UNIT 1: Technological and Environmental Transformations

1. UNIT 1: Technological and Environmental Transformations To c. 600 B.C.E

2. Key Concept 1.3 • From about 5,000 years ago, urban societies developed, laying the foundations for the first civilizations. The term civilization is normally used to designate large societies with cities and powerful states. While there were many differences between civilizations, they also shared important features. They all produced agricultural surpluses that permitted significant specialization of labor. All civilizations contained cities and generated complex institutions, such as political bureaucracies, armies, and religious hierarchies. They also featured clearly stratified social hierarchies and organized long-distance trading relationships. Economic exchanges intensified within and between civilizations, as well a with nomadic pastoralists. • As populations grew, competition for surplus resources, especially food, led to greater social stratification, specialization of labor, increased trade, more complex systems of government and religion, and the development of record keeping. As civilizations expanded, they had to balance their need for more resources with environmental constraints such as the danger of undermining soil fertility. Finally, the accumulation of wealth in settled communities spurred warfare between communities and/or with patoralists; this violence drove the development of new technologies of war and urban defense.

3. Objective 1.3.1 • Core and foundational civilizations developed in a variety of geographical and environmental settings where agriculture flourished. • Students should be able to identify the location of all of the following required examples of core and foundational civilizations. • Mesopotamia in the Tigris and Euphrates River Valleys • Egypt in the Nile River Valley • Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa in the Indus River Valley • Olmecs in Mesoamerica • Chavin in Andean South America

4. Objective 1.3.2 • The first states emerged within core civilizations. • States were powerful new systems of rule that mobilized surplus labor and resources over large areas. Early states were often led by a ruler whose source of power was believed to be divine or had divine support and/or who was supported by the military. • As states grew and competed for land and resources, the more favorably situated – including the Hittites, who had access to iron – had greater access to resources, produced more surplus food, and experienced growing populations. These states were able to undertake territorial expansion and conquer surrounding states. • Early regions of state expansion or empire building were Mesopotamia, Babylonia, and the Nile Valley. • Pastoralists were often the developers and disseminators of new weapons and modes of transportation that transformed warfare in agrarian civilizations. New Weapons: • Compound bows • Iron Weapons New modes of transportation: • Chariots • Horseback riding

5. Objective 1.3.3 Culture played a significant role in unifying states through laws, language, literature, religion, myths, and monumental art. • Early civilizations developed monumental architecture and urban planning. • Monumental architecture and urban planning: • Ziggurats • Pyramids • Temples • Defensive walls • Streets and roads • Sewage and water systems • Elites, both political and religious, promoted arts and artisanship. •  Arts and Artisanship • Sculpture • Painting • Wall decorations • Elaborate weaving • Systems of record keeping arose independently in all early civilizations and subsequently were diffused. •  Systems of record keeping: • Cuneiform • Hieroglyps • Pictographs • Alphabets • Quipu • States developed legal codes, including the Code of Hammurabi, that reflected existing hierarchies and facilitated the rule of governments over people. • New religious beliefs developed in this period continued to have strong influences in later periods. •  Required examples of new religious beliefs: • The Vedic religion • Hebrew monotheism • Zoroastrianism • Trade expanded throughout this period from local to regional and transregional, with civilizations exchanging goods, cultural ideas, and technology. •  Required examples of trade expansion from local to regional and transregional: • Between Egypt and Nubia • Between Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley • Social and gender hierarchies intensified as states expanded and cities multiplied. • Literature was also a reflection of culture. •  Literature: • The “Epic of Gilgamesh” • Rig Veda • Book of the Dead

6. Activator • Complete the SPRITE worksheet on the earliest civilizations.

7. Mesopotamia

8. Culture • Independent innovation that passed to Egypt/Indus • 4000 BCE bronze, copper • Wheel, irrigation canals • 3500 Sumerians – cuneiform – first writing – stylus – objects > sounds • Number system – 60 – movement of heavenly bodies • navigation • time • Architecture – ziggurats – 1) glory of civilization, 2) many gods • Clay primary building material • First epic – Epic of Gilgamesh – 1) great flood story • King’s quest to achieve immortality • great traders

