Early Humans thru Phoenicia
WHI.2-3
Early Humans
• Homosapiens
- Hunter-gatherers –
survival depended on
– Emerged in East Africa
between 100,000 and
the availability of wild
400,000 years ago.
plants and animals
– Migrated from
– Africa to Eurasia,
Australia,
and the
Americas
Early Humans
• Paleolithic Era (Old Stone Age)
– Hunter gatherer societies during this era
overcame limits set by their physical
environment.
– Nomads – moved in search of food, water,
and shelter
– Invented first tools, including simple weapons
(made out of stone)
– Learned how to use and make fire
Early Humans
• Paleolithic Era
– Lived in clans
– Developed oral language
– Created cave art – about prehistoric life and
events
Early Humans
• Neolithic Era (New Stone Age)
– Beginning of settled agriculture and
permanent settlements
– Developed agriculture (domesticated plants)
– Domesticated (tamed) animals
– Used advanced tools (metal)
– Made pottery
– Developed weaving skills
Early Humans
• Archaeology – used to find and interpret
evidence of early humans and their lives
– Archaeologists – study past cultures by
locating and analyzing human remains,
settlements, fossils, and artifacts
– Archaeologists apply scientific tests such as
carbon dating to analyze fossils and artifacts
Early Humans
• Stonehenge – archaeological site in
England begun during the Neolithic Age
and completed during the Bronze Age.
• Lucy – skeleton found in Ethiopia; from
her, learned that hominids had learned to
walk upright
Emergence of Civilization
•Civilization – complex culture with 3
characteristics:
1. Extra food
2. Large town/city with form of government
3. Different jobs for all
Emergence of Civilization
• Surplus food
• Used irrigation to provide water to fields during the
dry season
• Improved farming = more food = increase in
population
• Cities
– Large – helped to build palaces, temples
– Government – rules to guide people’s behavior
(enforced rules)
• Division of labor
– Artisans – skilled workers (ex. Made tools)
– Merchants, traders
Emergence of Civilization
• Other characteristics
– Calendar – concept of time
– Communication – some written, but mostly
oral
– Pictograms – writing using pictures (Egypt,
Sumer)
Do you know where early
civilizations were located?
Cradles of Civilization
• River Valley Civilizations (3500 – 500
B.C./B.C.E.)
1. Mesopotamia – Tigris/Euphrates River Valley (in
Southwest Asia)
2. Egypt – Nile River Valley and Nile Delta (in
Africa)
3. India – Indus River Valley (in Asia)
4. China – Huang He Valley (in Asia)
- All of these river valleys offered rich soils and
irrigation waters for agriculture. They tended to
be in locations easily protected from invasion by
nomadic peoples.
Cradles of Civilization
• Other Early Civilizations (2000 – 500
B.C./B.C.E)
1. Hebrews – along the Mediterranean
Sea and the Jordan River Valley (in Asia,
Fertile Crescent)
2. Phoenicians – along the Mediterranean
Sea (in Asia, Fertile Crescent)
3. Nubia – upper (Southern) Nile River (in
Africa)
Cradles of Civilization
• Social patterns
– Hereditary rulers – kings, pharaohs (dynasty –
family of rulers)
– Rigid class system – slavery was accepted
• Political patterns
– First states – city-states, kingdoms, empires
– Centralized government – based on religious
authority
– Written law codes – Ten Commandments, Code
of Hammurabi
Cradles of Civilization
• Economic patterns
– Metal tools and weapons (bronze and iron)
– Increasing agricultural surplus (extra food) –
better tools, plows, irrigation)
– Increasing trade along rivers and by sea
(Phoenicians)
– World’s first cities
– Slavery – development and practice in the
ancient world among most cultures, taking
various forms
Cradles of Civilization
• Religious traditions
– Polytheism – worshipping more than one god
(practiced by most early civilizations)
– Monotheism – worshipping one god (practiced
by the Hebrews)
Egypt
• The important river to the Egyptians was
the Nile River which is the longest river in
the world.
•The northern portion of the Nile River
branches in a delta (triangular shape) and
flows into the Mediterranean Sea.
•Heavy rains = summer floods which leave
behind fertile soil.
•Nile River used for transportation and trade.
Egypt
• Achievements
– Hieroglyphics – pictographic form of writing
• Rosetta Stone – contains Egypt’s written history
(hieroglyphics written on stone which was
translated)
– Papyrus – plant used to make paper
– Pyramids – tombs for pharaohs
– Calendar
– Number system based on ten
– Researched the human body
Egypt
• Education – boys could go to school and
learn to be scribes (could read and write)
• Society based on farming
• Trade – controlled by the government
– Traded extra food.
