Last year learnt about early man.
Early man was just like any other wild animal.
Today man is the most important being on the earth.
Man had made himself better.
He has learnt many things.
He has made many things.
The story of how man has made himself better and better over the years is the story of human civilization.
Early human beings were just like a group of apes.
They lived in the forest and slept on trees.
They wore no clothes.
Fruits and leaves were their food.
They also killed animals for their food.
Even then, man was different from other animals.
He could think.
He could learn from things around him.
He could make new things with what he had around him.
He tried and learnt what he wanted to know.
With this knowledge he made new things.
These new things made his life much better.
This is how man civilized himself.
Early man made weapons to fight the wild animals in the forest.
The first weapons were made of wood.
They are very roughly made.
Stone Age
He also started making tools out of stone.
That was called the Stone Age in history.
No one really knows how man learnt to make fire.
People believe man began to make fire early in the Stone Age.
Fire could not have been a new thing to man.
Early man must have seen forest fires or trees set fire by living.
He later learnt that rubbing two pieces of stones also caused fire.
Thus he could get fire of two stones called flints, when rubbed.
Man used fire to score away animals.
Man stopped eating things raw.
He learnt too use fire for cooking his food.
People of the early Stone Age were hunters.
They killed animals for food. They also are fruit, roots, and other parts of the plants as their food.
They never stayed in one place for long.
It was during the Stone Age that the earth suddenly became very cold.
The whole planet got covered with ice.
It remained cold for many years.
This was the ice age.
Man could not live out in the open forests in such cold.
Groups of men moved into caves.
The cave was man’s first home.
The men of the group went out to hunt and get food.
Early man could also paint and carve very well.
We have found many old caves with beautiful painting by early man.
Many good statues and carvings made by him have also been found.
As time passed, the tools and weapons of the Stone Age man became much better.
New Stone Age
He polished his weapons with sandstone.
This made them very sharp.
He could kill animals or cut wood easily.
This was the new Stone Age.
During the new Stone Age, the earth became warm again.
Men moved out of caves. They built their first houses.
These were small huts made of reeds and mud.
Slowly man learnt to loose his fear of animals.
He started catching animals and teaching them to serve him.
The dog was man’s first pet.
Then he tamed cows, sheep and goats.
These animals were used for their meat, milk and skins.
There was no need for man to be a hunter any more.
He became a shepherd, who looked after his animals.
Crop growing
Soon man learnt that he could plant seeds in the ground.
From the seed a plant would come out.
These plants would give him food.
With this knowledge man became a farmer.
He started growing crop.
Log of Wood
The use of the wheel was one of the most important things that man learnt.
Man had seen that logs of wood could be rolled along easily.
The first wheel was possible made by cutting of slice from the round log of wood.
The wheel made man’s life much better.