Why is Catal Hoyuk an important archaeological find?

Catel Huyuk was an ancient Neolithic town around 8000 years ago. The town was built with no streets, lanes, or alleys, the doors of the houses opened up to the rooftops of the town leaving people to get around by climbing up series of ladders. There are several reasons for why i think that Catel Huyuk was an important discovery.

I think this firstly because; Catel Huyuk in its day was probably the religious center for several towns. Archaeologists are saying this because in the village several of the rooms are shrine's (sacred places of worship.) All the shrine's are elaborately done with; paintings (which were probably done of real events,) there were also statue's in the shrine's. The shrine's were showing that humans were starting to develop burial practices and having a beleif system.

Catel Hoyuk was also one of the most important trading towns in its area and during its time. Because of farming giving them more 'free' time they were able to experiment with different crafts. By learning new skills they began making luxury goods (some luxury goods were made from Obsidian.) By having crafts and new ideas other villages began becomeing interested in what they had to offer therefore Catel Hoyuk began developing relationships between different communities. Of course money hadn't even been thought of yet in this timer therefore all items were traded through barter/bartering, usually people think that stuff must not have gotten far from the word of mouth and just bartering off goods, however a piece of obsidian (from Catel Hoyuk) was found 600 miles away from where it originally came from!

Some crafts and materials used for making crafts are:

Bone:

- Needles

- Beads

- Hairpins

- Fish hooks

Weaving:

- Woolen cloth, baskets

- Fashioned leather pouches

Wood:

- Bowls

- Boxes with lids

Eventually Catel Hoyuk started farming and then they began domesticating animals. The domestication of plants and animals was making Catel Hoyuk a self-sufficient city (it didn't need the assistance of surrounding towns.) Due this our diet also was stabilizing and become more consistent an reliable. Because of our more steady diet our bodies were become healthier which was; causing a surplus of food, and increase in population and being able to have more children.

All of these reasons; domesticating plants and animals giving more free time in order to experiment with different industries, which gave us the opportunity to trade and how our religious culture's developed are all tied to more clue's in how our civilization has developed into what it is today. This is why I think that the discovery of Catal Hoyuk was an important archaeological find.

Humanities Blog Wordle

Unit 2 Reflection: Prehistory and Early Humans

1. Describe how you prepared/studied for the unit test.
a) Do you think your studying strategies were effective - why/not?
Yes, I think that the study strategies were definitely effective. I tried two new studying strategies for this test (both of which I will keep doing because they are very helpful) the first is, I taught some of the big ideas to my dad and he would ask questions, by doing so I refreshed my memory on many things that hadn't occurred for me to study for the test. The second was Ms.Moore's strategy of brain storming the big idea's which also turned out to be effective while studying. Therefor I was definitely pleased with the way that I studied for this test.
b) How will you prepare next time?
I didn't read through any of the articles that we read and took notes on. By doing this I think that if we have any long answer questions on the next test (like we had in the unit 1 test)then if I have read some of the articles it will be easier to remember facts. Also I didn't study very many of the words that we had to define which, I will do next time.

2. What was the most surprising thing you learned about during this unit?
I wasn't aware before how many different types of hominids that there we over time (Neanderthal, homo habalis etc...) I had also never thought about the fact that we had to tame fire that we didn't always know how to control it.

3. If we had more time to spend on Prehistory and early humans - what would you want to learn more about?
I we could continue this unit I would like to learn more about some of the ancient hominids that we didn't really learn to much about. For example I don't remember learning much about Australopithecus, Palanthrobus, and some others.

Why did early humans begin to walk on two feet?

