Transcript From Human Prehistory to the Early Civilizations

From Human Prehistory to the
Early Civilizations
Neolithic Humans
Paleolithic –Mesolithic
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Humans are very new to the planet and have only existed about 2-2.5 million years! Less
than 5% of the time that mammals have existed!
Drawbacks of humans: aggressive to each other, babies dependant for long periods of time
(breast feeding), knowledge of death
Bonuses: opposable thumbs, large brains, high and regular sex drive, and omnivores
Over time, more advanced humans developed and killed off their competitors which is why
there is only one basic human type today =Homo sapiens sapiens (we descend from!).
Humans produce fire for warmth, cooking, and protection and made tools for hunting and
food preparation
Lived in hunting and gathering societies-(small) 2 people required at least 1 square mile for
survival-they would roam large lands More equality in this society b/c the important role of
women (food gathering). Didn’t have to work too hard (14 hrs of work each week). Groups
of 40-60 people.
Early humans migrated from Africa to the rest of the world via land bridges and boats.
750,000 years ago people started leaving E. Africa (competition/ food needs). Evidence =
Peking man and Java man –helped by end of Ice age!
Improved their tool skills and developed rituals like burials, cave art, religion, culture, and
speech. Better conditions allowed for increased population. Mesolithic (Middle) Age 128,000 yrs ago more improvements and evidence of warfare-skeletons show frequent bone
breaks and skull fractures caused by weapons!
Neolithic Revolution = Farming
• Triggered by population increase prompting people to search for new foods
and the end of very large game animals like mastodons- thus the yield of a
hunt declined. Farming probably started by accident, but was a more
reliable food source.
• Allowed humans to settle in one spot-thus allowing for civilizations like ours
 and allowed for a great increase in population (disease problem)
• New animals domesticated too (pigs, sheep, goats, cattle)
• Farming first developed in the Middle East from 10,000-8,000 BCE (took
time {thousands of years} to develop and it took time to spread to other
areas). Farming was also harder than hunting and gathering but more
reliable. Some societies remained hunters and gathers like the pygmies of
Africa while some societies became nomadic herding societies b/c of
domestication. Some balanced both H & G and farming
• Some people were freed over time from farming and began to specialize in
other jobs –they would barter. Also supported development of more
science and technology to better farm and support it. Metal tools were
developed: 4000 BCE copper, 3000 BCE bronze, and 1500 BCE iron (farming
tools like hoes and weapons)
Civilizations
• Slash and burn agriculture-burn off trees so they could farm –rich soil.
When soil depleted they would move onto a new area and return in 20-30
years.
• Central Asia-nomadic herding communities. Tribal bands-heard of the Huns
and the Mongols
• Agriculture allowed for more stable communities-villages built by water
source (irrigation developed in communities and people worked together).
Also people needed to unite for defensive reasons to protect themselveshence farming villages.
• A civilization isn’t a village though…it is much more and over time some
villages developed into large cities then to civilizations that encompassed
many villages and cities. Civilizations have government, specialization of
jobs, writing (cuneiform-3500 BCE-ME ), social hierarchy, religion,
technology, and economics.
• We know the most about civilizations because of the records they left
behind, but NOT everyone lived in a civilization. The Romans called
outsiders of their civilization barbarian-but these people were not
barbarians, but rather lived a different lifestyle. Their societies were very
regulated and relied on word of mouth rules and contributed greatly to
history via things like increased technology in herding, riding equipment,
weapons, and trade due to their travels
Catal Huyuk
• Village in southern Turkey-founded 7000 BCE and very large. Houses
crowded together and people walked on rooftops (evid. many broken
bones). Homes were decorated, religious images present, and
farming.
• 5500 BCE Specialization occurred and links to other communities
• 3000 BCE the city became part of a civilization
• Class distinction occurred- caste division
• First farming, civilization, and written language all developed in the
Middle East!
• Drawbacks of civilization: class distinction, rulers separated
themselves from the ruled, are warlike, and promote greater
inequality between men and women and lower classes
• Bonuses: writing, formal law codes, city planning, architecture,
specialization, technology, intellectual growth, science, religion, and
trade
• Four initial areas of civilization on Earth: Middle East (Mesopotamia),
Egypt (N.E. Africa), Indus River Valley (N . India), and Northern China
Catal Huyuk
Mesopotamia
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3500 BCE along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers
• Agriculture, writing (cuneiform), civilization, and
metalworking all started here 1st!
