Migration and Art
Teacher Resources
Driving Question: Why did early humans move to new places and create art during this period?
Our species—Homo sapiens—started out in small communities in Africa. About 80,000 years ago, our ancestors began migrating to other regions. As these early humans migrated, they created art—thousands of years before anyone developed writing. What can we learn from the evidence they left behind?
Learning Objectives:
- Learn about the migration routes of early humans and the reasons people migrated.
- Analyze why humans created art and how it can serve as evidence for this period.
- Use the historical thinking practice of claim testing to identify, assess, and use authority when evaluating and making claims.
Vocab Terms:
- migration
Would you ask your dentist for advice on repairing a car? Probably not. We trust different authorities in different situations.
Claim testing is one of the historical thinking skills that we’ve scaffolded throughout the course. For an introduction to teaching claim testing, check out this one-pager.
People have made a lot of claims about the origins and migrations of our early ancestors. But whom should you listen to? One way to answer that question is by developing your claim-testing skills.
Note: There is an ongoing debate among scholars over the dating of the arrival of humans in the Americas. For over a century, we’ve continued to push the date back. Today’s best evidence points to an arrival over 30,000 years ago. However, many Indigenous American communities assert that their ancestors have lived here since time immemorial. Because this debate might not have a “right” answer, we suggest reading our guide to teaching sensitive topics to get some ideas about how to bring up the more challenging, unanswerable historical questions that inevitably come up through the year.
Our species began an epic series of migrations 80,000 years ago, beginning in East Africa and ending in South America. In these materials, you’ll evaluate the evidence about when humans reached the Americas.
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Guiding Questions
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Before you read
Preview the questions below, and then skim the article. Be sure to look at the section headings and any images.
While you read
Look for answers to these questions:
- What were the similarities and differences between different human species approximately 300,000 to 200,000 years ago?
- Why did human communities begin to migrate outside of Africa? Were the causes short-term or long-term?
- How did humans change as they moved, and what caused these changes?
- Why might human communities during the Paleolithic era have kept their populations intentionally small?
- What is collective learning? What role did it play in human evolution?
After you read
Respond to this question: In what ways does the migration of Homo sapiens out of Africa support, extend, or challenge our networks frame?
Humans have been making art for tens of thousands of years, and each new discovery pushes the migration timeline back. This video was filmed at Mesa Prieta Petroglyph Project in New Mexico as part of a series about the Pueblo communities of the American Southwest. As your students watch this video focused on ancient art, it’s important to remind them that descendants of these communities still live in that region. These petroglyphs aren’t just ancient history. They represent a library of information created by generations of people over thousands of years, up to the present.
Humans were creating art tens of thousands of years before the development of written language. These materials will help you understand what art can tell us about early human communities.
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Guiding Questions
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Before you watch
Preview the questions below, and then review the transcript.
While you watch
Look for answers to these questions:
- What are petroglyphs and how are they made?
- What does Dr. Martinez mean when he says, “these are our libraries”?
- What are some common types of petroglyphs? What does Dr. Martinez say is their meaning?
- Why were astronomical knowledge and markers important to Pueblo society? What were some images used for astronomy?
After you watch
Respond to these questions: Is Dr. Martinez an authority on this topic? How do you know?
Art of the Paleolithic
In this 3-2-1 closing activity, you’ll review knowledge from previous lessons, reinforce current learning, and ask questions for understanding.
Early humans had complex relationships with the world around them. These two articles will help you evaluate how they understood time and how they expressed themselves in art.
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Guiding Questions
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Before you read
Preview the questions below, and then skim the article. Be sure to look at the section headings and any images.
While you read
Look for answers to these questions:
- Why is chronology essential to the study of history?
- How is chronology different from history?
- How did humans record history before they invented writing? How does writing give us a more complete picture of history and why doesn’t it give us a fully complete history?
- What early twentieth-century discovery helped historians get a better idea of history and chronology?
- What are some other scientific discoveries that give us data about time?
After you read
Respond to this question: How do all the inventions in this article help historians write more accurate histories?
