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Civilization. What makes a civilization? Are YOU “civilized”?. 5 Characteristics of a Civilization. Advanced Technology. Advanced Cities. Record Keeping. Specialized Workers. Complex Institutions. 5 Characteristics of a Civilization. Advanced cities Specialized workers
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Civilization • What makes a civilization? • Are YOU “civilized”?
5 Characteristics of a Civilization Advanced Technology Advanced Cities Record Keeping Specialized Workers Complex Institutions
5 Characteristics of a Civilization • Advanced cities • Specialized workers • Complex institutions • Record keeping • Advanced technology
River Valleys Where did early civilizations first develop? Why did ancient civilizations develop in river valleys? 1. River valleys offered rich soils for farming 2. abundance of water for large scale agriculture & irrigation 3. Tended to be in areas easily protected from nomadic invaders
civilization • Complex culture with cities, specialized workers, complex institutions, record keeping, and advanced technology Back to chart
specialization • Development of skills in a particular kind of work. See artisan Back to chart
artisan • A skilled worker, such as a weaver or potter, who makes goods by hand. Back to chart
institution • A long-lasting pattern of organization in a community Back to chart See “Barter”
scribe • Professional record keeper in early civilizations Back to chart See cuneiform
barter • A form of trade in which people exchange goods and services without the use of money. Back to chart
cuneiform • System of writing with wedge-shaped symbols, invented by the Sumerians around 3000 B.C. Back to chart
Bronze Age • A period in history (around 3000 B.C.) when people began using bronze rather than copper or stone.
ziggurat • Pyramid-shaped Sumerian temple Back to chart
Sedentary vs. Pastoralism Pastoralism Ten to twelve thousand years ago, at approximately the same time that agriculture emerged, a parallel specialization appeared: pastoralism, the herding of domesticated or partially domesticated animals. Pastoralism has much more in common culturally with hunting and gathering ways of life since it is necessity to move the herds continually in search of fresh pastures making this a wandering, nomadic way of life. For Pastoralists, human and livestock populations tended to fluxuate according to shifts in climatic conditions impacting the availability of grasses. While pastoral life is demanding and often dangerous, it is, as a way of life, relatively stable over long periods of time--like hunting and gathering is. What one generation knew and did, the next generation knew and did. Pastoralism tended to develop on marginal land apart from areas suitable for agriculture, often in semi-arid regions. Frequently, the two ways of life, pastoralism and agriculture, were compatible, or even mutually dependent upon one another through symbiotic trade relationships. Wherever the two modes of life existed near one another, a lively trade usually sprang up between farmers who had food and other objects to exchange, and pastoral nomads, who had products such as hides, wool, meat, and/or milk.
Sedentary While they are not exciting in appearance, settled agricultural villages like this early example at Ban Po, China (below left) and Catal Huyuk, modern Turkey (below right), represented a radically new way of life for human beings, unlike anything that had existed before. First, agriculture means sedentism--living permanently in one place. This was itself new to human beings, and it may have seemed very constraining to the first people to experience this way of life. Living in one spot permanently means exploiting a relatively small amount of land very intensively (rather than exploiting a large amount of land extensively, as hunter-gatherers did), and over a long period of time. Pastoralism vs. Sedentary – an analysis Pastoralism: Advantages: _______________________________________________________________________________________________ Disadvantages: _____________________________________________________________________________________________ Sedentary: Advantages: _______________________________________________________________________________________________ Disadvantages: _____________________________________________________________________________________________ Examples of likely contact/conflict between the two societies: ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
How does this Sumerian Ziggurat represent “Civilization”?
Where did early civilizations first develop? ___________________ Why did ancient civilizations develop in ? 1._____________________________________________________________ 2._____________________________________________________________ 3._____________________________________________________________