Emergence of civilization

NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION & RIVER VALLEY CIVILIZATIONS

THE EMERGENCE OF CIVILIZATION

EARLY HUMAN SOCIETY

• Because humans had ways of communication, remembering and making things, they were able to pass on what they learned and their way of doing things from one generation to the next. In a way, the first human cultures developed.

• Culture – refers to a people’s way of life. Culture includes such things as language, types of clothing, homes, family organization, government, and methods of obtaining food. Culture also includes crafts, arts, music, and religion.

HUNTERS & GATHERERSPALEOLITHIC PEOPLES

• Earliest human societies were hunters and gatherers; they did not now how to grow their own food.

• They relied on hunting, fishing, and gathering wild plants for food.

• They learned to make fires, spears with pieces of bone or stone, and to make canoes and boats out of logs (Stone Age)

• Since they spent most of their time hunting for food, they migrated to areas where food could be found. They did not live in permanent settlings.

THE NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION

• About 10,000 years ago, one of the greatest turning points in world history occurred…• People stop hunting & gathering and started FARMING• People learned how to grow food and domesticate animals

• Anthropologists believe this change first occurred in the Middle East, where wild wheat and barley were plentiful.

• They also learned how to herd farm animals such as goats, sheep and cattle.

• These advances are referred to as the Neolithic Revolution.

EFFECTS OF NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION

• Once agriculture was introduced, people no longer had to wander in search of food.

• Instead they could build permanent homes and villages and establish a fixed way of life.

• Populations grew!

• Although it all started in Southwest Asia, it also took place in Southeast Asia, Africa, and the Americas.

NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION

The Emergence of Social Classes

•Pros & Cons: People could grow more food than when they hunted and gathered. But they were more vulnerable to attack by other peoples.

•These changes is economics led to social and political changes: new social classes• Warriors – defense of village was a

concern• Priests – to conduct religious rituals in

order to promote good harvest and protect from danger

RISE OF RIVER VALLEY CIVILIZATIONS

• Around 3,500 B.C., the first civilizations arose.

• Civilization – form of human culture in which people live in cities, have complex social institutions, use some form of writing, and are skilled at using science and technology.

• The first civilizations developed in four separate river valleys.• Each of these river valleys offered mild climate and a water

highway.• Water from rivers was also used for cooking food and drinking. • Along the rivers there was also fertile soil, great for growing

crops and led to abundant harvests and food surplus.

1. MESOPOTAMIA (3500 B.C. – 1700 B.C.)

• First river valley civilization developed in Mesopotamia between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers (present day Iraq)

• Mesopotamia was a Greek term meaning “land between two rivers”

MESOPOTAMIA (3500 B.C. – 1700 B.C.)

MESOPOTAMIA

Agriculture

•Mesopotamia was hot and dry so people learned to irrigate the land by diverting water from the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.•This allowed farming settlements to flourish and people were able to create a surplus of food•Other people began to specialize in other activities including potters, weavers, metal workers, warriors, or priests.

MESOPOTAMIA

Government

•People of Mesopotamia built several cities; at first each city-state, such as Uruk, Ur, and Babylon, had its own ruler.

•Later several of these city-states were united together under a single ruler.

MESOPOTAMIA

Religion•Mesopotamians were polytheistic, believing in as many as 2,000 different gods.•Some historians claim Mesopotamian religion to be the oldest faith.•Rulers were often priests.•A society governed by religious leaders is known as a theocracy.

Stone Sumerian Priest

MESOPOTAMIA

Building•Mesopotamians were the world’s first city-builders.•They made their building from mud, bricks and crushed reeds.•They built walled cities, temples with arches, and stepped pyramids known as ziggurats.

Ziggurat in Baghdad Reconstruction of Ziggurat at Ur

MESOPOTAMIA

Cultural & Scientific Contributions•The Sumerians invented the wheel and the sailboat.•Figured how to reroute water to irrigate fields located further from the river.•Developed tools and weapons of copper and bronze.•Sumerians devised a calendar, dividing the year into 12 months. •Later Babylonians developed a number system based on 60, providing the basis for our seconds and minutes today.•They also invented the world’s earliest writing system, cuneiform, symbol writing on clay.• Only the elite could read and write in cuneiform, generally

priests and scribes.

A cuneiform writing tablet.

MESOPOTAMIA

Legal System•Babylonians developed the earliest written code of laws – the Code of Hammurabi.•It covered most occurrences in daily life.•Goals were to ensure justice and protect the weak.•Strict – “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”

MESOPOTAMIA

Women in Mesopotamia

•Most girls stayed at home with mothers where they learned cooking and housekeeping•Women were responsible for raising children and crushing grain.•Only wealthy women were able to go to marketplace and buy goods, complete legal matters when husband was absent, and could even own property. They could engage in business and obtain divorces.

2. EGYPT(3200 B.C. – 500 B.C.)

• Located in Northeast Africa.

• The world’s longest river, the Nile, runs through it.

EGYPT

Agriculture•Each year the Nile floods and makes the soil along its bank very rich and fertile. •With bright sunshine, long growing seasons, rich soil, and fresh water, Egyptian farmers were able to grow large amounts of food.•Farmers were able to support craftsmen, warriors, priests, and nobles.

EGYPT

Government•Most powerful person in Egypt was the pharaoh (king). •The pharaoh was an absolute ruler – owned all land, commanded the army, made laws, controlled irrigation and grain supplies, and defended Egypt.•The pharaoh was considered to be a god.•Egypt was a monarchy, a system of government in which political power is inherited, power is passed down from father to son.

