PART 1: THE RISE OF AGRICULTURE AND
AGRICULTURAL CIVILIZATIONS
I.
SUMMARY
A. Paleolithic and Neolithic Revolutions
Developments in this period, which began about 9000 B.C.E., are the advent of agriculture and the achievements of
the complex societies that resulted. The period ends about 1000 B.C.E., when several civilizations were poised to
develop more elaborate cultural and political forms and to embrace wider areas beyond river valley cores. The
agriculture that emerged from the Neolithic or Agrarian Revolution produced more food and encouraged wider
contacts than hunting-and-gathering economies allowed. Key groups developed settled residences, in contrast to the
mobility of hunters and gatherers. The advent of civilization increased the scope of human organization. The rise of
agriculture redefined human impact on the environment and radically shifted demographics, allowing high
concentrations of people in a small area, and permitting specialization within society.
B. Civilization’s First Phase: The River Valleys
Five major centers of early civilization developed in river valleys. Although they fanned out into adjacent territories,
they had limited contact with one another. Civilizations created institutions or long lasting patterns of organization
including governments, legal procedures, education, religion, systems of writing, trade, familial and gender patterns,
and characteristics in art and architecture. But civilizations also depended on contacts, through war and trade, and
their degrees of isolation varied considerably. It was in civilization that new forms of social and gender inequality
arose. While agricultural societies became important, nomadic herding was introduced. For millennia, interactions
between nomadic societies and sedentary civilizations had important effects on world history.
II.
UNIT OVERVIEW
A. What events mark the beginning and end of this period?
B. What challenges did the first civilizations face?
The first civilizations arose in areas of the world that were remarkably similar. All were river valleys located in areas closely
bordered by deserts or steppes. The exception was the central valley of Mexico and the modern nation’s eastern coast. The
climates were often dry and, even if there was rain, a year-round supply of water was problematic. Resources other than soil
and water lacked and natural defensive features were minimal. Civilization may have arisen as a solution to survival and in
order to fulfill need
LOCATE
A. Continents
1. North America
4. Eurasia
2. South America
5. Australia
3. Africa
B. Bodies of Water
1. Atlantic Ocean
2. Pacific Ocean
3. Indian Ocean
4. Mediterranean Sea
C. Physical Features
1. Himalayan Mountains
2. Arabian Peninsula
3. Hindu Kush Mountains
4. Sahara
5. Arabian Desert
6. Ganges River
D. Cities
1. Meroe
2. Jerusalem
3. Harappa
4. Mohenjo Daro
1
5.
6.
7.
8.
Red Sea
Persian Gulf
Arabian Sea
Yellow Sea
7.
8.
9.
10.
Great Indian Desert
Yellow River
Tigris/ Euphrates Rivers
Nile River
5.
6.
7.
Ninevah
Luoyang
Babylon
I.
IDENTIFY AND LOCATE
A. Historical Regions
1. Fertile Crescent
2. Mesopotamia
3. Southwest Asia
4.
5.
6.
Valley of Mexico
Indian Subcontinent
European Subcontinent
B. River Valley Civilizations
1. Fertile Crescent
2. Indus River Valley Civilization
3. Yellow River Valley Civilization
4. Nile River Valley Civilization
I.
CHAPTERS ONE through Four REVIEW (Review the Guns, Germs, and Steel chapters as well to answer these
questions.)
A. Describe human migration across the globe.
B. How and where did agricultural societies first emerge?
C. How did sedentary agriculture lead to societal changes?
D. What are the characteristics of civilization and where did the first ones arise?
E. How did geography influence the rise of civilizations?
F. What political, social, economic, and religious institutions emerged?
G. What social hierarchies, gender relationships, and social inequalities arose?
H. Describe the contributions of Judaism.
I. How were the first civilizations similar and different?
J. Why was the Neolithic Revolution critical for the rise of civilization?
K. Why did the earliest civilizations rise in such challenging environments?
L. How did the need to organize labor resources shape the political and social structures of these societies?
M. To what degree did new technologies, such as metallurgy, writing, and monumental construction, contribute to
the power and wealth of elite groups?
N. How is the interaction of these societies with environment reflected in their religious beliefs and world-views?
Short Answer Questions: Please prepare a response ahead of time for the following questions.
1. Describe social inequality and gender issues in Hammurabi’s law codes.
2. Describe the symbolic conflict found in the Epic of Gilgamesh and the outcome of that conflict.
3. Describe the Mandate of Heaven and how it was used by the Chinese people to justify a change in government.
A. Map 2.3: Ancient Egypt (Textbook: Page 41)
1. What geographic features protect Egypt from invasion?
2. How does the Nile River effect movement?
3. From what directions would Egypt experience foreign contacts?
4. How is Kush even more isolated?
5. Which civilization would have had the greatest influence on Kush? Why?
B. Map 2.2 Mesopotamia (Textbook: Page 31)
1. Why is Mesopotamia exposed to attack?
2. What benefit was there to having larger empires?
3. Why would this region be a crossroad? With what results?
C. Map 2.1 River-Valley Civilizations (Textbook: Page 30)
1. What geographic features isolate China from the other River Valley Civilizations?
2. Describe the two possible trade routes from the Indus River Valley to Mesopotamia?
2
CHAPTER 1: FROM HUMAN PREHISTORY
TO THE EARLY CIVILIZATIONS
Pages 5 – 25
II.
