Prehistory and Ancient Age – History in Selectivity. In this topic we want to explain to you in detail and clearly how the period of prehistory and ancient times, one of the most recurrent in the selectivity tests, was and how it developed.
Prehistory and Ancient Age – History in Selectivity
In this article on prehistory you will be able to know what the General features of Prehistory and Atapuercawho were the pre-roman peopleshow were carried out historical colonizations of Phoenicians, Greeks and Carthaginians. what was the conquest and romanization, the barbarian invasions and the Visigoth kingdom.
General features of Prehistory. Atapuerca.
The term Prehistory it was coined in the 19th century to give a scientific periodization to the past.
The term Prehistory (“before history”, from the Latin pre before inhistory history) indicates that period of time that goes since the appearance of man on earthabout 2 million and 500 thousand years ago in Africa, until The invention of writing traditionally dates back to the fourth millennium BC in Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq).
Prehistory is not an age ‘devoid of civilization’, as it seems at first sight to be thinking.
In fact, before expressing ourselves in writing, our ancestors have left signs of their existence through the art and the technique: drawing, engraving or working with materials are related to the development of language and forms of social organization. Dance was also practised, as evidenced by heel prints imprinted in the clay and arranged to make you think of rhythmic movements, and music, attested to by the remains of rudimentary flutes made from drilled bones. How these forms of non-verbal expression have arisen is still a mystery.
It is in the appearance of the first forms of writing, when the beginning of the true history conventionally, because the man leaves a memory of himself with written testimonies.
Prehistory is generally divided into 3 main periods:
- Paleolithic (or old Stone Age, from Palaios “old” and lithos, “stone”) from 2,500,000 to 10,000 years BC. Humans lived in nomadic groups and practiced hunting, fishing, and gathering.
- Mesolithic (or Middle Stone Age, from “middle” mesos and “stone” lithos) from 10,000 to 8,000 BC.
- Neolithic (from nèos «new» and lithos «of stone») from 8000 to 4000 BC. Agriculture and breeding are born, from which important consequences arise.
The longest phase of Stone Age culture, known as the period paleolithicis a hunter-gatherer culture that is generally divided into three parts:
- Lower Paleolithic (2,500,000-200,000 BC)
Middle Paleolithic (200,000-40,000 BC)
Upper Paleolithic (40,000-10,000 BC).
After this comes a transition phase called the period Mesolithic (sometimes known as Epipaleolithic), ending with the spread of agriculture, followed by the Neolithic period (the New Stone Age) which saw the establishment of permanent settlements. The Stone Age ends as stone tools are replaced by the new products of bronze and iron metallurgy, and is followed by the Bronze Age and the Iron Age.
- Paleolithic Period (2,500,000 – 10,000 BC)
Traditionally, this period is divided into three subsections: the Lower Paleolithic, the Middle Paleolithic and the Upper Paleolithic, each with marked advances (especially in tool technology) between different human cultures. In essence, Paleolithic Man lived solely by hunting and gathering, while their successors during late Mesolithic and Neolithic times developed systems of agriculture and ultimately permanent settlements.
Survival was not easy, especially due to numerous adverse climatic changes: on four separate occasions, the northern latitudes experienced ice ages resulting in waves of freezing and thawing, and causing widespread migrations or deaths. In fact, the development of human culture during Paleolithic times was repeatedly and profoundly affected by environmental factors. Paleolithic humans were food foragers, who depended on their subsistence to hunt wild animals, fish, and gather berries, fruits, and nuts. It was not until about 8,000 BC that safer methods of feeding (agriculture and domestication of animals) were adopted.
- The Lower Paleolithic era (2,500,000 – 200,000 BC)
This is the oldest period of the Paleolithic Age. It extends from the first appearance of Man as a tool-creating mammal to the advent of major evolutionary and technological changes that marked the beginning of the Middle Palaeolithic. It witnessed the rise of three different tool-based cultures: Olduwan Culture (2,500,000-1,500,000 BC); Acheulean culture (1,650,000-100,000 BC); and the Clacton culture (c.400,000–300,000 BC). In a sense, stone tools represented the “art” of this period, the key form of creative human expression.
