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Prehistory — History before Written Records · Kids Learning Lab - Science, History, and Technology for Kids and Family

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  Welcome to Kids Learning Lab, a learning podcast made just for
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  kids. In this first video episode of
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  Kids Learning Lab, we're going to explore prehistory.
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  Prehistory is all history before humans started writing history.
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  This is the 7th episode in our Kids Learning Lab History
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  series. You can listen to all the
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  episodes by visiting Kids Learning lab.com/history series.
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  The link is in the description. Also, if you're listening to
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  this as the audio only version on podcast platforms, you can
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  watch a video version by going to Spotify or YouTube and
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  searching for Kids Learning Lab. The video is more fun since we
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  show pictures. We can learn about prehistory by
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  finding fossils, artifacts, cave paintings, and tools.
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  Here's an example of a fossil from prehistory which looks like
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  it comes from a human like species.
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  Archaeologists have found lots of fossils which help us learn
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  more about our history. This fossil in particular is
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  from a famous find of humans called Lucy.
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  Lucy comes from a species of hominin called Australopithecus.
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  Here's an example of a cave painting.
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  Early Cavemen painted on cave walls using animal blood, coal,
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  and a mixture of other pigments to create paint.
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  This image is from a cave in France.
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  You can see drawings of bulls. Let's now learn about the
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  different periods of prehistory. The first period is called the
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  Paleolithic period. People were hunter gatherers,
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  which means they haunted for animals and gathered plants.
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  Humans made simple stone tools. Here's a collection of different
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  stone tools from the prehistoric period.
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  People learned how to take control of fire too.
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  Now let's go to the Mesolithic period, also known as the Middle
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  Stone Age. It lasted from 10,000 BCE to
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  8000 BCE. People started to create
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  settlements and start fishing. Next, the Neolithic period when
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  farming started, began. People discovered agriculture.
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  People in the Middle East farmed wheat, barley and peas.
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  People near China farmed in rice fields, and people in South
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  America farmed lots of corn. People domesticated animals and
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  people created permanent villages.
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  A good example of this is the remains of Kadal Huyuk, a
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  settlement in Turkey, which you can see below.
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  These are the excavations which were recently completed and we
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  can see into the lives of ancient humans.
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  Now let's talk about the Bronze and Iron Ages.
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  These are the last periods of prehistory.
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  In the Bronze and Iron ages, people discovered metal, a
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  powerful material that you could use to build strong objects.
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  Stronger tools and weapons were made from metals like bronze and
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  iron. Early cities formed during this
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  time period. Trade between different cities
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  started to grow. People started to write in
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  Mesopotamia using symbols called cuneiform.
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  These were simple shapes, triangles, and lines that were
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  used for writing in ancient Mesopotamia.
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  It allowed them to express their thoughts in writing.
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  If you want to learn more, you can listen to our episode about
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  ancient River Valley civilizations For more
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  information. Societies in villages became
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  more organized with people leading as leaders and also
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  having warriors and traders order in villages led to later
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  social order. In later civilizations, large
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  mud, brick or stone structures were built.
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  A famous example is Stonehenge in England.
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  No one really knows why these giant stones were built, but
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  archaeologists think it could have have religious or
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  astronomical purposes. Bronze weapons made armies
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  stronger and more powerful, which allowed people to conquer
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  new lands. Here's a picture of swords from
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  Central Europe. During the Bronze Age, cities
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  became more fortified with towers and walls.
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  And here's an image of a British hill Fort dug into the hill.
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  This is also from the Bronze and Iron Ages.
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  This is where the time period of prehistory ends and the period
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  of early history begins. If you want to continue the
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  timeline, you could listen to our episode on ancient River
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  Valley civilizations in which we talk about India, China, Egypt,
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  and Mesopotamia. Or if you want to continue the
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  timeline further, you can listen to our Ancient Rome and Greece
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  episodes or listen to our History of the Universe episode.
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  For even more fun, our next episode will be about the 1849
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  California Gold Rush. It'll also be a video episode.
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  Thanks for listening and supporting Kids Learning Lab
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  Thank you.