From the Origins of Agriculture to the First River-Valley Civilizations 8000-1500 B.C.E.

1. From the Origins of Agriculture to the First River-Valley Civilizations8000-1500 B.C.E. Chapter 1

2. Before Civilization

3. Food Gathering and Stone Technology • The Stone Age • From 2 million years ago to 4,000 years ago • People used stone, bone, skin and wood tools • Includes the Paleolithic period • Old Stone Age • And the Neolithic period • New Stone Age • Origins of agriculture

4. Stone age people were likely foragers • Began using fire 1 million to 1.5 million years ago • No proof of actual cooking until 12,500 years ago when clay cooking pots were used in East Asia • Women were the main food gatherers • Men were hunters

5. Nomadic • Followed migrating animals • Lived in groups • Had enough people to do all of the work, but not so many as to need more than the available amount of food • Learned the uses of plants around them • Left behind cave art depicting hunting and possible religion

6. The Agricultural Revolutions • About 10,000 years ago • Some people began domesticating plants and animals, others remained hunter/gatherers • Around the time of the Neolithic Revolution • Archeologists found new stone tools

7. How? • Could have happened accidentally as foraging groups dropped seeds and returned to the same camp the next season to find that plant growing there • Eventually, they learned which strains of wild plants yielded the highest amounts of food • Ex. Emmer Wheat and Barley in the Middle East

8. Plants domesticated in the Middle East spread • In many parts of the world, agriculture occurred independently • Wheat and Barley cultivation • Sahara – 8,000 BCE • Greece – 6,000 BCE • Central Europe (Danube River) 4,000 BCE • 2,600 BCE – began using Ox drawn plows • Equatorial Africa began cultivating yams

9. Rice cultivation • Southern China, Southeast Asia, Northern India between 10,000 and 5,000 BCE • Maize cultivation • Central Mexico – 3000 BCE • Potatoes and quinoa • Peru – 3000 BCE • Tropical regions of Meso-America grew tomatoes, squash, peppers and potatoes

10. Domesticated Animals • 1st – the dog • Used to help hunt • Then – • Animals that provided meat • Then – • Animals used for their milk, wool, and energy • Pastoralism • Depended on large herds of grazing livestock • Nomadic • Probably ate very little meat and traded with settled communities

11. Why did it happen? • 9000 BCE – evidence of global warming • Foragers had difficult time finding food • Evidence that people in regions where food was still available remained foragers • Ex. Australia and North America • Population • 5000 BCE – 10 million people • 1000 BCE – between 50 and 100 million people

12. Life in Neolithic Communities • Early farmers • More reliable food supply • Less variety and nutrition than foraging • Skeletons of farmers were shorter • Contagious disease spread quickly • In a time without waste management systems • Being able to store food led to farmers soon outnumbering non-farmers • Some people created specialized crafts

13. Interaction between foragers and farmers? • Link or Clash? • Hard to tell without written history • Probably clash at first, as farmers took the best land and limited the food supplies of foragers • Perhaps link later with the development of trade relationships or as foragers gradually became farmers

14. Farmers often lived in large kinship groups known as lineages or clans • One can trace their lineage through the mother’s side = matrilineal • Or through the father’s side = patrilineal

15. Religion • Foragers often worshipped sacred places and animals • Farmers often worshipped an Earth Mother and a Sky God (usually male) as well as fire, wind and rain. • Some used megaliths, or big stones often related to astronomy. (Think Stonehenge)

16. Some Neolithic villages grew into towns • They became centers for trade and specialized crafts • Jericho • On the Jordan River • First, small and round mud buildings; then, rectangular plaster buildings within a large city wall used for protection.

17. Catal Huyuk • In modern Turkey • People lived in plaster and mud brick houses. The houses connected to form a barrier to the outside. • Traded obsidian tools, baskets, pottery, cloth, shell beads, and worked leather. • Still respected hunters, but their economy was based on agriculture • Many religious shrines • Female religious statues outnumbered males, signs of both male and female priests • 6,400 BCE – signs of metalworking • Metal was a sign of power and wealth

18. Mesopotamia

19. Settled Agriculture in an Unstable Landscape • Mesopotamia = “Land between the rivers” • Tigris and Euphrates Rivers • Fertile land because of silt and flooding • In present day Iraq • 5,000 BCE – begin agriculture • 4,000 BCE – Ox drawn plows • 3,000 BCE – begin irrigation

20. The Sumerians • Arrived around 5,000 BCE • The first to leave written records • Seemed to live in peace with the Semites in northern Mesopotamia • The Semitic people • Became politically dominant by 2000 BCE • Cultural and biological blending between the Semites and Sumerians occurred

21. Cities, Kings, and Trade • Villages • Farmers usually lived in villages of a few hundred people • Worked together • Satellite villages grew around successful villages • Cities • Formed when villages merged

22. City Life • Many labored in the fields during the day • Some made crafts and lived off of the surplus food • Pottery, artwork, weapons and tools • Some served the gods or were administrators • The City-State • Cities would collect food surpluses from neighboring regions in exchange for military protection

23. Irrigation efforts • Intensive work • Year round labor force needed • Required a strong leader to get that many people to work on one thing • Religion • Temples in the center of villages/cities • Priest had high political and economic roles

