ORIGINS
2.5 MILLION ~ 1000BCE
FROM HUMAN PREHISTORY TO EARLY
CIVILIZATIONS
HUMAN LIFE IN THE ERA OF HUNTERS AND GATHERERS
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Oldest human - 2.5~2 million years old
o 1/4000 of time earth existed
o Less than 5% of time mammals existed
Human Disadvantages
o Unusually aggressive
o Babies dependent for long periods
o Erect Stature – back ailments
o Awareness of death
Human Advantages
o Manipulate objects w/ hands
o Sex drive – reproduction
o Omnivore – adaptation to climates & settings
o Facial expression aid communication
o Brain – elaborate speech
HUMAN LIFE BEFORE AGRICULTURE
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Paleolithic Age (Old Stone Age)
o 2.5 million BCE
 Human-like species in East Africa (Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda)
o 750,000~500,000 BCE
 Fire
 Homo Erectus – Spread to Asia, Europe, Africa
 Erect stature
 Brain capacity & body size increase
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o 240,000~100,000
 Homo Sapiens Sapiens (our ancestor)
 Sexual Equality
 Kinship based tribes – small populations
o 14,000
 End of great ice age
 Simple tool use
Inhabitants by Area
o 600,000~350,000 BCE – China & Southeast Asia (Java Man, Peking Man)
o 250,000 BCE – Britain
o 60,000 BCE – Australia
o 30,000 BCE – Land bridge from Siberia to Alaska migration (eliminated 8000 BCE)
Mesolithic Age (Middle Stone Age – 12,000 BCE ~8000 BCE)
o Better stone tools
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ORIGINS
2.5 MILLION ~ 1000BCE
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FROM HUMAN PREHISTORY TO EARLY
CIVILIZATIONS
Domestication of animals
Basket weaving, fishing, rafts
Population acceleration – more wars
NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION
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Agriculture
o Increased population – 6-8 million to 100 million
o Took 1000 years to spread
o Conversion from hunting/gathering to farming
 Nomads driven out or forced to convert
 Nomads didn’t develop immunity to diseases as farmers did
o Triggered by end of ice age
 Population increase due to better climate – need for more sources of food
 Retreat of big game animals (i.e. mastodons)
Spread of Agriculture
o Middle East (10,000 BCE) – 1st place of development
o India
o North Africa
o Europe
o Americas (5000 BC) – Central & Northern South America
o Africa (2000 BCE)
Agricultural Impact
o Greater wealth & large populations – specialization
o Rapid new inventions enabled by specialization
o Basket & potter for storing
 6000 BCE first potter’s wheel
 Science – irrigation
o Metal tools
 1st Copper - (Middle East – 4000 BCE)
 2nd Bronze
 3rd Iron (1500 BCE) – by herding people who invaded Middle East
 Farming tools & weapons
The Bronze Age
CIVILIZATION
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Civilization started in many agricultural societies but not all
Mesopotamia (3500 BCE)
Indus River Valley
Egypt
China
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ORIGINS
2.5 MILLION ~ 1000BCE
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FROM HUMAN PREHISTORY TO EARLY
CIVILIZATIONS
Slash & Burn Agriculture
o Burn off trees - farm intensively for few years - deplete soil - move
Permanent Settlement Advantages
o Houses built to last
o Wells for water
o Expensive improvements last generations
Catal Huyuk (7,000 BCE)
o Neolithic village in southern Turkey
o Unusually large – 32 acres
o House with wooden frame and mud bricks
o Religious images – fertility goddesses
o Ruled over smaller villages
o Specialization in politics
o 3000 BCE – became civilization
Civilization Characteristics (Latin word city)
o Enough economic surplus to form divisions of labor and social hierarchy of inequalities
o Formal political organization opposed to dependence on kinship bands/tribes
o Political units capable of ruling large regions (cities)
o Cities amass wealth & power
 Rapid exchange of ideas
 Intellectual thought
 Artistic expression
