Download Early Peoples, Neolithic Revolution and Early River Civilizations

9.1 EARLY PEOPLES TO
NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION
Present
PALEOLITHIC HUNTER-GATHERER
• 99% of human
history
• Tools = stone, bone,
wood
• Low pop. Density
(1/sq mi)
• Nomadic
• Extensive leisure
time
• Rugged existence
HUNTER-GATHERERS
• Small nomadic
bands, clans, tribes;
Follow animal herds
for food and
seasonal plants
HUNTER-GATHERERS
• Culture: animistic,
antagonistic to
strangers, generally
males hunt and
females forage,
relatively egalitarian
society
HUNTER-GATHERERS
• rarely surplus food,
and since they are
nomadic little ability
to store any surplus.
Thus independent
leaders,
bureaucrats, or
artisans are rarely
supported by
hunter-gathering
societies
HUNTER-GATHERERS
• What was the technological status of huntergatherers?
• Minimal, usually stone-age tools; limited to what could carry
• Everyone in the hunter-gatherer society is master of their
technology.
HUNTER-GATHERERS
• What limited the population size of hunter-gatherer
tribes?
• One acre of land that is farmed can support sixty to a
hundred more people than one that is left uncultivated
• Infanticide; elderly leave the tribe
HUNTER-GATHERERS
• Characterize the belief system of hunter-gatherers.
• animistic
• How did the diet and nutrition of hunter-gatherers
differ from early farmers?
HUNTER-GATHERERS
• Why were huntergatherers
nomadic?
• Following game and
seasonal plants
• Cave men?
HUNTER-GATHERERS
• How does the
workload of a
hunter-gatherer
compare to
farmers?
• About 3 hours a day
average – Huntergatherers have a lot
more free time than
we do
HUNTER-GATHERERS
• What physical characteristics of humans are best
adapted to Paleolithic life?
• gene pool has changed little since 35,000 years ago
• from a genetic standpoint, current humans are still late
Paleolithic pre-agricultural hunter-gatherers
• Strong cravings for salts and fats
• Physical differences bt. Males and females
• “ADD”
NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION
3500 BCE – SUMER
3000 BCE - EGYPT
NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION
• “Neo” = new “lithic” = stone [age]
• Revolution = farming
• Nothing since this time more revolutionized human
life
• Shift from H-G to farming was gradual and not
uniform around globe
• Earliest = “fertile crescent” (modern Iraq) – 8000 BC
NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION CONT’D
• Limitations: plants
that could be
domesticated,
animals available
for domestication
NEOLITHIC
• Fertile Crescent:
majority of modern
cereals and grains
from this stock;
more animals here
could be
domesticated
(dogs, pigs, camels,
horses)
NEOLITHIC
• North America:
limited plant
availability, no large
mammals (hunted
to extinction by first
human immigrants)
NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION CONT’D
• Villages become more permanent as farmers stick
by to protect their crops and livestock
• Farming » Change belief systems
• Regard for animal spirits and lunar cycles replaced by sun
worship and concept of after-life
• Farming » Technology
• Tools (ex. Plow)
• Dwellings
NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION CONT’D
• Farmers can
support specialized
professions because
of food surplus:
warriors, priests,
bureaucrats
NEOLITHIC
• Farmers develop
higher levels of
technology: bronze,
iron, steel, writing
NEOLITHIC
• Farming communities
develop immunity to
diseases caught from
livestock with which live
(Pizarro captures Incan
emperor Atahualpa
with small band and
smallpox wipes out
natives) .
WHO STARTED IT?
• Who do you think (and who do you think most
Anthropologists think) started farming?
• Maybe females, because they were most involved with
plants and such?
• Could this be connected to the fact the females have
been mostly responsible for medicines in history?
MOTHER GODDESS
• Why do you think
the earliest Neolithic
myths viewed a
mother goddess as
superior force?
• What celestial
bodies do you think
are usually
associated with the
female? The male?
NEW IDEAS OF THE NEOLITHIC
• Ownership, property
• Warfare
• Religion
• Calendars
• Mathematics
• Writing
• Social hierarchy
NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION
•
•
Explain why
farming
developed in early
river civilizations
and how farming
leads to civilization.
Describe any FOUR
elements of the
typical early river
civilizations.
EARLY CIVILIZATIONS
Compare and
contrast any THREE
elements
(economy,
government,
beliefs, writing,
technology, legal
systems, ) of the
civilizations
Mesopotamia and
Egypt.
MESOPOTAMIA
HISTORY BEGINS AT SUMER
BY SAMUEL NOAH KRAMER…
RISE OF SUMER
• ~3000 BCE
• City-states
• Conquered
repeatedly
• Sumerian culture
conquers the
conquerors
• Spread by them
• Who was first,
Egypt or
Mesopotamia?