9. State • Unpredictable flooding – need for government – irrigation • City-states – controlled city + surrounding area • Geography – lack of natural barriers – invasion – defensive walls • Conflicts over water/property rights • Akkadians/Babylonians – spread Sumerian culture • Code of Hammurabi – first written law code • Different rules for gender/social classes • Very harsh, favored upper class • Systematic, consistent set of regulations, not arbitrary will of a ruler • After 900 BCE –Assyrians and Persians ruled • king-like figure – lugal “big man”

10. Social Sturcture • Ruled by elite, rulers, priests • Farmed by slaves – could purchase freedom • Patriarchal – men could sell wives/children to pay debts • 1600 BCE women wearing veils • But…women could gain power courts, priestesses, scribes, small business

11. Egypt

12. Culture • 3000 BCE – Nile River • pharaoh – pyramids – tombs for self/families • Decorated w/ colorful paintings • polytheists – afterlife > mummification • Egyptian Book of the Dead – what happened to soul, how to reach happy • afterlife > mummification and tombs • bronze tools weapons after Mesopotamia • Kush – independent innovation iron – spread to Egypt • some trade w/ Kush and Mesopotamia • hieroglyphics – from trade contacts Mesopotamia • papyrus – paper making • geography – protected – could create unique civilization • less urban than Mesopotamians • 365 day calendar, medicine, math, astronomy

13. State • Nile overflowed annually – predictable • irrigation led to organization/government • agricultural villages engaged in trade • pharaoh – king – power • living incarnation of sun god • geography – protected from invading people • beginning 3100 when Menes unites Upper and Lower Egypt • 2040-1640 BCE Middle Kingdom – culturally dynamic • New Kingdom – 1500 – regained from foreign invaders Hyksos – focused on military • by 900 in control of foreign invaders – internal disorder, invasions

14. Social Structure • Social classes, but commoners could enter government service – rise in social status • Patriarchal, but women had some privileges • Women sometimes acted as regents for young rulers, priestesses, scribes • managed household finances/education of children • right to divorce husbands/alimony • could own property • Queen Hatshepsut

15. Indus – 2500 BCE Indus River - Pakistan

16. Culture • Streets laid out in precise grid – houses had running water/sewage • Harappan writing not deciphered – much unclear • active trade w/ Indus valley and Sumer – ores from one place found in others • blend of Aryans and Indus valley people affected future course of history • quite large – size of France/urbanized

17. State • unpredictable flooding • Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro • Because of similarities of cities, tightly unified, centrally controlled • Overtaken by Indo-Europeans – Aryans • Already dying out – 1) river change or 2) earthquake, 3) erosion of soil 4) salt in wells • whole societies – all over – Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro only tip, last

18. Social Structure • little known – Dravidians relatively egalitarian • not as patriarchal • Aryans – based it on color – Varnu • Aryans eventually control politically, but Dravidians would win out culturally

19. Shang – most isolated – Huange He valley – Yellow River – “China’s Sorrow”

20. Culture • Isolated by deserts, mountains, and seas – unpredictable flooding • Still some trade w/ Southwest Asia and South Asia • Shang Dynasty (1766-1122 left written records) • Knowledge of bronze metallurgy – from Southwest Asia • Strengthened Shang war machine • 1000 BCE Ironworking • Fortune telling and ancestor worship started here • Palaces/tombs built for emperors • Writing – oracle bones • Oracle scratch person’s question on bone/shell – heat it • Resulting cracks read to learn message from gods

21. State • Dynasties • Central rule to oversee irrigation/flood-control projects • Walled cities – center of cultural, military, economic – set precedent in villages • Zhou replaced Shang – “mandate of heaven” – if leader governed wisely and fairly, he could claim right to divine rule • Warrior aristocracy • fought northern/western neighbors – barbarians – expanded empire • Tradition of central authority • Began as small agricultural cities along Yellow River

