Transcript Cities and Civilizations

Unit 1—
Foundations
8000 BCE
to 600 CE
We begin at about 8,000 BC
when village life began in
the New Stone Age. . . Also
known as the
Neolithic Revolution.
NEW STONE AGE
A TOTALLY new way of living:
From
Hunter-Gatherers
to Agriculture
INVENTION OF AGRICULTURE
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Mesopotamians first to engage in
agriculture
 Around
8000 BC
 Cereal crops
 Wheat
 Barley
 Herd
animals
 Sheep
 Goats
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Woman probably first farmer
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Grain-collecting then noticed that stored
wild grain could be grown on purpose
Agriculture changed
how people lived
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Agriculture (Farming)
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Growth of Cities
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Division of Labor
(Specialization)
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Trade
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Writing and Mathematics
Human/Environmental interaction
Tools and weapons
 Social and political
organization
 Homes
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Lake houses in Switzerland
Long houses along Danube
Stone huts in Britain
Reed lean-tos in Egypt
Clay brick huts in Middle East
Broad language
groups appeared
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION
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Originally ruled by
council of elders
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Close-knit society
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Authority moved to
single leader
Communal granaries,
ovens, and fields
Private property
limited to personal
possessions
POSSESSIONS
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Needs of
agriculture and
stability
Clay pottery
 Woven baskets
 Woolen and linen
clothing
 Sophisticated tools
and weapons
 Plow
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RESULTS OF AGRICULTURE
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Required
intensification of
group organization
 Neolithic
farmers
lived in settlements
 Ranged
from 150
(Jarmo) to 2000
(Jericho)
OUTSIDE CONTACTS
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Neolithic communities had links
Walls indicate some fearful
 Others were more peaceful
 Obsidian and turquoise in Jericho
from several 100’s of miles away
 Either gifts or received in trade
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Jericho
Origins and Spread of
Agriculture
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Self-actualization
(self-knowledge,
fulfillment of
personal potential)
Esteem
(autonomy, achievement, recognition)
Social
(belonging, affection)
Safety
(security, protection from harm)
Physiological
(Hunger, thirst, shelter)
Civilization: Whose Definition?
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18th Century European
Civilized vs. primitive
White vs. everyone else
What does it mean to be
civilized?
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Historians have determined 6
characteristics of civilization:
 Cities
 Organized
central governments
 Complex religions
 Social classes
 Job specialization and the arts
 Writing
Cities
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Rivers provided:
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Euphrates River
Rivers provided challenges:
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water supply
transportation
food supply from animals
flooding
irrigation
Required organized, mass labor
(corvee)
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Construction and repair of canals and
irrigation ditches
Organized Central
Governments
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Central authority needed to control:
Labor
 Storage of grain
 Dispersion of foodstuffs among
population
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Early governments first
led by priests
Later controlled by warrior
chiefs or kings
Organized Central
Governments
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Governments became more
complex as new responsibilities
arose such as:
tax collecting
 law making
 handling public works projects
 organizing systems of defense
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Complex Religions
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Generally polytheistic
Many gods represented natural forces
 Others controlled human activities
 Priests and worshippers tried to gain
gods’ favor through complex rituals
and sacrifice
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Directed by unquestionable ruling
class of priests
King regarded as a god or as a
god’s agent
Complex Religions
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Temples often built to honor
specific gods and goddesses
Egyptian temple
Mayan temple
Mesopotamian ziggurat
Social Classes
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People ranked according to their
profession
Egyptian
social
structure
Chief
Priests
Nobles
Wealthy merchants
Artisans
Peasants/farmers
Social Classes
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Priestly class is part of the beginning of
social differentiation
Class structure based on specialization
of labor
Generated class differences
Priests (“We talk to god, you don’t.)
 Aristocrats/warriors (“We have weapons,
you don’t.”)
 Common people (“I guess we work...?”)
 Slaves (“Uh, oh!!!”)
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Job Specialization
and the Arts
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Artisans specialized in various jobs,
such as:
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Bricklayers
Blacksmiths
Production of luxuries (Things You
Don’t Really Need)
Metal technology
Job Specialization
and the Arts
Created great architecture and art
 monumental architecture
 pyramids, ziggurats, big cities
 huge temples and associated
structures
 to fill the needs of a god-oriented
state
 under the control of the priestly
class
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Writing
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Probably first used by priests
Earliest writing used pictograms
Chinese calligraphy
Egyptian hieroglyphs
Mesopotamian cuneiform
Writing
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Symbols later added to represent
words and then sounds
Scribes were specially trained to
read, write, and record information
Religion
 Trade
 Government
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Learning
became
cumulative
UNIQUENESS OF CIVILIZATION
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Civilization was not simply next
inevitable step from Neolithic Age
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Many peoples remained at simple foodraising stage for thousands of years—
without developing any sort of civilization
Only four locations developed
civilizations entirely on their own
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China
Indus River Valley
Mesopotamia/Egypt
Central America and Peru
Primary Phase Cultures
ca. 3000-2500 B.C. to about
1800-1500 B.C.
 Either disappeared or changed by
1500 B.C.
 Common characteristics
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Consistent, worldwide
Common Characteristics ??
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Water!!
Deserts of river cultures short on
resources
 River Valley Civilizations
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Opportunity to adapt
environment
 Suitable for domesticated
plants/animals
 Relatively stable (a bit hot)
climate
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GEOGRAPHY influenced the
development of river valley
civilizations.
