Lecture 1: The Birth of Civilization

1. Lecture 1: The Birth of Civilization

2. Homo: 1.5-2.5 million years genus that includes modern humans and their close relatives Forced out of trees by a warm spell in Africa when savannah spread The Hominids (6-7 million years old) • Hominid Family • The extinct and extant humans, chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans.

3. Homo Erectus 1.3 million to 300,000 years ago Skilled Hunter-Gatherers Controlled Use of Fire Early Hominids • Homo Habilis: • 2.5-1.4 million years ago • Crude stone tools • Furs • Learned to make fire

4. Homo Sapiens 50,000 years ago to now Came out of Africa Adapted for Endurance Running and temperate to hot climate US Later Hominids • Homo Neanderthalis • 250,000-24,000 years ago • Europe and Asia • Adapted to the cold • First religious humans • Died out when things warmed up

5. The Stone Age • The Paleolithic (1-2 million BC to 10,000 BC): • Hunter-Gatherer tribes • Mesolithic Era (10,000 to 6,000 BC): • Herding of Animals Begins • Horticulture • Neolithic Era (7,000 to 3,500 BC): • Horse and Ox domesticated for transport / labor • Better agriculture. Grains (Eurasia, Africa); Corn (America) • Cities now arise • Some can specialize in craft and other skills

6. River-Based Civilization Irrigation Agriculture Monarchical Cities Fighting for Dominance Sumeria (3-2000 BC) Ancient Mesopotamia in Bronze Age

7. Code of Hammurabi (1792-1750 BC) Fixed laws, fixed punishments Influenced by class Backed by the gods GE: p. 39-42 Babylon and Amorites (1900-1600 BC) • Babylon founded by Amorites in 1900 • Center of a local empire

8. Sumerian Tech • Bronze armor and weapons – spears and bows • Lacked siege technology • Cuneiform Writing • Babylonians (base 60 numbers) created basis of our time keeping and measurement of circles (360 degrees) and thus our latitude & longitude • Invented the Wheel (Pottery, Carts)

9. Classes: Nobles (War) Commoners (Craft) Slaves (Farm) Literate Scribe class Trade by Barter Sumerian Society • Religion • Polytheistic • Humanity exists to feed the gods with Sacrifice • Story of the Flood (Epic of Gilgamesh, GE, p. 16-22)

10. The Old Kingdom (2700-2200 BC): Ruled by the Pharoah, a Living God What was buried with you, you took to the Afterlife This inspired Pyramid construction for the Pharoah Great Pyramid Sphinx Ancient Egypt • The Gift of the Nile • Annual Floods = Super Agriculture Land

11. The Second Intermediate Period and New Kingdom (1786-1575 BC / 1575 BC – 1087 BC): Barbarians (Hyskos) take over for a while Once overthrown, Egypt builds an Empire Fights Hittites, both sides then stomped by Iron Age Barbarians (Sea Peoples) Ancient Egypt • The First Intermediate Period and Middle Kingdom (2200-2052 BC / 2052 BC – 1786 BC): • Pyramids sacked during time of anarchy • Reunited Kingdom has a weaker Pharoah • But it pushes south, west, east • Everyone can pass to afterlife now!

12. Women in Egypt Below ruling elites, did much of the same work as men Pharoahs married their sisters Hatsheput ruled in her own right, depicted male in art GE, p. 52-4. Society • Akhenaten: • Pharoah who tried to overthrow the priests; institute monotheistic sun worship • After his death, his son Tutenkhamen goes back to the old ways

13. Other Middle Eastern Nations • The Hittites (1500-1200 BC): • Iron-Age Chariot Warriors, Foes of Egypt • The Assyrians (1000-612 BC): • Ruled by terror and hate; everyone teams up to kill them • Neo-Babylonian Empire: (626-539 AD): • Post-Assyrian empire • Biblical king Nebuchanezzar • Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

14. Harappan or Indus Culture (2600-1700 BC) • 70 cities • Common city structure, writing, measures, styles • Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro (35,000 +) • SEWERS!!!! • Economy: Export Cotton, Import Metals and Gems • Religion: Poorly Understood • Collapse: Ecological Disaster, Aryan Invasion

15. The Aryans • Steppe Nomads who hit Iran and India 1800-1500 BC • The Vedas—Ritual Texts of the Aryans • Around 1000-600 BC, the Brahmins (Priests) write the Brahamanas (commentaries on the Vedas) and the epics: The Mahābhārata and the Ramayana • Aryans gradually mix with the conquered folk but tend to treat darker skinned folk (Dasas) as inferior, even much later. • Originally lived pretty crudely; by 700 BC, they live in nice cities and have rediscovered writing

16. Class System • Brahmins (Priests) • Rshatriva (Warrior) • Vaishya (Free Commoner) • Shudra (Servant) • Dasas (Least Desirable Jobs, treated as scum) • Class is hereditary and considered due to behavior in past lives; you have a dharma, religious duties of your class. Carry it out and you move up the chain, fail and you go down the chain. • Bhagavad-Gita, GE, p. 75-8.

17. Aryan Religion • Classic Nomadic Polytheism → Very Abstract and Philosophical over time • Original Aryans worshiped manlike and animal-man gods, like Indira, a thunder/war god who rode an elephant or Ganesh, god of Elephants • Priests gradually came to see this as silly and moved on to more abstract issues

18. Early China • Yellow River Valley (4000 BC onwards) • Grain cultivation and wattle and daub pithouses • The Shang (1700s-1000s) • Bronze age city states with chariot warrior nobles • Ancestor worship and a Celestial kingdom • Human Sacrifice • The Western Zhou (1050 BC-771 BC) • Feudal State • Idea of the Mandate of Heaven

19. The Iron Age • Eastern Zhou (771-486 BC) • Central authority is crumbling • Warring States Period (401-256 BC) • Agriculture improves but government collapses • Shift from noble charioteers to professional soldiers with crossbow, spear, iron armor. Huge armies • Kings arise and establish literate bureaucracies • Philosophical ferment

20. Humans arrive during last Ice Age (13,000 years ago) Push South in Waves Migration to the Americas

21. Technological Isolation • Stone Age Arrival • Stone Tools and Dogs • No Agriculture or other animals • Low Levels of Long-Distance Trade Slows Idea Spread • Everyone Mostly Invents It On Their Own, Unlike Eurasia and Africa

22. Bio-Isolation • Lack of Draft Animals • Fewer indigenous diseases • Cultural Impacts • Healthier Cities • But Smaller Cities due to Poor Farming • Less Long Distance Trade

23. Corn and Agriculture • 4000 BC – Breeding of Corn Begins in Mesoamerica • Americans grow high-protein plants (such as beans) • Three Sisters Cultivation • Corn on a fertilized mound • Beans grow up the Corn • Squash surrounds and protects

24. Mesoamerica (2000-1500 BC) • Culture Zone in Central-South Mexico and Central America • Obsidian is primary weapon / tool material • Stone housing • City-States • Mesoamerican Calendar • Sacrifice of blood and humans

25. Andean South America: Preceramic and Initial Period: 3000-800 BC • Oldest Ritual Center: 2800 BC • Mix of Seafood, Squash, Beans, Chili Peppers • Cotton Clothing • 2500 BC: The Llama is domesticated • 2000 BC – Pottery is invented, Agriculture Rises

26. Chavin de Huantar and the Early Horizon (800 BC-200 AD) • Chavin de Huantar—900 BC, Peru Highlands • Trade and Agriculture • Declines between 500 and 300 B.C • Skilled metal workers and textile makers • Religion involved hallucinogens and shamanism