Download Beginning of Human Society_6th

Beginnings of Human
Society
6th grade
Types of Human Society
 The Paleolithic period, also known as the
Stone Age, started about 2.5 million years
ago and lasted until about 12,000 B.C.
 The Mesolithic period lasted from about
12,000 B.C. until about 8000 B.C.
 The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age,
lasted from about 8000 B.C. until about 5000
B.C.
Paleolithic Cultures
• They hunted and gathered for food.
• They were nomads–people who
traveled from place to place. They
followed the movement of the
animals they hunted.
• Ancient people did not build
permanent homes. Instead, they
carried tents with them that were
light and could be easily moved.
• They made tools out of stone, clay,
and wood.
• Men hunted while women cared for
young and gathered food.
Paleolithic Cultures con’t
• PLACE: They lived in present-day Africa,
southeast Asia, China, Japan, and Europe, and
they spread out everywhere except Antarctica.
• TOOLS USED: Wooden digging sticks were the
first tools that Paleolithic people used.
• stone axes to cut down trees, spears and bows
and arrows to hunt wild animals.
Paleolithic Cultures con’t
• There was no
government—people
organized loosely around
natural leaders and
followers.
• fires allowed people to cook
food and heat shelters.
• They developed art with
paintings on cave walls.
Neolithic Cultures
 They used slash and burn
techniques to clear forests to
make farmland.
 Crops grown on farms became
an important source of food.
 They domesticated animals
such as goats, cattle, and pigs
for food.
Neolithic Con’t
 They used tools: plow and the sickle
in order to farm.
The plow could be used to bring
nutrients to the surface of soil
before crops were planted, and
the sickle could be used to cut
grain.
 They established agricultural
villages.
 They began using metals such as
copper, lead, and gold for weapons
and tools.
Climate and Development
 After the last ice age, the
climate on Earth was
unpredictable.
 Global temperatures
eventually leveled off (it
was the same
temperature) and have
remained relatively
stable(same) for
thousands of years.
Climate and Development
CON’T
 Animal herds migrated based on the changing
temperatures. Because animals were their main
source of food, hunter-gatherers followed where
the herds migrated.
 Which type of people followed animals?
Neolithic or Paleolithic
Climate and Development
CONT
 Once the climate became
more stable, animals,
humans, and plants had
many opportunities to grow
and thrive.
 The hunter-gather society
was slowly replaced with
a society that planted and
raised crops. This type of
society was known as an
agricultural society.
Early Migrations and
Settlements
 It is believed that the earliest humans lived in
the East African Rift Valley, in present-day
Ethiopia.
 Ancient Egypt has been called the "gift of the
Nile.”
 Most of Egypt is very dry, but people were
able to thrive because they lived near the Nile
River.
 The river would flood every year and make the
ground fertile so the people could grow crops. The
river was also used for irrigation.
Early Migrations and
Settlements con’t…
 The Yellow River is considered the cradle
of agriculture in China.
 From China, farming spread across Eurasia
through migration and contact with nearby
societies.
 Early humans arrived in Australia about
40,000–45,000 years ago. They migrated
over a land bridge from Southeast Asia.
Early Migrations and
Settlements
River Valleys
 Early civilizations developed in river valleys.
 This is because the ancient civilizations relied
on agriculture as their main source of food.
 River valleys had fertile ground from the
flooding that rivers went through, and this
ground made it easier to grow crops.
 All river civilizations discovered some form of
irrigation, which allowed them to lead water
from rivers to water the crops on farmlands.
The four Rivers
 Tigris and Euphrates River
 Nile River
 Huang Ho River
 Indus River
Tigris And Euphrates
Rivers
 The first evidence of civilization has been found in
Mesopotamia, along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which is
in the present day countries of Iraq and Iran.
 Mesopotamia was very dry, but the people who lived there
were able to build canals to bring water from the rivers to
irrigate their cropland.
Tigris And Euphrates
Rivers con’t…
 What did they use?
