Chapter 1:From Human Prehistory to
the Early Civilizations
Objectives
•Examine the indicators of civilization, including writing, labor
specialization, cities, technology, trade, and political and cultural
institutions in early civilizations
• Trace the development and assess the achievements in the arts,
sciences and technology of early river civilizations, including
those around the Huang-He (China), Indus (India), Nile
(Egypt), and Tigris-Euphrates (Mesopotamia) rivers
Key Concepts
 Big Geography & the Peopling of the Earth
 The Neolithic Revolution & Early Agricultural Societies
 The Development & Interactions of Early Agricultural, Pastoral, &
Urban Societies
Major Topics
 Neolithic Revolution
 Early River Valley Civilizations
 Foraging vs. Pastoral/Agricultural Societies
 Early Migrations: Middle East, Africa, Polynesian/Oceania
Geographical Contexts
 To begin you will focus on the geographical context in which
cultures will develop
 You are expected to know and be able to analyze the
importance of locations, trade routes and migrations to the
development of civilizations
Map Notebook
 During the study of each chapter you will map the basic
features of geography in that area of the world
 This includes continents, oceans , seas, rivers, key political
units
Map Notebook
Example
 In studying Ch. 1, you should be able to
ID major water supplies and the effect
and importance of rivers
 Such as the Nile and the TigrisEuphrates on the demography of Egypt
and Mesopotamia
Part I
From Hunting and Gathering to Civilizations, 2.5 Million-1000
BCE: Origins
 Earliest known humans lived in East Africa about 2.5 million
yrs ago
 They lived by hunting and gathering
 Most advanced human species, Homo sapiens sapiens, migrated
from Africa to the Middle East, then to Europe, Asia,
Australia and the Americas
 They developed tools out of sticks, stones and other natural
objects(bones)
10,000 Years Onward
 Agriculture begins
 Civilization develops
 Early civs. arose in 5 different sites, four
along the fertile shores of great rivers
 The key element in this long phase of
human history focuses on adaption to
environments and the search for food
supplies
Development of Agriculture
 Offered different opportunities for humans
Altered family forms
Formal political structures
Cities
Monument building
 Change took place slowly during this period
 The impact of this change in human civ. can be seen
with children who were more supported, nurtured and
discipline because they were a vital part of the family
labor force in agricultural societies
Civilization
 Define civilization
Societies distinguished by reliance……..page G-5
 The word civilization comes from the Latin term for
“city”
 What are characteristics of civilization?
Formal states, writing, cities and monuments all
characterize civilization
 What are some other characteristics of society?
Elaborate trading patterns
Extensive political territories
River Valley Civs.
 What did all the civs. have in common?
Concepts of leaderships
Other basic social structures for example, most had
some form of hierarchy within their civilization
All had religions
A writing system
 How were they different?
Their emphasis on religion and technology
Their interest in the wider world
Summary
 Most of the 2 million-plus years of our existence as a species has
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been described as Paleolithic or Old Stone Age
During this period both Homo erectus and then Homo sapiens
sapiens appeared as early as 500,000-750,000 yrs ago
They stood upright and learned simple tool use, mainly through
employing suitably shaped rocks and sticks for hunting and
gathering
Several species of Homo erectus developed and spread into Africa
and other parts of the region, reaching a population of almost 1.5
million 100,000 yrs ago
Homo erectus disappeared about 40,000 yrs ago
Our immediate ancestors were Homo sapiens sapiens
All current races are descended from this subspecies
Early varieties of homo sapiens sapiens lived in small bands of
hunter gatherers
These groups developed language, rituals, and more sophisticated
tools