24. Kings • Between 2000 and 3000 BCE, evidence of kings in the city-states • May have been necessary due to city- states fighting over land and water rights • The priests lost authority because the king had the backing of the army • Some became strong enough to take over their neighbors

25. Akkadian State; 2350-2230 BCE • King Sargon began defeating neighbors • Put governors in conquered cities • Gave soldiers land to pay for their loyalty

26. Third Dynasty of Ur; 2112-2004 BCE • Smaller than the Akkadian state • Well maintained roads and good messengers allowed for tighter control • Standardized calendar • Standard weights and measures • Eventually toppled by neighbors

27. Babylon • Ruled by Hammurabi (r. 1792-1750 BCE) • Hammurabi’s Law Code • Severe physical punishment used rather than just paying fines for crimes • Babylon became the capital city of a wide spread state

28. Trade • Seagoing vessels ~ 4000 BCE • Wood, metals and stone exchanged for wool, cloth, barley and vegetable oil • Most merchants worked for the palace • Independent merchants gained influence ~1000 BCE

29. Mesopotamian Society • Urbanized civilizations foster social division • Obvious variation in the status and wealth of different groups • Hammurabi’s Law code identifies these: • 1. free land-owning class • 2. dependent farmers and artisans • 3. slaves

30. Role of Women • Hard to tell, since most scribes were educated males • Believed to have lost social standing with the spread of agriculture • Provided most of the food in hunter/gatherer communities • Agriculture depends on heavy labor, therefore men begin to provide the most food • Their focus turned to raising larger families now that more food was available • Women could own property and work outside of the home

31. Gods, Priests, and Temples • Sumerian gods represented the forces of nature • Sky, air, water, sun, moon, sexual attraction and violence • Semetic people adopted the Sumerian gods and gave them new names

32. Cities built temple complexes • Priests passed their knowledge to their sons • The temple complex focused on the ziggurat • Elite and common folk came together at religious festivals

33. Technology and Science • Technology • Tools used to manipulate the natural world • specialized knowledge used to transform the natural environment • Irrigation networks • Required construction and maintenance of canals and dikes • Writing • Pressed a pointed reed into wet clay • Cuneiform (Wedge-shaped) writing

34. Metal Working • Imported metal to make tools that were stronger and sharper than stone • Bricks • Made of clay were the main building material • Pottery Wheel • Allowed pottery to be made faster • Military Technology • Year-round standing military • Idea of horse-drawn chariots from Asia • Base 60 Number System • Astronomy

35. Egypt

36. The Land of Egypt: “Gift of the Nile” • The Nile • Flows northward through Egypt to the Mediterranean • The banks of the river or fertile, as is the river delta • Travel and communication center on the river • The Other 90% • Deserts, mountains, rocks

37. “Upper Egypt” • Southern Egypt • “Lower Egypt” • Northern Egypt, called that because of the northerly flow of the river • Cataract • A series of impassable rocks along the Nile

38. Divine Kingship • Larger population required unification by a king • Narmer, around 3100BCE • United upper and lower Egypt • History broken into segments • Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom and New Kingdom • Divided by periods of political fragmentation

39. Pharaoh • King, was considered to be a god on earth • His role was to maintain ma’at, or order to the universe • Elaborate burial and funerary practices eventually led to building pyramids as tombs • Used stone tools, levers, pulleys and rollers • Large numbers of people

40. Administration and Communication • Capitals • Old Kingdom = Memphis (near Cairo) • Middle and New Kingdoms = Thebes • Complex bureaucracy • Kept detailed records • Collected taxes • Government monopoly over economy and long distance trade

41. Hieroglyphics • Picture symbols stood for words • By 2500 BCE, records were kept in script written on papyrus • Literary works • Tales of adventure and magic, love poetry, religious hymns and instruction manuals

42. Tension between the bureaucracy and the centralized power of the monarchy • An economy based on agriculture • Isolated during the Old and Middle Kingdoms • All foreigners seen as enemies • Local militia units backed up a small standing army • Did trade to maintain access to resources

43. Traded southward on the Nile • Gained gold from Nubia • Incense, ivory, ebony and exotic animals • Eventually, Egyptian forces moved south and took control of Nubian gold fields

44. The People of Egypt • Mixed population • From dark-skinned people from sub-Saharan Africa to lighter skinned people from North Africa and Western Asia • Social divisions • From King to peasant farmers

45. Village life • Peasants focused on agriculture and irrigation • Villages probably helped one another during agriculturally important times • Held religious festivals • Flight into the desert was the only way to escape forced labor and heavy taxation • Slavery • Existed on a small scale • Debtors, criminals, prisoners of war

46. Lives of elite women • According to pictures • Subordinate to men • Went with their husbands • Engaged in domestic activities • Usually stayed indoors • According to legal documents • Could own property • Women could end a marriage and retain her dowry • Priestesses supervised the cults of female deities

47. Belief and Knowledge • Imagined the sky as a great ocean and the sun god, Re, traveled its waters every day and returned to the underworld every night • The Egyptian King was seen as the “go between” for the people and the gods

48. Much of the country’s wealth was spent on religious monuments • Obsession with the afterlife • Led to practice of mummification • To preserve the body • Food, objects and pictures were buried too

49. Egyptian learning • Learned anatomy and chemistry from mummification procedures • Learned math through agriculture • Figuring out how much was owed to the state • Developed a calendar • Had to be able to predict flooding

50. The Indus Valley Civilization