Early River Valley Civilizations
Environment
Mesopotamia
Egypt
Indus River
Valley
China
Mesoamerica
& Andes
• Flooding of Tigris and Euphrates unpredictable
• No natural barriers
• Limited natural resources for making tools or buildings
• Flooding of the Nile predictable
• Nile an easy transportation link between Egypt’s villages
• Deserts were natural barriers
• Indus flooding unpredictable
• Monsoon winds
• Mountains, deserts were natural barriers
• Huang He flooding unpredictable
• Mountains, deserts natural barriers
• Geographically isolated from other ancient civilizations
• Mountains and ocean natural barriers
• Warm temperatures and moderate rainfall
• Geographically isolated from other ancient civilizations
Mesopotamia – Fertile Crescent
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Sumer – The
Earliest of the River
Valley Civilizations
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Sumerian
Civilization grew up
along the Tigris and
Euphrates Rivers in
what is now Kuwait.
Sumerian Writing: cuneiform
Cuneiform is created by pressing a
pointed stylus into a clay tablet.
Sumerians invented:
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Brick technology
Wheel
Base 60 – using the circle . . . 360 degrees
Time – 60 minutes in an hour, 60 seconds in
a minute
12 month lunar calendar
arch
ramp
ziggurat
Ziggurat – Holy Mountain
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Click on the pictures for more information on ziggurats.
Babylon
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First know written law code
 “Rule of Law”
Hammurabi’s Code - 1792 BC
EGYPT
“The Gift of the Nile”
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Hieroglyphics
Pyramids
Geometry
Advances in medicine and
surgery
Nile
River
Sahara
Desert
Indus River Valley
2500 BC – 1500 BC
Harappan culture
 Well planned cities
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Grid pattern
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Modern plumbing
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Built on mud brick platforms
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Larger cities
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Protected against seasonal floods
Houses built of baked brick
Smaller towns
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Houses built of sun-dried mud brick
Aryan Migration
 pastoral  depended on their cattle
 warriors  horse-drawn chariots
Varna (Social Hierarchy)
Brahmins
Kshatriyas
Vaishyas
Shudras
Pariahs [Harijan]  Untouchables
Shang China
1600 BC – 1122 BC
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Yellow River Valley
Bronze, jade, stone, bone and ceramic artifacts
Advanced culture
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Divinations
Religion
Astronomy
Calendar
Art
Medicine
Shang China
1600 BC – 1122 BC
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Religion
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Human as well as animal sacrifices
Regarded their land as only civilized land
and called it Zhongguo (Middle Kingdom)
Lack of contact with foreigners led to
belief in:
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Strong sense of identity
Superiority
Center of earth
Sole source of civilization
Zhou China
1122 BC – 256 BC
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Bronze, jade, silver, gold
Mandate of Heaven
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Veneration of ancestors
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Power to rule came from heaven
Power could be removed if ruler
not just
All must honor family responsibilities
Period ended with
Era of Warring States
Mesoamerica and
Andean South America
2900 BC – 1400 BC
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Mesoamerica
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Maize, chili peppers, avocados, beans
Pottery
Stone bowls
Beads
Waddle and daub structures
No draft animals
Mesoamerica and
Andean South America
3500 BC – 1400 BC
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Andes
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Textiles technology
Sophisticated government
Religion
Lacked ceramics
Largely without art
Most impressive achievement was
monumental architecture
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Large platform mounds
Sunken circular plazas
Civilization
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A civilization is built on what is
required of men, not on that which
is provided for them.
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Antoine De Saint-Exupery
1900-1944, French Writer
Increased means and increased
leisure are the two civilizers of
man.
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Benjamin Disraeli
1804-1881, British Statesman Prime Minister
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To be able to fill leisure
intelligently is the last product of
civilization.
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Toynbee, Arnold
1852-1883, British Economic Historian and Reformer
Civilization
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Cities that served as administrative centers
Political system based on control or defined
territory rather than on connections of kinship
Significant number of people engaged in
specialized, non-food-producing activities
Status distinctions, usually linked to
accumulation of substantial wealth by some
groups
Monumental building
System for keeping permanent records
Long distance trade
Major advances in science and arts
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Richard W. Bulliet
Civilization
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"All peoples from small bands of hunters and
gatherers to farmers and factory workers live
in societies. All societies produce cultures:
combinations of the ideas, objects, and
patterns of behavior that result from human
social interaction. But not all societies and
cultures generate the surplus production that
permits the levels of specialization, scale, and
complexity that distinguish civilizations from
other social organizations. All people are
capable of building civilizations, but many
have lacked the resource base, historical
circumstance, or, quite simply, the motivation
of doing so.“
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Peter Stearns on culture vs. civilization
Is it possible to prevent collapse?
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Every society must:
 answer basic biological needs of its members:
food, drink, shelter, and medical care.
 provide for production and distribution of goods
and services (perhaps through division of labor,
rules concerning property and trade, or ideas
about role of work).
 provide for reproduction of new members and
consider laws and issues related to reproduction
(regulation, marriageable age, number of
children, and so on).
 provide for training (education, apprenticeship,
passing on of values) of individuals so that they
can become functioning adults in society.
 provide for maintenance of internal and external
order (laws, courts, police, wars, diplomacy). Thuman
and Bennet
 provide meaning and motivation to its members.