Download Homo erectus - Orangefield ISD

The Earliest Humans
Unit 1
What does it all mean?!?!
B.C. and A.D.
• Before Christ
• Anno Domoni (the year of the
Lord)
BCE and CE
• Before Current Era
• Current Era
The Peopling of the World
Prehistory – 2500 B.C.
Chapter 1
Where did early
human beings
originate and what
were some of their
technological and
artistic
achievements?
Human Origins in Africa
Chapter 1, Section 1
What
evidence do
we have that
shows that the
earliest
humans
originated in
Africa and
spread across
the globe?
Scientists Search
• Archaeologists – search for and study artifacts such as tools and jewelry
• Anthropologists – study artifacts to create a picture of the culture
• Paleontologists – study and date fossils
Early Footprints
Lucy
• Why were the discoveries of
hominid footprints and “Lucy”
important?
Paleolithic Age
Neolithic Age
2.5 million – 8000 B.C.
8000 B.C. – 3000 B.C.
• The Old Stone Age
• The New Stone Age
• Invention of tools
• Polish stone tools
• Mastery over fire
• Make pottery
• Development of language
• Grow crops / raise animals
Homo habilis
“Man of Skill”
• East Africa – 2.5 million years ago
• May have used tools to cut meat
and crack open bones.
Homo erectus
“Upright Man”
• East Africa – 1.6 million years ago
• Used intelligence to develop
technology
• First hominids to migrate from Africa
• First to use fire
• Developed beginnings of spoken
language
• How did Homo erectus use fire to
adapt to the environment?
Homo sapiens
“Wise Men”
Neanderthals
• Lived between 200,000 and 30,000 years
ago
• Tried to explain and control their world
• Developed religious beliefs and performed
rituals
• Mysteriously vanished about 30,000 years
ago
Cro-Magnons
• Appeared about 40,000 years ago
• Identical to modern humans
• Migrated from North Africa to
Europe and Asia
• Superior hunting strategies
• Advanced spoken language
• How were Neanderthals similar to
people today?
Controlling Nature
Chapter 1, Section 2
Early Advances in Technology & Art
Nomads / Hunter-gatherers
• Invented specialized tools needed
for survival
• Knives
• Fish hooks
• Harpoons
• Bone needles
• How did early modern human’s
new tools make survival easier?
Paleolithic Age
• Artistic Expression
• Jewelry
• Cave paintings
Beginnings of Agriculture
Neolithic Revolution
• Shift from food gathering to food
producing
• Believed to be brought about by a
change in climate
• What were the major causes of the
development of agriculture?
Early Farming Methods
• Slash and burn farming
• Trees and grasses slashed then burned
• Ashes fertilized the soil
• Crops grown for a couple of seasons
Domestication of Animals
• Domestication = taming
• Horses, dogs, goats, pigs
Jarmo
• Birthplace of agriculture (9,000
years ago)
• What advantages might farming
and herding have over hunting and
gathering?
Catal Huyuk (chuh-TUL hoo-YOOK)
Aka “Forked Mound”
• Early agricultural village (at its peak
8,000 years ago)
• Large crops grown, raised sheep
and cattle
• Obsidian was plentiful
• Religious shrines dedicated to
mother goddess
Civilization
(A more complex way of life)
Chapter 1, Section 3
Villages into Cities
Economic Changes
• Larger food supply supports larger
population
• People developed skills besides
farming
• Wheel and sail invented
Social and Political Changes
• Social classes began to emerge
• Religion became more organized
• How did economic changes affect
the social and political structure of
village life?
Characteristics of a Civilization
•
•
•
•
•
Advanced cities
Specialized workers
Complex institutions
Record keeping
Advanced technology
Advanced Cities
Specialized Workers
• Difference between a village and a
•
•
•
•
city:
• A city acts as center of trade for a
larger area.
Traders
Government officials
Priests
Artisans
Complex institutions
Record keeping
• Government
• Religion
• Economy
• Government officials
• Documented tax collections, passage of
laws, storage of grain
• Priests
• Keep track of calendar and important
rituals
• Merchants
• Record accounts of debts and payment
Improved Technology
•
•
•
•
Ox-drawn plows
Irrigation systems
Potter’s wheel
Bronze
City of Ur in Sumer
Civilization Emerges in Ur
• The City of Ur
• Flourished about 3000 B.C. in what is now southern Iraq
• Population about 30,000; live in well-defined social classes
• Rulers, priests and priestesses, wealthy merchants, artisans, soldiers
An Agricultural Economy
Life in the City
• Food surpluses keep the economy
• Families live in small houses
thriving
tightly packed near one another
• Artisans make trade goods and
weapons for Ur’s army
• How did Ur’s agricultural way of
life foster the development of
civilization there?
