Toward Civilization
Understanding Our Past
• How Do We Know
– Prehistory- The long period
of time before people
invented systems of writing.
– 5,000 years ago some
people in different parts of
the world began to keep
written records → The
beginning of recorded
history
• Evidence From the Past
– Archaeologists- Scientists who find
and analyze the physical remains
left by early people
• Bone Fragments
• Artifacts- tools and weapons, pottery,
clothing or jewelry
– Archaeology- Is a branch of
Anthropology- The study of
humans and the societies they
created
• Draw conclusions about beliefs,
values, & activities of our ancestors.
• Archeologists at work
– Devised many useful techniques
– Digging→ Further down they dig, the
older the remains
– Discovered how early people developed
technology- skills
and tools people
use to meet their
basic needs
– Made detailed
maps, locating
every artifact they
find
• Technology and the Past
– Modern technology helps
interpret findings
– Computers used to sort
data
– Aerial photography can
reveal patterns of how
people used the land
– Radioactivity can
determine the age of
objects
• Historians Reconstruct The Past
– Historians- study how people
lived in the past, but rely more
on written evidence, ie, letters
& tax records
– Historical detection
• Historians look for evidence to
determine how reliable
information is.
• They often write about specific
people from the past
• Geography and History
– Geography is the study of people, their
environments and the resources available to them
– Five themes of Geography
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Location
Place
Human-Environment Interaction
Movement
Region
• Location- Tells where a
place is on the surface of
the earth
– Latitude- Measures distance
North and South of the
Equator
– Longitude - Measures
distance East and West of
the Prime Medidian
(imaginary line that runs
North and South of
Greenwich, England).
• i.e. City of Seoul, South Korea
is at 37⁰N latitude & 127 ⁰E
longitude…..These numbers
are the exact location
– Relative Location- Where one place is located in relation
to another.
• i.e. Ancient Athens, was located on the Eastern Mediterranean
Sea, near Egypt.
• Place- Physical features and human characteristics
– Physical Features- Land forms, body of water, climate,
soil quality, resources, plant and animal life
– CharacteristicsWhere most people live,
economic activities,
religious beliefs and
languages
• Human Enviornment
Interaction-People are shaped
by the place where they live
• i.e. Early farmers used water from
rivers to irrigate their crops
• Movement- of people goods
and ideas. Key link between
geography and history
– Nomads followed herds of deer,
moved because of climate
changes, traders carried goods
• Region- geographers
divide the world into
many types of regions.
– Some regions are based
on physical features
– Regions can also be
defined by political,
economic, or cultural
features
Dawn of History
• Hunters and GathersHistorians call the earliest
period of human history the
Old Stone Age or Paleolithic
Age
– First tool makers, 10,000 BC
• African Beginnings- 1959,
Mary and Louis Leakey found
pieces of bone embedded in
Ancient rock at Olduvai Gorge,
Tanzania
– Found the bone belonged to early human
– 1974, Donald Johanson found
part of humanlike skeleton in
Ethiopia.
• Named his find “Lucy” after a
Beatles song
– Evidence shows the earliest
humans came from East Africa
– Their descendents later
migrated east to Europe.
• Nomads on the MovePaleolithic people lived in
small hunting and food
gathering bands, about 20 to
30 people
– Everyone contributed to feeding
the group
• Men hunted and fished
• Women cared for children,
gathered fruit, nuts, shellfish
– Nomads-People moved from
place to place as they followed
animals and ripened fruit
• People depended on the environment
• Made simple tools and weapons
• At some point developed a spoken
language
• Environmental Changes
– People faced severe challenges from the weather
– During several ice ages the earth cooled
– Thick glaciers -Sheets of ice that spread across parts of
Asia, Europe, and North America
• Paleolithic people invented clothing
• Early Religion and Art
– 30,000 years ago people began to leave evidence of their
beliefs in the spiritual world
– World was full of spirits especially those of the animals
they hunted
– Painted pictures were in the caves they lived in
– Began to make statues
Belief in the Afterlife- People
began to bury their dead with
great care
– Left dead with tools, weapons and
other needed goods
• First Farmers
• 11,000 yrs, ago nomadic herds
learned to farm
• Change from nomadic to settled
farming began New Stone Age or
Neolithic Age
• Planting Seeds– Neolithic Agricultural
Revolution- the transition from
hunting and gathering to
agriculture and settlement
• Domesticating Animals
– People learned to domesticate
or tame animals that they
once hunted.
– People became food
producers for the first time
• Skara Brae, Neolithic
Village
– 5000 yrs, ago village in
Scotland
– Entire area was equal to
the size of three
classrooms
• Each house was similar,
people were equal in
social class
– People planted barley in
fielded and tended
animals
– Farmers had workshops
and developed specific
jobs
• Changing Ways
of Life
– Village leaders
– People owned
more
possessions
– New Technology
• Learned to
harvest at
proper times
• Civilizations
emerged
Beginnings of Civilization
• Eight Features of Civilization
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Cities
Well-Organized Central Governments
Complex Religions
Job Specifications
Social Classes
Arts and Architecture
Public Works
Writing
• Rise of Cities
– Farmers began cultivating
fertile lands along river
valleys and producing a
surplus of goods
• More food → More people
→ village became a city
– River valley Civilizations
• City Rose in:
– Tigris and Euphrates, Middle
East
– Nile River, Egypt
– Indus River, India
– Yellow River, China
• Floods spread silt across the valley, renewing the soil, keeping it
fertile
• Rivers gave regular water supply and a means for travel and trade
– Challenges
• Farmers had to control the floods
• Early farmers worked together to build dykes, canals, and carve
irrigation ditches
– Civilizations in Americas
• Aztecs and Incas emerged in the highlands of Mexico and Peru (Not
near rivers)
– Began as religious centers
• Organized Governments
– As cities grew they needed to
maintain a steady food supply
– At first priests had greatest power,
warrior kings eventually became
hereditary leaders, father → son
– “Right to rule” came from the Gods
– Rulers issued laws, collected taxes,
organized defense
– Royal officials enforced laws
• Bureaucracies- system of managing
government through departments run
by appointed officials
• Complex Religions
– Polytheistic- Belief in many gods
• Sun gods, river gods
– Developed complex rituals,
ceremonies for gods
• Job Specifications and Social
Classes
– Urban people made new crafts, one
person couldn’t be skilled at
everything
– Skilled artisans- (skilled craft
workers) made pottery, metal
working, weaponry, bricklayers
– Social Ranking- People ranked according to jobs
Priests and
Nobles
Wealthy
Merchants
Artisans and Soldiers
Peasants
Slaves
• Arts, Architecture & Public Works
– Expressed beliefs of the people
– Statues of gods and goddesses, temple wall paintings
– Government projects to make roads, irrigation systems,
defense walls
• Writing
– Began in temples
– Pictograms- Words
represented by pictures
– Became more complex, only
specially trained people,
scribes, learned to read and
write
• Spread of Civilizations
– Rulers gained more power,
conquered cities
– City-states- A political unit that
included a city and its
surrounding lands and villages
• First Empires
– rulers conquered many city and villages, creating
empires- group of cities or states controlled by one ruler
• Interactions with Nomadic people
– Nomads tended cattle on steppes- less fertile, sparse dry
grasslands
– Had to keep moving heard because of poor water
– City people got along with nomads for political,
economic or military matters
– At times had conflicts
Cultural Diffusion- The spread of ideas, customs and
technologies from one people to another