SUMMARY
A. The Neolithic Revolution
In the Neolithic (New Stone) Age, between roughly 8000 and 3500 B.C.E., some human societies in different areas
over the globe crossed one of the watersheds in human history. They mastered sedentary agriculture and domesticated
animals that would prove critical to human development. These innovations produced the food surpluses and rising
populations that made possible the rise of genuine towns and the increasing specialization of occupations within
human societies. At the same time pastoral nomadism developed, but these people remained on the periphery of
civilizations and sedentary agricultural zones.
B. Civilization
The emergence of civilization occurred in many agricultural societies. It often built on additional changes in
technology including the introduction of metal tools. Most civilizations had common features including cities, writing,
formal institutions especially government and religion, stratified classes, and trade. Early civilizations included
Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus River, and China.
C. The Heritage of the River Valley Civilizations
River valley civilizations left a number of durable innovations, but most declined after about 1200 B.C.E. This decline
was often due to nomadic migrations across Eurasia by pastoral nomadic chariot peoples from the Central Asian
steppe. A number of small centers emerged in Southwest Asia. These civilizations introduced further innovations
including the religion of Judaism, the alphabet, iron tools, and extensive trade connections across the Mediterranean
basin.
Conclusion: The First Civilizations
The river valley civilizations created a basic set of tools, intellectual concepts such as writing and mathematics,
and political forms that persisted across three continents. The rise of civilizations reduced local autonomy, as
kings and priests tried to spread trade contacts and cultural forms and warred to gain new territory. Civilization
itself was an integrating force at a larger regional level, although in Southwest Asia, smaller identities persisted.
However, these civilizations had only sporadic contacts with each other. Consequently, they and their leading
institutions and cultural forms developed separately. Thus, four distinct centers of civilization developed (five if
the emerging Olmec culture in Mesoamerica is included), each with widely varied patterns.
III.
VOCABULARY AND IDENTIFICATIONS
Chapter One
A. Paleolithic (Old Stone) Age
B. Neolithic (New Stone) Age
C. Neolithic Revolution(s)
D. Pastoralism
E. Domestication
F. Patriarchal
Chapter Two
A. Sedentary
B. Civilization
C. Institution
D. Babylon
E. Sumerians
F. Semitic
Chapter Three
A. Loess
B. Shang
C. Divination
D. Zhou
E. Mandate of Heaven
G. Animism, Polytheism, Monotheism
H. Holocene
G.
H.
I.
J.
K.
L.
City-State
Hammurabi
Scribe
Ziggurat
Cuneiform
Pharaoh
M.
N.
O.
P.
Hieroglyphics
Papyrus
Harappa
Mohenjo-Daro
F.
G.
H.
I.
J.
Yin/yang
Legalism
Confucius
Daoism
Hittites
K.
L.
M.
N.
O.
Hatshepsut
Akhenaten
Ramesses II
Kush
Meroe
3
P. Minoan
Chapter Four
D. Olmec
E. Chavin
F. Celts
G. Neo-Assyrian Empire
Q. Mycenae
H.
I.
J.
K.
Ashur
Israel
Hebrew Bible
Monotheism
R. Troy
L.
M.
N.
O.
Phoenicians
Carthage
Tophet
Neo-Babylonian kingdom
Facts to Know:
As compared with Paleolithic and Neolithic societies, the agriculture of civilizations changed man’s physical
environment.
2. The period of the Neolithic Revolutions and river valley civilizations ended when various civilizations first established
contacts between the regions.
3. The first truly revolutionary transformation of human society was the Agricultural Revolution.
4. In most ancient and classical civilizations and societies, priests developed considerable social power and influence
because they interpreted the gods’ wishes and placated the deities.
5. Periodic nomadic invasions in the early history of Eurasia caused disruptions, but facilitated innovations and
prompted synthesis.
6. Unlike Sumer and Egypt, the Indus Valley or Harappan civilization had a system of writing that has never been
translated.
7. Compared with river valley cultures in Egypt and Mesopotamia, civilization in China probably developed after
civilizations in the Nile Valley and Southwest Asia.
8. Historically, pastoral nomads lived on the grassy plains of the continents, where sedentary agriculture was extremely
difficult.
9. Contacts between sedentary and nomad peoples resulted in trade, tribute payments by weak sedentary societies to
stronger nomadic groups, raids and warfare between both groups, and nomads serving as mercenaries to some
sedentary societies. Pastoral nomads from the Central Asian steppe who had threatened sedentary civilizations
throughout world history include the Indo-Europeans, Hsiung-nu (Huns), Scythians, and Turks.
10. In comparison to women in sedentary societies, women in nomadic, pastoral societies belonged to paternalistic
societies as strong as any sedentary societies.
11. The requirements for a new period in world history to begin are:
a. The world map must change significantly.
b. New types of contacts between civilized regions must develop.
c. New patterns and parallel institutional developments will occur.
d. New technologies may arise.
1.
4