Ahlcon Public School, Mayur Vihar-1, Delhi.

Class: XI Subject: HISTORY Assignment No. 1

Academic Session: 2016-17

Theme 1 – From the Beginning of Time (Questions marked with an ** are to be done for H.W.)

  1. **Examine the reasons why early discoveries of fossils and other finds were met with doubt by some scholars.
  2. ** State the time period and the chief features of primates, hominoids and hominids. Write your answer under appropriate headings.
  3. State the advantages that bi-pedalism gave to early humans.
  4. ** Describe how changes in climate and vegetation had an impactupon Australopithecus.
  5. **Discuss the information we have about the species of Homo (Include names of various species, geographical location, age, characteristic features).
  6. **Make neatly labeled diagrams and explain the chief features of the two most commonly accepted theories of human origin.
  7. Describe the story of human evolution that can be seen in ways of acquiring food.
  8. ** What are artifacts? Explain what we have come to know about the changing pattern in the habitation of early man.
  9. What was the significance of the discovery of hearths in early human habitation sites?
  10. Explain the ‘punch blade’ technique of tool-making.
  11. Examine the various theories about when spoken language emerged.
  12. What could have been the reasons for the making of cave paintings by early man?
  13. ** Describe how early modes of communication developed, with reference to speech and art.
  14. Define the following terms – fossil, primates, hominoid, hominid, genus, anthropology, ethnography.
  15. ** Hunter-gatherer societies of the present have been compared to those of the past. Examine the views put forward by historians on this issue.
  16. Examine the major developments and changes in the environment and in human evolution which resulted in the growth of towns and cities.
  17. Which area came to be known as the ‘Fertile Crescent’? Why?
  18. ** On a political map of Africa (pg.14), shade and label - East African Rift Valley, mark with a dot and label: Olduvai Gorge, Laetoli.
  19. ** On a political map of Europe (pg.18), mark with a dot and label the following: Boxgrove (UK), Altamira (Spain), Lascoux, Terra Amata, Lazaret Cave (France), Neander Valley, Heidelberg and Schoningen (Germany), Dolni Vestonice (Czech Republic).

NOTE: Map work will be done using a sharpened lead pencil; while labeling on the map, joined handwriting is not allowed; always write the title of the map on the map itself; make a key on the map where required.