Transcript Chapter 1 From the Origins of Agriculture to the First River

Unit 1-Part 1
From the Origins of
Agriculture to the First RiverValley Civilizations 8000-1500
B.C.
Civilization1. Cities of administrative centers
2. A political system based on defined territory
3. Many people engaged in specialized, non
food producing activities
4. Status distinctions based largely on
accumulation of wealth
5. Monumental building
6. A system for keeping permanent records
7. Long-distance trade
8. Sophisticated interest in science and art
Essential Questions
How did plant and animal domestication set the
scene for the emergence of civilization?
Why did the earliest civilization arise in river
valleys?
How did the organization of labor shape political
and social structures?
How did metallurgy, writing, and monumental
construction contribute to the power and walth of
elite groups?
How do religious beliefs reflect interaction with
the environment?
Before Civilization
Culture
History
Paleolithic (Stone Age)
Foragers
– Gender roles
– No surplus of food lead to no specialized labor, not
social classes, more egalitarian society.
Pastoralism
– they herd animals so also don’t stay put and
population in those societies stay low
Human Migration
Hunting-foraging bands of humans
gradually migrated from their origin in East
Africa to Eurasia, Australia and the
Americas, adapting their technology and
cultures to new climate regions.
– Humans adapted to their environment
River Valley Civilizations 35001500 B.C.E.
America v. Eurasia
Americas did not have large animals, llama is
about it. Not the case in Eurasia, horses, oxen,
cows, so they event wheel for farming.
No invention of wheel for purposes of pulling in
America because no large draft animals.
Eurasia is mainly east-west so makes
knowledge of farming easier to spread because
similar climate regions
What is circa?
The Agricultural Revolutions
Around 10,000 years ago, some groups
began to domesticate.
Permanent settlement
Slash and burning techniques were
abandoned
Middle East region had earliest evidence
of agriculture
Agrarian-
Why did the Agricultural Revolution occur?
– Holocene– (1) farming (2) domestication of animals (3)
better tools but all hurts environment
Population increase:
Life in Neolithic Communities
Easier than early foragers
Less variety and nutrition than earlier
foragers
– Disease, vermin, insect
Kinship and marriage
– Matrilineal or patrilineal societies
– Who ruled in early periods?
Religion
– Ancestor reverence
– Deities of nature of animals
– Megaliths
Neolithic Villages
– Middle East, Jericho (walls)
– Catal Huyuk, Anatolia (roofs)
Religious shrines
Metalworking
Mesopotamia
At the “mercy” of the gods. Why?
Babylon was the most important city.
Settled Agriculture in an Unstable
Landscape
Mesopotamia means:
– Between Tigris and Euphrates
– Modern day:
Farming did not reach here until 5000
B.C.E.
– Staple food was:
Sumerians and Semitic
Sumerians
– Establish written record
– Southern Mesopotamia
Semitic
– Non-Sumerian
– Asia and northern Africa
– The word Semitic refers to:
By 2000 B.C., the Semitic people dominated
politically and with language
Cultural merge between the two
Cities, Kings, and Trade
Depended on villages. why?
City state
Irrigation systems
Lugal assumed the responsibility of
temples and rituals.
– Sargon-
Cuneiform-
Hammurabi was the first king of the Babylonian
Empire.
– Hammurabi’s Code
– Identified 3 classes
Free landowning
Farmers and artisans
Class of slaves-
Used barter system
and exchanged
precious metals
Mesopotamian Society
Male dominated. Why?
– Scribe
– Men monopolized political life
– Men benefited from divorce and marriage
laws
Gods, Priests, and Temples
Sumerian gods embodied forces of nature
– Semitic equated gods of Sumerian
Ziggurat
Amulets
Afterlife:
Technology and Science
Writing, system of tokens to keep track of
property
– Clay
– Base 60 number system
Egypt
The Land of Egypt: “Gift of the Nile”
The Nile river supports vegetation
– “Black Land” and “Red Land”
– Center of travel and communication
– Divided into 3 regions:
– Papyrus, clay, copper,
wildlife, made Egypt
self sufficient
Divine Kingship
Menes
– Unlike Mesop., was unified
Pharaoh
– Represented king of god on earth. Very
powerful. Why?
– Ma’at
no code of law comparable to Hammurabi
pyramid
Administration and Communication
Ruling dynasties placed their capitals in
central locations
– Memphis, Thebes
Extracted as much as __% in taxes
– Government controlled long distance trade
Hieroglyphics– Rosetta Stone
– Developed a cursive script
Larger percentage lived in farming villages in
Egypt than Mesopotamia
Isolated
The People Of Egypt
Population of 1 to 1.5 million
Physical types ranging from light to dark
skinned people
Less pronounced social division; slavery on
a mild scale
Women were subordinate to men
– More rights than Mesopotamia
– Monogamy
Belief and Knowledge
Polytheists
– Osiris, Isis, Seth Horus
– The Egyptian Book of the Dead
Afterlife not so bad. Why?
– Mummification
Development of mathematics and science
Egypt v. Mesopotamia
No natural barriers in Mesopotamia, so it
is known as the crossroads of civilization.
Good because open to trade and new
ideas, but bad because open to conquest.
Therefore, geography impact political
system, formation of city-states.
Egypt was isolated so less chance of
invasion and had stronger rulers. No need
for written code of laws.
The Indus Valley Civilization
Originated on a fertile foot plain in central
Asia, modern day Pakistan. Twice a year
the Indus river overflows. Mountains from
the Himalayas melt cultivating the area.
Material Culture
Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro
Dravidian language
Strong central authority
– Extensive exchange of goods
Metals appeared more frequently here.
Irrigation system
Transformation of the Indus Valley
Civilization
Cities abandoned sometime after 1900
B.C. due to a collapse in political, social,
and economic systems. Reason: