From Human Prehistory to the Early Civilizations

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From Human Prehistory to the Early Civilizations
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Neolithic HumansPaleolithic Mesolithic

• 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). Didnt 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 12-8,000 yrs
  ago more improvements and evidence of
  warfare-skeletons show frequent bone breaks and
  skull fractures caused by weapons!

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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)

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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 themselves-hence
  farming villages.
• A civilization isnt a village thoughit 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

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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

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Catal Huyuk
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Mesopotamia

• 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 structurecity-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

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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

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Indus River Valley

• 2500 BCE in northern India
• Large cities included Mohenjo-Daro (plumbing)
• Had a writing language, but cant decipher
• Disappeared
• probably due to
• natural disaster or
• invasion

http//www.mohenjodaro.net/DKGarea9.html
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China

• Along Yellow (Huanghe) river
• Isolated due to mountains, grasslands,
• and deserts
• Pan Ku story (first chaos, but overtime chaos
• formed into a giant cosmic egg. After 18,000
• years Pan 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

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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)

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Pics

• http//www.portpromotions.com/upload/1272055963_gi
  za-pyramids-at-dusk.jpg -Egypt
• http//alkgraf.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/catal-h
  uyuk2.jpg Catal Huyuk
• http//americanpropaganda.org/wp-content/uploads/2
  010/02/Cuneiform-Tablet.jpg cuneiform tablet
• http//www.womeninthebible.net/images/3.2-7_RELIGI
  ON_The_ziggurat_of_Ur.jpg ziggurat
• http//media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/57/5957
  -004-0D9582AE.jpg Yellow River