Neolithic Revolution & Rise of Civilization
A) Paleolithic period:
 Humans mobile & creative in adapting to
 Geographical settings (savanna to desert)
 Ice age tundra
 Developed varied & sophisticated technologies
 Migration from origin: East Africa
 Eurasia, Australia, Americas
 Adapting technology & culture to new climate regions
 Fire: aid hunting & forging, protection, adapt to cold conditions
 Tools: specially adapted to different environments from tropics to tundra
 Economic structures: small kinship groups made what needed to survive
 Not all self-sufficient: others exchanged people, ideas, goods
B) Neolithic Revolution:
 last Ice Age (10,000 years ago) some groups adapt to warming climate
 Settled agriculture appeared
 switch to agriculture: more reliable food supply ( not necessarily more
diversified)
 impact on environment:
 intensive cultivation of selected plants to exclusion of others
 construction of irrigation systems
 use of domesticated animals for food & labor
 population increase:
 family groups to village life **later urban life
 patriarchy & forced labor systems developed
 elite men concentrated power over most in their societies
 Pastoralists:
 Parts of Africa & Eurasia
 Domesticate animals: led to herds around grazing regions
 More socially stratified like agriculturalists
 Mobile, rarely accumulated large amounts of possessions
 Mobility: became important conduit for technological change with
interaction with settle populations
C) More complex economic & social systems: know locations
 Mesopotamia, Nile River valley, Sub-Sahara Africa, Indus River valley, Huang He
valley (Yellow River), Papua New Guinea, Mesoamerica, Andes Mts.
 Different crops or animals domesticated in core regions
 Depending on available local flora & fauna
 Agricultural communities
 Work cooperatively to clear land & create water control systems
 Drastically impact environmental diversity
 Pastoralists: grazing large numbers on fragile grasslands led to erosion
 Agriculture & pastoralists began to transform human societies:
 More reliable & abundant food supplies, increased population
 Surpluses of food & other goods led to specialization of labor
 New classes of artisans, warriors, & development of elites
 Technology: led to improvements in agricultural production, trade,
transportation
 Pottery, plows, woven textiles, metallurgy, wheels & vehicles
 Both pastoralist & agrarian:
 Elite groups accumulated wealth
 Created more hierarchical social structure
 Promoted patriarchal forms of social organization
D) Development & interaction of pastoral, agricultural, & urban societies: Expansion
 Complex institutions:
 Political bureaucracies, armies, religious hierarchies, long-distance
trading, stratified social hierarchies
 Addition of record keeping as populations grew
 Civilizations expanded:
 Balance need for more resources with environmental constraints
(undermining soil fertility)
 Accumulation of wealth: spurred warfare between communities or
pastoralists (drove development of new technologies of war & urban
defense)
 Early rule: ruler whose source of power was believed to be divine, had divine
support, or supported by military
 States competed for land & resources:
 Some favorably suited: Hittites, access to iron
 Undertook territorial expansion by conquering surrounding states
 Early regions of state expansion: Mesopotamia, Babylonia, Nile valley
 Pastoralists: often developers & disseminators of:
 New weapons: crossbow, iron weapons
 Modes of transportation: chariots, horseback riding
E) Culture: significant role in unifying states:
 Monumental architecture & urban planning
 Pyramids, ziggurats, sewage & water systems, defensive walls
 Elites (political & religious) supported arts & artisanship
 Painting, sculpture, elaborate weaving
 Systems of record keeping: rose independently in early civilizations & diffused in
some cases
 Cuneiform, hieroglyphics, alphabet, Quipu, pictographs
 Developed legal codes to facilitate rule of governments
 Code of Hammurabi
 Religious beliefs developed and would have strong influence later on
 Vedic religion, Hebrew monotheism, Zoroastrianism
 Trade expanded: local to regional and transregional: goods, ideas, technology
(diffusion)
 Between: Egypt & Nubia, Mesopotamia & Indus Valley
 Literature as a reflection of culture
 Epic of Gilgamesh, Rig Veda, Book of the Dead
 Social & gender hierarchies intensified as states expanded & cities multiplied