Transcript Civilization

Civilization
Creativity Begins to Flow
The Ages
– The Paleolithic “The Old Stone Age”
(2 million – 10,000 est.) Simple tool work
– Mesolithic “The Middle Stone Age”
(10,000 BC – 5500 BC est.) Ice Age & more advanced tools.
- Neolithic “The New Stone Age”
(5500 BC – 2500BC est.) Tools, weapons, pottery, and more
agriculture
- The Bronze Age Copper and Bronze Tools
(2000BC -1000BC est.)
- The Iron Age Iron Tools
(1000BC –written records)
Human History and the Stone Age 2nd Edition 2005
Pre-History & Pre-Agriculture
• The World Around 10,000 BC (Mesolithic Age)
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Hunter/Gather
Nomadic
Little to no villages
End of the Ice Age
• Large mammals become extinct
– New types of vegetation
– Followed herds
• Led to the domestication of some animals
Civilization (general)
• When did civilization begin?
– Status about 4000-3500 BC
• Stone Age society
• People were living as hunter-gatherers (nonstationary)
• What was the creative event that allowed
this change?
– Agriculture (domestication of grains)
• The greatest “invention” of pre-history
• The Agriculture Revolution started to form during the
Neolithic Period (that can be anytime between 7000BC
and 5500 BC depending who you are talking to)
Agriculture
• Allowed localization of
population into cities
• Allowed increased
population density
• Led to technological
developments
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Agronomy
Plow
Wheel
Materials development
Cities: Advantages and
Disadvantages
• Began to be concerned about reason,
justice, beauty, rise above mere
survival, environmental concerns
• Creativity became more important
• Conflict of safety and submission
Essential features of civilization
• A means of producing sufficient food (agriculture)
– Without requiring that everyone was involved in farming
– Includes a distribution system linking the urban and
agricultural sectors
• Specialization of labor
– Includes trade, manufacturing, and other creative
endeavors
– Farmers, artisans, priests, soldiers, etc
• An established social order or hierarchy
– Usually based on government, religion or a combination
of the two
– Provides protection but requires submission to authority
• A system of written communication
Writing
• The "lubricant" that
let all the other
elements of society
work together
• Examples of early
writing
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Hieroglyphics
Cuneiform
Chinese characters
Phoenician alphabet
Greek alphabet
Roman alphabet
Writing
• Invented for:
– Easier preservation of information
– Religion
• Egyptians
– Commerce
• Sumerians
– History, culture and science
• Greeks
• Romans
Types of writing systems
• Logograms –
symbol represents a
whole word
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Chinese characters
Egyptian hieroglyphs
Sumerian cuneiform
Symbols: %, $, +
• Syllabaries –
symbol represents a
syllable
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Shorthand
Text for blind readers
Japanese script
• Alphabet –
symbol represents a
sound
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Roman, Greek, Cyrillic
alphabets
Civilization
• Why civilization
began at rivers?
– River silt
– Irrigation
– Supplementary food
supply (animals and
birds)
– Transportation
– Communication
• All led to the ability to grow
sufficient food to feed your
family and to sell the excess
River Societies
• Fertile Crescent
– Mesopotamia
– Egypt
• India
• China