Ur’s Thriving Trade
The Temple: Center of City Life
• Goods and services bartered, or
• Ziggurat, a temple, is tallest, most
traded without using money
• Scribes make records of
transactions
important building
• Priests carry out religious rituals
there
Early River Valley
Civilizations
3500 B.C. – 450 B.C.
Chapter 2
• How did early
peoples organize
their societies and
build advanced
civilizations?
City-States in
Mesopotamia
Chapter 2, Section 1
Geography Promotes Civilization
• The Fertile Crescent
• Fertile Crescent—arc of land
between Persian Gulf and
Mediterranean
• Includes Mesopotamia “land
between the rivers”—a fertile
plain
• Tigris and Euphrates rivers flood
once a year, leaving rich soil.
Environmental Challenges
• Around 3300 B.C. Sumerians begin
farming southern Mesopotamia
• Environment poses three
disadvantages:
• floods are unpredictable; sometimes
no rain
• land offers no barriers to invasion
• land has few natural resources;
building materials scarce
• What are three solutions to the
environmental challenges of
Mesopotamia?
Solving Problems Through Organization
• Sumerians worked together; find
solutions to environmental challenges:
• build irrigation ditches to control water,
produce crops
• build walled cities for defense
• trade grain, cloth, and tools for raw
materials—stone, wood metal
• Organization, leadership, and laws are
beginning of civilization
Sumerians Create City-States
• Sumerian City-States
• By 3000 B.C. Sumerians build cities
surrounded by fields of crops
• Each is a city-state—an independent political
unit
• Sumer city-states Uruk, Kish, Lagash, Umma,
and Ur
• Each city has temple and ziggurat; priests
appeal to gods
Priests and Rulers Share Control
• Priests and Rulers Share Control
• Sumer’s early governments controlled
by temple priests
• Some military leaders become rulers;
dynasties rule after 2500 B.C.
• Dynasty—series of rulers from a single
family
• The Spread of Cities
• By 2500 B.C. many new cities in Fertile
Crescent
• Sumerians exchange products and
ideas with other cultures
• Cultural diffusion—process of one
culture spreading to others
Sumerian Culture
• A Religion of Many Gods
• Sumerians believe in many
different gods: polytheism
• Gods are thought to control forces
of nature
• Gods behave as humans do, but
people are gods’ servants
• Life after death is bleak and gloomy
Enlil, the god of storms and air
• Life in Sumerian Society
• Sumerians have social classes—
kings, landholders, priests at top
• Wealthy merchants next; at
lowest levels are slaves
• Women have many rights;
become priests, merchants,
artisans
• Sumerian Science and Technology
• Sumerians invent wheel, sail, and
plow; first to use bronze
• Make advances in arithmetic and
geometry
• Develop arches, columns, ramps
and pyramids for building
• Have complex system of writing—
cuneiform
• Study astronomy, chemistry,
medicine
• Time of War
The First Empire Builders
• From 3000 to 2000 B.C. citystates at constant war
Sargon of Akkad
• Around 2350 B.C., Sargon from
Akkad defeats city-states of Sumer
• Creates first empire—independent
states under control of one leader
• His dynasty lasts about 200 years
• How does an empire differ from a
city-state?
Babylonian Empire
• Amorites, nomadic warriors, take
control of region around 2000 B.C.
• Make Babylon, on Euphrates River,
the capital
• Babylonian Empire at peak during
Hammurabi’s rule (1792-1750 B.C.)
Hammurabi the Amorite
Hammurabi’s Code
• Hammurabi creates a code of laws for the
Babylonian Empire
• 282 laws on all aspects of life; engraved in
stone and made public
• Set different punishments depending on
social class, gender
• Goal for government to take responsibility for
order, justice
• Amorite rule for Fertile Crescent ends 200
years after Hammurabi
• How did Hammurabi’s law code
advance civilization?