NAME: ________________________________________________________
Chapter 1: Investigating the Past
Study Guide
Archaeologists
 Study the past and are like detectives
 Examine objects
Objects
 An artifact is an object made or used by people in the past.
 Objects that come from a time before history was written are called
prehistoric.
 The objects and art described in this chapter were created 10,000
to18,000 years ago.
Geographers
 Study human made features like roads
Historians
 Might read diaries and letters to find out what happened and why
something happened in the past.
Prehistoric Art
 In 1940 four teenagers discovered a cave filled with paintings of
animals in Lascaux, France.
 Some paintings were too high to be reached from the cave floor leading
scientists to believe that the prehistoric cave artists built wood
structures (scaffolding) to stand on.
 The hardest question to answer about ancient cave paintings is why the
people painted in caves.
 Lamps for burning animal fat found near the cave art work provide
clues to the past.
 Cave art primarily helps to answer the question of what animals lived in
that area.
 People long ago were not as big as people today so the ancient hand
prints found on cave walls are very small.
 According to scientists, ancient artists made paint by grinding different
minerals and mixing the powder with fat or oil to make different colors
of paint for their art.
 The detailed carving of an ancient spear indicates that the person who
used it was a hunter.
Clay Bison Sculptures in Southern France Cave
 Cracks in the pictures of the bison may have happened while the clay
was drying.
 Geographers might be interested in the information about these
sculptures being found in a cave formed by an underground river.
 The bison sculptures were most likely not found until modern times
because they were deep inside a cave.
Possible Interview Questions You Might Ask the Following Specialists
 Archaeologist: What kind of tools did the people use?
 Historian: What events happened and why did they happen?
 Geographer: Where did the people live?