• Developed totally from nothing like China and Central American civilizations!
• By 4000 BCE metalworking, wheel, pottery industry, complex political structures
(due to need for community coordinating b/c irrigation)
• Each Sumerian city had its own patron god and ziggurats and temples dedicated
to them-polytheistic –believed in divine punishment of gods through floods and
influenced writing of Old Testament and the religions of Judaism, Christianity,
and Islam today! Believed in an afterlife of punishment too-hell
• Science/ math-developed number based on unites of 10, 60, and 360-still used
today to calculate circles and hours. Charted specific constellation, wheeled
cart, fertilizer, and used silver for exchange purposes
• Political structure=city-state (polis in Greek Empire/ also India) ruled by a divine
king with the government regulating the city. Relied on slaves –tradition of
slavery started very early in world history! Slaves were POWs of war and war
was critical for slave numbers, but slaves could earn or buy their freedom.
• Problem-region difficult to defend! Sumerians fell to the Akkadians next the
Babylonians (Hammurabi and his law code), and Indo-Europeans and Semitics
Egypt
• 3000 BCE along the Nile River
-influenced by Mesopotamia.
• Less open to invasion-desert and sea
• Unified state
• Pharaoh-is the king and a living god-theocracy
• Economy directed by government-due to irrigation
needs
• Built tombs-pyramids staring in 2700 BCE
• Culture spread to Sudan/ Kush –up the Nile
• Math-divided day into 24 hrs and built pyramids
• Egyptian writing= hieroglyphics –had script too for
scribes
• Believed in afterlife-though one could take possessions
with them-hence the great pyramids
Indus River Valley
• 2500 BCE in northern India
• Large cities included Mohenjo-Daro
(plumbing)
• Had a writing language, but can’t decipher
• Disappeared
probably due to
natural disaster or
invasion
http://www.mohenjodar
o.net/DKGarea9.html
China
• Along Yellow (Huanghe) river
• Isolated due to mountains, grasslands,
and deserts
• P’an Ku story (first chaos, but overtime chaos
formed into a giant cosmic egg. After 18,000
years P’an Ku emerged who perfectly balanced Yin and Yang.
He created the world by separating Yin (Earth) from Yang
(sky) with his giant ax. It took him 18, 000 years. After this
he died. His breath became the wind, his voice became the
thunder, one eye the sun and other the moon, body
mountains, blood rivers, muscles land, fur forests and
bushes, sweat rain, and parasites on his body become
humans)
• Emperor Yu-controlled flooding and became emperor.
Before the Shang dynasty (1500 BCE)
• Ideographic symbols
Conclusions
• 1200 BCE river valley civilizations began to decline
• Almost all later civilizations were built on the foundations of the river
valley civilizations (pyramids, wheel, domestication of the horse,
slavery, philosophy/ religion, alphabets and writing, science and
math, monarchies and bureaucracies, calendars and divisions of time
just to name a few) Culture!
• Phoenicians-Mediterranean people devised a simplified alphabet
with 22 letter -1300 BCE and this alphabet became the predecessor
of Greek and Latin which our language is derived from!
• Another group, Jews (name from Judah) –first clearly developed
monotheistic religion. Established Israel 1022 and broke into 2 states
in 922. Conquered around 700s –still kept their Jewish culture.
Judaism also led to the development of Christianity (remember Jesus
was the King of the Jews) and later Islam (which recognizes Jesus as a
prophet, but states that Muhammad is the final and greatest
prophet).
• Overall the river valley civilizations created tools, intellectual
concepts, and political forms that would persist and spread. People
increased contact with each other against a background of fierce
local identity.
• Civilizations reduced local autonomy (independence)
Pics
• http://www.portpromotions.com/upload/127205
5963_giza-pyramids-at-dusk.jpg -Egypt
• http://alkgraf.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/catalhuyuk2.jpg Catal Huyuk
• http://americanpropaganda.org/wpcontent/uploads/2010/02/Cuneiform-Tablet.jpg
cuneiform tablet
• http://www.womeninthebible.net/images/3.27_RELIGION_The_ziggurat_of_Ur.jpg ziggurat
• http://media-2.web.britannica.com/ebmedia/57/5957-004-0D9582AE.jpg Yellow River