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So we started the transportation unit with walking, which is about as basic as transportation [Baby walking in a garden]

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can get…

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…we considered a unit on crawling, but…yeah…no. [Baby crawling across the floor]

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Anyway, we kinda liked the whole, "back to the basics," thing, so today, we're going

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to start the agricultural technology unit with the very basics of food. [Teacher at the front of a young class]

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We'll figure out how humans fed themselves before they had the plow, or domesticated [Girl eating a bowl of food]

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animals, or irrigation systems, or late-night trips to Taco Bell. [Cavemen driving Fred Flintstone type vehicle]

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And even though we're going pretty far back in time, don't think that hunters and gatherers [Cavemen with primitave weapons]

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didn't use technology.

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They totally did.

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Because chasing down and killing big animals? [Man running away from a bear]

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It's not exactly easy.

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And yes, if you do it with your bare hands it will win you the Iron Man award... [Hulk chasing after an elephant]

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…but most folks needed a little help.

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Eating back in human pre-history was no picnic…

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…although, they were all outside, so it was kind of a picnic…. [Cavemen on a picnic blanket]

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…Uh…point being…it wasn't easy.

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It took skill, strategy, and some really sweet tools.

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Tools like bows, fishing nets, and nifty spear launchers called atlatls were [Pictures of the tools]

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essential.

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With just those technologies, Paleolithic people were able to live all over the world. [Man chucking a net into a lake]

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And to think, these days we freak out about going places without wifi... [Man sat crying]

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Once our early ancestors’ tummies were taken care of, they got around to inventing art, [Man eating raw steak]

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music, language, fire, and religion.

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Which kinda shows you the true power of a balanced breakfast.

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Let’s zero in on the period of human history called the Upper Paleolithic, which happened [Timeline of human history]

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between 50,000 and 10,000 years ago.

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This is well before the invention of agriculture, but after the invention of stuff like painting,

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fire, stone tools, complicated burials, and language that went beyond pointing at things [Cavemen in a cave]

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and saying…"ug."

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These guys aren't cartoon cavemen with giant jaw bones and leopard-spotted togas… [Typical cavemen with a spotlight on him]

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…they're fully modern hunter-gatherers.

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In the Upper Paleolithic period, humans lived on pretty much every habitable corner of the [Map showing human inhabitants all over the world]

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planet.

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They got there by walking and paddling, remember? [Men paddling on a raft]

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People lived in smallish groups—probably less than a hundred people, and they didn't [Small village]

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stay in the same place too long.

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They had complicated cultures and religions, some pretty sweet stone tools, and a decent

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standard of living.

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Not too shabby there, Homo sapiens.

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But here's the real question: what did these dudes eat? [Woman sat thinking in the kitchen]

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Whatever they could get their hands on, actually.

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There’s no Official Caveman Diet because different people all over the world ate different [Woman trying to eat a rock]

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stuff.

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Inuit hunters in the far north probably had diets that were 90% meat….mmm, seal blubber… [Inuit eating raw meat]

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…while the Kung in southern Africa ate way more nuts and seeds than meat. [Two African men sat near a pile of nuts]

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This means that different people all over the world had different tools and different

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techniques for getting that food, too. [Planet Earth]

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Some relied mostly on foraging for edible plants, which didn't take very much technology. [Man drops down on a rope over a berry bush]

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Others were all about chasing down big animals, killing them, and dragging them back to the [Two men carrying a dead animal on a stick]

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home campfire, which definitely required some tech.

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We can only imagine they were counting down the days until the first Taco Bell arrived… [Kid looks happy as he is given Taco Bell]

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