WHAT will we be
studying?
Standard 6-1: The student will
demonstrate an understanding of
the transition of
humans from nomadic life to
settled life in the cradles of
civilization.
6.1.1 Analyze the hunter-gatherer
communities in regard to their
geographic, social,
and cultural characteristics,
including adaptation to the
natural environment.
????
What is a
nomad?
someone who
wanders looking
for food & shelter
What is a
cradle of
civilization?
where civilization
began
Define hunter-gatherer communities and detail
the characteristics that defined them.
• hunter gatherers is the term used by
anthropologists to describe a specific kind of
lifestyle, that of all human beings until the
invention of agriculture about 8000 years ago
• hunter-gatherers hunt game and collect plant
foods (called foraging) rather than grow or tend
crops
• hunter-gatherers tend to have non-hierarchical
social structures
• hunter-gatherers are nomadic
• hunter gatherers live a subsistence lifestyle
• they have little development of skills or
specialized labor
• they have low-population densities – usually in
small tribes
• the male puberty rite of passage often receives
greater emphasis in hunter-gatherer societies
than the other three ritual occasions celebrated
in all human societies (birth ,marriage, and
death).
• hunter gatherers are sedentary when food is
abundant
hunter
gatherers
huntergatherers
????
What do
anthropologists call
humans who lived
before the discovery of
agriculture?
hunter-gatherers
Define foraging.
collecting plants
rather than
growing crops
When are huntergatherers nomadic &
when are they
sedentary?
Hunter-gathers were
nomads when there
was no food &
sedentary when
food was abundant.
Do hunter-gatherers
have different jobs?
Hunter-gathers did
not have
specialized jobs.
What’s a hierarchy?
a pyramid type
structure based on
rankings
What is meant by
“low-population
density”?
An example of lowpopulation density
would be huntergatherers living in
small tribes.
Were hunter-gatherers
hierarchical?
Hunter-gathers
were nonhierarchical.
what it is
So what?
what it’s
not
context
Were hunter-gatherers
skilled or non-skilled?
Hunter-gathers
were non-skilled.
We are
going to go
FORAGE!
Describe how hunter-gatherers adapted to their
natural environment (example – the use of
simple tools to construct shelter, hunt, and
make clothes)
• Prehistoric hunter-gatherers, such as roving
bands of Cro-Magnons, increased their food
supply by inventing tools.
• Hunters crafted special spears that enabled
them to kill game at greater distances.
• Digging sticks helped food gatherers pry plants
loose at the roots.
• Toward the end of the Ice
Age, early Americans were
producing hunting
technologies that enabled
them to kill mammoths and
other large Ice Age
mammals.
• Hunting tools were made
of bone, ivory, stone and
antler, and used the wood,
hide, and fiber of a variety
of plants and animals.
• One of the most commonly
used hunting tools was the
spear point.
Crouched low to catch animals
invented tools
Herded buffalo
over cliffs
Digging sticks
special spears
Spear point
How did early man adapt to his
environment?
Hunting tools were made of bone,
ivory, stone and antler, and used the
wood, hide, and fiber of a variety of plants
and animals.
How did early man adapt to his
environment?
????
How did early man
adapt to his
environment?
Hunter-gathers
invented tools &
special weapons.
What was special
about the spears of
hunter-gatherers?
Spears enabled
them to kill
animals from a
greater distance.
What kind of materials
did hunter-gatherers
use to make tools?
They used ivory,
stones, bones,
plant roots &
antlers.
What kind of animal
did hunter-gatherers
kill that is extinct
today?
mammoths
Describe how hunter-gatherers developed
technological advances (example – stone tools,
the use of art to express ideas)
• Early modern humans used stone, bone, and
wood to fashion more than 100 different tools.
• Tool kits included knives to kill and butcher
game, and fish hooks and harpoons to catch fish.
• A chisel-like cutter was designed to make other
tools. Cro-Magnons used bone needles to sew
clothing made of animal hides.
• Necklaces of seashells, lion teeth,
and bear claws adorned both men
and women. People ground
mammoth tusks into polished beads.
• They also carved small realistic
sculptures of animals that inhabited
their world.
• Stone Age peoples on all continents
created cave paintings. The bestknown of these are the paintings on
the walls and ceilings of European
caves, mainly in France and Spain.
