change and Human Evolution
http://anthro.palomar.edu/homo/homo_3.htm