 Promote specialization in manufacturing & trade
 Writing
 Organize more elaborate political structures
 Send messages & keep records
 Tax efficiently
 Make contracts & treaties
 Intellectual life
Disadvantages of Civilization
o Slavery – although variable
o Greater separation between ruler and people
o Warlike
o Sexual inequality
Nomadic Cultures
o More regulations – word of mouth
o Many repress anger & aggression
o Respect or elders
o Vital in world trade
TIGRIS / EUPHRATES CIVILIZATION (3500 BCE)
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ORIGINS
2.5 MILLION ~ 1000BCE
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FROM HUMAN PREHISTORY TO EARLY
CIVILIZATIONS
Achievements of Early Civilizations
o Writing
o Codes of law
o City planning & architecture
o Institutions for trade
 Use of money
Mesopotamia (3500 BCE)
o Tigris & Euphrates River
o Developed independently
o 4000 BCE
 Familiar with bronze & copper
 Pottery & artistic forms
o Farming required civilization because of complex irrigation system
o Prone to invasion
o Sumerians
 3500 BCE – invaded Mesopotamia
 Cuneiform
 (3500 BCE) - 1st system of wiiting – Middle East
 2000 characters to 300
 Scribes
 Few literate
 Astronomy – movement of sun & stars
 Numbers – 10, 60, 360 – for calculating circles & hours
 Religion
 Ziggurats – massive towers
o Professional priests
o Nature gods
o Polytheistic
o Creationism & divine punishment & afterlife
 Influenced Jewish, Christian, Muslim
 City-States
 King’s divine authority – military leaders
 Defined boundaries
 Regulate religion and enforce duties
 Court system & justice
 Kings, nobles, priests – control most of land
 Slavery – prisoners of war – variable
 Economy
 Wheeled carts
 Fertilizers
 Silver exchange
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ORIGINS
2.5 MILLION ~ 1000BCE
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FROM HUMAN PREHISTORY TO EARLY
CIVILIZATIONS
Independent business class vs. govt. control
Akkadians
o Invaded Sumerians and continued culture
Babylonians
o Extended empire
o Hammurabi
 Hammurabi’s Code
Indo-European Invasion (2100 BCE)
Semitic Invasion
Assyrians
Persians
EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION (3000 BCE)
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Less prone to invasion
Pharaoh
Economy
o Fully government-directed – complexity of irrigation of Nile
Pyramids (2700 BCE)
o Tombs for pharaohs
Kush
o Invaded Egypt at one point
INDUS RIVER VALLEY CIVILIZATION (2500 BC)
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Indus River supported large cities
o Harappa
 Writing still undeciphered
o Mohenjo Daro
Indo-European invasion hinder knowledge
CHINESE RIVER VALLEY CIVILIZATION
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Huanghe (Yellow) River
P’an Ku
o Mythic Ancestor
Advanced technology
Rode Horses
Bronze use – 1000 BCE
Pottery
Ideographic Symbols
o Writing system
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ORIGINS
2.5 MILLION ~ 1000BCE
FROM HUMAN PREHISTORY TO EARLY
CIVILIZATIONS
HERITAGE OF RIVER VALLEY CIVILIZATIONS
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Most declined about 1200~1000 BCE
Achievements
o Monuments
 Pyramids
o Invention of the wheel
o Taming of the horse
o Alphabet
 Almost all alphabet derived from this
o Mathematical concepts
 Square root
o Monarchies & bureaucracies
o Calendar & divisions of time
Legacy
o God-like king
o Strong city-states
o Mathematics
o Science
o Mesopotamians
 Stress gap between humans & nature
 Art – influence Greeks
o Egypt
 Architecture – influence Greeks
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o Chinese
 Stress harmony between humans & nature
Phoenicians
o 1300 BCE - Simplified alphabet to 22 letters
o Improved Egyptian numbering system
o Great traders
Lydians
o First introduce coined money
Jews
o 1200 BCE – Semitic people settled in Mediterranean
o 772-63 BCE – Suffered domination
o Monotheism
 God becomes more abstract
 Orderly and just
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