Prehistory vs' History

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Prehistory vs. History

• Those who forget their past are condemned to
  repeat it philosopher George Santayana
• The one duty we owe to history is to rewrite
  it playwright Oscar Wilde
• The past is a foreign country they do things
  differently there novelist L P Hartley
• The winners get to write history anonymous

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Regionalization
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Transition from Paleolithic Neolithic
Neolithic Civilization

• Prehistory to Postclassical World
• 8000 BCE to 600 CE

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Paleolithic Era (3 million/250,000 ca. 10,000
bce)

• Type of tools
• Stone
• Basic survival or subsistence level
• Influenced by climate and climate changes
• Nomadic
• Hunters and gatherers
• Bands
• About 30-50
• Family and culture groups
• General social equality
• Economic roles a little different but the burden
  of the tasks and the level of responsibility and
  decision making was based on need not
  pre-established roles
• Women gathered berries, nuts etc.
• Men hunters
• Natufian society of the eastern Mediterranean

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Pre-Historic Man in the Paleolithic Age
(Different than ancient man)
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Population Urban areas

• Steady increase in population following Neolithic
  Revolution
• 4 million in 10,000 bce
• 5 million in 5000 bce
• 14 million in 3000 bce
• 100 million by 500 bce
• Change from villages to urban city-states
• First major urban areas
• Jericho
• Catal Huyuk
• Economic activity diversifies (Industries)
• Pottery (useful, technological advancements,
  artistic)
• Metallurgy (copper, bronze, iron)
• Textile (fabrics)

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10,000 BCE 1000 CE
From 4 million in 10,000 BCE to 100 million at
the beginning of the classic era or 500 BCE
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1000 CE 2000 CE
Current life expectancy 67
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Technology links
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Regional discoveries of cultural representations
during Paleolithic and early Neolithic Eras
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Neolithic Era - New Stone Age

• Actually transition from nomadic society to
  sedentary society
• Type of living changed from caves and open areas
  to actual dwellings
• Migration continues but slows
• Population numbers increase causing the need for
  more complex relationships and systems to support
  them

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Venus Figures

• Mother Goddess
• Fertility icons
• Prehistoric
• Earliest findings dated 35,000 years ago
• swollen belly, wide-set thighs, and large breasts

Venus Malta
Venus of Willendorf
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Example of some early houses in Neolithic villages
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Villages to cities (states)

• The villages become walled cities and urban areas
• Catal Huyuk and Jericho
• The new agricultural civilizations had to protect
  their land and develop complex systems to support
  the growing population

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Neolithic or Agricultural Transition

• Shift from food gathering to food producing
• Result is people begin to settle in one place
• Cities develop
• Surplus begins
• Impact is complex societies or civilizations that
  have trade networks and are interconnected
• Neolithic Revolution is the basis for more
  complex societies to be formed
• Sedentary
• Surplus
• Diverse economic activity
• Division of labor
• Gender roles begin to change and become less
  equal
• Need for complex record keeping
• Writing systems
• Pictographic (drew pictures to represent physical
  aspects)
• Ideographs (drew pictures to represent abstract)
• Phonographs (drew symbols to represent sounds)
• Alphabet and writing systems

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Development of Writing

• Out of economic need to keep records
• Impacts social hierarchy (those who can write and
  those who cant)
• For historians the issue is from whose
  perspective do we receive the written history
• Develops in similar pattern but final style is
  different as are other cultural representations

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Civilization or complex societies

• When do we know it is a civilization or matches
  other complex societies and is no longer
  Neolithic and able to sustain itself over
  generations.
• It may adapt/evolve over many generations
• Rates of adaptation are influenced by geography,
  type of culture, and creation of technology
• 5-6 elements of Civilization
• Division of labor
• Advanced technology
• System of Writing
• Calendar
• Cities with Government or system of control
• Usually some element within culture of philosophy
  that holds them together and explains the forces
  of nature

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Urban areas

• Population (biological)
• Culture
• State
• Gender
• Work
• Leisure
• Ritual centers (temples)

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Revolution or Transition?What does the
transition impact

• What causes the impact?
• Ability to control environment
• Slash and burn techniques
• Irrigation
• People stop roaming and build villages first then
  cities as population grew and methods developed
• Impact is civilization
• Subsistence to surplus
• Trade networks within area creates relationship
  with the cities and culture groups creating
  empires
• Empires and areas connect through trade
  exchanging technology and goods that assist in
  overcoming environment and cause adaptation rate
  to increase
• Also causes more conflict
• Luxury items traded longer distances
• You can track these items to see who traded with
  who