WH-1 Prehistory Lecture 1: The Basics of Prehistory
and the Definition/Concept of Civilization
Part 1: Essential Questions
1. What exactly is meant by “ancient history?”
2. What are the major divisions of prehistory, and how are they
differentiated (e.g., what criteria do we use to distinguish among
them?).
3. What distinguishes a civilized culture from a non-civilized culture?
Part II: Primary Source Material and Classnotes (Textbook
Supplement Chapter 1 The Emergence of Civilization & Chapter 2 The
First Civilizations)
The present is the past rolled up for action, and the past is the present unrolled for understanding.
Will Durant
How “ancient” is ancient history? Is the term itself a misnomer? In the long scope of human
development, what we call “ancient history” is in fact only yesterday.
Assume 500,000 years of man on earth—a conservative figure. But to show the extremely recent nature
of civilization, imagine a generation of men who are 50 years old. On the time scale of man, that would
be 10,000 years for each year of our imaginary generation.
For 49 of those years, the men followed ancient habits of wandering and hunting. Only last year did they
settle down, till crops, domesticate animals, weave rough garments, and build shelters.
Six months later—half-way through the 50th year, some of them invented writing.
Three months ago another group refined art and literature to civilization. Christianity appeared two
months ago.
The printing press is only two weeks old; the steam engine is not quite a week old. Steamships and
railroads appeared during the last two or three days.
Yesterday, they learned how to control electricity.
Since 10:00 AM this morning, they could fly airplanes and live beneath the sea. At 1:30 this afternoon,
these inventions were used in a great conflict. Don’t be surprised at this, for only a week ago they burned
all those who disagreed with them, cut out the intestines of all who taught new views of government, and
hanged women for being the concubines of the devil. The entire generation, just a year ago, were but
raw-meat eating savages.
This makes ancient history recent; never forget that what we call “civilization” covers only 5 or 6
thousand years out of the 1 million or so years that man has been a separate species.
1) PREHISTORY typically refers to the account of events or
conditions prior to written history. This definition has
been criticized because it PRECLUDES the inclusion of
ORAL TRADITIONS in the formal definition of history;
remember that written records are just as vulnerable to
REVISIONISM as are histories preserved orally.
2) Major TRADITIONAL but, as we will see, somewhat
problematic divisions of PREHISTORY (approximate
western European dates—there is significant variance
elsewhere) are (1) The PALEOLITHIC (“Old Stone”) Age300,000 to 11,000 BC-hunter-gatherer cave dwellers,
unpolished stone tools, fire, painting & sculpture; (2) The
MESOLITHIC (“Middle Stone”) Age-11,000 to 2700 BCpottery and finer, more delicate tools; (3) The
NEOLITHIC (“New Stone”) Age--2700 to 1900 BC-highly
polished stone tools (note here that tool sophistication is
the primary determinant of how a stone age culture is
classified), agriculture, domestication of animals, the
wheel, building, boating, and distant trade; (4) The
BRONZE Age--1900 to 500BC-metallurgy-Bronze
(copper plus tin) some societies (e.g., Finland, North
America, Central Africa) appear to have skipped Bronze
and went directly from STONE to IRON; and (5) the
IRON Age –500 to 51 BC—first source of iron likely from
METEORS, not mining.
3) “ICE AGE” is the term for intervals ranging from tens of
thousands to many millions of years during which glaciers
repeatedly advance and retreat over large areas of the earth’s
surface. The "Ice Age" (capitalized) refers to the last major
North American and Eurasian GLACIATION, which reached
its peak about 20,000 years ago and ended rapidly beginning
approximately 13,000 years ago (i.e., 11,000 BCE).
4) We are currently in an INTERGLACIAL STAGE called the
HOLOCENE (“wholly recent”) era, which is essentially a
warming period between ice ages; this one is unusual because it
has lasted for nearly 13,000 years and because of the relative
stability (i.e., much less dramatic OSCILLATION between heat
and cold) of its climate; in contrast, most interglacial periods
last around 10,000 years.
5) This extended duration and climatic stability has facilitated the
URBANIZATION of the earth’s human population, and thus
the establishment of SEAFARING (e.g., ATHENS in Greece)
and RIVER VALLEY (e.g., URUK in Mesopotamia)
civilizations throughout the ancient world—some (like Athens!)
of which remain EXTANT in our own time. Across many
generations, when rivers and seas remain consistently
NAVIGABLE and when PLANTING and HARVESTING time
can be easily predicted, human civilization flourishes!
6) The two terms that are most relevant for us are (a) the
NEOTHERMAL CLIMATE CHANGE and (b) the
CLIMATIC OPTIMUM. The neothermal (Greek for
“new temperature” or more literally “new heat”) climate
change established the weather pattern from the most
recent Ice Age until the present time. Around 11,000 BCE
the glaciers that covered many hundreds of thousands of
square miles began to melt; by 9000 BCE the climate of
western ASIA (probably about 2000 years later for
Britain and northern Europe) resembled what it is today,
except that it was probably much GREENER due to the
fact that humans had yet to DEFOREST it!
7) As the glaciers receded further north and the warming
trend continued, the period between 5000 and 3200 BCE
saw the emergence of the climatic optimum, which was a
dramatic INCREASE in the WARMTH and HUMIDITY
of Europe that has survived until contemporary times;
note that Paris is approximately at the same LATITUDE
as Quebec and Britain as Labrador; yet the foliage and
general agriculture of Europe far EXCEEDS that of
North America at the same latitude. The reason for this is
the flow of the GULF STREAM, which warms the
northern European waters, generating rain clouds that
travel eastward across Europe thus causing warm rain to
fall as far east as RUSSIA, even during the wintertime.
