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Birth of Civilization
Paleolithic Age
Neolithic Age
Origins & Attributes of a Complex Society
Evolution of Hominids - pithecene
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E. Africa ~ 1-4 million BCE
Bipedal, c.4'
Found tools, used fire
"Lucy"
Earliest hominds
 Ardipithecis ramidus – Ardi
 +4 million years old
 Earliest, most complete homind
 Austra. afarensis – Lucy
 c. 3.2 million years old
 Oldest hominid remains found
in Great Rift Valley (Ethiopia,
Kenya, Tanzania)
Lucy
Ardi
Paleolithic Age
 “Old Stone Age” c. 1-2 million–15,000 BCE.
 Nomadic -- foragers, hunting & gathering
 kinship/clan groups c. 30-50 members
 relatively egalitarian
 Found Tools Fire, cleavers, hand axes
 Language  major development (homo
erectus)
 Code, symbology
 Art & Rituals – Purpose?, sympathetic
magic?
 Migration
Homo Erectus
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E Africa, ~ 2.5 million -200K BCE
Extensive use of tools
Controlled fire
Coordinated hunting
Rudimentary language
 Migration Asia & Europe
Homo Sapiens
 Widespread ~200K BCE
 100K Eurasia
 sapiens = conscious
 lg frontal brain
 fashioned specialised tools
 successful hunters
 population pressure on
environment
 available big game
 Ice age & pop1st extinctions
 mammoth, rhinoceros, sloth
Neandertal
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Homo sapien ~100-35K BCE
Europe & SW Asia
created specialised tools
controlled fire
elaborate burial sites
 buried w/possessions
 emotion & respect
 religion & notion of afterlife?
 Coexist with Cro-Magnon
 eventually disappear
 extinction?
 Interbreed w/Cro-Magnon?
Homo sapiens sapiens - Cro Magnon
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1st modern man ~ 40K BCE
larger than Neandertal ( 7’)
mostly hunter-gatherers
Created extensive art
 Venus figuresfertility
statues?
 cave paintingssympathetic
magic?
 decorated tools
 some settled communities
 fishing resources
 Natufian E. Mediterranean
 Joman Japan
 Chinook Pacific NW
Paleolithic Art
Paleolithic
Architecture
Neolithic Age
 “New Stone age” c. 15,000 – 4000
BCE
 Cultivation
 Domestication of livestock
 Agricultural Transition
Neolithic Age
 Agricultural transition over
centuries
 Domestication of animals,
hybridisation of grains
 c. 11000-9000 BCE – SW. Asia
Neolithic evolution
 c. 9000-7000 BCE -- SE. Sahara
 c. 8000-6000 BCE – Sub-Sahara
 Bantu migrations coming from
Sahara?
 c. 6500 BCE – Yangtze & Huang He
 c. 5000 BCE – SE. Asia
 c. 4000 BCE – Meso-America
 c. 3000 BCE - Peru
Early Civilizations
  Agriculture efficiency
  surplus agriculture
 efficiency  yield  pop
 Feed non-agri pop + btw harvests
   control environment
 Irrigation
 Mitigate agst flooding
 Nile, Indus, Mesopotamia, Huang He
 Transport water to fields
 Need storage
 Specialised tools & Technology
Çatal Hüyük
Aegean pottery used to store grain
 Pottery, Textile & metallurgy 
earliest industries.
Early Civilizations --
3500 – 500 BCE
 Emergence of complex societies in
Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, China,
Mesoamerica, & C. Andean regions
 Note. Complex societies, like
agriculture don't occur simultaneously
Jericho. Oldest Neolithic city, c. 9000 BCE
Çatal Hüyük (Anatolia)
Complex Society – Birth of Empire
 All Complex Societies
 Nomadic  Sedentary
 Rural  Urban
 Forming 1st cities
 Precursor to city-states,
kingdoms, empires
 Job specialization
Neolithic pottery from Jomon Period
(Japan c. 10,000-3000 BCE. earliest fired
pottery )
 Military
 Political & religious leaders
 Merchants
 Craftsman & artisans
 Peasants
 Slaves
 Organization  control of 
pop & regions w/ #
Early Civilizations - What did they
have in Common?
 Est'd on major Rivers
 MesopotamiaTigris & Euphrates
 Egypt Nile
 Harappan (India) Indus
 China Huang He
 Agriculture & Animal Domestication
 Grains wheat, millet, barley, sorghum,
etc.
 Livestock cattle, sheep, goats, etc.
 Irrigation systems
 Collected surplus agriculture
Mohenja Daro- City on Indus R.
c.3000-1500 BCE
 Taxes/ tribute
 Dist. to non-agricultural workers
 Used as trade commodity
Early Complex Societies -Commonalities
 Formal Government Institutions
Ziggurat to Nanna, Ur, Mesopotamia
 Political authority
 Ruler  King
 God  Egypt
 Representative of God  Mesopotamia, China
  Size of gov't  Job specialisation  bureaucracy
 Jobs needed to run government
  Levels of control military, tax collectors, judges,
scribes, etc.
 Strong Link btw Ruler & Religion reinforced
political rule
 Seen in temple construction  gov't projects
 Ziggurats  Mesopotamia
 Pyramids & Temples  Egypt
Early Complex Societies -Commonalities
Develop trade
 Domestic & Foreign
 Roads, standard weights, currency, laws
 Became commercial centers
 Ports, Markets, bazaars
 Inns, Entertainment, storehouses, crime
 Develop maritime technology
  Economic control of neighbouring regions
Economic expansionPolitical
expansion
  Economic control of neighbouring regions
 Secure overland trade routes military
 Borders, tolls, taxes
 Early imperialism
Ancient trade routes
Early Civilizations – Social Classes
 Social Hierarchies
 Stratification class differentiation
 Trade
 Cultural traditions
 Common language
 Hieroglyphics
 cuneiform
 Alphabet
 Documentation of society
 Economic transactions, taxes
 Life of rulers
 literature
Votive Statue of Gudea
with cuneiform script
Early Civilizations -- Religion
 Relgion
 Religious doctrine reinforces
 relations btw. rulers & the
ruled
 Helps est. legitimacy of
rulers & institutions
 Religion  role of priesthood
 Intermediary
 Personal
 Literature, myth reinforce:
 Ideas
 Relations btw. Secular &
religious authorities
Yakshi Holding
a Fly Whisk
Early Civilizations – Gender,
Slavery
 Role of women
  in size, specialisation & success
of city-state/empire  rights of
women
  Role & status of men
 Cultural norms, rules  role of
women outside of home
 Code of Hammurabi, Old Testament
 exceptions priestesses, oracles,
rulers (Hatshepsut, Cleopatra in
Egypt)
  social status  restriction on
women
  social status   restriction on
women
 Slavery
Funerary Temple of Hutshepsut
 Debtors, prisoners of war,
criminals
 Generally not permanent