
3.0 mins. Introduce self. Why am I the best person to be teaching this topic? Create a desire to learn about our ancient past.
Outline of the eight main lectures, summarizing the topics
A brief outline of the evolution of hominins and how H. sapiens populated the earth
Tutor demonstrates the importance and evolution of stone tool technology through the millennia
How did we become the dominant hominin species on earth?
Students will learn the very first varieties of harvestable wheat cultivated 10000 BCE in Anatolia.
Lecturer demonstrates the making of spelt bread as Neolithic people made it in 5000 BCE.
The major leap from hunter gatherers to the first proto-agricultural societies
This lecture outlines the locations of the world's first 'cities' 9000 - 5000 BCE
This lecture explains where archaeologists have found the very first evidence of copper smelting.
The ancient copper mining industry in the Timna Valley, Israel could be part of King Solomon's mines!
This lecture outlines the rapid H. sapiens population growth from one billion to 7.8 billion in the past two hundred years. It also examines each country's world ecological footprint. How many more H. sapiens can the earth support without finding alternative resources and infrastructure on another planet?
Series of 8 lectures totalling ca. 75 mins. on how H. sapiens has so successfully populated the earth.
The lectures commence on hominin origins and dispersals (migration) patterns in the late Pleistocene.
Lecture 4 deals solely with lithic tool technology and the lecturer demonstrates how stone tools were made in an outside location. Students are asked to endeavour to make a stone spearpoint.
The lectures explore how H. sapiens became the dominant hominin spp. on earth principally by the cognitive revolution. The lectures then move onto the Neolithic Revolution and the first agricultural settlements on earth.
We examine several prehistoric settlements in the Fertile Crescent and the first 'cities' in Anatolia and Canaan.
Once H. sapiens mastered the art of agriculture and the domestication of animals. he moved on to smelting copper. Lecture 9 examines the first copper smelters in Europe and the Near East and how the Egyptians used copper chisels to build the pyramids.
Lecture 10 asks 'Where to from here'. The earth's population of H. sapiens has increased eight fold to 7.8 billion in the last two hundred years. How much more population growth can the earth sustain? If every person on earth were to maintain a standard of living equal to that of people in the USA, we would need four more worlds full of resources.