A Time to Review Foundations
WHAP/Napp
I. The Transition from Foraging to Agriculture
A. Early Humans
1- Foraging (searching widely for food or provisions)
a) Hunting and gathering
2- Nomadism
a) A member of a people having no permanent abode and who travel
from place to place in search of food
b) Highly mobile
1. Thus, groups with perhaps 50 to 100 people
2. Low birth rates to ensure mobility
3- Few gender divisions
a) Men hunt; women gather
b) However, it appears as if they made no judgment that one activity was
more important than the other
4- No class distinctions
a) Accumulation of property greatly limited due to ability to move
5- Characteristics shared by humans in Paleolithic Age [Old Stone Age]
a) The Paleolithic Age began some 70,000 years ago until about 8000
B.C.E.
6- Human life originated in Africa – then a number of migrations out of
Africa
7- Ability to make fire and tools greatly benefited early humans
B. The Rise of Agriculture [The Neolithic Age]
1- An early form of agriculture was slash-and-burn cultivation or shifting
cultivation
a) Occurred when farmers slashed the bark on trees and later burned
the dead ones
b) The resulting ashes enriched the soil for a number of years and when
the soil lost fertility, farmers were forced to move
c) Of course, these frequent migrations exposed early farmers to new
peoples, diffusion [cultural diffusion – the spread of ideas from one
culture to another culture] agricultural knowledge
2- Over time, some humans made the transition from hunting and gathering
to farming around 8000 B.C.E.; this change is known as the Neolithic
Revolution
a) The Advantages of Agricultural Societies
1. More constant and substantial food supply
2. Produced significant population growth
3. People began to settle in villages
4. Not all villagers were needed for farming
a- Specialization (the performance of different jobs) occurred
1) Specialization only occurred when crop cultivation
produced increasingly larger yields; at that point, some
individuals could specialize in other tasks or crafts
C. Two Early Agricultural Settlements
1- Jericho
a) Established around 8000 B.C.E.
b) In present-day Israel
c) Farmers produced wheat and barley
d) Traded with neighboring peoples in obsidian and salt
e) A thick wall was designed to protect inhabitants from invaders
2- Çatal Hüyük
a) Established around 7000 B.C.E. in Anatolia (present-day Turkey)
b) Produced a variety of crafts
c) Extensive specialization of labor
d) Also traded in obsidian with neighboring peoples
D. Early Metallurgy
1- The Neolithic Age also witnessed the origins of metallurgy
a) The first metal humans learned to use was copper which was cast for
jewelry, weapons, and tools
b) Later learned to use gold and bronze (an alloy of copper and tin)
a) Gave rise to the Bronze Age for the later Neolithic Period
c) Knowledge of ironworking developed independently in Central Asia
and Sub-Saharan Africa
E. Neolithic Cultures
1. Class divisions and class hierarchy developed
a) Through specialization of labor as well as trade, some individuals
acquired more wealth than others
2. Patriarchy
a) Male dominance
b) Men begin to assume control over farming, land, and government
c) Women were viewed as inferior to men
3. Impact on natural environment
a) Whether through clearing land for farming or favoring certain plants
and animals over others, the natural environment was modified
4. Developed calendars
a) Knowledge of seasons and agriculture led to a need for calendars
5. Celebrated Fertility and Cycles of Life
a) Numerous figures representing pregnant goddesses have been found
in the ruins of Neolithic villages
F. Rise of Cities
1- Population growth resulted in larger settlements
2- New roles emerged as cities required administrators, tax and tribute
collectors, and religious leaders
3- Cities developed a more complex social structure to administer wealth,
provide order, and study the meaning of life itself
II. Early Civilizations
A. Mesopotamia
1- World’s earliest civilization
2- Arose in the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in an area the
Greeks called Mesopotamia (“Land Between the Rivers”)
3- Around 4000 B.C.E., used copper and bronze
4- Invented the wheel
5- Developed irrigation canals to farm the arid lands
6- About 3500 B.C.E., a group of invaders called the Sumerians settled in
the southern portion of Mesopotamia
a) Sumerians
1) Developed first writing system (cuneiform)
2) Developed a number system based on 60
3) Polytheistic (worshipped many gods)
4) Built religious temples called ziggurats
5) Credited with the first epic in World History – The Epic of
Gilgamesh
7- The Tigris and Euphrates rivers were noted for their unpredictable and
often violent flooding
a) Irrigation systems required cooperation of Mesopotamia’s settlements
which promoted the beginnings of government
8- City-states developed
