Pre-historic life

Jul 17, 2026

Upload by Ezra

Pre-historic life describes life before written records, when communities learned about the past through material remains. It explains how people made and improved clothing from animal skins into leather, using simple tools to punch holes, create thread, and sew garments. The book covers jewellery from shells, stones, and teeth, and shelter ranging from branch shelters to recurring cave homes with carefully kept fires. It also outlines painting cave walls and early food gathering and hunting methods, including eating raw food before fire was mastered.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLifestyle

FormatPDF

Pages18

Reading Time28 min

Pre-historic life

What the pre-historic period means

Clothes

Jewellery

Homes and shelters

Fire, light, and cave painting

Food and hunting

Pre-historic life English Non Fiction Pre-historic life Written by Carol Smith Images by Kate Pedley. English United Kingdom Copyright © 2020, SIL Cameroon [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/)[ ](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/)[You may not use this work for commercial purposes. You may](You may not use this work for commercial purposes. You may)[ ](You may not use this work for commercial purposes. You may)adapt and add to this work, but you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one. You must keep the copyright and credits for authors, illustrators, etc. Images by Kate Pedley, © 2020 SIL Cameroon. CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. This book is part of the SIL Cameroon Branch Mother Tongue Based Multilingual Education 5th year reading curriculum. Pre-historic life The pre-historic period was the time in History before written accounts of events were made. Writing had not been invented. Historians learn about this period of history by studying the remains of the things that people used at that time. Clothes pre-historic people wore At first the early pre-historic people wore just the skins of animals wrapped around them to keep warm. Later the people learned to clean the skins, by stretching them with wooden pegs in the ground and scraping off the fat with stone scrapers. The skins were then made soft by chewing on them, soaking and beating them, or rubbing them with oil or fat. In still later years they were made into leather by soaking them in a liquid made from the bark of trees. Then some pre-historic people wanted to put the leather together. Using a bone boring-tool they made holes in the skins. Thread was made from strips of animal gut, skin or parts of plants. The first needles were made out of thin pieces of bone. People could now sew skins together to make more complicated clothes like trousers or jackets. Jewellery Necklaces were made from shells, small stones or animal teeth. Homes pre-historic people lived in The people did not live in one place all the time. In some seasons the people would move around to follow the animals they hunted. Then they might live in shelters made from branches. In colder weather the people stayed in caves to shelter from winter storms of snow and ice. Once they found a good cave they would return to it year after year. They burned fires inside for warmth and also light to sew by or mend their tools by. They lit fires by striking sparks from banging sharp stones, called flints, together or by rotating a stick rapidly, between the palms of their hands, to cause friction in a hole in a log. Once the fire was lit it was kept burning day and night. Sometimes the people painted on the walls of the caves. They used twigs and feathers instead of brushes. They made paint by grinding up coloured rocks and mixing it with fat. Food pre-historic people ate The pre-historic men spent a lot of time hunting animals and gathering food. They killed deer, wild boar and mammoths with wood and stone weapons. They also caught fish from rivers and lakes. To begin with the very early pre-historic people ate their food raw because they hadn’t learned to make fire.

FAQs

What does the pre-historic period mean in the book?

The pre-historic period is the time before written accounts of events existed, so historians study remains of what people used.

How did pre-historic people make clothes?

They began with animal skins wrapped for warmth, then cleaned and softened skins, turned them into leather, and used bone tools, bone needles, and animal gut or plant strips to sew garments.

Where did pre-historic people live and how did they stay warm?

They moved with seasons to follow hunted animals, using shelters made from branches. In colder weather they stayed in caves, where they kept fires burning for warmth and light.

Jul 17, 2026

Upload by Ezra