Prehistory
The Paleolithic Age or Old Stone Age (3 million–10,000 years ago)
The hunting and food gathering of Paleolithic people shaped their social development
Paleolithic people developed:
Spoken language
Bone, wood, and stone tools
Control of fire
Mythic-religious ideas to explain nature, birth, sickness, and death
Burial practices
Artistic representations of animals on cave walls, sympathetic magic
The Neolithic Age began 10,000 years ago in the Near East
Neolithic people developed the following important achievements, referred to as the Neolithic Revolution:
Farming
Domestication of animals
Villages
Polished stone tools
Pottery and woven cloth
Agriculture and domestication of animals revolutionized life, as farmers altered their environment and established permanent settlements
Changes that came with the Neolithic transition to agriculture include:
New food surplus freed people to specialize in certain skills
Trade was fostered, sometimes across long distances
Awareness of private property emerged
Emergence of a ruling elite with wealth and power
Daily routine of toil and obedience to ruling elite
Archaeologists have recently discovered Neolithic villages established as early as 8000 B.C., including:
Çatal Hüyük (pronounced sha-TAL HOO-yuk) in modern-day Turkey
Jericho in Palestine (c. 2,000 inhabitants in 8000 B.C.)
Jarmö in eastern Iraq
Scholars disagree as to when and where the first cities emerged
Some claim that the first cities emerged in Sumer c. 3000 B.C.
Others argue that early settlements like Jericho were the first urban centers because of large populations, trade activities, and public works
Neolithic technological advances included:
Shaping and baking clay for pottery containers, potter’s wheel
Grinding stone tools on rock
Wheel and sail
Plow and ox yoke
Use of copper for tools and weapons
Combining copper and tin to make bronze
The Rise to Civilization
The Rise to Civilization
Civilization arose 5,000 years ago in the Near East (Mesopotamia and Egypt)
The emergence of civilization was characterized by the emergence of:
Cities that were larger, more populous, and more complex than Neolithic villages
Invention of writing (records and laws)
Monumental architecture
Organized and complex religious life, with powerful priesthood
Religion was the central force in these primary civilizations
Explained workings of nature
Eased fear of death
Justified rules and morality
Sanctified law as a commandment of the gods
United people in common enterprises such as irrigation and food storage
Promoted creativity in art, literature, and science
Bolstered authority of rulers, regarded as gods or their agents
Factors helping Sumerians/Egyptians make the creative leap to civilization include:
Significance of river valleys to early civilizations
Deposit fertile silt on field
Provide water for crops
Serve as avenues for trade
Human thought and cooperative activity
Drain swamps; clear jungles; and build dikes, reservoirs, and canals
Construct and maintain irrigation works
Formulate and obey rules
Develop administrative, engineering, and mathematical skills
Keep records and build bureaucracy
Civilization also had a dark side
Epidemic disease
Slavery
Warfare and destructive conflicts
Aggressive attitude toward other groups
Mesopotamian Civilization
Mesopotamian Civilization
Mesopotamia is the Greek word for “land between the rivers”
First civilizations began here in the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers
Around 3000 B.C., Sumerians developed urban civilization in Mesopotamia, characterized by:
Cuneiform writing
Brick houses, palaces, and temples
Bronze tools and weapons
Irrigation works
Trade with other peoples and an early form of money
Religious and political institutions and schools
Religious and secular literature and varied art forms
Codes of law, medicinal drugs, and lunar calendar
Religion: