QUOTE OF THE DAY - WHAP Rangelmrrangel.weebly.com/.../river_valley_civilizations_1.pdf · 2019-10-27 · QUOTE OF THE DAY • Neolithic ... HUANG-HE (YELLOW) RIVER •Developed in

QUOTE OF THE DAY

• Neolithic Revolution

• Lives of hunter-gatherers before Neolithic

Revolution was “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish,

and short.” – Thomas Hobbes

CHAPTER 1

FIRST RIVER

VALLEY

CIVILIZATIONS

PALEOLITHIC AGE• Homo sapiens

• The term means "consciously thinking human"

• Evolved as early as 250,000 years ago

• Brain with large frontal regions for conscious and reflective thought

• The advantages of intelligence over other species

• Migrations of Homo sapiens• Beginning more than 100,000 years ago, spread throughout Eurasia

• Several ice ages between 120 and 25 thousand years ago

• Land bridges enabled them to populate islands of Indonesia, New Guinea

• Arrived in Australia at least 60,000 or perhaps as long as 120,000 years ago

• Between 40,000 and 25,000 years ago, migrated to North America

• The natural environment • Homo sapiens used knives, spears, bows, and arrows

• Brought tremendous pressure on other species

HUMAN MIGRATION

ORIGINS OF AGRICULTURE• Neolithic era

• "New stone age" - refined tools and agriculture

• Time period: from about 12,000 to 6,000 years ago

• Most likely, Paleolithic women began systematic cultivation of plants

• Paleolithic men began to domesticate animals

• "Agricultural transition" is better than "agricultural revolution"

• Early agriculture • The earliest evidence found between 10,000 to 8000 B.C.E.

• Slash-and-burn cultivation involved frequent movement of farmers

• About 5000 B.C.E., agriculture well-established in Asia and Americas

• The spread of agriculture • Advantages of cultivation over hunting and gathering

• Developed indigenously in several different cultural hearths

• Agriculture provided a surplus

EARLY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY

• Population explosion caused by surplus• Leisure Time

• Emergence of villages and towns • Jericho, earliest known Neolithic village (north of the Dead Sea)

• Agricultural society, supplemented by hunting and limited trade

• Mud huts and defensive walls

• Specialization of labor • Neolithic site of Çatal Hüyük (south-central Anatolia)

• Developed into a bustling town with more than 8,000 inhabitants

• Craft industries - pottery, metallurgy, and textile production

• Ruling class, priestly, craftsmen, and merchants were common

• Social distinctions • Agriculture brought about private land ownership

• Social classes emerged, as seen in Çatal Hüyük site

• Beliefs • Neolithic peoples celebrated deities associated with life cycle

• Increasing deification, anthropomorphism of nature, seasons

• Increasing masculinization of deities

• Polytheism – belief in many gods

PRE-CIVILIZATION

• Stability due to need to control water

• Small groups could not regulate waters

• Small groups could not defend area

• Predecessors to civilizations

• Small farming villages

• First appeared in S.W. Asia

• Catal Huyuk as example

• Self-sufficient agricultural village in Turkey

• Evidence of trade, tool making, artisans

• Evidence of complex religion

• Specialization of occupations: politics, military

• Evidence of metal working (Copper Age)

CIVILIZATION

• Civilization as Advanced Culture

• Population dependent on cities

• From Latin civitas

• Permanent institutions

• Politics, Religion; ability to make war

• Social, labor, gender divisions, inequality

• Clearly defined sense of other: barbarian, nomad

• Artisan, intellectual classes favoring technology

• Form of record keeping, specifically writing

• Do not confuse with “good” or “superior”

BUILDING BLOCKS OF

CIVILIZATION

• What is a Civilization?

• Economic System

• Political Organization

• Moral Code (Religion)

• Written Language and Intellectual

Tradition

• Division of labor

THE MAP OF 1ST CIVILIZATIONS

ANCIENT HUMOR

ENVIRONMENT AS CATALYST

• Mesopotamia (land between rivers)

• Harsh heat, drought; unpredictable floods

• Few natural resources short of mud; no wood

• No natural defensive areas such as hills

• Area open to invasion by migrating nomads

• People in area must

• Provide permanent food supply

• Regulate, provide permanent water supply

• Provide defense against invaders

• Acquire materials such as timber, minerals

TIGRIS-EUPHRATES

“Necessity is the mother of invention”

