Prehistory – River Valley Civilizations
I. Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) (2 million to 12000 BCE)
a. As humans progressed, advanced humans killed off or displaced less advanced competitors
explaining the existence of one basic human type
b. Mostly hunters/gatherers and could not support large groups
i. People did not work very hard (2.5 hours a day) – This left time for cultural pursuits
(cave art)
ii. Groups migrated to follow the herds and find new supplies of edible plant life. This
migration led to the greatest accomplishment of early humans
c. Greatest accomplishment was spread of human species around the world
i. Caused by need to find scarce food
1. Enabled by fire and animal skin clothing
d. 14,000 years ago end of last GREAT ice age providing better living conditions  acceleration of
development
e. More movement of peoples meant more interconnection leading to exchange of people, ideas,
and goods
II. Neolithic (New Stone Age) (10,000-4000 BCE)
a. Agricultural Revolution
i. Invention of agriculture– domestication of animals and cultivation of crops
1. End of ice age resulted in:
a. Population increases – need for more food
b. Hunting yield declined
2. People began to settle in one spot
3. Animals were domesticated
ii. Initially developed in the Middle East and independently arose in India, N. Africa,
Europe, and the Americas
iii. Transformation took time
1. Required more work and harder work, but eventually food surpluses arose. Who
did the hard work - Men
2. Resisted as long as possible
a. As farmers cleared land they displaced or converted many
hunter/gatherers
iv. Allowed for specialization (because of surplus food)
1. Discovered uses for copper (4000 BCE) and development of bronze (3000BCE)a. Advent of tools allowed more efficiency (even more surpluses)
v. Pastorialist disseminated information
1. New weapons – compound bow and iron weapons
2. New modes of transportation – Chariots and horseback riding
vi. As time passed, technological innovations led to improvements in agricultural
production, trade, and transportation
1. Pottery
2. Plows
3. Woven Textiles
4. Metallurgy
5. Wheeled vehicles
vii. Role of women with advent of agriculture? Surplus of food and strength required to push
plows and till soil resulted in women not participating as much in the labor of agriculture
and producing food – their status dropped. HOWEVER, women were still involved often
times carrying food and processing grains (thrashing/milling/drying)
III.
Civilization – Is the term Civilizations a synonym for good?
a. For each of the following words, tell me whether or not they are representative of civilized
peoples:
i. Gender inequality
ii. Slavery
iii. Warlike
iv. Divisions in social-class – have/have nots
v. Diseases
vi. Ruler and ruled
vii. Destruction of environment
1. All of these are characteristics of civilizations
b. Why Civilization?
i. Need groups of people to create and maintain irrigation devices to channel river water to
fields
c. What defines a civilization?
i. Must contain all of the following:
1. Reliable Surpluses
2. Division of Labor / Specialization / Monumental Building
3. Cities
4. Central government – Bureaucrats
5. Social Classes
6. Trade – often long distance
7. Writing/Literacy – must keep records
a. Scholars still debate the “true” definition
IV.
Characteristics of River Valley Civilizations
a. The Big 4 and the Americas
i. Mesopotamia (Tigris and Euphrates)
ii. Egypt (Nile)
iii. India (Indus)
iv. China (Hwang He/Yellow River)
v. Chavin
vi. Olmecs
1. Favorable Locations led to a growing population which then leads to territorial
expansion
a. Example: Hittites in Mesopotamia
b. Mesopotamia, China and the Americas developed independently, but Egypt and India borrowed
ideas learned from trading
i. Despite borrowing ideas and technology, each developed a distinctive society and culture
c. Similarities
i. Use of metals and other technology to aid farming and warfare
ii. Monumental Building – ziggurats, pyramids, temples, defensive walls, streets, sewage
and water systems
iii. Arts promoted by religious and political elites – sculpture, paintings, literature
iv. Creation of a writing system – exception is Andean civilizations – Quipu for record
keeping
v. Trade expanded from local to regional and trans-regional
1. Egypt and Nubia
2. Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley
vi. Complex political structures with ruler who was believed to be divine or had divine
support and was supported by military
V.
vii. Creation of legal codes – Code of Hammurabi
viii. Religion
1. Vedic religion
2. Hebrew monotheism
3. Zoroastriaism
d. Differences
i. Egyptian economy was more government directed than Mesopotamia
ii. Mesopotamia science and writing was more advanced than Egypt, but Egypt had superior
mathematics
iii. All created their own distinctive alphabets
iv. Egypt had great monumental buildings (pyramids) while China did not
v. Chinese developed an elaborate intellectual life while the others did not
e. Decline of civilizations
i. Most were in decline by 1000 BCE
1. Often due to invasion
ii. Left a mark  created a diverse array of regional identities
Conclusion
a. River Valleys created a basic set of tools, intellectual concepts such as writing and mathematics,
and political forms that would persist and spread
b. Civilization created a division among the world’s peoples but trade led to a major theme in world
history: Increasing contacts battling an often fierce local identity
c. 4 major shared commonalities: cities, trade and writing; but the values or belief systems were
often radically different (political attitudes, beliefs about death and artistic styles)