Why did early humans begin walking on 2 feet?
Some say they needed they need to walk on feet in order to bring food to their lovers. Being bipedal would definitely have helped/ made doing this more productive because, you can carry more food if you have two hands to carry food with (if walking on 4 legs could only carry small amount of food in your mouth.) Another theory that was explored by scientists is that early hominids needed bipedality in order to walk across the hot savannas. And how could bipedlity have helped that? Well, seeing has the forests had started shrinking and the hot savannas had started expanding, hominids needed a way to cross the savanna's in order to reach the cool forests. And being bipedal would help do this because walking is a faster mode of transportation and also the grasses we tall and you needed your full height to see over them. Walking upright through the burning savanna's brings me to the next theory; that being bipedal saved energy, and it was a more efficient mode of transportation. This is because scientists said that walking/running on 2 feet saved more energy and was faster because standing upright expands your lungs making breathing easier making it easier to go longer distance's. However after preforming several experiments this theory was eventually discharged. The last theory is that early hominids started walking upright in order to pick up and start using tools, bipedality definitely would have helped the use and development of tools. Because, while hunting having to hands made carrying tool much easier also, hominids became more skilled with their hands which helped creating more complex tools.
To conclude, the theory that I find most plausible is that hominids became bipedal in order to cross the heating savanna's however no theories have been proven correct and scientists have no idea the reason humans became bipedal. However every theory seems to be interlinked which is probably one reason discovering the root of humans bipedalism has proved to be so challenging.

Who were the hobbits?

The hobbits were a small group of people roughly the height of a 4 year old. The exact date of when they roamed Earth is undecided, research however shows that they were alive 38,000 - 18,000 or as young as 12,000 years ago.
The hobbits had a small brain no larger than a chimps, about the size of an orange. Scientists originally thought that the small body size was a result of microcephaly, however now scientists think that they were involved in island dwarfing. Further analysis of the few hobbit skelletons that have been found show that the hobbits may be decendants from homo erectus. By studying a hobbits skelliton researchers concluded that hobbits had no chin, writs similar to a chimps, and shrugged shoulder bones. Also though the hobbits are built similarly to Lucy they used stone tools which Lucy did not.
Some scientists however say that too few hobbit skellitions have been found to draw conclutions about the entire hobbit population.

Tool Making and Language: Why were tool-making and language important for the development of human culture?

Language: Humans always have and always will have some way of communication however the development of language was a unique and incredibly affective part of the development of human culture. Because by developing language it made sharing ideas, feelings, hopes, dreams, discussing the past, present, and future. So as you can see language helped early hominids discuss ideas about helping with the development of human culture.

Tools: Tools were definitely a key element in early hominids lifestyles. This was probably because of all the important tasks that told helped complete such as, getting food, defending one's self, shelter, and clothing.
Throughout history different hominids tools became more developed. For example if you look at homo habalis, homo erectus, and lastly homo sapiens. Homo habails "Handy man," worked with the same simple tools but they had a variety of purposes. Then stone tools got more complex, Homo erectus started making more than just one type of tool they had, sharp stone tools, hand axes, digging tools, scraping tools, and piercing tools. Then lastly we have Homo sapiens who started using advanced and specialized tools. So that was how stone tools developed however the more developed the tools became the more convenient the became as well, so after hominids started making different tools life became easier. Hominids had a varied diet (started gathering vegetables, fruits, nuts,) they had better defense and protection, the clothing and shelter was better, they started being more creative with art (jewelry ornaments, sculpting.) So overall the development of stone tools made life a lot easier.

How does early hominds experimentation with fire prove their ablility to adapt so their enviorment?

The use of fire is definitely a useful example of prehistoric humans abilities to adapt. I think this because, everything that was going on a million years ago was new to to the hominids but yet they were brave enough to experiment with fire, changing the very way we are living today (so thanks.) To think if we hadn't learn't or had the bravery to experiment and learn to partially control fire. Then we wouldn't have and and source of light before electricity before radiators or still even today. Also in some people's home's a fire place is used as a source of warmth, and also think about all those scary CAMPFIRE stories that may not have been made up :) if it wasn't for campfires.
All of this is just because some early scientist was able to study and observe and understand how to use what started as wild fire and turned into hearths and later on a main source of light and warmth to being part of what modern day humans use as a primary heat source.