Sumer in S. Iraq was first civilization

• Cuneiform, sciences, math aided farming

• Polytheistic religion

• Religion was to appease gods, control nature

• Art, architecture dedicated to gods, religion

• Priests, later kings rule city-states

• Land owning aristocracy dominate

• Warlike society with slavery

• Trade for needed materials

LATER MESOPOTAMIANS

• Cycle of Civilization

• Nomads come in and conquer sedentary people

• Conquerors assimilate local sedentary culture

• New civilization blends cultures, thrives for a while

• “New” civilization grows old, invaded by nomads

• Akkad “First”

• First Empire

• Sargon conquered all of Sumer

• Babylon “First”

• City at junction of Tigris-Euphrates

• Hammurabi’s Law Code – an eye for an eye

• Laws included in Jewish Torah

MESOPOTAMIA AS A CHART

THE NILE RIVER

• Egypt

• Society very different from Sumer

• Nile flooded regularly, predictably

• Provided rich soil, Easy soil to farm

• Civilization regulated flooding, surveying

• Location isolated

• Pharaoh was considered god-king

• Theocracy, almost absolute

• Built pyramid tombs for dead

• Egypt unified for most of history

• Achievements

• Mathematics especially geometry; architecture

• Sciences, Medicine

• Art was both secular and sacred

• Religion was positive, egalitarian in many ways

INDUS VALLEY

• Arose around 2,500 BCE

• Mohenjo Daro, Harappa main cities

• Independent city-states, strong government

• Extremely well-planned, coordinated cities

• Elaborate writing system (undeciphered)

• Religion worshipped mother goddess

• Little evidence of warfare until end

• Devastated by environmental upheavals

• Destroyed by Indo-European (Aryan) nomads

HUANG-HE (YELLOW) RIVER

• Developed in isolation

• Compare with ancient Egypt

• Xia Dynasty (Mythical?)

• God-like kings

• Taught irrigation, sericulture

• Shang Dynasty

• Warlike kings, landed aristocracy; few priests

• Most people worked land as peasants

• Elaborate bronze workings; naturalistic art

CHINESE WRITING

• Ideographic

• Writing denotes ideas

• First used on Oracle Bones

• Priests asked gods questions

• Wrote questions on bones

• Tossed into fire; cracks read by priests (divination)

• Elitist technique = scholar-bureaucrats

• Extremely difficult to read

• Required well-educated class to use

• Only elite had time to learn

• Cuneiform, hieroglyphs had similar effects

DYNASTIC CYCLE

• One ruling family replaces another

• The Dynasty Changes

• Due to the loss of the Mandate of Heaven

• Stages in Cycle

• New dynasty arises, takes control of China

• Strengthens rule, reestablishes prosperity, peace

• Weakens, becomes lazy, problems arise

• Invasions, revolts toss out reigning dynasty

• Shang replaces Xia, Zhou replaces Shang

MANDATE OF HEAVEN

• Chinese political idea

• Rulers exercise power given by heaven

• Rulers continue to rule if heaven pleased

• Heaven will take back mandate to rule

• Heaven will replace ruling dynasty

• Indicators of a Lost Mandate

• Wars, invasions, military disasters

• Over-taxation, disgruntled peasants

• Social, moral decline of elite classes

• Increased crime, banditry

HOW

THE

CYCLE

AND

MANDATE

WORK

TOGETHER

HERITAGES

• First heritages passed on

• Writing systems inherited

• Intellectual systems, art copied

• Religious, philosophical systems copied

• Useful inventions rarely forgotten, easily spread

• River valley civilizations decline by 1000BCE

• All subject to nomadic invasions

• Indo-Europeans and Semites were strongest

• Geographical centers shifted (all except China)

• Political Structures often not continued

CIVILIZATION SPREADS

• Phoenician Sailors in Lebanon

• City-states traded across Mediterranean

• Invented alphabet

• Lydians, Hittites in Asia Minor

• Introduced Iron, coinage to area

• Hebrews in Palestine

• Large Semitic migration in area

• Ethical monotheism

• Conduct determines salvation

• There is only one God speaking through prophets, priests

• God made a covenant with the Jews, his Chosen people

NOMADS: BARBARIANS?

• Pastoral herding on fringes

• Seen as savages

• Interaction vs. conflict

• Nomads traded, coexisted with settled areas

• Nomads warred on, conquered settled areas

• Often protected merchants, allowed trade

• Prior to 1500 BCE little major threat

• Chariot Peoples (Central Asian Indo-Europeans)

• Domesticated horse, invented chariot, iron weapons

• Pushed into SW Asia, S. Asia, E. Asia, Europe

• Responsible for spread of ideas, trade