• Early artists drew lifelike images of
wild animals
In the famous cave of Les Trois-Frères, in Ariège, France,
there is a rock painting, dated between 15,000 and
13,000 years ago, of a part-human, part-bison figure,
variously described by scholars as a sorcerer, a
magician, or a shaman, who appears to be performing
music among wild animals.
????
What might a huntergatherer tool kit
include?
knives, fish hooks
& harpoons
List some ways huntergatherers were
artistic?
They made
jewelry, carved
statues & created
cave paintings.
What’s a shaman?
sorcerer or
magician
How much can you
tell your partner
about prehistoric
man in ONE
MINUTE?
Line up by
height – count
off by 5’s!
You must build the tallest
free-standing structure
you can using only
STRAWS & TAPE!
On a colored index card, REFLECT
on the activity
you just completed!
What are your thoughts?
What did you like best?
What did you find challenging?
What would you do differently?
Necessity is the
Mother of
Invention!
Recognize the cultural & social distinctiveness of
hunter-gatherer societies (examples – the use
of rudimentary language to communicate, roles
of men and women)
Culture
• common ways of dressing, similar hunting
practices, favorite animals to eat.
• Culture is the way of life of a group of people.
• Culture includes common practices of a society,
its shared understandings, and its social
organization.
• By overcoming individual differences, culture
helps to unify the group.
Common
Practices
• what people
eat
• clothing and
adornment
• sports
• tools and
technology
• social customs
• work
Social
Organization
• family
• class and caste
structure
• relationships
between
individual and
community
• government
• economic
system
• view of
authority
Shared
Understandings
• language
• symbols
• religious beliefs
• values
• the arts
• political beliefs
what it’s
not
what it is
culture
So what?
context
Recognize the cultural & social distinctiveness of
hunter-gatherer societies (examples – the use of
rudimentary language to communicate, roles of
men and women)
• Homo erectus may have developed the beginnings
of spoken language.
• Language, like technology, probably gave Homo
erectus greater control over the environment and
boosted chances for survival.
• The teamwork needed to plan hunts and cooperate
in other tasks probably relied on language.
• They lived in bands of 25 to 70 people.
• The men almost certainly did the hunting. The
women gathered fruits, berries, roots, and grasses.
• Prior to spoken languages, members of a
group communicated with one another by
grunting or through simple noises, and hand
gestures.
• Spoken language allowed group members to
exchange complex thoughts and ideas, and
pass on their culture from one generation to
the next.
• Groups could discuss plans, teach techniques,
explain how to track animals, or where to go
to find water, as well as form religion and
folklore.
????
Give examples of
culture?
Examples of culture include
common ways of dressing &
hunting, religious beliefs, customs
& values
What was the
advantage of
language?
control over the
environment, ergo
better chance of
survival
What’s Homo erectus
mean?
Man stood up on
two feet!
Men were the _____;
women were the
______.
Men were the hunters;
women were the
gatherers.
What made teamwork
easier?
the invention of
language
Before language how
did humans
communicate?
grunting, noises &
hand gestures (not
THAT hand gesture!)
What did spoken
language allow huntergatherers to do?
work in groups,
plan, exchange
ideas, develop
religious values
Describe how hunter-gatherers utilized
discoveries during the Stone Age (example –
fire)
• According to anthropologists, Homo
erectus was the first to use fire.
• Fire provided warmth in cold
climates, cooked food, and
frightened away attacking animals.
• The control of fire also probably
helped Homo erectus settle new
lands.
Describe the impact of climate changes during the
period and realize the value of migration as an
enabling factor in societal development (example –
the use of a land bridge to migrate into North
America)
• Scientists have two ideas about how
could have people traveled beyond
the ice sheets that covered Canada
and blocked access to the United
States.
• One idea proposes that an ice free corridor
opened in Canada as the glaciers
melted. According to this theory, small trees
began to appear in the ice-free corridor and,
for the first time, wood became available for
the warmth and cooking fires people needed
to survive the journey.
• The second idea suggests that people
migrated down the coastline. Although the
coastline was not completely ice-free, people
may have used boats, and driftwood might
have supplied the fires needed for survival.