8) Perhaps the most dramatic effect of the Neothermal
climate change is what occurred in the northern region of
Africa that we now know as the SAHARA, which during
PALEOLITHIC times was a rich, VERDANT grassland
separated by forested mountain ranges abundant in
game; this area was also home to plains-dwelling early
stone-age human cultures. However, as the glaciers to the
north RECEDED, the rains stopped, and there was no
gulf stream off the coast of Africa in the Atlantic to send
the rains moving EASTWARD; thus the Sahara became
what it is today!
9) There were three possible responses to this climatic
change for late PALEOLITHIC and early MESOLITHIC
cultures; these were (a) ADAPT to the new environment
without changing HABITAT (i.e., cultivate new food
sources within the changing environment); (b)
RELOCATE (i.e., follow and vary your food sources—
e.g., the mastodon and the bison—north, thus
implementing flexibility of habitat and learning to
cultivate new sources of food such as berries and
mushrooms during this process); and (c) become
EXTINCT by remaining in the INDIGENOUS homeland
and not finding new sources for food & habitat (i.e., no
new food and no new habitat despite drastic
environmental change). Those MESOLITHIC cultures
flexible to choose options (a) & (b) eventually created the
AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION.
10)
Having eventually achieved CONTINUITY of food
supply (i.e., consistently generating a SURPLUS of food
and then effectively MANAGING that surplus through
the implementation of effective STORAGE and
DISTRIBUTION mechanisms) some of these
communities eventually developed into the earliest
CIVILIZATIONS (Latin civilis—pertaining to the civis,
or citizen; compare with the Latin civitas or city).
11)
For historian Will Durant, [Civilization] begins
where chaos and insecurity end. For when fear is
overcome, curiosity and constructiveness are free, and man
passes by natural impulse towards the understanding and
embellishment of life…culture suggests agriculture, but
civilization suggests the city…we shall call “primitive” all
tribes that make little or no provision for unproductive days,
and little or no use of writing. In contrast, the civilized may
be defined as literate providers …in the last analysis
civilization is based upon the food supply…the cathedral
and the capital, the museum and the concert chamber, the
library and the university are the façade; in the rear are the
shambles (Our Oriental Heritage, 1954).
12)
Some additional observations by Will Durant (Our
Oriental Heritage):
Civilization is an interlude between ice ages; at any time the current
of glaciation may rise again, cover with ice and snow the works of
man, and reduce life to some narrow segment of the earth (p. 1).
A people may possess ordered institutions, a lofty moral code, and
even a flair for minor forms of art, like the American Indians; and
yet if it remains in the hunting stage, if it depends for its existence
on the precarious fortunes of the chase, it will never quite pass from
barbarism to civilization. A nomad stock, like the Bedouins of
Africa, may be exceptionally intelligent and vigorous, it may display
high qualities of character like courage, generosity and nobility; but
without that simple sine qua non of culture, a continuity of food, its
intelligence will be lavished on the perils of the hunt and the tricks
of the trade, and nothing will remain for the laces and frills, the
curtsies and amenities, the arts and comforts, of civilization. The
first form of culture is agriculture. It is when man settles down to
till the soil and lay up provisions for the uncertain future that he
finds time and reason to be civilized. Within that little circle of
security—a reliable supply of water and food—he builds his huts,
his temples and his schools; he invents productive tools, and
domesticates the dog, the ass, the pig, at last himself. He learns to
work with regularity and order, and maintains a longer tenure of
life, and transits more completely than before the mental and moral
heritage of his race (p. 2).
Three meals a day are a highly advanced institution. Savages gorge
themselves or fast...the squirrel that gathered nuts for a later feast
was among the first creators of civilization...and models for man
(p.5-6).
9) Is generating a FOOD SURPLUS the sole PREREQUISITE
of civilization as some theorists have argued? How does this
differ from Durant’s prerequisite (i.e., food continuity), and
what are the critical implications for this/these difference(s)?
Part III: Project-based Experience: Know/Understand/Do
Procedure:
(1)
(2)
(3)
Divide into groups
Listen to the PP presentation
Prepare a group white paper that answers the questions
in ESSAY format, and prepare group a presentation with
each person playing some role in justifying the group’s
conclusion
Will Durant, in his The Story of Civilization, strongly emphasized
the importance of food continuity as the fundamental
prerequisite of civilization; i.e., it is only after this prerequisite
has been met that the features of civilization (e.g., permanent
buildings, roadways, museums, job specialization, etc.) can
emerge. Do you agree with Durant? Why or why not? If a tribe
that is sophisticated in many other ways (e.g., they possess art,
written communication, and a fair and moral legal code may be a
key component of their culture) still lacks food continuity and
thus has not developed the features of civilization, are they still
appropriately characterized as uncivilized? Why is food surplus
generation alone insufficient as a prerequisite of civilization?
Based on these criteria, is it fair to say that Uruk in ancient
Mesopotamia qualified as a civilization? Should the much earlier
cave-dwelling Neanderthal culture be classified likewise? Why
or why not? Also, in an appropriately placed and conspicuous
spot in the essay, be sure to propose your own parsimonious
definition for the word “civilization.”