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History is important because it helps us understand why we live the way we are living and why we are where we are as a species and country. Studying history allows us to learn from the mistakes of our ancestors so we don't do the same things they did and work to become a better place.
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History is the story of humans in the past. It tells what they did and what happens to them. Historians are people who study and write about the human past. They tell as that history began about 5,500 years ago, when people first began to write. But the story of people really begins in prehistory, which is that time before people developed writing.
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Stone AgesHistorians call the early period of human history the Stone Age. The name comes from the fact that people during this time used stone to make tools and weapons. The earliest part of the period is the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. Paleolithic means "old stone" in the Greek language. Paleolithic times began roughly 2.5 million years ago and lasted until around 8,000 B.C.E.
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Bronze AgeIn late Neolithic times, people continue to make advances. Toolmakers created better farming tools, such as the sickle for cutting grain. In some places, people began to work with metals. At first they used copper. They heated rocks to melt the copper inside and then poured it into molds for tools and weapons. About 4,000 BCE, craftspeople in Western Asia mixed copper and tin to form bronze. Bronze was harder and longer lasting than copper. It became widely used between 3,000 BCE and 12,000 BCE, the period known as the Bronze Age.
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Ice AgesFire was a key to the survival of Paleolithic people during the ice ages. These were long periods of extreme cold. The last Ice Age began about 100,000 BCE from then until about 8,000 BCE. Thick ice sheets covered parts of Europe, Asia, and North America. The Ice Age was a threat to human life. People risked death from the cold and also hunger. Early humans had to adapt by changing their diet, building sturdier shelters, and using animal furs to make warm clothing. The mastery of fire help people live in this environment.
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