a) Early Mesopotamian government was in the form of city-states, with a
city government also controlling the surrounding territory
9- Rulers and elite classes controlled the land
10- Slaves farmed the land
11- Patriarchal
a) Men dominated family and public life
b) Men had the authority to see their wives and children into slavery to
pay their debts
c) By the sixteenth century B.C.E., Mesopotamian women had to wear
the veil in public
d) Yet Mesopotamian women could sometimes gain influence in the
courts, serve as priestesses, or act as scribes for the government; some
worked in small businesses
12- Lack of natural protective barriers
a) Made Mesopotamia vulnerable to invasion from outsiders; most cities
in the region constructed defensive walls
13- Frequent conflicts among local Sumerian kings over water and property
rights weakened the city-states
a) The Sumerians fell to conquest by the Akkadians and the
Babylonians, both of whom spread Mesopotamia culture
b) The Babylonian king Hammurabi devised a code of laws that
regulated daily life and also provided harsh “an eye for an eye”
punishments for criminal offenses
1. The Code of Hammurabi drew distinctions between social classes
and genders, administering less severe punishments to elite classes
over commoners and men over women for the same offense
c) After 900 B.C.E., the Assyrians and Persians dominated Mesopotamia
B. Egypt
1- About 3000 B.C.E., a second civilization grew up along the Nile River in
present-day Egypt
2- In contrast to the unpredictable waters of the Tigris and Euphrates
rivers, the Nile overflowed once annually, discharging an amount of
water that usually varied little from one year to the next
a) Irrigation projects to channel floodwaters led to the organization of
the community and ultimately to the development of political
structures
3- The king of Egypt was the pharaoh (viewed as a divine ruler)
4- About 2700 B.C.E., the pharaohs began the construction of pyramids that
served as tombs for themselves and their families
5- Like the Sumerians, the Egyptians were polytheists, or worshippers of
many gods
6- Believed in an afterlife; this led to the practice of mummification to
preserve the bodies of pharaohs, and later, those of members of lower
classes
7- Egyptian society was composed of a number of defined social classes;
within this structure, however, commoners could enter governmental
service and rise in social status
8- Egyptian families were patriarchal with males dominating households
and community life
1. Among the royalty, however, women sometimes acted as regents for
young rulers or as priestesses; other educated women worked as
scribes for the Egyptian government
9- From the kingdom of Kush, a site of independent innovation of
ironworking, the Egyptians acquired iron production
10- Traded with Mesopotamia and alter with the kingdom of Kush
a) Some historians believe Egyptian writing, hieroglyphics, was
developed from Sumerian cuneiform as a result of trade contacts with
Mesopotamians
11- Surrounding deserts protected Egypt from contact with invading peoples,
permitting its civilization to develop its own, unique characteristics
C. The Indus Valley Civilization
1- By 2500 B.C.E., this advanced civilization emerged along the Indus River
in present-day Pakistan
a) The Indus River was noted for its unpredictable and often violent
flooding
2- Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro were important urban centers
a) Both cities were laid out along a precise grid (demonstrating careful
urban planning), and houses boasted running water and sewage
systems
3- Harappan writing has yet to be deciphered
a) Yet archaeological findings of Harappan artifacts in Mesopotamia
indicate active trade between the peoples of the Indus Valley and
Sumer by way of the Persian Gulf
4- Around 1500 B.C.E., the Harappan civilization was overtaken by a group
of Indo-European peoples called Aryans.
a) The Harappan civilization which the Aryans conquered had already
declined markedly, perhaps as a result of rivers changing their course
or a natural disaster such as an earthquake
D. The Shang
1- The most isolated of the four river valley civilizations was that of the
Huang He Valley in present-day China
a) Although the people of the Huang He valley dwelled in a region
isolated by deserts, mountains (the Himalayas) and seas, they did
engage in some trade with Southwest Asia and South Asia
2- It was the earliest Chinese dynasty that left written records
a) Examples of early Chinese writing are apparent from a custom of
divination using oracle bones
1. When a person sought the advice of the gods on an issue, he or she
would visit an oracle, who would scratch the person’s question on
an animal bone or shell, then heat it; when the oracle bone
cracked from the heat, the oracle read the cracks to determine the
message from the gods
3- 1766 – 1122 B.C.E.
