Most of History on a Single Slide
• Paleolithic era (250,000 to 12,000 years ago)
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The big idea: initial settlement of the earth
Small, close-knit societies of hunter-gatherers
Hit a population limit
Small does not mean bad
• Neolithic revolution (12,000 to 4,000 years ago)
– Change from food gathering to food producing
• Pastoralism, then agriculture
– Big changes to human lifestyles
• Surplus  divisions of labor, population growth
• Need to organize  governments
• Cultural changes: inequalities, religion
– New knowledge of metals = Bronze Age
Jericho & Catal Huyuk
What makes it a civilization?
(and not just a bunch of people)
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Surplus of food
Specialization
Social classes
Cities
Governments
Long-distance trade (between civs)
Organized writing systems
– Exception: the Inca
Look at the social, the political, the economic
“Civilized” versus “uncivilized”
The Emergence of Civilizations
• First civilizations develop in river valleys
– Rivers help civilization grow: nutrients, animal & plant life, transportation
– Cultural hearths
• Four river valley civilizations between 3000-2000 bce
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Mesopotamia
Egypt
India
China
TIGRIS-EUPHRATES
• Mesopotamia (land between rivers)
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Harsh heat, drought; unpredictable floods
Few natural resources; no wood
No natural defensive areas such as hills
Area open to invasion by nomads
• People in area must
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Provide permanent food supply
Regulate, provide permanent water supply
Provide defense against invaders
Acquire materials such as timber, minerals
TIGRIS-EUPHRATES
 “Necessity is the mother of invention”
 Sumer in S. Iraq: first civilization (5000 bce)
• Create cuneiform, the first writing
• City-states ruled by priests and kings
• Wars over irrigated farmland
• Land-owning aristocracy dominate; most of the
population were farmers or slaves
• Polytheistic religion tied to nature
LATER MESOPOTAMIANS
• Cycle of Civilization
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Nomads come in and conquer sedentary people
Conquerors assimilate local sedentary culture
New civilization blends cultures, thrives for a while
“New” civilization grows old, invaded by nomads
• Akkadian “First”
• First Empire
• Sargon conquered all of Sumer
• Babylonian “First”
• City at junction of Tigris-Euphrates
• Hammurabi’s Law Code
• Epic of Gilgamesh
CODE OF HAMMURABI
• 196. If a free man has destroyed the eye of a
member of the aristocracy, they shall destroy his
eye.
• 198. If he has destroyed the eye of a commoner or
broken the bone of a commoner, he shall pay one
mina of silver.
--• 129. If a wife of a free man has been
caught while lying with another man,
they shall bind them and throw them
into the water. If the husband of the
woman wishes to spare his wife,
the king in turn may spare his subject.
MESOPOTAMIA AS A CHART
THE NILE RIVER
• Society very different from Sumer
• Nile flooded regularly, predictably
• Provided rich soil, Easy soil to farm
• Civilization regulated flooding, surveying
• Location isolated
• Pharaoh was considered god-king
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Theocracy, almost absolute
Built pyramid tombs for dead
Egypt unified for most of history
Queen Hatsheput
• Achievements
• Mathematics especially geometry; architecture
• Astronomy and medicine
• Hieroglyphics
HUANG-HE (YELLOW) RIVER
• Developed in isolation
• Along lower Yellow River
• Rich loess soil
• Constantly flooding
• First Dynasties
• Control of flooding critical
• Xia Dynasty (Mythical?)
• God-like kings
• Taught irrigation, silkmaking
• Shang Dynasty
• Warlike kings, landed aristocracy; few priests
• Most people worked land as peasants
• Elaborate bronze workings
CHINESE WRITING
• Originated during Shang
• Ideographic
• Writing denotes ideas
• First used on Oracle Bones
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Priests asked gods questions
Wrote questions on bones
Tossed into fire
Cracks read by priests (divination)
• Elitist technique = scholar-bureaucrats
• Extremely difficult to read
• Required well-educated class to use
• Only elite had time to learn
• Cuneiform, hieroglyphs had similar effects
MANDATE OF HEAVEN
• Zhou dynasty
• Developed shi, professional men of service
• Chinese political idea
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Rulers exercise power given by heaven
Rulers continue to rule if heaven pleased
Heaven will take back mandate to rule
Heaven will replace ruling dynasty
• Indicators of a Lost Mandate
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Wars, invasions, military disasters
Over-taxation, disgruntled peasants
Social, moral decline of elite classes
Increased crime, banditry
DYNASTIC CYCLE
• One ruling family replaces another
• The Dynasty Changes
• Due to the loss of the Mandate of Heaven
• Stages in Cycle
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New dynasty arises, takes control of China
Strengthens rule, reestablishes prosperity, peace
Weakens, becomes lazy, problems arise
Invasions, revolts toss out reigning dynasty
• Shang replaces Xia, Zhou replaces Shang
INDUS VALLEY
• Arose around 2,500 BCE
• Main Cities
• Mohenjo Daro
• Harappa
• Hundreds of other settlements
• Independent city-states, strong government
• Extremely well-planned, coordinated cities
• Elaborate writing system (undeciphered)
• Religion
• Worshipped mother goddess
• Evidence of priestly class and temples
• Collapse: systems failure
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Little evidence of warfare until end
Devastated by environmental upheavals
Destroyed by Indo-European (Aryan) nomads
Cities abandoned
MEANWHILE, IN AMERICAS
 Olmec in Mesoamerica, 1200bce
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Used rainfall for agriculture
Cities are centers of trade, religion
Priests and ruling class over others
Giant stone heads (as tall as 2 Mr. Storcks!)
 Chavin off coast of Peru, 900bce
 Two major regions:
mountains and coast
 Trade routes running
through mountains
 CONTRAST: Neither are river valleys
CIVILIZATION SPREADS
• Phoenician Sailors in Lebanon
• City-states traded across Mediterranean
• Invented 22-letter alphabet
• Nubia (in modern-day Sudan)
• Originally, a tributary state of Egypt
• After Egypt dissolves, forms independent state of Kush
• Borrows Egyptian culture, becomes major trading state
• Hittite Empire
• Forms northwest of Mesopotamia
• Copper, silver, iron --> trade, military power
• Late Bronze Age – cosmopolitanism in Middle East
• Shared cultures and lifestyles from contact between societies
HERITAGES
• First heritages
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Passed thru children
Writing systems inherited
Intellectual systems, art copied
Religious, philosophical systems copied
Useful inventions rarely forgotten, easily spread
• River valley civilizations decline by 1000BCE
• All subject to nomadic invasions
• Geographical centers shifted (all except China)
• Political Structures often not continued
NOMADS: BARBARIANS?
• Pastoralism
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Domestication of animals
Way of life based on herding
Often on fringes
Bordered settled areas
• Seen as savages
• Interaction vs. conflict
• Nomads traded, coexisted with settled areas
• Nomads warred on, conquered settled areas
• Often protected merchants, allowed trade
• Prior to 1500 BCE little major threat
• Chariot Peoples (Central Asian Indo-Europeans)
• Domesticated horse, invented chariot, iron weapons
• Pushed into SW Asia, S. Asia, E. Asia, Europe
• Responsible for spread of ideas, trade