- Middle Paleolithic Era (200,000 – 40,000 BC)
The Middle Paleolithic period is the second stage of the Paleolithic Era, applied to Europe, Africa and Asiaa. The dominant Paleolithic culture was the Mousterian a point tool industry characterized largely by the point and side scraper, associated (in Europe) with the Homo neanderthalensiyes. This was not a period of great inventions, but important improvements were made in the basic tool-making process and in the scope and proper use of manufactured implements. Towards the end of the period, tool technology Mousterian it was improved upon by another culture known as the Levallois, and was practiced in North Africa, the Middle East, and as far away as Siberia.
At this point we have to talk about Atapuerca (Burgos) since in the excavations carried out in this locality remains of men were discovered (Homo ancestor) with an antiquity of more than a million years, surpassing then Neanderthal man, also having a lithic industry (worked edges, pebble culture), who also knew what fire was, practiced cannibalism and had a cranial capacity very similar to Neanderthal man but they were older.
The Sima de los Huesos cave has been the place where remains of a much more recent and evolved Homo have been found.Homo heidelbergensis with an antiquity of 300,000 years, so it could be a descendant of the homo antecessor from which it evolved from it in Europe. The Homo heidelbergensis he practiced the handaxe industry, possibly he buried his dead (Sima de los Huesos de Atapuerca), in addition to practicing big game hunting (elephant hunters in Torralba and Ambrona), but he was not our ancestor, although thanks to all these discoveries and finds Atapuerca is the most important paleolithic site in Europe.
- Upper Paleolithic Era (40,000 – 8,000 BC)
The Upper Palaeolithic is the final and shortest stage of the Palaeolithic Age: less than 15 percent of the length of the preceding Middle Palaeolithic. When referring to Africa, it is more commonly known as the Late Stone Age. In addition to more specialized tools and a more sophisticated lifestyle, the Upper Paleolithic culture spawned thehe first widespread appearance of human painting and sculpture, which appeared simultaneously in almost every corner of the world. Furthermore, from the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic period, the Neanderthal Man subspecies of Homo sapiens was superseded by “anatomically modern humans” (e.g. Cro-Magnon man) who became the only hominid inhabitants in all of continental Europe. which lived in caves and possessed a developed technology that they shared in larger groups, leaving remains all over the world.
The Upper Palaeolithic is a period in which the art takes on special relevance if we look at the infinity of paintings with which they decorated their caves, highlighting above all the art that was found in the Altamira cave (Cantabria) although there are caves painted with similar motifs throughout the northern peninsular area from Galicia to Aragon.
In the year 10,000 BC approximately is when a climatic change takes place, so the glaciations end so that the era for the Upper Paleolithic hunter ends and the period begins Mesolithic that in the peninsula lasts until 4000 BC Then a new society arises that lives in the open air and decorates with monochrome schematic paintings the caves.
Then came the Neolithic that began 10,000 years ago in the Near East when what is known as Neolithic Revolutiongiving way to evolution and the appearance of agriculture, livestock, a sedentary lifestyle and polished stone, as well as the production of textiles and ceramics.
The Neolithic is established in the peninsula by the Mediterranean around the fifth millennium BC (Coveta D’Or- Valencia) developing the cardial pottery culture (marked with shells of a mollusk) as well as the pit grave culture (found in the area of Catalonia).
Through the Near East and the Mediterranean, new influence continues to arrive as well as knowledge of the metals. Around 2500 BC established on the peninsula copper culture in the area of Almería, and in the Millares by Mediterranean influence. In that same area will develop later the age of the bronze that will give rise to the culture of El Argar (Almería), the bell-shaped vessel culture and that will extend the megalithism throughout the Peninsula until reaching the Galician and Balearic area around 1000 BC It is at this time that monuments (dolmens) are found, which are more complex and larger the further south and east of the Peninsula they are (in Menorca navetas, taulas, talayots…).
It is not until the period around 1100 BC. when it reaches the peninsula the iron contributed by the Celtic peoples who enter from the north, while the Phoenicians founded Gades (Cádiz), the first European city, in that same year.
The pre-Roman peoples: Phoenicians, Greeks and Carthaginians
the arrival of pcolonizing peoples (Phoenicians and Greeks), caused the human groups in the peninsula to rapidly evolve, also influenced by the arrival of the indigenous peoples indo-europeans.
In this sense, a first peninsular protohistoric culture arises with the Tartessos, which were an indigenous kingdom of which there is evidence in the ancient written sources of the Greeks and perhaps biblical, which was characterized by having fabulous wealth. Today we can say that it was a fairly advanced culture that was located in the western Andalusia during the late Bronze Age and Iron Age. This culture came into contact with…