Cro-Magnon

1. Cro-Magnon By: Chris, Bennett, Ashley, Summer

2. Dates and Places • The Cro-Magnons remains were first discovered in France. Cro-Magnons spread out over Africa, Asia, and Europe by 30,000 years ago. • Cro-Magnons had traveled over the land bridges that were there only during the Ice Age to stay at North and South America. • By this time, every continent but Antarctica had humans populating it.

3. Fire • Cro-Magnons used fire during the end of the Ice Age, for the weather was still freezing, so fire was one of the survival elements they depended on. • Fire was also used to hunt down animals that they ate, but it also protected them from wild animals by scaring them away. • Fire was the only light they had to use and the only heat to cook their food.

4. Religion and Ceremonies • When a person died, all members in the tribe participated in the funeral. • The body was put into a shallow grave with tools, weapons, and food needed in the afterlife. Then the grave was covered with dirt and stones. • The shaman, or religious leader, most likely led the ceremony to honor the dead and request a happy afterlife.

5. Clothing • Clothing was made out of animal hides. They wore robes, pants, tunics, and dresses. • The Cro-Magnons also added little beads made from colored rocks or shells into their clothing for decoration. • With their clothes, they wore stone, shell, fish bone, and eggshell necklaces.

6. Tools • Cro-Magnons made flint-bladed axes into a tool-like chisel. • These new tools could shape stones. • Awls were made to make holes in animal hide. • Bone needles were made to sew more refined clothes. • Straight-backed knives made cutting a finer skill. • They made spearheads and blades from bones, antlers, and stone. • 10,000 years ago they used the bow and arrow.

7. Art • The dearest sign of Cro-Magnons was in their art. • Cro-Magnons were the first to discover how to paint, sculpt, carve, and use color. • They carved the first animals and chubby females. • The earliest paintings were of hunting scenes. • All the paintings were found in underground caves.

8. Physical Appearance • The head of the Cro-Magnons was like modern humans except it was rounder, and more defined. • The forehead was flat, and they had very slight eyebrow ridges. Noses and jaws were smaller. The teeth were also smaller and closer together.

9. Food • Cro-Magnons hunted large animals, such as woolly rhinoceros, mammoths, saber tooth tigers, and wild horses. • Cro-Magnons gathered wild carrots, beets, onions, turnips, cabbage, celery, fruits, and berries. • The women also gathered shellfish, eggs, and small animals that got trapped in their handmadetraps.

10. Daily Life • Cro-Magnons had daily hunting and gathering parties. • Hunting provided them with bones, tools, and shelter. • Women gathered the seeds and nuts, while men did the hunting. • Sometimes they had ceremonies and dances for special occasions. • They had funerals for important deaths.

11. Shelters • Sinews from animals were tied into rope and used to secure the huts. • Tusks and large bones from a mammoth were used to create shelters that were covered in skin. • Cro-Magnons also used mammoth bones and skulls for supports. • Their houses were like dome-shaped huts.

12. Language • Cro-Magnons were able to produce clear speech to develop a more advanced oral language and means of communication. • This enabled them to share information, work together, pass down knowledge and traditions, organize hunting and gathering trips, and speak more complex thoughts, including planning for the future. • Their ability to use language enabled them to make a more advanced culture.