My story of the world E-book
Building Blocks of Prehistory:
Chapter of “My Story of the World”
Sentences:
According to scientists, human beings started living in Africa about 2
million years ago. The old human bones found in Africa were found
in an area in Tanzania called the Great Rift Valley. Prehistory is the
time that comes before History, when there were no written
documents and dates. The period of prehistory is called the Stone
Age, because during this time people sharpened and carved sticks
and stones in order to make or invent tools.
The Old Stone Age is also Paleolithic. This time period lasted from
about 70,000 to about 12,000 years ago. Prehistoric humans were
called cavemen, because they ate plants and vegetables and because
they hunted animals. The animals hunted by hunter-gatherers are
called their pray. These animals were important, because they
allowed early humans to have a meal.
Stone tools were made by a process called flaking, during which
prehistoric hunters used pieces of stone to give them a sharp edge.
Life during the Ice Age was hard for most people, because of
climatic changes. The temperature was below average; the winters
were cold; and snow was thick and deep.
Some human ancestors before modern humans were named the
Neanderthals, because their bones have been discovered in the
Neander valley in Germany. They had a small, low forehead.
About 6,000 years ago, people discovered that they could use and
mix different types of plants to make tools and weapons and armor
and jewelry.
Early Agriculture
Questions to Answer (Be sure to use the boldfaced words in your mini-essay):
When did the last Ice Age end? : About 12,000 years ago?
What happened to the Earth’s climate when the Ice Age ended? The Earth began
to warm up.
How did this change affect animal and plant life? : When the Earth began to
warm up, animals and plants grew dramatically.
Why did the diet (food eaten regularly) of early humans change? : When the Ice
Age ended, and as plants and animal counts increased, hunter-gatherers began
eating them.
Why did human beings settle in once place and not hunt or gather as frequently,
or follow herds of animals? They learned to domesticate animals and plants.
What is agriculture? What might it be the advantage to settling in one place and
farming? Agriculture is the raising of crops and animals for the use of humans.
What is domestication, and how does it benefit humans? Domestication is to
train something to be useful to humans.
Agriculture creates surplus. What is surplus? Surplus is an extra supply of
something.
Why would having a surplus allow people to specialize? What is specialization?
Surplus allows people to have more tools to work. Specialization is different
kinds of work.
Why would human travel to, meet in, and even settle in towns and villages? What
is the benefit to humans? In towns and villages, there were more animals and
plants because there were more farmers. Also, main paths might have gone
through these towns and villages. It benefits humans because they could get
supplies. Say you were going on a trip, and you ran out of supplies. You could
stop in these towns and villages to get supplies, since there were general stores.
What is civilization? Define it. What does it mean to say “cities are the home of
civilization?” Civilization is a culture that has developed systems of
specialization, religion, learning, and government. It means to say that cities
have more people than towns and villages; therefore it’s a bigger civilization
then, say, a rural area.
In one of the earliest cities, Catal Huyuk, summarize what plants and animals the
residents domesticated and had a surplus of, and say what skilled crafts they
specialized in. What good or products did they create? They created clay pots,
woven cloth, and jewelry. They domesticated wild goats, pigs, cattle, and sheep.
They plant wheat, barley, peas, and lentils. They had a surplus of milk and meat.
They specialized in making tools, bricks, and pots.
The Ice Age ended about 12,000 years ago. This happened because the world
began to warm up. When Earth began to warm up, animals and plants increased
dramatically. This caused hunter-gatherers to change their diet to plants and
animal meat. This is when agriculture started. Agriculture is when people began
to raise crops and animals for humans to use. As time grew on, farming began
giving a surplus, an extra supply [of something], of food, so humans learned to
domesticate plants and animals. This is to train something, such as an animal, to
be useful to us. In Catal Huyuk, they domesticated wheat, barley, peas, and lentils
and raised wild goats, cattle, pigs, and sheep. They created jewelry, woven cloth,
and clay pots. They had a surplus of meat and milk and specialized in making
bricks, pots, and tools. To specialize is to do a particular kind of work, such as
farming. While some farmed, other people made wheat into flour for bread. This
town grew until it became a civilization. A civilization is a big amount of people
with the same culture who have established system of religion, learning,
government, and specialization. This town grew to become successful because
people traveling started to stop in town and buy supplies to last the rest of their
trip. They would ride the main roads, which went through the town, into the
woods to the side roads.
Ancient Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia is one of the world’s first civilizations. The word “Mesopotamia”
means land between the rivers in Greek. The rivers that formed this area, which is
called the Fertile Crescent, are the Tigris and the Euphrates.