The Bering Land
Bridge existed as a
vast tundra plain
connecting Asia and
North America. As the
world's glaciers and ice
sheets melted over the
following millenia,
rising sea level flooded
the land bridge —
blocking migration
routes for animals and
humans.
????
Homo erectus was the
first to do what?
Use fire!
What did the control
of fire enable Homo
erectus to do and
WHY?
Settle new lands –
they could keep
warm & cook.
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds video
• 3,000,000 years old
• first hominid
• bones discovered in
Ethiopia
• Nicknamed “Lucy”
after the Beatles
song, Lucy in the Sky
with Diamonds –
Elton John later
recorded the song
too!
what it is
So what?
what it’s
not
context
Assessment – 6.1.1
• differentiate between the geographic, social, and
cultural attributes of hunter-gatherer societies
• distinguish between those characteristics of precivilization and civilizations
• evaluate the development of hunter-gatherer
community attributes in connection with the
natural environment
• utilize maps to explain and/or analyze migratory
patterns of hunter-gatherers
• Hunter-gatherer is an anthropological term used to
describe human beings who obtain their food from
the bounty of nature, hunting animals and
gathering wild plants.
• It is a subsistence lifestyle, practiced by all early
human societies.
• Such people are generally nomads, moving on as
food supplies dwindle, but sedentary when in one
place.
• There is little development of skills or specialized
labor beyond that required for hunting and
gathering food.
• Such societies generally remain small, consisting of
several, often related, family units.
what it is
So what?
what it’s
not
context
Your
assessment!
Create a hunter-gatherer
bio-poem!
__________________________ (name)
___________, ____________, _________, ___________ (adjectives)
lover of ___________, ___________ & ___________
who feels ___________, ____________ & _______________
who needs _______________________________
who gives _________________________
who fears ______________, _____________ & ___________
who would like to see ________________, _____________________
& __________________
resident of ________________________
__________________________ (name)
NEW
UNIT
START HERE
The Neolithic Revolution is the
transition from a huntergatherer mode of subsistence
to one based more upon the
cultivation of crops, which
first began in several centers
dating from approximately
12,000-10,000 years ago.
This transition also saw a
change from a largely nomadic
lifestyle to a more settled,
agrarian-based one, with the
onset of the domestication of
plants and (later) animals.
what it’s
not
what it is
Neolithic
revolution
So what?
context
6.1.2 Explain the emergence of
agriculture and its effect on early
human communities,
including the impact of irrigation
techniques and the domestication
of plants and
animals.
Essential Knowledge – 6.1.2
• understand why agriculture developed and the effect
this occurrence had on human society
• explain how plant/animal domestication fostered
agricultural development and the subsequent advent
of semi-permanent human settlements – i.e.
describe the role agriculture played in leading to
humans to move from a nomadic lifestyle to the
development of villages
• understand the role of irrigation in this process and
describe early irrigation techniques (examples –
dams and canals
• understand how the domestication of plants and
animals eventually led to food surpluses
Anthropologists argue
that it was women who
led the Neolithic
Revolution and became
history's first pioneers of
agriculture
• Instead of hunting and gathering food from
the environments where they lived, humans
learned to simply grow their own food.
• Grains such as wheat, barley, rice, and corn
were grown in different parts of the world.
• Wild animals were also domesticated. Goats
were utilized for their meat and milk, cattle,
pigs, and chickens provided a steady source
of food for the support of a group of
humans.
• With the advent of farming and domesticated
animals to feed a society, life became much easier
for early humans. As a result, many more humans
survived the difficulties of life. The population
quickly rose from around 2 million humans on the
Earth, to more than 90 million.
• Farming allowed people to build villages along rivers,
or wherever the ground was fertile enough for crops
to grow. Archeologists have found some villages that
are believed to have been built more than 8,000
years ago. Some of these ancient villages, such as
Jericho, still survive to this day.
Understand why agriculture developed and the
effect this occurrence had on human society
• The shift from food-gathering to food-producing
culture represents one of the great breakthroughs
in history.
• Change in climate was probably a key reason for the
agricultural revolution.
• Rising temperatures worldwide provided longer
growing seasons and drier land for cultivating wild
grasses.
• A rich supply of grain helped support a small
population boom. As populations slowly rose,
hunter-gatherers felt pressure to find new food
sources. Farming provided a steady source of food.