4- Possessed knowledge of bronze metallurgy, thus strengthening Shang war
machine
a) Knowledge of bronze came from Southwest Asia by means of IndoEuropean migrations
b) Around 1000 B.C.E., the Shang also became familiar with
ironworking
5- Shang rule was further empowered by the need for central rule to oversee
irrigation and flood-control projects along the Huang He River
6- Shang society was stratified, with classes of ruling elites, artisans,
peasants and slaves
7- Families were patriarchal
a) The matrilineal society that characterized China before the rule of the
Shang gradually eroded until women held positions subordinate to
those of men
8- Veneration of ancestors was common
9- The Shang succumbed to the Zhou about 1122 B.C.E.
a) The Zhou claimed that they overthrew the Shang by the will of the
gods, which they termed “the mandate of heaven”
E. Mesoamerica and Andean South America
1- Civilizations in the Americas rose later than the river valley civilizations
a) Civilizations in the Americas did not develop in the valleys of major
rivers, but rather in a region of smaller rivers and streams near ocean
coastlines
b) The people of the Americas did know the use of the wheel
c) The people of the Americas did not possess large animals to serve as
beasts of burden or work animals
1. The llama of the Andes Mountains was the largest work
animal in the Americas until the arrival of the Europeans in
the fifteenth century
2- Early Mesoamerican people such as the Olmecs, and later the Maya,
constructed lavish pyramids and temples
a) Polytheistic – worshipped many gods of nature
b) By 1200 B.C.E. (or perhaps earlier) a complex society had emerged
that archaeologists called the Olmec, or “rubber people”
1. Olmec civilization was based on agriculture, but they had no need
for extensive irrigation because the area received abundant
rainfall for cultivating crops
2. Cities grew as religious and trade centers
3. The mysterious giant heads sculpted from basalt that the Olmecs
are now famous for may well have symbolized the power of the
ruling families
4. These heads range up to 11 feet high, and have clear distinct facial
characteristics that may have been carved to honor specific rulers
5. They developed a calendar
6. They had no large animals and as such, human labor did all the
work of agriculture
c) Teotihuacán
1- A major society founded in Mesoamerica and centered on the vast
city of Teotihuacán
2- Founded approximately 150 to 100 B.C.E., near present-day
Mexico City
3- With a population greater than 200,000, Teotihuacán was one of
the world’s largest cities at the time
4- It existed until 750 B.C.E.
a. By that point, it had been eclipsed, perhaps taken over, by one
of the most complex societies of the ancient Americas, the
Maya, who flourished from 250 to 900 C.E.
d) At roughly the same time that the Olmec civilization was flourishing
in Mesoamerica, the Chavín dominated a heavily populated region
that included both the Peruvian coastal plain and foothills of the
Andes
1. The coast of Peru has little rainfall, and in some places is quite
narrow, but the abundance of fish and other sea life provided a
dependable supply of food
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2. The Chavín capital, Chavín de Huántar, was located in a high
mountain valley at an intersection of trade routes
3. Part of the Chavín’s influence appears to be based on its religion,
which spread through most of the territory, and perhaps to
Mesoamerica
Society was stratified, with distinctions among the elite classes of rulers
and priests and those of commoners and slaves
The societies of Mesoamerica shared the legend of Quetzalcoatl, a god
who would someday return to rule his people in peace
The Maya civilization of the Yucatán Peninsula and present-day
Guatemala and Belize reached its height about 300 C.E., building on the
cultural traditions of the societies of Mesoamerica
a) The Maya developed a system of writing based on pictographs, or
glyphs, understood the value of zero as a placeholder, studied
astronomy and predicted eclipses, and calculated the length of the
year within a few seconds of its actual length
b) The Maya political organization consisted of small city-states ruled by
kings who often fought against one another
1. Prisoners of war usually ended up as slaves or as sacrifices to the
Maya gods
In South America, geography and the lack of large pack animals largely
prevented communication between Andean societies and those of
Mesoamerica
a) Yet the cultivation of maize did spread to the Andes while copper
metallurgy traveled northward to Mesoamerica
b) Under the Mochica, cities emerged in the central Andes during the
first millennium C.E.