Southern Mesopotamia also goes by the name of Sumer. This region was
made up not of countries or counties, but of city-states, which is a powerful selfgoverning city that controls the villages around it. Three such city-states were UR,
Uruk, and Eridu.
The Mesopotamians created one of the world’s first written languages. It is
called cuneiform writing. This was made by scratching on a wet, clay table. It has
about 500 symbols or picture writing that look like the thing they describe.
Usually boys went to school to learn to read, learn how to make cuneiform
letters, and do mathematics. After they left school, they became a scribe or
official writer. They wrote laws, legends, songs, and records. The world first set of
written code of laws, called the Sumer’s cuneiform system were written in this
language.
The ancient Mesopotamians believed in many gods. This is called
polytheism. Most of their gods were nature gods. Ki was the god for a good
harvest; Enlil was the god of rain, and Enki was the god of water. The
Mesopotamians built large Step-temples called ziggurats on which they
worshipped their gods.
Ancient Egypt
Egypt is located in Northern Africa. It’s long river, the Nile, runs through Uganda,
Ethiopia, Sudan, and Egypt. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile river
helped people get food long ago. When the Nile flooded, farmers would hope for
the right amount, not too much to flood the village and not too much to fail the
crops. When the river flooded just right, since farmers planted near river banks,
the water flooding would water the plants. Thus, a successful harvest. Irrigation is
when the farmers dug canals and used a device, shadoof (said shah DOOF), so
they could lift water into the fields to water the newly planted crops.
The Egyptians didn’t have a peaceful government, at first. When ruins were
found, walls to protect the lost cities and paintings of war between villages were
often found as well. That was before Menes (said MEE neez), king of Upper Egypt,
swept north into the Nile River around 3100 B.C. He and his army overruled the
king of Lower Egypt. He became the first Egyptian pharaoh. A pharaoh’s job was
to govern the kingdom and to make sure it stayed prosperous. They accepted and
expanded the customs of local governments, trade, and religion. Their writing
system was hieroglyphics, which had over 800 symbols in it. For example, a
symbol could stand for something, such as an eye, or a sound, such as the letter i.
Scribes were special trained writers. Their jobs in the kingdom were to travel
around Egypt keeping records, preparing letters, and contracts. Egypt also had a
“social pyramid.” It was the royalty, the farmers, the prisoners, and the slaves.
The Egyptians had religion. This was to be polytheistic, which means to worship
gods and goddesses. Pyramids are large structures that look like triangles. A
pyramid may have 4 or 5 sides, since the base is either square or rectangular.
Some pyramids have points on the top. Others can be flat. Pharaohs were buried
in these pyramids, so they were called tombs at times. They were buried with
their riches and belongings, and mummified.
1.
Where is
2.
Into what large body of water does it empty? Mediterranean Sea
3.
What is the “system” used by the Ancient Egyptians to get water from the
Nile to their crops? Irrigation
4.
Who was the head of the government of Ancient Egyptians? The Pharaoh
5.
What was the system of writing called of Ancient Egypt? Hieroglyphics
6.
Who wrote, or copied, laws, contracts, and records in Ancient Egypt?
Scribes
7.
What social class was at the bottom of the social pyramid in Ancient Egypt?
Slaves
8.
Who in Ancient Egypt was both the head of their religion and also
considered to be a god on Earth—the son of Ra (the sun god)? Amon
9.
Where were pharaohs buried? Pyramids.
Ancient Greece
The civilization of ancient Greece lay on islands and peninsulas that stick into the
Mediterranean Sea. A peninsula is an area of land almost entirely surrounded by
water. Small harbors throughout the area give protection for ships that dock
there. Two of the large peninsulas on the Greek mainland are Attica and the
Peloponnesus. The city-state of Sparta, Athens’ enemy, was on the large
peninsula named the Peloponnesus. Crete and Rhodes are two large Greek
islands in the Mediterranean Sea. The civilization of Minoa, named after King
Minos, grew up on the island of Mycenae. And the early Greek civilization of
Phoenicia grew on the mainland of Greece.
Athens was the most powerful city-state on Attica. This was where
democracy was born. This is the form of government in which the citizens
controls their government by voting. This form of government was first started
by poor citizens. Later, during the Golden Age of Athens, the statesman Pericles
expanded Athens’ democracy. In Athens, the citizens would gather in the jury to
vote on laws. Pericles was responsible for building the Parthenon, which is a
temple to the goddess Athena on top of the Acropolis. Athena was the goddess
of war and wisdom. The Acropolis was a high hill in the center of the city where
citizens could go for protection when enemies attacked the city.