 Mesopotamians used the plow to make their farmland
more productive.
 They used oxen to pull plows through their fields.
 The Mesopotamians also used the nearby rivers was for
transportation. By using the sail, Mesopotamians were
able to trade over long distances, including with Egyptians
Tigris And Euphrates
Rivers con’t…
 The Sumerians were the first known
group to invent writing (called
cuneiform).
 FYI: They also invented the wheel,
which they used for carts, wagons,
chariots, and pottery wheels.
 The Babylonians wrote the Code of
Hammurabi, which is one of the
earliest examples of law that exists.
 Mesopotamian civilizations were
polytheistic, which meant they
believed in more than one god.
Nile river...and its region
 Nile River:
 Nile was very important for the Egyptians.
 Nile floods came during the same season
every year.
 The floods left silt on the soil, which was
good for growing crops.
 They made a writing system using
hieroglyphs (pictures), and they wrote
on sheets of a plant called papyrus.
 Egypt was ruled by a pharaoh, and its
religion was also polytheistic, having many
different gods.
 They believed in an afterlife. They
mummified the dead to preserve the bodies
for the afterlife.
Huang Ho River (or
Yellow River)
 The Huang Ho is the second longest
river in China.
 The fertile floodplains of the river
provided an excellent place to grow
crops, and this was where the first
Chinese civilizations emerged.
 The Shang Chinese civilization
wrote oracles (religious predictions)
on animal bones and turtle shells.
 These oracle bones give us an
example of early Chinese writing,
which is similar to Chinese writing
today.
Indus River and its region...
 The Indus Valley (also called Harappan) civilization
in western India was in some ways more advanced
than later civilizations.
 Archaeologists have found evidence that the
Harappans had a standard system of weighing
things.
Indus River and its
region...
 Harappan houses even had indoor drainage systems, a
basic type of plumbing.
 This was a luxury that people would not regain until
many years later. The Harappan civilization also
planned their cities so that the streets were laid out in a
grid.
Agricultural…
 The development of
agriculture allowed people to
live in one place and establish
permanent settlements.
 These new settlements created
innovations that were not
possible in a society always
on the move.
Invention of Agriculture
 Agriculture is the growing of crops and the
domestication of animals.
 Where did agriculture develop?
 For example, it also developed in North and South America
even though those continents did not have contact with the
Middle East.
 Agriculture developed in Guinea/West Africa, the
Nile River Valley, and the Ethiopian Highlands at
about the same time but independently of each other
(see map in previous slide).
Invention of
Agriculture…etc.
 The development of agriculture led to more reliable
sources of food than hunting and gathering offered.
 By growing crops and raising animals, people were
able to establish permanent settlements.
 These permanent settlements eventually developed into
the first true civilizations.
 Many civilizations were able to support standing
armies with the large amount of food that they grew
on their farms.
Invention of
Agriculture…etc.
 Domestication allowed people to breed
animals instead of hunting them.
 This involved selective breeding: choosing
to breed animals with favorable traits.
 These traits were passed on to make animals that were
stronger, produced more meat or milk, or were tamer.
The first animals to be domesticated for agriculture
were goats and sheep.
Problem in agriculture…
 One early problem in agricultural societies was
the spread of diseases from animals to humans.
 What is the difference between nomads the
farming society?
 Unlike hunter-gatherer societies, farming societies were
exposed to diseases like smallpox and measles.
 How were they spread?
 These diseases were spread through domesticated
animals.
Invention of Metallurgy…
 What is Metallurgy?
 Metallurgy is the making of items with metal. Metalworking
contributed to advances in making tools, jewelry, and weapons.
 Some of the first metal-working societies included those of the
Bronze Age and the Iron Age.
 Bronze was first used to make tools because it has a lower
melting point than iron.
 With the development of higher temperature smelting techniques,
however, people could make iron more easily than before.

Iron is a stronger metal than bronze, so it made better tools and
weapons.