Explain how plant/animal domestication fostered
agricultural development and the subsequent
advent of semi-permanent human settlements –
i.e. describe the role agriculture played in leading to humans to move from a
nomadic lifestyle to the development of villages
• Some groups practiced slash-and-burn farming,
in which they cut trees or grasses and burned
them to clear a field. The ashes that remained
fertilized the soil. Farmers planted crops for a
year or two, then moved to another area of
land. After several years, trees and grass grew
back, and other farmers repeated the process of
slashing and burning.
• Hunters’ expert knowledge of wild animals likely
played a key role in the domestication, or taming,
of animals.
• They tamed horses, dogs, goats, and pigs. Like
farming, domestication of animals came slowly.
Stone Age hunters may have driven herds of
animals into rocky ravines to be slaughtered. It was
then a small step to drive herds into human-made
enclosures. From there, farmers could keep the
animals as a constant source of food and gradually
tame them.
• Not only farmers domesticated animals. Pastoral
nomads, or wandering herders, tended sheep,
goats, camels, or other animals. These herders
moved their animals to new pastures and watering
places.
• Domesticated animals became more common.
The invention of new tools—hoes, sickles, and
plow sticks—made the task of farming easier.
• As the population of some early farming villages
increased, social relationships became more
complicated. The change from a nomadic
hunting-gathering way of life to settled village
life took a long time. Likewise, the change from
village life to city life was a gradual process that
spanned several generations.
????
What was the
importance of learning
to grow their own
food?
They could stay in
one place.
Why did human
population increase?
Development of
agriculture &
domestication
increased the chance
of survival.
Give examples of
domesticated animals.
Goats, chickens,
cattle or any
animal that can be
penned.
Why were civilizations
built along rivers?
Land near rivers
was more fertile &
water was
accessible.
What is a pastoral
nomad?
someone who
wanders & herds
animals
How long did the
switch from huntergathering life to
settled villages take?
several
generations
Understand the role of irrigation in this process and
describe early irrigation techniques (examples – dams
and canals)
• To cultivate more land and to produce extra crops, ancient
people in larger villages built elaborate irrigation systems.
• The resulting food surpluses freed some villagers to
pursue other jobs and to develop skills besides farming.
• Individuals who learned to become craftspeople created
valuable new products, such as pottery, metal objects,
and woven cloth. In turn, people who became traders
profited from a broader range of goods to exchange—
craftwork, grains, and many raw materials.
• Two important inventions—the wheel and the sail—also
enabled traders to move more goods over longer
distances.
Understand how the domestication of plants and
animals eventually led to food surpluses
As people gradually developed the technology to
control their natural environment, they reaped
larger harvests. Settlements with a plentiful
supply of food could support larger populations.
Assessment – 6.1.2
• explain the development of agriculture by
summarizing how irrigation techniques
changed the structure of early human
communities
• interpret the effects of domestication of
plants and animals on agriculture and/or
communities
• hypothesize on the impact of domestication
and/or surplus on human activity.
????
What did irrigation
allow tribesmen to do?
pursue other jobs
– specialized work
What inventions
enabled humans to
travel greater
distances?
wheel & the sail
Cave Painting
Activity
NEW
UNIT
START HERE
6.1.3 Use maps, globes, and models in
explaining the role of the natural environment
in shaping early civilizations, including the role
of the river systems of the Nile
(Egyptian), Tigris-Euphrates (Sumerian,
Babylonian, Phoenician), Huang He
(Chinese), and Indus (Harappan); the
relationship of landforms, climate, and
natural resources to trade and other economic
activities and trade; and the ways
that different human communities adapted to
the environment.
Farming Develops in Many Places
• Within a few thousand years, people in many other
regions, especially in fertile river valleys, turned to
farming.
• In Africa the Nile River Valley developed into an
important agricultural center for growing wheat,
barley, and other crops.
• In China About 8,000 years ago, farmers along the
middle stretches of the Huang He (Yellow River)
cultivated a grain called millet.
• In Mexico and Central America farmers cultivated corn,
beans, and squash.
• In Peru farmers in the Central Andes were the first to
grow tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and white potatoes.