The city of Athens itself was named after the goddess Athena. The Greeks
worshipped many other gods, including Dionysus—god of wine—and Zeus—the
chief god, He is father of Athena. Every four years the Greeks would have the
Olympic Games near Mt. Olympus, in order to entertain and please the gods and
goddesses.
Ancient Rome
The ancient civilization of Rome was founded on the Italian peninsula. The city
was founded on the Latium Plain. The Tiber River flows through the center of the
city.
According to mythology, twin brothers named Romulus and Remus
founded Rome. After Rome’s last king, whose name was Tarquinius was
overthrown, Rome became a republic, which is a government in which the people
voted for representatives to speak for them and pass laws. (The U.S.A. has this
form of government.)
Rome was divided up into two social groups: plebeians and Patricians.
Plebeians are low class people who work for patricians, who are rich land-owners.
The patricians were not always fair towards the plebeians. So, the plebeians went
to court and got the patricians to publish Rome’s first set of laws. These were
called The Twelve Tables.
The most powerful branch of Rome’s government was the
Senate . It was made up of Patricians. It controlled law-making and how money
was spent in Rome. Tribunes were elected by the Senate from the Citizen
assembly. They asked the Senate to pass laws for the plebeians. There were two
powerful consuls. One was head of the army commanders and one was a chief
judge.
Rome wanted to be the unquestioned leader of the entire Mediterranean
region. So they went to war with the civilization of Carthage over who would
control the island of Sicily. These wars were called the Punic Wars.
Julius Caesar was Rome’s first dictator, which is an all-powerful ruler.
Caesar was from a wealthy Patrician family, and he had built up his power as a
Senator, Consul, and later as governor of Gaul [France]. After Julius Caesar was
stabbed to death in the Senate, his adopted stepson, named Octavian Caesar,
became emperor. Rome grew in power and in the size of the area that it
controlled. The time when Augustus Ceaser ruled was called the Pax Romana,
which means Roman Peace. To pay for its huge building projects, Rome collected
Tax money from those it had conquered. It counted the numbers of people
whom it had conquered; they called this count a Census. Roman soldiers built an
immense network of roads. Water was carried to new Roman cities on raised
water bridges called aqueducts. Roman citizens enjoyed bloody entertainment in
Rome’s immense colosseum, which is where gladiators fought to their death.
Middle Ages
The middle ages were from the A.D. 500 to the 1400s. Charles Martel was a
Frankish war leader. Martel’s grandson was “Charles the Great” or Charlemagne,
and he was known for being the greatest Frank leader. He spread Roman
Christianity all throughout France, and lands in Italy and Germany. He conquered
kingdoms in the southwestern lands of what is now modern-day France, Italy, and
Germany.’ He had the greatest achievement conquering lots of lands.
Government and Society
Feudalism is a system developed to keep peace throughout Europe. It started
around 800. Other than feudalism, they had special groups called fiefs. These fiefs
were divided by what king owned what land, and who his vassals and nobles
were. A noble who took an oath of loyalty to their lord. A lord is a king of a certain
area. A vassal takes an oath of loyalty to their lord. A fief is a land a kind or
another powerful being would give to a noble. After becoming a vassal, the whole
fief would have something called, “The Oath Of Fealty.” The oath of fealty is a
solemn ceremony. The Code of Chivalry was the code of honor knights followed.
Knights were nobles who would fight for a king or powerful being in the feudal
system. Knights had to be a good Christian and defend the churches; they had to
know music and poetry, have good manners, and defend their people. Then, in
the social triangle there were serfs. Serfs were peasants who worked on a noble
land called a manor. A manor was a settlement that belonged to a lord. It usually
had a church.at the same time of Charlemagne’s death Vikings were taking over
Europe. Vikings were northern raiders and explorers who came from Demark.
They were best known for plundering villages and churches. The Duke William
crossed the English Channel with 5,000 knights. He defeated Harold, the Saxon
king, at Hasting. He became known as William the Conquer. He established a
strong government and brought French culture to the island. Just as vassals had
to obey their lord, lords had to show respect to their vassals. One example of this
was King John’s attitude toward his vassals. King John was the king of England in
1215. By his vassals to sign the Magna Carta because it stated kings could not
violate the rights of free men and women. Once he signed it he could not take
away rights of the vassals working for him. The Magna Carta said kings could not
violate the rights of free vassals by setting unfair taxes and making unfair
demands of goods or labor.