EGYPT

Society•The pharaoh was at the top of the social order.•Below the pharaoh came the priests and nobles, •Then warriors, scribes, merchants, and craftsmen.•At the bottom were peasants and slaves; they spent their time farming, herding cattle, and working on building projects.

EGYPT

Religion

•Egyptians believed the body should be preserved after death to participate in the afterlife.•When pharaohs died, their bodies were embalmed (mummified) and buried in a special room under a pyramid. They were surrounded with gold, jewels, and other precious objects.

EGYPT

Accomplishments•Medicine – developed knowledge of human body through embalming (preserving). Performed surgical operations.•Hieroglyphics – developed one of the earliest writing systems, based on picture symbols.

EGYPT

Accomplishments•Building & Art – built magnificent pyramids, palaces, and temples of stone. Decorated building with paintings and sculptures.•Geometry & Astronomy – developed geometry to build projects such as pyramids. By observing the stars they developed a calendar based on 364 days.

3. INDIA

• More than 5,000 years ago the Indus River Valley became another center of human civilization.• Much like Mesopotamia and Egypt, the region had

rich soil due to its annual flood.

INDIA

Agriculture• Farmers grew barley, wheat, dates and melons.• Food surplus allowed people to build large cities

like Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro; each city had more than 30,000 people.

INDIA

Building

• More than 1,000 cities and settlements belonging to the Indus River Valley have been excavated.

• The artifacts that have been discovered show that the settlements were technologically advanced.

• There were dockyards, granaries, warehouses, brick platforms and protective walls.

• They were the first “urban planners” with almost all their houses connected to public sewers and a water supply

• The Harrappans were also the first people known to make cotton cloth.

INDIA

Trade and Collapse• Trade was important of

Harrappan economy.• Harrappans also developed

their own form of writing, although scholars are still unable to decipher it.• No one knows exactly why

the civilization collapsed, but its end occurred suddenly.

4. CHINA

• About 5,000 years after the settlement of the Indus River Valley, China’s first civilization emerged in the fertile plains along the Huang He (Yellow River).

CHINA

Agriculture• As in the Nile and Indus River Valleys, the fertility

of the soil along the Huang He was increased by periodic floods.• Around 4,500 B.C., people along the Huang He

began growing millet (type of grain).• Later they learned to farm soybeans and raise

chickens, dogs and pigs.

CHINA

Government• Around 1,700 B.C. a ruling

family, or dynasty, known as the Shang, took power.

• They built the first Chinese cities and established their capital at Anyang near the Huang He.

• The Shang ruled with the help of powerful nobles.

• Shang kings were military leaders, they were also high priests that offered sacrifices to their royal ancestors.

CHINA

Cultural Contributions

• The people living along the Huang He were very skilled at many crafts.• They created superior weapons and ceremonial

vessels with their bronze work.• They were the first to make silk textiles from

silkworm cocoons.• They developed a system of writing with

pictographs, known as characters. Each character represented one word.

5. ANCIENT HEBREWS

• Ancient Hebrews, or Israelites, lived south of Phoenicia in the area occupied by present-day Israel, Lebanon, and Jordan.• Hebrews were deeply influenced by both

Mesopotamia and Egypt.• According to tradition, the forefather of the

Hebrews, Abraham, grew up in Mesopotamia in the city or Ur. Later Abraham moved to Israel.

THE HEBREWS

Religion• Unlike other ancient peoples, the Hebrews did not

believe in many gods; instead they believed in one universal God, who was both just and all-powerful.

• This new religion was called Judaism.• Jews did not believe that God had human

characteristics or the head or body of an animal, like the gods and goddesses of Mesopotamia and Egypt.

• Jews saw their God as an invisible but powerful force or spirit that created the world and that demanded proper moral conduct.

• Monotheism, the belief in one God, became the basis for several religions, including both Christianity and Islam.

THE HEBREWS

The Ten Commandments• The early history of the Hebrews and their God is told

in the first books of the Bible, known as the Old Testament.

• According to the Bible, the ancient Hebrews migrated to Egypt to escape food shortages. They lived there for hundreds of years and were enslaved.

• Moses, their leader, later took them out of Egypt and freed them from slavery. According to the Bible, Moses also presented them the Ten Commandments, which came directly from God.

• The Ten Commandments forbade stealing, murder, adultery, and other forms of immoral behavior.

TEN COMMANDMENTS

REVIEW – TEST #1THE BIG IDEAS

1. The earliest humans survived by hunting and gathering their food. They used tools of wood, bone, and stone. They also learned to make fire.

2. About 10,000 years ago, people in the Middle East developed the first agriculture and domesticated animals during the Neolithic Revolution.

3. A civilization is a form of human culture in which some people live in cities, have complex social institution, use some form of writing, and are skilled at using science and technology.

4. The first civilizations arose in fertile river valleys, where favorable geography conditions allowed farmers to grow a surplus of food.

REVIEW – TEST #1THE BIG IDEAS

5. The Sumerians in Mesopotamia invented the wheel, sailboat and cuneiform writing. The Egyptians developed an advanced civilization along the banks of the Nile. They built large stone pyramids for the afterlife of their ruler – the pharaoh – and developed a form of writing known as hieroglyphics.

6. Other early civilizations developed along the Indus River on the Indian subcontinent and along the Huang He (Yellow River) in China.

7. The earliest civilizations were theocracies and monarchies. In a theocracy, religious leaders govern; in a monarchy, a hereditary ruler heads the government.

8. Judaism, the religion of the ancient Hebrews (Jews), was the first religion to worship only one God.

5. Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, china were all polytheistic, they believed in many gods.

HISTORY OF THE WORLD IN 7 MINUTES

• Check out the video again…..• http://worldhistoryforusall.sdsu.edu/movies/

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