Chapter 01 Short

Chapter 1:

From the Origins of Agriculture to the

First River-Valley Civilizations

8000-1500 B.C.E.

Unit 1: Chapter 1

Section 1: Before Civilization

Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 1: Before Civilization

I. Stone (Lithic) Age

A. Paleo-lithic - Old Stone Age

B. Agricultural Revolution

C. Neo-Lithic - New Stone Age


A. Paleolithic Age

1. Communities – Hunter (men) & Gatherer (women)

2. Tools – bone, skin, wood, & stone

3. Food – vegetables, nuts & fruits - very little meat

4. Family – women raised children, cooking, sewing

5. Shelter – natural shelters or mobile tents

6. Activities – art, tool making, religious practices,

social gatherings

7. Religion – belief in afterlife, complicated deity

system


B. Agricultural Revolution

1. Domestication – plants & animals

a. Agriculture – cultivation- needed fertile soil & rivers

b. Animals – transportation and ag. Purposes

c. Americas – limited due to few suitable species – llama S.A.

d. Africa & Asia – cattle

e. M.E. – camel & donkey

2. Result – Population increase & stable communities


What to Plant?

• Mediterranean area - Wheat and Barley

• Sub-Saharan Africa - Sorghum, Millet, Teff

• Equatorial West Africa - Yams

• Eastern and Southern Asia - Rice

• America - Maize, Potatoes, Quinoa, Manioc


C. Neolithic Communities

1. Culture

a. Religion – ancestral worship & nature spirits (earth, wind,

fire); sacred places; deities – mother earth, sky god (male)

b. Astronomy – megaliths – burial chambers, calendar

circles, astronomical observations

c. Language – societies began to spread and language began

to diversify

2. Towns

a. Villages – most people lived in small rural v.

b. Cities – few lived in large cities – problem: needed large

food supply to support a large population


Jericho

• Located on West Bank of Jordan River (Israel)

• Walled town with mud-brick structures

• Dates back to 8000 B.C.E.


Çatal Hϋyϋk

• Located in central Anatolia (Turkey)

• Dates to 7000-5000 B.C.E.

• Center for trade in obsidian, produced

pottery, baskets, woolen cloth, beads, leather,

and wood products


What does this mean?

• Jericho and Çatal Hϋyϋk tell us that there were the

social organizations necessary to support non-food

producing specialists such as:

– Priests

– Craftspeople

– Had labor to build defensive walls, megalithic structures,

and tombs.

• Unknown if labor to build was free or coerced.


Due Friday!

• AP Exam Pre-Test

• World Map quiz

• Chap 1 Vocab. quiz

Due Monday

• Reading #1 - Epic of Gilgamesh

Unit 1: Foundations

Chapter 1: River Valley Civ.

Section II. Mesopotamia

II. Mesopotamia

A. Agriculture & the Landscape

B. Cities, Kings & Trade

C. Society

D. Gods, Priests & Temples

E. Technology & Science

Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 2: Mesopotamia

A. Agriculture & the Environ.

1. Plain around the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.

2. Difficult environment for agriculture:

Little rainfall, floods, rivers change course

3. Warm climate & good soil

4. Used cattle-pulled plows and seed planter

5. Built irrigation canals to bring water to fields

6. + food & animals - no resources

7. Early people - Sumerians


Crops and Natural Resources

• Date Palms

• Vegetables

• Reeds

• Fish

• Land for grazing goats and sheep

• No significant wood, stone, or metal resources

• Draft Animals:

– Cattle

– Donkeys

– Camels

– Horses

Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 2: Mesopotamia Do not copy this

B. City, Kings & Trade1. City-State – urban center w/ ag. territory

a. Sometimes traded, sometimes fought over resources

2. Temples were more important than Palaces

3. Large City-States – 2)Babylon – Hammurabi

1) Akkad – Sargon


C. Society1. 3 Social Classes (kings controlled most of the wealth)

a. Free Landowning class

b. Dependent farmers & artisans

c. Slaves – POW, minor part of economy

2. Power shift – women men (agriculture)

3. Women – no political role- Could: Own property, Control their dowry, Engage in

trade

4. Rise of urban merchant class greater emphasis on

male privilege and decline in women’s status.