Religion
The primary religion was Roman Catholic. Monks were people who obeyed the
rules of the head monk. They were Roman Catholic. In general, monks dedicated
their lives to Gods. Monasteries were communities where monks lived and
dedicated their lives to gods. Monks wrote books of prayer and poetry and old
Greek and roman called manuscripts. The room they made copies in was the
scriptorium. There were also nuns. Nuns were women who serve God. Convents
are places where they live and serve God. Monks and nuns prayed in a cathedral.
A cathedral was a Christian church. The role it served was religion. People could
learn about God. A few years later the crusades started. The crusades were a
series of wars and they fought over the “Holy Land.” They battled with the
Muslims. It was a long war fought by Christian armies to recapture Spain.
The Development of Towns
In the middle ages there were merchants who sold and traded goods when they
traveled. There were also craftsmen such as trailers, shoemakers, drapers, bakers,
locksmiths, painters, stonemasons, and master builders helped out their towns by
crafting, fixing stuff. The apprentices helped them out with this work. An
apprentice was a person who works without pay. They were expected to obey
and do whatever the master said to do. Next, they became journeyman
craftsman. A journeyman craftsman is a craftsman who went in their travels to
get to know each town their customs and their ways of work. They would then
pick a town they liked the best to settle down and work in. Journeymen craftsman
and apprentices both had to work without pay and they weren’t master
craftsman. You had to demonstrate your skills by creating a masterpiece (such as
a coat) and only then were you a master craftsman and admitted into the guild.
The guilds are groups or associations where craftsman worked. The goals of these
guilds were to get the best craftsman by setting strict rules and commands and
making it harder to enter. You had to prove yourself to the leaders of the guilds
you wanted to join. Pretty soon the Black Death started. The Black Death was a
plague; a disease that spreads like wildfire.it first happened in Europe in 1348and
lasted for 130 years. The cause of the Black Death was the bacteria that was
spread by fleas and rats. It wiped out one third of the western population.
Renaissance and Reformation
Background
The French word “renaitre” means “rebirth”. The word pertains to the
renaissance. The approximate dates of the renaissance were from1350 to 1600.
It was a period in time when people were highly interested in humanism and
religion.it began in Florence. The renaissance began in Florence because they had
many workshops and they were the richest city in Europe. They made high quality
wooden cloth and other goods. The role it had in banking and trading was that
the richest family (Medici) was a patron or supporter. The role the Medici family
had was that they supported the town with their work. The people were also
interested in humanism. Humanism is the concern for human interests and
values.
Art and Artists
A patron is a supporter that supports peoples work. Leonardo da Vinci was a
painter that lived from 1452 to 1519. Leonardo created paintings such as Mona
Lisa. His patron was Lorenzo Medici. His expertise was engineering, music, and
the natural world around him. Michelangelo was an artist who lived from1475 to
1564. He painted, sculpted, and was architecture. He made the famous painting
on the ceiling of the Sistine Chaplin in Rome. He painted scenes from the bible.
Leo and Michelangelo used the three-dimension method. The three-dimensional
perspective is a technique that is used in art. These techniques, when used, seem
to create three-demotions on a flat surface of a painting. This technique made
paintings by renaissance artists to look more realistic then paintings by the artists
in the Middle Ages.
Protestant Reformation
The word reform means when something changes. The word reformation is the
time period when it changed. They were called Protestants because they
protested against the Church of Rome. The protestant reformation was a period
in time when people were complaining about the changes made in the Roman
churches. The chief complaints of the German monk martin Luther were that he
didn’t agree with the changes being made by the current pope of Saint Peters
church in Rome. This popes name was Leo x. An indulgence is a pardon or
forgiveness of the sins, and is sold by the church. Luther complained about this
because he thought sins were a disgrace to god, thus the reformation started.
Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press. This helped speed up the
process of bookmaking. Instead of having to carve an entire page of a book, the
printing press could reuse new letters to form new words page by page. His press
could print 300 pages a day cheaply and quietly.
Reformation and Renaissance in England
King Henry VIII broke away from the Pope. The queen could not have any more
children, and all his children were girls. He had no son to take his crown. When he
tried to divorce the queen, the Pope refused to divorce them. So the king took
over the English church and named it the Anglican Church. He seized the Anglican
Church lands and became more powerful and wealthy. Queen Elizabeth was well
known for being Henry V111 daughter. Her accomplishes were leading her
country to victory in the war with the armada in 1588. She also encouraged
English voyagers to create Britain’s overseas and empire. She showed strong
leadership. William Shakespeare was born in 1564 and died in 1616. He was an
actor, a poet, and a play writer. His works showed a deep understanding for
human thoughts and feelings. By the time he died he had written 37 plays and
154 poems.