Transcript Development of Agriculture and Technology

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3 – 2.5 Million BCE First Human Ancestor
600,000 Years people spread to Europe, Asia from Africa
250, 000 Years Neanderthals from the Neanderthal Valley Germany
120,000 BCE Home Sapiens (Late Paleolithic Age)
60,000 BCE Australia is populated
14,000 BCE End of Ice Age
12,000 BCE Mesolithic Age (Transition)
9,000, BCE domestication of sheep, pigs etc.
8,000 BCE People spread to Siberia, South America
8,000 BCE Neolithic Age (New Stone Age) Farming takes hold in the Middle East
6, 000 BCE first putters wheel invented
4000 -3500 BCE Writing Develops in Sumer Mesopotamia Beginning of HISTORY
and civilization Bronze Age
3,100 BCE Pyramids Civilization Egypt
2,500 BCE Indus Valley Civilization India
2500 – 1500 BCE Shang Valley Civilization China
2050 BCE Babylon
1500 BCE Iron Age Mesopotamia
Lucy: The First Hominid Skeleton
Australopithecus
Discovered by Donald C.
Johansson in 1974
Ethiopia
The First Hominid Skeleton
1974 Ethiopia
"hominid" generally meaning erect-walking
'Lucy', one of the first hominid skeleton dated to be more
than 3 million years old, was the oldest hominid to be
discovered.
This confirmed the transition of ape men to human
like form.
Lucy was a tiny-brained individual,
approximately 3.5 feet (a little more than
1 meter) tall.
The sex of the skeleton was confirmed
by the pelvic bones, which must be larger
in females in order to permit the birth of
large-skulled babies.
Lucy walked erect, which confirmed
theories that hominids walked erect three
million years ago.
We are here…. Most of us
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Family Unit
Extended families clustered together, forming
clans bound by ties of kinship.
Larger groups such as bands and tribes.
Social groups sustained themselves by hunting
and gathering (foraging).
Most hunter-gatherer societies were mobile or
nomadic.
Coordination and teamwork were needed to
hunt large creatures and wage war.
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Gender Division of Labor
Men hunted, made war, and performed heavy
labor.
Women gathered nuts, berries, and plants;
prepared food; maintained home; and tended
children.
Some historians believe women and men were
basically equal different roles equal respected.
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Worshipped mostly animism - spirits, nature,
rivers etc. Also, polytheistic gods or deities,
fertility .
Practiced a variety of religious rituals.
Buried their dead.
Made sacrifices to gods and spirits
Performed various ceremonies
How do we know?
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Oldest cave
paintings
discovered to
date are 32,000
years old.
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Humans expressed
themselves in art and
music.
The first known musical
instruments are flutes
from 30,000 years ago.
Major accomplishment
to survive and spread
world wide
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Most evidence
suggests that
hunters-gatherers
resisted agriculture
as long as they could.
Why?
Causes: Shifting
Weather patterns i.e.
Ending of Ice Age =
New Migrations =
Cultural Diffusion
The Neolithic Revolution
(8000BCE-3500BCE)
•Sometimes termed the
Agricultural Revolution.
•Humans begin to slowly domesticate plant
and animal stocks in Southwest Asia.
•Agriculture requires nomadic peoples to
become sedentary.
•Populations begin to rise in areas where
plant and animal domestication occurred.
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Agriculture was
not a sudden
transformation.
•The term,
“revolution,” is
often used
because of the
magnitude of
change involved.
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Farming developed
first in the Middle
East, in an arc of
territory running from
present-day Turkey to
Iraq and Israel (Fertile
Crescent) Tigress and
Euphrates Rivers
Barley and wild
wheat were abundant
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Farming then spread to
parts of India, north Africa,
and Europe.
Agriculture spread much
later to Africa.
Agriculture was invented
separately in the Americas
much later (around 5000
B.C.E.)
Followed by Southeast Asia
and Japan
And then Central Asia
Independent Development vs.
Cultural Diffusion
• Areas of Independent Development:
• Agriculture, art, Invention
• Areas of Agriculture Through Diffusion:
Religion, Agriculture, animals,
architecture
The need for storage facilities for grains and
seeds prompted the development of basketmaking and pottery. 6000 BC Potters Wheel.
Agricultural needs also encouraged certain kinds
of science, supporting the human desire to learn
more about weather or flooding.
Discovery of metal tools (4000 B.C.E.) in the
Middle East
•Copper was the first metal, followed by bronze
– a more resilient metal.
Sedentary Agriculturalists Dominate
•High starch diets slowly allow
Sedentary populations to grow.
• crop yields grow First plow invented
6000BCE;exponentially by 4000BCE.
Pop. grows from 5-8 million to 60-70 million.
•Eventually agricultural populations begin to
spread out, displacing or assimilating
nomadic groups; farming groups grow large
enough for advanced social organization.
First Towns Develop
Catal Huyuk
Modern Turkey
Jericho
Modern Israel
First settled:
c. 7000BCE
First settled:
c. 7000BCE
Leading to Civilization: Based on
Agriculture: First Towns Develop
Leading to food surplus
•Towns require social differentiation:
metal workers, pottery workers, farmers,
soldiers, religious and political leaders.
•Served as trade centers for the area;
specialized in the production of certain
unique crafts, artisans, architecture
•Beginnings of social stratification (class)
Towns Present Evidence of:
•Religious structures
(burial rites, art)
•Political & Religious
leaders were the same
•Still relied on limited
hunting & gathering for
food
Roles of Women
•Women generally lost status under maledominated, patriarchal systems.
•Women were limited in vocation,
worked in food production, etc.
•Women may have lacked the
same social rights as men.
Rule: The more complex a society the less
equality for women!!!
Metal Working: From Copper to Bronze
•Early settlements gradually
shifted from copper 3500 BCE
to the stronger alloy bronze by
3,000BCE—ushers in the
Bronze Age! Later Iron
•Metal working spread
throughout human communities
slowly as agriculture had.
Further Technological Advancements
Wheeled Vehicles
•Saves labor, allows transport of
large loads and enhances trade
Potters Wheel (c.6000BCE)
•Allows the construction of more
durable clay vessels and artwork
Irrigation & Driven Plows
•Allows further increase of food
production, encourages pop. growth
Early Human Impact on the Environment
•Deforestation in places where copper,
bronze, and salt were produced.
•Erosion and flooding where agriculture
disturbed soil and natural vegetation.
•Slash and Burn rotation farming
•Selective extinction of large land animals and
weed plants due to hunting & agriculture.
Slash and Burn Technology
In many areas,
tribes would burn
off trees, farm the
area until the soil
was depleted and
then move on
(slash and burn
agriculture)
•on 32 acres
•Houses made of mud bricks set in timber frameworks
crowded together with few windows
•People spent time on rooftops to experience daylight
and make social contact (broken bones)
•Houses were lavishly decorated with hunting scenes
•Religious images of powerful male hunters and mother
goddesses representing agricultural fertility
•Some trade with hunting people who lived in
surrounding hills
•Large villages like Catal Huyuk ruled over
smaller communities, bringing about
specialization in politics and organization of
military.
•Accumulation of wealth initiated social classes.
•By 3000 B.C.E., Catal Huyuk had become part of
a civilization.
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Developed writing,
starting with
cuneiform (writing
based on wedge-like
characters) in the
Middle East around
3500 B.C.E.
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One of the earliest
written records from
the Middle East is a
recipe for making beer.
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People in civilizations looked down on any
society lacking in civilization.
The ancient Greeks coined the word
“barbarian” to describe such cases.
As a result of labels like this, it is easy to think
of much human history as divided between
civilizations and primitive nomads.