Period 1 Notes
To 600 B.C.E.
.
Technological and Environmental
Transformations
Paleolithic Era


During Paleolithic Era, hunter-gatherer early humans
migrated from origin point in Africa throughout the world
Important Developments:





Fire
Stone tools
Spoken language
Beliefs in afterlife
Limited exchange between kinship groups
Neolithic Era


Starting around 10,000 – 8,000 B.C.E. some groups of
early humans started to use settled agriculture
Where?


Fertile Crescent, Nile River Valley, Sub-Saharan Africa, Indus
River Valley, Huang He River Valley, Papua New Guinea,
Mesoamerica, Andes Mountains
Agriculturalists vs. Pastoralists

Settled farmers vs. animal herders
Key:
Red lines = origins of agriculture
Shaded Areas = current farmland
Early Civilizations

Results of Agriculture:







More cooperation needed
Larger food supply = larger population
Specialization of labor
Social hierarchy
Women take inferior role
Negative environmental impact
Technological developments

Pottery, Plows, Textiles, Metallurgy,Wheels
Early Civilizations

Formal states emerged in agricultural centers




Leaders were often viewed as divine and had great
military power
Those states that had greater access to resources
were most successful (i.e. Hittites having iron)
Empires started to look to expand and create
empires (i.e. Mesopotamians, Egyptians)
Pastoralists served as disseminators of new weapons
& modes of transportation (i.e. compound bows,
iron weapons)
Early Civilizations

Unique cultures developed

Architecture & urban planning


Art & artisanship was promoted


Sculptures, paintings, wall
decorations, decorative weaving
Systems of record keeping


Ziggurats, pyramids, temples, walled
cities, streets, sewage & water
systems
Cuneiform, hieroglyphics,
pictographs, alphabets, quipu
Legal Codes

Hammurabi’s Code
Early Civilizations

Unique cultures developed

Religious beliefs




Expansion of trade from local, to regional, to transregional



Vedic religion (basis of Jainism, Hinduism, Buddhism)
Judaism
Zoroastrianism
Egypt & Nubia
Mesopotamia & Indus Valley
Literature developed



Epic of Gilgamesh (Mesopotamia)
Rig Veda (India)
Book of the Dead (Egypt)
Period 1 Timeline
to 600 B.C.E.
c. 240,000
B.C.E. Homo
Sapiens
emerge
c. 14000
B.C.E.
Paleolith
ic Age
Ends
c.7000
B.C.E.
Catal
Huyuk
villiage
emerges in
Turkey
c. 10000
B.C.E.:
Neolithic
Revolution
c. 4000
B.C.E.
discovery of
metal tools
c. 3500 B.C.E.
Civilization emerges in
Fertile Crescent, Nile
Valley, Huang He Valley,
& Indus Valley
c. 1500
B.C.E.
Start of
Hinduism
c. 1200 C.E.
Nomadic Invaders
from Central Asia
c. 1000
B.C.E.
Start of
Judaism
c. 800 B.C.E.
Phoenician
Colonization
c. 600 C.E.
Nok in
West
Africa
smelt iron
c. 600 C.E. River
Valley Civilizations
in Decline
c. 605
B.C.E.
Laozi
(founder
of
Daoism)
born
Phoenicians,
Minoans
Fertile
Crescent
Nile
River
Valley
Olmecs
Nok
Chavin
Human
Origin
Point
Huang He
China
Indus
River
Valley &
Aryan
Invasion
Austronesian
Migration