• Tell Hamukar
• New dig
• Probably older
URUK PERIOD
• 3800-3200 BCE
• Creative
• Inventions
• Wheel
• Plough
• Metal casting
• Weapons, jewelry
• Agriculture
• 1st orchards
• Dates, figs, olives
FIRST WRITING
• Cuneiform
• “wedge-shaped”
• Gradually
literature emerges
but at first…
• Gov’t records, legal
docs, religious
• Inefficient system
• Blocks of clay
• Hard to learn!
• Ideographic and
phonologic elements
• Durable – thousands
of these records
survive!
URUK PERIOD, CONT’D
• 3800-3200 BCE
• Rise of citystates
• Small,
independent
• Ur, Uruk, Lagash,
Eridu
• City walls
• ~5mi circum.
• At first just
markers, then
defense later
period
• Buildings = mud
brick (no stone
local)
BUILDING
• 1st cities no
street plans
• Sometimes no
streets bt. Houses
– walk over roofs
to get home!
• 1st impressive
bldgs = temples
• Ziggurats
• Priestly class =
impt
DYNASTIC PERIOD
• ~2800-2350 BCE
• Fierce competition
bt. Cities
• 1st palace
complexes are
built
• Local “lugals” =
big shots = first
kings
• 1st monarchy =
“theocratic
monarchy”
• Gods put king in
place & he speaks
for them
WARFARE INCREASES IN IMPORTANCE
• Simultaneous
growth of large
landowners and
warrior class
“warrior
aristocracy”
• Social tensions
evident
• Tension: kings/priests
– warrior elite
GEOGRAPHY
• “Middle East is the
crucible of
conflict and the
graveyard of
empires” – Dr.
Rufus Fears
• No natural barriers
• 2 rivers
• Mountains on
edges
• Wealth and
prosperity of
region attractive
to stronger
peoples outside
FIRST EMPIRE
• Akkadians
• Akkad
• north
• After 2350
BCE
• Sargon I “The
Great”
• 2371-2316
BCE
• Moved south
• Interesting life
story
• Infant in reed
basket taken
by queen’s
attendants in
river…
SARGON I
• When conquered,
did not destroy
Sumerian culture
• Disseminated
throughout
kingdom
• Next come the
“Amorites” or “New
Babylonians”
AMORITES
• Conquer &
spread
Sumerian
culture
• Becomes
common
basis for life
among
Semitic
peoples in
that region
• Pretty nasty
ppl…
RELIGION OF SUMER
• Polytheistic
• Synchretistic
• Gods
• Of Sky
• Male, war, gov’t, forces
in nature
• Of earth
• Female, fertility,
abundance, wealth,
fotune
• animistic
• Sumerian gods are
• Immortal
• Have superhuman
powers
• Otherwise like humans
• Religious rights =
appease gods
• Religion =
pessimistic/fatalistic
• Unpredictable river
• Constant conquests
RELIGION, CONT’D
• No ethical
function
• First attempt
to
understand
/
systematize
natural
forces
BELIEFS
• Polytheistic
•
•
•
•
•
An – sky
Enlil - storms
Marduk
Tiamat
Enki
• After-life
• Deal-making
LEGAL LEGACY OF SUMER
• Sumerian law = no
philosophical
underpinning (like our
Constitution)
• List of rules and
punishments (fines,
capital, sometimes
cruel)
• Social struggles
evident here
• Carved in stone =
public = means it’s for
everyone
HAMMURABI’S LAW CODE
• Contrast the Code
of Hammurabi to
the American
concept of justice.
• Code of
Hammurabi
• C. 1790 BCE
• Babylon
GOVERNMENT
• Priest-king
• City-state
• Ur
• Uruk
• Eridu
• Ziggurat
• Sacrifice
• God/goddess
• "templecommunities" – a
class of priestbureaucrats
controlling the
political and
economical life of
the city in the name
of the city gods
ECONOMY
• Agriculture
• surrounding land of each
city-state - individual tracts,
irrigated w/ system of
canals and dams.
• wheat and barley
• Trade
• transportation of textiles
and crops by Sumerian
merchants to other lands,
• exchanged for stone,
metals, and timber.
• traded to other Sumerians
or used to fabricate
jewelry, tools, and
weapons to be traded
later.
TECHNOLOGY
• Mathematics (60based)
• Calendar
• Chariot
• Wheel – potter’s
wheel (mass
production)
• Bronze!!
• plow
• Water control
methods
•
•
•
•
Sluice
Dam
Canal
Irrigation
INDUS RIVER
EMERGENCE & DECLINE
• 3000-1500 BCE
• Remains of
>1000
settlements
found
• Harappa
• Mohenjo Daro
• Ending
mysterious
• migration of
Aryans?
SHANG DYNASTY
EMERGENCE
•
•
•
•
•
1750-1045 BCE
Aristocratic rule
Capital: Anyang
Social hierarchy
Organized armies
• Oracle bones
• Ancestor worship
• bronze