D. Gods, Priests & Temples1. Each city-state had its own gods

2. Gods were humanlike – anthropomorphic

3. Priests were highly honored

4. Temples were the 1st monumental buildings

5. Ziggaruts were the major part of the temple


E. Science1. Technology=specialized knowledge that is used

to transform the natural environment

2. Forms of technology - Irrigation systems, buildings

– Transportation, Bronze metallurgy, Brickmaking

– Engineering, pottery & potter’s wheel

– Military advances included:

• Paid, full-time soldiers, Horses, Horse-drawn chariot, Bow and Arrow,

Siege Machinery

3. Writing: Cuneiform – Sumerians

• Complex, hundreds of symbols, sounds,

• Only scribes could read & write


Cuneiform Samples

Unit 1: Foundations


Section III. Egypt

III. Egypt

A. The Land

B. Divine Kingship

C. Administration & Communication

D. People

E. Beliefs & Knowledge

Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 3: Egypt

A. The Land

1. The Nile - thin strip of land along the river is

good for ag.

2. 2 Parts - Upper (south) & Lower (north)

3. Floods – regular, left fertile silt, good timing

4. Resources – reeds, animals, fish, birds, stone,

clay, copper, turquoise, gold


B. Divine Kingship

1. Unification: 3100 BCE – Lower & Upper Nile

2. 3 Periods: Divided into 30 Dynasties

a. Old Kingdom – Pyramid Age

b. Middle Kingdom – Agricultural Age

c. New Kingdom – Empire Age

3. Pharaohs – regarded as gods, death was seen as

his journey back to the gods

• Funeral/burial rites were very important

4. Pyramids – not all Pharaohs are buried in pyramids!

• Early times – flat topped tombs, then stepped pyramids

• Great Pyramids of Giza – 2550-2490 BCE – Old Kingdom

• Valley of the Kings – tunnels cut into the side of cliffs


C. Administration1. Bureauracy – system of provincial admin.

• Tracked: labor, taxes, & people

2. Tax Collection: support the govt, temples, buildings

3. Writing: Hieroglyphics & Demotic (cursive script)

• Wrote on papyrus with reed “pens” (paint brushes)

• Were able to decipher with the discovery of the Rosetta Stone in

1799 – 3 languages: Greek, Demotic & Hieroglyphs

4. Power struggles with provincial governors

• Strong central govt – loyal prov. gov.

• Weak central govt – autonomous prov. gov.

5. Foriegners – seen as enemies

6. Traded with Levant, Nubia & Punt

• Exported papyrus, grain, and gold

• Imported incense, Nubian gold, Lebanese cedar, African ivory, ebony,

and animals.


C. AdministrationUnit 1: Chapter 1: Section 3: Egypt

Rosetta Stone

D. People

1. Population: 1 – 5 mil.; some darker, some lighter

2. Social Classes

a. Kings & high ranking govt. officials

b. Lower level govt. officials, & priests

c. Peasants (majority)

3. The Working Class – Peasants

a. Farming villages, paid taxes, source of govt. labor

b. Slavery – limited scale, well treated

4. Women – more rights than Meso. women

a. Subordinate to men

b. Right to hold, inherit, and buy property

c. Retained rights over dowry


E. Beliefs & Knowledge

1. Beliefs based on cyclical view of nature

a. Re – Sun god

b. Osiris – god of the underworld

2. Religion

a. Wealth & resources went into monumental buildings

b. Regular offerings were made to the gods

c. Believed in magic and in an afterlife

d. Beliefs led to mummification and burials rituals

e. Tombs built outside of city in order to save ag. Land

f. Contained: food, pictures, transportation, wealth

3. Knowledge

• Chemistry, anatomy, mathamatics, astronomy, calendar,

irrigation, engineering, architecture, transportation


Unit 1: Foundations


Section IV. Indus River Valley

http://mstreitwieser.com/civilization/indus.php

2600 – 1900 B.C.E.

IV. Indus River Valley

A. Environment

B. Culture

C. Transformation

Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 4: Indus RV

A. Environment

1. Present day: Pakistan, India, Bangladesh

2. 2 regular floods a year

3. Carries a lot of silt

4. Irrigation allows 2 crops per year


B. Culture1. Don’t know much about civilization because

scholars have not deciphered their writings

2. Evidence suggests standards in city planning,

architecture and even the size of bricks

3. 2 Largest Sites: Mohenjo-Daro & Harappa

4. Both were surrounded by brick walls, had streets

laid out in a grid pattern and were supplied with

covered drainage systems to carry away waste.

5. Had access to more metals than Egypt or Meso.

6. Technology – irrigation, potter’s wheel, bricks,

bronze, writing

7. Trade – North – Iran, Afghanistan, Meso.


Harappa

Mohenjo-Daro

C. Transformation1. Declined because of natural disasters and

ecological change.

2. These changes included:

1. Drying up of the Hakra River

2. Stalinization

3. Erosion

3. When urban centers collapsed, so did the way of

life for the elite, but peasants probably adapted

and survived.


Chapter 01 Short

Education

civilization section

foundations chapter

agriculture cultivation

origins of agriculture

animals transportation

food animals

civilization jericho

stone lithic agea