HIS 105 Chapter 1

1. HIS 105Chapter 1 The Birth of Civilization

2. Earth : approximately 6 billion years old • Human-Like Creatures: appeared 3-5 million years ago in Africa • Erect, Tool-Using Early Humans: spread over Africa, Europe, & Asia 1-2 million years ago • Homo Sapiens: emerged some 200,000 years ago • Earliest Fully Modern Human Remains : date to about 90,000 years ago

3. Earliest Humans: hunter/gatherers/fishers • Agriculture began 8000 B.C.E. • Cultivated plants • Raised livestock • Made air-tight pottery for food storage Humans settled in small communities now that they could produce their own food.

4. Civilization: Characteristics • Producers of food • Settled and more complex life • Increased harvests through use of irrigation • Towns and cities with impressive structures • Flourishing commerce • Developed writing to keep records and and inventories

5. Specialized occupations • Complex religions • Social hierarchy

6. Culture • Ways of living built up by a group and passed on from one generation to another • It includes: • Courtship practices • Child-rearing techniques • Material goods: Ex.- types of shelter & clothing • Ideas • Institutions • Beliefs • Language

7. Paleolithic Age (Old Stone) • Dates from 1-2 million years ago to about 10,000 B.C.E. • Small groups of hunters, gatherers, & fishers - not producers of food • Used tools of stone and wood • Learned to make and use fire • Acquired language to pass on knowledge

8. Depended on and feared nature • Practiced religion and magic to help them with their fears • Sexual division of labor • Men hunted & fished • Women gathered plants to eat, had babies, made clothing • Because women worked with plants, the beginnings of agriculture have been attributed to them The beginning of agriculture began the Neolithic Age

9. Neolithic Age (New Stone) • Began about 8,000 B.C.E. in the Near East • Shifted from just hunting and gathering to a settled agricultural way of life • Domesticated animals • Domesticated plants • Made pottery • Wove cloth from flax & wool • Cared for crops from planting to harvest

10. Built permanent buildings like those in Catal Hayuk • Populations grew when there was a steady supply of food • Humans were beginning to control nature and this was an important pre-condition for the beginnings of civilization

11. Neolithic societies began in: • Near East – around 8000 B.C.E. (wheat) • China - around 4000 B.C.E. (millet, rice) • India - around 5500 B.C.E. (wheat) • Americas - around 2500 B.C. E. (corn, beans, & squash)

12. Emergence of Civilization4000-1000 B.C.E. • Mesopotamia in Tigris-Euphrates River Valley • Egypt in Nile River Valley • Indus River Valley Civilization in India • Yellow River Basin Civilization in China • All took form during the Bronze Age • All had urban centers, monumental architecture, hierarchical societies, & writing

13. Cities were administrative, religious, manufacturing, entertainment, & commercial centers • Writing was complex • Kings were divine • Civilizations had a king, military, aristocrats, priests, peasants, & slaves

14. Mesopotamia • Emerged around 3500 to 3000 B.C.E. • First city was Sumer • Farming community • People worked together for survival • As more towns formed, there was a need for central control • A king became the central ruler • Writing system was cuneiform used for records and literature like Gilgamesh

15. Mesopotamia

16. Cuneiform

17. Religion • Polytheistic • Gods of nature • People worked to keep gods happy • Life was harsh and gods seemed whimsical • This led to a pessimistic outlook on life and felt afterlife would be worse • Written about in Gilgamesh – prince is looking for immortality

18. Gilgamesh Relief

19. Priests used to share the responsibility of governing, but there was a gradual separation of church and state • Ziggurats- temples of mud brick built on mound to be closer to gods and to protect it from flooding; Ex – ziggurat at Ur still exists

20. Ziggurat at Ur

21. Sumer had basic elements of civilization: • Well-defined government • Hierarchical society • Regular economic surpluses • Trade, artisans, & merchants • Writing • Religion • Unified Lasted until about 2000 B.C.E.

22. Akkadian Empire • King Sargon I conquered Sumer and other city-states of Mesopotamia between 2370 and 2130 B.C.E. and created the Akkadian Empire • Introduced new language but kept cuneiform for records and literary works • Empire lasted only 200 years; overthrown by invaders • Sumerian city-states re-emerged until 2000 B.C.E.