Four River Systems
• Nile (Egyptian)
• Tigris-Euphrates (Sumerian,
Babylonian, Phoenician)
• Huang He (Chinese)
• Indus (Harappan)
????
In what continent was
the Nile River Valley?
AFRICA
What’s another name
for the Huang He
river?
Yellow River
Where is the Yellow
River (Huang He
river)?
CHINA
Where was millet
cultivated?
CHINA
Name the 4 river
systems.
Nile (Egyptian)
Tigris-Euphrates
(Sumerian, Babylonian,
Phoenician)
Huang He (Chinese)
Indus (Harappan)
Mesopotamia video
Tigris – Euphrates
• A desert climate dominates the landscape
between the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean
Sea in Southwest Asia. Yet within this dry region
lies an arc of land that provided some of the best
farming in Southwest Asia
• The region’s curved shape and the richness of its
land led scholars to call it the Fertile Crescent. It
includes the lands facing the Mediterranean Sea
and a plain that became known as Mesopotamia.
• The word in Greek means “land between the
rivers.”
Tigris & Euphrates
• The rivers framing Mesopotamia are the Tigris and
Euphrates.
• They flow southeastward to the Persian Gulf.
(See the map
on page 30.)
• The Tigris and Euphrates rivers flooded
Mesopotamia at least once a year. As the
floodwater receded, it left a thick bed of mud
called silt. Farmers planted grain in this rich, new
soil and irrigated the fields with river water.
• The results were large quantities of wheat and
barley at harvest time. The surpluses from their
harvests allowed villages to grow.
????
Name the 4 river
systems.
Nile (Egyptian)
Tigris-Euphrates
(Sumerian, Babylonian,
Phoenician)
Huang He (Chinese)
Indus (Harappan)
Why was the Fertile
Crescent given its
name?
Because of its shape &
land near the
Mediterranean that is
good for farming
What’s the Greek word
for “land between two
rivers?
Mesopotamia
Between what 2 rivers
does Mesopotamia
lie?
Tigris & Euphrates
Define silt.
rich fertile soil
What 2 grains were
grown in
Mesopotamia?
wheat & barley
What 2 grains were
grown in
Mesopotamia?
wheat & barley
Sumerians video
5 characteristics of civilizations
•
•
•
•
•
advanced cities,
specialized workers
complex institutions
record keeping
advanced technology
Sumerians were one of first groups to form a
civilization.
Sumerians
• They built cities that formed separate gov’ts –
city states were like independent nations
• Sumer’s earliest governments were controlled
by the temple priests. The farmers believed
that the success of their crops depended upon
the blessings of the gods, and the priests
acted as go-betweens with the gods.
• A ziggurat was like a city hall & place of
worship. From the ziggurat the priests
managed the irrigation system. Priests
demanded a portion of every farmer’s crop as
taxes.
Environmental Challenges & Solutions
• unpredictable flooding combined with a
period of little or no rain --- irrigation ditches
• no natural barriers for protection --- mud brick
city walls
• limited natural resources – Sumerians traded
grain, cloth & tools for raw materials like
stone, wood & metal
Sumerians
• In time of war a leader was chosen - some
military leaders became rulers who then
passed down their power to their sons
• By 2500 B.C., new cities were arising all over
the Fertile Crescent, in what is now Syria,
northern Iraq, and Turkey.
• Sumerians exchanged products and ideas,
such as living in cities, with neighboring
cultures. This process in which a new idea or a
product spreads from one culture to another
is called cultural diffusion.
Sumerians
• They were polytheists
• Believed gods were human-like but that humans were
gods’ servants & needed to keep the gods happy
• Social classes:
– Kings, landholders, and some priests made up the highest
level in Sumerian society.
– Wealthy merchants ranked next.
– The vast majority of ordinary Sumerian people worked
with their hands in fields and workshops.
– At the lowest level of Sumerian society were the slaves.
Some slaves were foreigners who had been captured in
war. Others were Sumerians who had been sold into
slavery as children to pay the debts of their poor parents.
Debt slaves could hope to eventually buy their freedom.
• Social class affected the lives of both men and women.
Sumerian women
• Sumerian women could work as merchants,
farmers, or artisans.
• They could hold property in their own names.
Women could also join the priesthood.
• Some upper-class women did learn to read
and write
• Sumerian women had more rights than
women in many later civilizations.