22. Social Structure • Stratified – ruling elites, artisans, peasants, slaves • Patriarchal – father needs to know children are his • Subservient • multiple marriages • preference for sons - infanticide • ancestor worship • Matrilineal society before Shang

23. Mesoamerica and Andean South

24. Culture • lacked knowledge of wheel • Olmecs/Maya – pyramids/temples • Polytheistic • Cultural diffusion – maize, terraced pyramids • Calendars • Ball game on a court • Quetzalcoatl – god who would return to rule world in peace • Mayan reached height in 300 CE • system of writing – pictographs • value of zero • astronomy – predicted eclipses • length of year within a few seconds

25. State • small city-states – ruled by kings – fought against each other • Prisoners of war – slaves/sacrifices to gods • lack of pack animals/geography prevented communication • Inhabitants cooperated for irrigation systems • Rugged terrain of Andes prevented central gov’t from organizing

26. Social Structure • Elite class of rulers/priests vs. commoners and slaves

27. Geography • not in valleys of major rivers • smaller rivers/streams near oceans • no large animals/beasts of burden – llama biggest animal – human labor

28. Small Points Culture played a significant role in unifying states through laws, language, literature, religion, myths, and monumental art. • Early civilizations developed monumental architecture and urban planning. • Monumental architecture and urban planning: • Ziggurats • Pyramids • Temples • Defensive walls • Streets and roads • Sewage and water systems

29. Small Points Culture played a significant role in unifying states through laws, language, literature, religion, myths, and monumental art. • Elites, both political and religious, promoted arts and artisanship. •  Arts and Artisanship • Sculpture • Painting • Wall decorations • Elaborate weaving

30. Small Points Culture played a significant role in unifying states through laws, language, literature, religion, myths, and monumental art. • Systems of record keeping arose independently in all early civilizations and subsequently were diffused. •  Systems of record keeping: • Cuneiform • Hieroglyps • Pictographs • Alphabets • Quipu

31. Small Points Culture played a significant role in unifying states through laws, language, literature, religion, myths, and monumental art. • States developed legal codes, including the Code of Hammurabi, that reflected existing hierarchies and facilitated the rule of governments over people.

32. Small Points Culture played a significant role in unifying states through laws, language, literature, religion, myths, and monumental art. • New religious beliefs developed in this period continued to have strong influences in later periods. •  Required examples of new religious beliefs: • The Vedic religion • Hebrew monotheism • Zoroastrianism

33. Small Points Culture played a significant role in unifying states through laws, language, literature, religion, myths, and monumental art. • Trade expanded throughout this period from local to regional and transregional, with civilizations exchanging goods, cultural ideas, and technology. •  Required examples of trade expansion from local to regional and transregional: • Between Egypt and Nubia • Between Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley

34. Small Points Culture played a significant role in unifying states through laws, language, literature, religion, myths, and monumental art. • Social and gender hierarchies intensified as states expanded and cities multiplied.

35. Small Points Culture played a significant role in unifying states through laws, language, literature, religion, myths, and monumental art. • Literature was also a reflection of culture. •  Literature: • The “Epic of Gilgamesh” • Rig Veda • Book of the Dead

36. Questions to Ponder • How was Sumeria politically organized? • What event/happening do most historians begin the history of Egypt? • On what did Egyptian civilization depend? • How did ancient Egypt civilization and the Mesopotamian civilization resemble each other? How did they differ? • What major similarities did the four great river systems have in common? Where are they? What differences do they have? • Major characteristics of the Shang dynasty? • What was the longest Chinese dynasty and what were the factors for its longevity? • Major results for the fall of the Zhou Dynasty? What major philosophies came out of this time period? Explain basic tenets of each. • Most significant contribution of Judaism? • Contributions of the Phoenicians?