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Name Class Date • Lesson 1: The Distant Past **Lesson Summary** Some scientists study the beginnings of human beings. These scientists are called archaeologists. **Studying Early Humans** Archaeologists learn about the earliest humans by studying fossils. Fossils are hardened remains or imprints of living things that existed long ago. Fossils give clues about how and when people lived. Archaeologists also go to places where people lived long ago to search for artifacts. Artifacts are objects made and used by people. Artifacts include such things as tools, pottery, and weapons. Archaeologists study artifacts to learn how people hunted and what they ate. **Where Did Human Ancestors Live?** For a long time, archaeologists could not agree on where the first human ancestors lived. Then, in 1960, Mary and Louis Leakey found human-like fossils at Olduvai Gorge in East Africa. Tests showed the fossils were at least 1.75 million years old. So the search for the earliest human ancestors, or hominins, focused on Africa. In 1974, archaeologists found bones of a 3.5-foot-tall female who walked upright in Ethiopia, a country in East Africa. They named her “Lucy.” Lucy’s bones showed tha...