– Caravans – groups of people travelling for
safety over long distances
Egypt
• Religion – polytheistic
– Amon/Amon Ra – creator, associated with the
sun
– Osiris – judged people after death, associated
with the Nile
– Isis – Osiris’ wife, goddess of the royal throne
• Afterlife – everyone had life after death
– Mummifications – organs removed
Egypt
• Egypt had a dynasty (family of rulers).
• Egyptian leaders were called pharaohs.
Pharaohs had absolute, unlimited power in
Egypt.
• Old Kingdom
– When the Great Sphinx and pyramids were built.
– Two social classes: lower (peasants and farmers)
and upper (pharaoh, royal family, priests,
scribes, government officials)
Egypt
• Middle Kingdom
– Foreigners started coming to Egypt from Asia.
(ex. Hyksos) – brought chariots and the
compound bow
– Golden Age of Egypt
• New Kingdom –
– Began empire – government where one
person or group of people rule
– Hatshepsut – first female pharaoh
Egypt
• Egypt’s decline
– Ramses II (Ramses the Great) tried to hold
the empire together.
– Several empires attacked Egypt
– Rule ended in Egypt around 300 B.C./B.C.E.
Locations of Egypt and
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia (Land between
the Rivers)
•The land where the Mesopotamians lived
was called Sumer.
•Sumer was located in southwest Asia
between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.
•It was part of the Fertile Crescent – land
between the Persian Gulf and the Red
Sea
Mesopotamia
• Achievements
– Cuneiform – pictographic writing
– Arch – curved structure for an opening (ex.
Roof in shape of a dome)
– Ziggurats – Sumerian temples (baked brick
placed in layers)
– First to develop the wheel
Mesopotamia
• Government – kings in charge of citystates that didn’t unite
• The Sumerians farmed and grew enough
to become artisans and traders. They
would trade any extra food that they had.
• Only upper class boys attended schools.
• Religion – polytheism
– Buried food and tools with the dead (for
afterlife)
Babylonians
•Centered around Babylon
•Their ruler was Hammurabi – conquered
most of the Tigris/Euphrates River Valley
-Outstanding political leader and lawmaker
-Came up with the law code, the Code of
Hammurabi – “an eye for an eye”, very harsh
laws
(Punishment varied/depended on social
status)
Can you find Babylon?
Hebrews
•Founder of Judaism (Jewish religion) –
Abraham
•The Jews left their land of Canaan to
escape drought (no rain) and famine (no
food).
•The Jews became enslaved in Egypt.
•Moses – led the Jews out of slavery (called
the exodus)
•Ten Commandments – laws of the Hebrews
•God gave the Ten Commandments to
Moses and the Jews formed a covenant
(solemn agreement) with God.
Jews
• Diaspora – scattering of the Jews
• Founding of Israel
– At first, they were nomads made into tribes.
– First king to unite kingdom – Saul
– David – king after Saul
– Solomon – Israel reached its height of wealth
and power under him
Jews
• Judaism – religion of the Jews
– Monotheistic - believe in God (Yahweh)
– Holy book = Torah – contains the written
records and beliefs of the Jews
– Ten Commandments, laws – state moral and
religious conduct
– Began in Jerusalem (holy city)
Persia
•Conquered Babylonians
•Cyrus the Great – expanded Persia
•Darius I and Xerxes I (father and son) –
invaded Greece but failed to conquer
•Mightiest empire to date
Persia
• Government
– Kings – had a concern for justice (tolerant of
conquered peoples – let them keep their culture)
– Roads – connected cities in the empire
• Ex. Royal Road – 1250 miles
1.
2.
Used by army and postal riders
Linked empire together
– Developed an imperial bureaucracy –
government organized into different levels and
tasks
– Satraps – Persian governors
Persia
• Religion – Zoroastrianism
– Introduced by the philosopher, Zoroaster, who
believed people should receive training for
their future life and must choose between
good and evil.
– Basic beliefs:
• Struggle between the two opposing forces of
nature (good and evil)
• Idea of final judgment
Persia
• Decline
– Kings lost leadership abilities
– Conquered by the Greeks
Persia and Phoenicia
Phoenicians
• Phoenicia made up of loose city-states
• Little farmable land – Phoenicians traded
in the Mediterranean Sea
• Phoenicians were great sailors and traders
• Phoenician culture similar to Egyptians
and Babylonians
• Created the Phoenician alphabet