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• Timeline of Prehistoric events:

  • 2.5 million years ago: Homo habilis used stone tools
  • 500,000 years ago: Use of fire generated by nature
  • 100,000 years ago: Homo erectus
  • 33,000 years ago: Homo sapiens (modern man)
• Domestication and Agriculture:

  • Domestication led to the development of staple crops like wheat, rice, corn, and potatoes
  • Almost the entire world population depends on these major crops
• Early Hunting and Gathering Tools:

  • Prehistoric tools used for hunting and gathering included bark slabs for gathering nuts and berries, fishing tackle, arrows, tools for digging and cutting
• Modern and Early Humans:

  • Anatomical changes in humans over evolution
  • Australopithecus afarensis, Homo erectus, and Homo sapiens compared in terms of height, facial features, and brain size
• Effects of Food Production on Human Society:

  • Harvesting and herding domesticated species allowed for storage of plant foods and meat
  • Increased food supplies led to settled village life and more children
  • Negative effects included susceptibility to diseases and increased disease transmission
• Rise of Civilizations:

  • Sumerian Civilization: developed farming techniques, textiles, medicine, and art
  • Babylonian Civilization: located in Mesopotamia, known for rich farmlands, and the Code of Hammurabi
  • Ionia: Ionian philosophers focused on causality and rationalism in science
• Yellow River Valley of East Asia:

  • Development of agriculture in China starting around 10,000 BC
  • Neolithic village settlements and primary crop of millet on loess soils
  • Inventions like the compass, paper making, gunpowder, and acupuncture
• Greece:

  • Influence on Western civilization in art, architecture, philosophy, and government
  • Notable figures like Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates and their contributions to philosophy and science
• Socrates (469 - 399 BC), Greek philosopher and teacher who profoundly altered Western philosophical thought through his influence on his pupil, Plato
• Socrates taught that every person has full knowledge of ultimate truth contained within the soul and needs to be spurred to conscious reflection to become aware of it
• Socrates was prosecuted and sentenced to death for allegedly corrupting the youth of Athens
• Leucippus (450? - 370? BC), Greek philosopher credited with founding the atomic theory of matter
• According to Leucippus' atomic theory, all matter is constituted of identical indivisible particles called atoms
• Theophrastus (372? - 287 BC) wrote about logic, politics, poetry, metaphysics, and botany
• Theophrastus is considered the founder of Botany and his works on plants were definitive through the Middle Ages
• Charlemagne (747 - 814) was crowned emperor of the Romans and introduced innovations in handwriting, revolutionizing reading and writing
• Al-Khwārizmī (780 - 850) was a librarian and astronomer who introduced the method of calculating with Arabic numerals and decimal notation
• Gerard of Cremona was an Italian translator who translated scientific books from Arabic into Latin, including works of Aristotle, Hippocrates, and Galen
• Mondino de Luzzi (1270 - 1326) reintroduced public dissection of human cadavers and incorporated systematic study of anatomy into medical curriculum
• Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519) was a painter, sculptor, architect, engineer, and scientist who made innovations in painting and scientific studies
• Prospero Alpini (1553 - 1617) was an Italian physician and botanist who traveled to Egypt to extend his knowledge of exotic plants
• Konrad von Gesner (1516 - 1565) was a Swiss naturalist known for his work in collecting and describing plants and animals
• Johannes Gutenberg (1400 - 1468) was a German printer and pioneer in the use of movable type, considered the inventor of Western printing
• Gabriello Fallopio (1523 - 1562) was an Italian anatomist who made significant contributions to cranial anatomy and ear knowledge
• Ambroise Paré (circa 1510 - 90) was a French surgeon who established the use of ligatures for binding arteries and improved fracture treatment
• Hieronymus Fabricius ab Acquapendente (1537 - 1619) was an Italian anatomist and surgeon who founded embryology as a scientific discipline
• William Harvey (1578 - 1657) was an English physician who discovered the circulation of the blood and the role of the heart in propelling it
• Marcello Malpighi (1628 - 1694) was an Italian physiologist who described the network of pulmonary capillaries and discovered red blood corpuscles
• Galileo (1564 - 1642) was an Italian physicist and astronomer who made significant contributions in astronomy and physics
• Johannes Kepler (1571 - 1630) was a German astronomer noted for formulating and verifying the three laws of planetary motion
• Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 - 1543) was a Polish astronomer known for his heliocentric theory of the universe
• Sir Isaac Newton (1642 - 1727) was an English physicist, mathematician, and natural philosopher who formulated laws of universal gravitation and motion
• Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (1743 - 1794) was a French chemist considered the founder of modern chemistry
• Alessandro Volta (1745 - 1827) was an Italian physicist known for his pioneering work in electricity and the development of the voltaic pile
• Charles Robert Darwin (1809 - 1882) laid the foundation of modern evolutionary theory with his concept of natural selection
• Sigmund Freud (1856 - 1939) was an Austrian physician and founder of psychoanalysis, known for his theory of personality influenced by unconscious forces