1. Inhabitants cooperated to construct irrigation systems
2. The rugged terrain of the Andes prevented a central government
from unifying the Andean states
III. Migrations
1- The Bantu
A. The one language-based group that most resembles a common
cultural source in sub-Saharan Africa is the Bantu
a) Bantu-speaking peoples emerged in the Niger River basin of west
central Africa
b) Around 1000 B.C.E., they began to migrate throughout the continent
1. By 1000 C.E., their descendants had spread to the southern and
eastern ends of Africa
2. The Bantu played the greatest role in shaping the region’s
cultural, ethnic, and linguistic character
c) They transformed sub-Saharan Africa, an area that had earlier been
sparsely populated by groups of hunter-gatherers to one that was
more densely populated and dominated by farming communities
1. The Bantu spread language, agriculture, and iron-working
2- The Polynesians
A. One of history’s most epic journeys was the Polynesian migration
across the Pacific from approximately 2500 B.C.E. to 900 C.E.
a) Originally from Southeast Asia, the Polynesians left their homes in the
Philippine and Indonesian islands around 4,500 years ago
B. Polynesian Culture
a) The original Polynesians were root farmers, growing taro and sweet
potatoes and supplementing their diet with pigs, chickens, and fish
b) Their social organization was hierarchical
1. Tribes were led by powerful chiefs
a) Polynesian religions was animistic and concerned with
avoiding improper behavior, or taboo (tabu or kapu in
Polynesia)
2. Because so much of their life was based on the sea, the Polynesians
were expert sailors and navigators
a) Their outrigger canoes, which could sail more than 120 miles
per day, allowed them to travel vast distances over open water
b) Not only could the Polynesians navigate by the sun, moon, and
stars, they possessed an intimate knowledge of tides, currents,
and wave patters (even creating maps woven from twigs and
grasses to represent the ocean’s rhythms)
3. The Migrations
a) Why the Polynesians began their long migrations is unknown;
most scholars speculate that ecological crisis drove them from
their homes
1. Certainly environmental necessity kept them going once
they started
2. When the Polynesians settled an island, the population
would grow to such a point that part of the tribe
(sometimes all of it) would have to move onward to keep
from depleting all the resources
3. The first wave of migration took the Polynesians to the
island chain of Micronesia, east of the Philippines
4. Then around 2000 to 1300 B.C.E., some Polynesians moved
to Melanesia, east of New Guinea and Australia and
including Fiji
5. Another wave of migration took the Polynesians to the
oceanic expanse that now bears the name Polynesia
a. Polynesia is bounded by an imaginary triangle, with
Hawaii at the north, New Zealand to the southwest, and
Easter Island to the southeast
i.
By 300 to 400 C.E., Polynesians had settled
Easter Island, building their famous statues of
human heads
ii.
By the 1500s, environmental stress and tribal
war destroyed the Easter Island civilization
6. More successful was Polynesian settlement of New Zealand,
where the Maori culture, established around 800 C.E.,
survived and prospered
1- A warrior society, the Maori became the largest single
Polynesian subculture by the 1700s
IV. North American Cultures
A. To North America, advanced social structures came comparatively late
B. A number of tribes began to form in the forests of the eastern part of the
continent
1- The first was the Adena (ca. 500 B.C.E. – 100 C.E.)
2- Followed by the Hopewell (100 – 400 C.E.)
3- And Mississippian Cultures (700 – 1500 C.E.)
4- All three spread out along the Ohio and Mississippi river valleys
a) Their most famous legacy is a variety of giant earth mounds, built for
ceremonial and religious purposes
C. Sometime in the first millennium C.E., a civilization in North America’s
desert Southwest reach its peak
1- This was the Anasazi (a Navajo word meaning “ancient ones,” because
the original name is lost)
2- Small settlements date to 400 C.E., but the Anasazi may have appeared
years before that, and the exact date of their origins remains unknown
3- The Anasazi – and the Native Americans of the Southwest who followed
them – are famous for their elaborate cliff dwellings, made of clay and
rock, perched hundreds of feet above the floors of the canyons and desert
below
V. The Celts
A. Their lack of a written tradition, as well as the fact that they never united
politically, has led most scholars to consider the Celts noncivilized
1. However, the Celts are widely regarded as the first ethnic group to
establish a widespread presence in Europe
a) They are believed to have emerged somewhere in central Europe,
north of the Danube, thousands of years ago
2. After 500 B.C.E., the Celts began to migrate west, spreading throughout
Europe
a) Their legacy is strongest in northwestern France, parts of Spain, and
the British Isles (particularly Ireland, Scotland, and Wales)
b) Although they had no written language, the Celts had a rich oral
tradition, which survives in the form of myths, songs, and folktales
3. The Celts were highly skilled at crafts, especially metalworking
4. They worshipped a variety of gods and goddesses, developing a
sophisticated form of religion whose priests were known as druids