23. Babylonian Empire • Established in early 18th century B.C.E. by Hammurabi and the Amorites when they unified Mesopotamia • Hammurabi • Seen as one of the greatest rulers of early civilizations • Brought order out of chaos • Had officials around his empire to carry out his laws • Codified his laws: The Code of Hammurabi

24. Hammurabi

25. Code of Hammurabi • Listing of cases; what happens if… • Regulated the rights of the 3 Amorite classes: free people, state dependents, & slaves • Penalties differed according to social status: fines, corporal punishment, mutilation, & execution

26. Accomplishments of Babylonians • Extended Sumerian knowledge in astronomy & mathematics • Set up 60 minute hour & 360o circle • Expanded commerce • Used a common language • Built elaborate public buildings, royal palaces, & the hanging gardens

27. Babylonian Empire fell around 1600 B.C.E. to the Hittites from Central Asia • The Hittites fell to other invaders and small kingdoms arose from 1200 – 900 B.C.E.

28. Egypt • Emerged N.E. Africa around 3000 B.C.E. • Benefited from Mesopotamian technology and trade • Flourished for 2000 years but lasted for 3000 years • Located in fertile delta along the Nile River • Nile flooded at regular, predictable intervals • The silt left behind contributed to bountiful crops • Because of this, Egyptians felt they were pleasing their gods and so had an optimistic outlook

29. Egypt

30. Egypt was divided into 2 parts, upper and lower, until united by Narmer, the first pharaoh • Its history has been divided into 3 Kingdoms • Old Kingdom 2575-2130 B.C.E • Middle Kingdom 1938-1600 B.C.E. • New Kingdom 1540-1075 B.C.E. There were times of instability between each period

31. Pharaohs • Divine rulers who were to keep gods happy • Developed large bureaucracy of priests & officials • Local governors supervised irrigation and public works • Most Egyptians were peasant farmers who were supervised and heavily taxed; some built pyramids for pharaohs like Khufu at Giza

33. Religion • Polytheistic for the most part • Amon-Re was the sun god who created the universe • Osiris was god of the Nile and offered the hope of immortality to masses • Pharaoh Amenhotep IV tried to create a monotheistic faith for his people

34. Writing • Used for texts and records • Hieroglyphics - picture symbols • Wrote on papyrus made from plant of same name • Deciphered finally by a Frenchman named Jean-Francois Champollian using Rosetta Stone

35. Hieroglyphics

36. Science • Established 12-month year with 3 10-day weeks • Had some working knowledge of some medicines and contraceptives • Knew how to mummify a body

37. Culture • Virtually unchanged for thousands of years • stability and optimism reflected in their view of life and the afterlife • Static and stratified society • Fairly isolated

38. Indus Civilization 2250-1750 B.C.E. • Known as the Indus-Valley Culture or the Harappan Civilization • Lasted only a few centuries • This Indus culture was truly discovered in the 1920s at the Harappa site • Today there are 2 main sites Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro plus some smaller towns

39. Indus Valley

40. Gateway to Harappa

41. MohenjoDaro

42. They had • Bronze tools • Large cities with similar lay-outs; population of 35,000+ • Writing (not yet deciphered) • A diversified social and economic organization Having 2 cities that are so alike indicates a strong central government with good economic and communication systems

43. Each city had • Walled citadel on raised platform to the west; contained main public buildings, large bath, and temples • town proper to the east laid out in a grid pattern • Each town had a granary, a cemetery, covered drains and sewers • House were built around a central courtyard with rooms facing inward; no windows

44. Economy based on agriculture • Had cloth woven from cotton • Made metal tools • Used a potter’s wheel • It is believed there was trade between the Indus Valley and Mesopotamia because Indus stamps have been found in Mesopotamia

45. Material culture • Bronze and stone sculptures • Copper and bronze tools and vessels • Black on red painted pottery • Stone and terra cotta figurines • Toys • Silver vessels • Gold jewelry • Some decorative brick work

46. There were no mosaics, no friezes, and no large sculpture • Religion • Dominated by priestly class who were intermediaries between the people and their gods • Fertility and reproduction were the main themes • Ritual bathing

47. Around 2000 B.C.E. the Indus Civilization went into decline • We aren’t sure what caused its demise: • Invasion? • Flooding? • Perhaps a combination of factors

48. Aryans • Semi-nomadic invaders who reached India about 1800 B.C.E • They were horsemen, cattle-herders • They brought a new language, a new social organization, new techniques of warfare, and new religious ideas found in their Vedas, a sacred text • Patrilineal society

49. Gods were predominantly male • Marriage was monogamous but polygamy did exist; widows could remarry • Tribes ruled by chieftain chosen for his military prowess • Originally there were 2 social classes:nobles and commoners • A third was later added: Dasas or darker conquered people

50. Later, 4 classes or varnas: • Priestly Brahmans • Warrior nobles • Peasants and tradesmen • Servants Dasas were excluded This was a precursor to the rigid Indian caste system