Sumerian science & technology
• Invented the wheel, the sail, and the plow and that they
were among the first to use bronze
• Arithmetic and geometry
– In order to erect city walls and buildings, plan irrigation systems,
and survey flooded fields, Sumerians needed arithmetic and
geometry. They developed a number system in base 60, from
which stem the modern units for measuring time (60 seconds = 1
minute) and the360 degrees of a circle.
• Architectural innovations
– Arches, columns, ramps, and the pyramid shaped the design of
the ziggurat and permanently influenced Mesopotamian
civilization.
• Cuneiform
– Sumerians created a system of writing. One of the first known
maps was made on a clay tablet in about 2300 B.C. Other tablets
contain some of the oldest written records of scientific
investigations in the areas of astronomy, chemistry, and medicine.
????
What are the 5
characteristics of a
civilization?
advanced cities,
specialized workers
complex institutions
record keeping
advanced technology
Who were the first
people to form a
civilization?
Sumerians
Define cultural
diffusion.
the sharing of ideas and
customs
The Fertile Crescent
included what is now
what countries?
Syria, Iraq & Turkey
Assessment – 6.1.3
• utilize maps to locate the river civilizations, interpret maps
that identify the major river civilizations
• infer the relationship between rivers and other landforms
• detail trade patterns
• ascertain the resources that would be available to a
civilization
• hypothesize about the continued development of these
civilizations based on the interaction of key components
including, but not limited to, location, availability of
resources, and potential for trade
• summarize the development of individual river valley
civilizations or to compare civilizations – either as a whole
or with specific components (examples – compare the
Harappan civilization to the Sumerian [whole] or compare
the natural resources among all these civilizations [specific
components])
Essential Knowledge – 6.1.3
• explain the role that the natural environment had in shaping
the location and development of early civilizations
• recognize all of these early civilizations developed along major
rivers
• understand that these river valleys were ideal locations for
civilizations to arise since they provided important resources
(such was water, food, and fertile soil), natural
trade/transportation routes, and, in some cases a natural
defense against attacks
• locate these early civilizations on maps and to associate the
development of each civilization with a major river
• understand that these rivers could be dangerous in times of
flooding and that civilizations had to take measures to control
flooding and/or lessen the severity of the impact & in spite of
these attempts to control flooding, early civilizations often
suffered devastating losses associated with this phenomenon
Essential Knowledge – 6.1.3
• describe the common characteristics of river
valley civilizations but also be familiar with
some of the distinct characteristics of each
river valley and its associated civilization
• describe major physical features in addition to
rivers that impacted civilizations – especially
the nearby location of deserts which helped
isolate and protect these civilizations as they
developed
• understand the type of products developed in
each civilization and the trade which resulted
from the production of these goods
http://www.bbc.co.
uk/sn/prehistoric_lif
e/games/skeleton_ji
gsaw/
• What are the differences between hunting
and gathering and agriculture as modes of
life? What is pastoralism? Consider the
interactions of sedentary agriculturists with
pastoral nomads. What are the possibilities for
interaction? How would each group tend to
view itself in contrast to the other?
NEW
UNIT
START HERE
6.1.4 Compare the cultural, social, and
political features and contributions of
civilizations in the Tigris and Euphrates,
Nile, Indus, and Huang He river valleys,
including the evolution of language and
writing systems, architecture, religious
traditions and forms of social order, the
division or specialization of labor, and the
development of different forms of
government.
6.1.5 Explain the role of
economics in the development of
early civilizations, including
the significance and geography of
trade networks and the
agriculture techniques
that allowed for an economic
surplus and the emergence of city
centers.
Relax like a Hunter-gatherer!
Nine Activities for Lifelong Relaxation
• Walking with awareness – we were designed to walk with awareness:
awareness of our bodies, of changes to our surroundings, of the ground we
walk on, of the animals and people we pass. Humans survived because of this
ability to be acutely aware!
• Connecting to our body – yoga
• Studying things that interest us
• Listening to or playing music
• Being in nature – animals/potted plants
• Meditating - in meditation we make use of that part of the brain which also
facilitates the freeze reaction-it is literally our escape from the danger of being
over-stressed.
• Art
• Connecting to the divine or being spiritual
• Being with friends