Download Chapter 1- River Valley Civ

Chapter 1
From the Origins of Agriculture to
the First River-Valley Civilizations
8000B.C.E.-1500 B.C.E
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Civilization1. Cities of administrative centers
2. A political system based on defined territory
3. Many people engaged in specialized, non food
producing activities
4. Status distinctions based largely on
accumulation of wealth
5. Monumental building
6. A system for keeping permanent records
7. Long-distance trade
8. Sophisticated interest in science and art
Essential Questions
• How did plant and animal domestication set the
scene for the emergence of civilization?
• Why did the earliest civilization arise in river valleys?
• How did the organization of labor shape political and
social structures?
• How did metallurgy, writing, and monumental
construction contribute to the power and walth of
elite groups?
• How do religious beliefs reflect interaction with the
environment?
Before Civilization
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Culture
History
Paleolithic (Stone Age)
Foragers
– Gender roles
– No surplus of food lead to no specialized labor, not social
classes, more egalitarian society.
• Pastoralism
– they herd animals so also don’t stay put and population in
those societies stay low
Human Migration
• Hunting-foraging bands of humans gradually
migrated from their origin in East Africa to
Eurasia, Australia and the Americas, adapting
their technology and cultures to new climate
regions.
– Humans adapted to their environment
River Valley Civilizations 3500-1500 B.C.E.
America v. Eurasia
• Americas did not have large animals, llama is about
it. Not the case in Eurasia, horses, oxen, cows, so
they event wheel for farming.
• No invention of wheel for purposes of pulling in
America because no large draft animals.
• Eurasia is mainly east-west so makes knowledge of
farming easier to spread because similar climate
regions
• What is circa?
The Agricultural Revolutions
• Around 10,000 years ago, some groups began
to domesticate.
• Permanent settlement
• Slash and burning techniques were
abandoned
• Middle East region had earliest evidence of
agriculture
• Agrarian-
• Why did the Agricultural Revolution occur?
– Holocene– (1) farming (2) domestication of animals (3) better
tools but all hurts environment
• Population increase:
Life in Neolithic Communities
• Easier than early foragers
• Less variety and nutrition than earlier
foragers
– Disease, vermin, insect
• Kinship and marriage
– Matrilineal or patrilineal societies
– Who ruled in early periods?
• Religion
– Ancestor reverence
– Deities of nature of animals
– Megaliths
• Neolithic Villages
– Middle East, Jericho (walls)
– Catal Huyuk, Anatolia (roofs)
• Religious shrines
• Metalworking
Mesopotamia
• At the “mercy” of the gods. Why?
• Babylon was the most important city.
Settled Agriculture in an Unstable
Landscape
• Mesopotamia means:
– Between Tigris and Euphrates
– Modern day:
• Farming did not reach here until 5000 B.C.E.
– Staple food was:
Sumerians and Semitic
• Sumerians
– Establish written record
– Southern Mesopotamia
• Semitic
– Non-Sumerian
– Asia and northern Africa
– The word Semitic refers to:
• By 2000 B.C., the Semitic people dominated
politically and with language
• Cultural merge between the two
Cities, Kings, and Trade
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Depended on villages. why?
City state
Irrigation systems
Lugal assumed the responsibility of temples
and rituals.
– Sargon-
• Cuneiform-
• Hammurabi was the first king of the Babylonian
Empire.
– Hammurabi’s Code
– Identified 3 classes
• Free landowning
• Farmers and artisans
• Class of slaves-
• Used barter system
and exchanged
precious metals
Mesopotamian Society
• Male dominated. Why?
– Scribe
– Men monopolized political life
– Men benefited from divorce and marriage laws
Gods, Priests, and Temples
• Sumerian gods embodied forces of nature
– Semitic equated gods of Sumerian
• Ziggurat
• Amulets
• Afterlife:
Technology and Science
• Writing, system of tokens to keep track of
property
– Clay
– Base 60 number system
Egypt
The Land of Egypt: “Gift of the Nile”
• The Nile river supports vegetation
– “Black Land” and “Red Land”
– Center of travel and communication
– Divided into 3 regions:
– Papyrus, clay, copper,
wildlife, made Egypt
self sufficient
Divine Kingship
• Menes
– Unlike Mesop., was unified
• Pharaoh
– Represented king of god on earth. Very powerful.
Why?
– Ma’at
• no code of law comparable to Hammurabi
• pyramid
Administration and Communication
• Ruling dynasties placed their capitals in
central locations
– Memphis, Thebes
• Extracted as much as __% in taxes
– Government controlled long distance trade
• Hieroglyphics– Rosetta Stone
– Developed a cursive script
• Larger percentage lived in farming villages in Egypt
than Mesopotamia
• Isolated
The People Of Egypt
• Population of 1 to 1.5 million
• Physical types ranging from light to dark skinned
people
• Less pronounced social division; slavery on a mild
scale
• Women were subordinate to men
– More rights than Mesopotamia
– Monogamy
Belief and Knowledge
• Polytheists
– Osiris, Isis, Seth Horus
– The Egyptian Book of the Dead
• Afterlife not so bad. Why?
– Mummification
• Development of mathematics and science
Egypt v. Mesopotamia
• No natural barriers in Mesopotamia, so it is
known as the crossroads of civilization. Good
because open to trade and new ideas, but bad
because open to conquest. Therefore,
geography impact political system, formation
of city-states.
• Egypt was isolated so less chance of invasion
and had stronger rulers. No need for written
code of laws.
The Indus Valley Civilization
• Originated on a fertile foot plain in central
Asia, modern day Pakistan. Twice a year the
Indus river overflows. Mountains from the
Himalayas melt cultivating the area.
Material Culture
• Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro
• Dravidian language
• Strong central authority
– Extensive exchange of goods
• Metals appeared more frequently here.
• Irrigation system
Transformation of the Indus Valley
Civilization
• Cities abandoned sometime after 1900 B.C.
due to a collapse in political, social, and
economic systems. Reason: