The Rise of Civilizations/Neolithic
Revolution
Timeline
 BC= Before Christ, it is sometimes expressed as BCE
 AD= Year of our lord
 0 AD is the year that Jesus was born
Timeline Continued
 14,000 B.C.______________0AD_____________2012AD
 Numbers get bigger the further away from 0 Ad you get
Quiz
 What year happened first: 76 BC or 300 BC
• 1000 AD or 12oo AD?
• 2000 BC or or 200 AD?
How many years ago was 8000 BC?
Development of
Tools/specialization
 The Stone Age- simple stone tools, some hunter gather
societies never advanced past the Stone Age
 Bronze Age- Specialization in agricultural societies
allowed people to begin making bronze tools.
Approximately 4000 B.C.
 Iron Age- Development of Iron required more
technological sophistication but was a huge advantage
for societies. Approximately 1300 B.C.
The Neolithic Revolution
 The Neolithic Revolution began approximately 14,000
years ago
 This refers to the development of agriculture and the
shift from hunting and gathering societies to
agricultural societies.
 Agriculture developed in a number of places at
different times
 Agriculture began in the “Fertile Crescent
Fertile Crescent
Advantages of the Fertile Crescent
 Lots of Sunshine
 Nile, Tigris, Euphrates, and Jordan rivers provide
constant H20
 Wheat, Barely, Peas, Cows, and Horses grew naturally
in the region
The Fertile Crescent Civilizations
 Agriculture in the Fertile Crescent led to the
development of the world’s first civilizations
 Sumer in Mesopotamia
 Egypt along the Nile River
 The Indus Valley Civilization
Civilizations
 Historians usually define civilizations as having the
following:
Government
Social Structure ( upper and middle classes)
Large public building projects
Specialization, many different jobs
Mesopotamia (The Land Between the Rivers)
 The world’s first civilization was Sumer in
Mesopotamia.
 Mesopotamia is a part of the Fertile Crescent (Present
day Iraq)
 Civilization developed between the Tigris and
Euphrates River
Mesopotamia
Vocabulary
 Hunter/Gatherer- Groups of people that depend on
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hunting and gathering materials from nature to survive
Nomad- Group of people that move seasonally
Agriculture- Growing or raising food
Specialization of Labor- People specializing for their jobs/
Not everybody in society producing food
Domestication- Turning a wild animal/plant into
something used and bred by humans.
Irrigation- A system designed to bring water to a farmers
crops
Nomad
Irrigation
Big Questions
 What advantages do agricultural societies have over
hunter-gather societies?
 Why did the development of agriculture lead to the
development of governments?
 Why was the development of governments an
advantage for early societies?
The Neolithic Revolution
 The Neolithic Revolution refers to the development of
agriculture
 Change from hunter/gather societies to agricultural
societies
 This was one of the most important changes in history
The Development of Agriculture
 Agriculture developed independently in a number of
different spots at different times (Fertile Crescent,
China, Mesoamerica)
•The first place to develop agriculture was the “Fertile
Crescent” Approximately 8,000 BCE
Advantages of being an agricultural
society
 A better food supply than hunting and gathering
 Having more food allows more people to live/larger
populations
Advantages of being an agricultural
society cont.
 Agricultural societies
developed the world’s
first towns
 Towns had defensive
walls around them
Specialization of labor
 Agriculture allowed for
specialization of labor
 Farmers could produce
enough food for other
people to specialize at
other jobs/More efficient
 Examples: Soldiers,
traders, government
workers, builders,
toolmakers
The Development of Governments
 Specialization of
labor/Agriculture
allowed for the
development of the
world’s first governments
 Enough food was
produced for
government workers to
focus on ruling the
society, not making food
for themselves
The advantages of governments
 Organization for large
building projects:
Defensive walls,
irrigation projects
 Organization for armies
 Laws
 writing
Geographic advantages of
Europe/Central Asia
Agriculture developed first
Large number of food plants and animals
No barriers to trading with other regions/This allowed
technology and domestic animals to move to other
regions
Domestic plants and animals
 Plants
 Animals
 Fertile Crescent- wheat,
 Fertile Crescent- Cows,
barley, peas, lentils
China- rice
Americas- Corn,
potatoes, tomatoes,
beans
Africa-Sorghum, coffee
Australia-none
sheep, horses
China- Pigs, chickens
Americas- llamas,
turkeys, guinea pigs
Africa-none
Australia-none
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Barriers to trade
Trade between Europe and Asia
 Nothing prevented Europeans and Asians from trading
with each other
 Huge advantage for these groups
 Domestic animals and plants moved between the
groups. Ex. Pigs and chickens from China to Europe
 Technology increased with trade between the groups.
Ex. Gunpowder in china being used for guns in
Europe.
Barriers to trade in other areas
 The Sahara desert cuts North Africa off from South
Africa
 Panamanian jungle cuts the Mayan civilization off
from the Inca civilization in the Americas
 Little to no trading occurred
 Little to no transferring of technology
Barriers to trade
Lack of technology
 The Maya created a
wheel that was only used
as a toy
 Technology was never
passed to other groups in
the Americas that could
use it
Unit Question
 How do the domestic plants and animals that a society
had access to affect which societies became dominant
over other societies?
Mesopotamia
 “The land between the rivers”
 Part of the Fertile Crescent
 Located in what is now Iraq
 The first civilizations began in Mesopotamia
Fertile Crescent
Sumer
 Frequently called the world’s first civilization
 A handful of large cities in Mesopotamia banded
together to create the civilization
 Ur is thought to be the oldest major city in Sumer
Ur
Ziggurats
 The center of Sumerian Cities was the Ziggurat
 Ziggurats were large religious temples
Question
 What can you assume about Sumerian Civilization
because they built Ziggurats?
Sumerian writing
 Cuneiform/ The world’s first writing system
 Symbols cut into clay, the clay was then baked
Writing Systems
Writing has only been
invented independently
in a few locations
Fertile Crescent, China,
Central America
Writing systems cont
 Writing systems were
originally developed to
keep track of taxes for
the government
 Cuneiform was the
world’s first writing
system
Pictographic Writing Systems
 The earliest writing
systems were all
pictographic
 Used pictures as a
symbol for individual
words
 Could have thousands of
symbols for each
language
Challenge
 I would love to see a white holiday season this year
 Could you please take the trash out
Alphabets
 Use symbols for
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individual sounds
Do not use symbols for
whole words
Phoenicians invented
the world’s first alphabet
Called the phonetic
alphabet
The Phoenicians were an
ancient group in the
Fertile Crescent
Alphabets
 The Phoenicians traded
with the ancient Greeks
who modified the
alphabet
 The Greeks traded with
the Romans, who
modified the Greek
alphabet into what we
use today
Questions
 Why is writing an important development for
civilizations?
 Why was the phonetic alphabet an advantage over
pictographic forms of writing?
Egypt
The gift of the Nile
Gift of the Nile continued
Gift of the Nile
 The Nile river gave Egypt constant water for farming
 Every spring the river flooded. After the floods
receded a new layer of fertile dirt was left behind for
farming
 The river gave transportation to carry things by boat
through all of Egypt
Egypt’s Semi-isolation
 The cataracts of the Nile stopped boats/invaders from
moving down river to attack Egypt
 Deserts to both sides protected Egypt from invading
armies
 There was a small amount of trade between Egypt and
the rest of the Fertile Crescent that allowed technology
to be exchanged
Egyptian religion
 Egyptians worshipped between 800-1000 Gods
 Ra the sun god was the main God worshipped
 Pyramids and temples were all built for the Pharoes
and other important people to go to for an after life
 Egyptians had a huge class of priests that were very
influential in running the country
 Mummification for important people
Monotheistic Religions
Question of the day
 Why was the development of the Jewish religion an
important event for the modern world?
 How was the Jewish religion different than the other
religions of the Fertile Crescent
 What is Monotheism? What is Polytheism?
Monotheism, Polytheism
 Monotheism- Believing in one God
 Polytheism- Believing in more than one God
Use any resource available to you
Mesopotamian
Religion
Polytheistic/Mono
theistic
After life
Role of priests in
society
Egyptian
Religion
Judaism
Judaism
 Judaism developed in what is now Israel, a part of the
Fertile Crescent
 Approximately 1,200-1000 BCE
Judaism/Christianity/Islam
 Judaism was the world’s
first Monotheistic
Religions
 Christianity and Islam
developed from Judaism
 Today, half of the world
considers themselves to
be one of these religions
The Ten Commandments
 The Jewish Religion developed the Ten
Commandments
 The Ten Commandments are a major influence on
morality in our society
Question of the day
 Why was the development of the Jewish religion an
important event for the modern world?
 How was the Jewish religion different than the other
religions of the Fertile Crescent (Two examples)
 What is Monotheism? What is Polytheism?
Question of the Day
 What advantages do agricultural societies have over
hunter/gather societies?
Big Unit Question
 How do the domestic plants and animals that a
society had access to affect which societies became
dominant over other societies?
 Ex: Why did Europeans conquer the Native Americans
and not Vice Versa? Why did Europeans make
Africans slaves and not Vice Versa?
New Guinea
 Dense jungle along the
coast, Hunter/Gatherers
 Mountain Valleys in the
interior of the island
have agricultural
societies
 Agricultural societies
grow taro and bananas