KEY CONCEPTS
Key Concept 1.1. Big Geography and the Peopling of the Earth
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The term Big Geography draws attention to the global nature of world history. Throughout the
Paleolithic period, humans migrated from Africa to Eurasia, Australia, and the Americas. Early humans
were mobile and creative in adapting to different geographical settings from savanna to desert to Ice
Age tundra. By making an analogy with modern hunter forager societies, anthropologists infer that these
bands were relatively egalitarian. Humans also developed varied and sophisticated technologies.
I. Archeological evidence indicates that during the Paleolithic era, hunting-foraging bands of humans
gradually migrated from their origin in East Africa to Eurasia, Australia, and the Americas, adapting their
technology and cultures to new climate regions.
A.Humans used fire in new ways: to aid hunting and foraging, to protect against predators, and to adapt
to cold environments.
B. Humans developed a wider range of tools specially adapted to different environments from tropics to
tundra.
C. Economic structures focused on small kinship groups of hunting foraging bands that could make what
they needed to survive. However, not all groups were self-sufficient; they exchanged people, ideas, and
goods.
Key Vocabulary to watch for.
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Foraging Societies
Nomadic
Paleolithic
Egalitarian
Homo Sapiens
Paleolithic Man
(and woman!)
Lucy (Australopithecus)
3.2 million year old hominid
Women in the Paleolithic times
• Lucy- The worlds most famous early human
ancestor (3.2 million years old.)
– Found in Ethopia in 1974
• The Venus of Willendorf 4.25 in high.
– Found on the banks of the Danube river in Austria
• Human technological prehistory can be divided into three periods: Use of stone
& wooden tools grows
– The Stone Age  Characterized by the use of stone tools
– The Bronze Age  1st period in which metal was used Chalcolithic (Copperstone) age
– The Iron Age  the ability to forge (heat it up)
• The Stone Age is further subdivided into:
– The Paleolithic – OLD STONE AGE sustained humankind for more than 95%
of the time that our spieces has inhabited the earth but only 12% of the
total human population existed in that time.
– The Mesolithic – Middle Stone Age 10,000 BCE – 5,000 BCE
– The Neolithic – New Stone Age.
The “OUT OF AFRICA THEORY”
• Archeological evidence indicates that
during the Paleolithic era, huntingforaging bands of humans gradually
migrated from their origin in East Africa
to Eurasia, Australia, and the Americas,
adapting their technology and cultures to
new climate regions.
• HOW was fire adapted?
• Tools for different environments.
• Economic Structures
– small kinship groups
Interactive Migration Map
http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/journey/
With origins in Africa ~250,000 years ago members of our species (HOMO SAPIENS)
have migrated to every environmental niche on the planet over the past 100,000 years.
WHY would people migrate over open water?
IS THERE ANYTHING ON THE MAP THAT SURPRISES YOU??
• Early humans were mobile and
creative in adapting to different
geographical settings from
savanna to desert to Ice Age
tundra.
• By making an analogy with modern
hunter-forager societies, anthropologists
infer that these bands were relatively
egalitarian.
The SAN people
of South Africa
• Humans developed varied and sophisticated
technologies.
•The Knife
•Fire
•Spears
•Clothes
•Housing
•Musical Instruments
•Modes of transportation
• Humans used fire in new ways: to
aid hunting and foraging, to protect
against predators, and to adapt to
cold environments.
• Helped with disease
• Humans developed a wider range
of tools specially adapted to
different environments from
tropics to tundra.
• Economic structures focused on
small kinship groups of huntingforaging bands that could make
what they needed to survive.
However, not all groups were selfsufficient; they exchanged people,
ideas, and goods.
The Beginnings of Belief System
• Intentional burial, particularly with
grave goods may be one of the earliest
detectable forms of religious practice
• Neanderthals were the first hominids
to intentionally bury the dead, doing so
in shallow graves along with stone
tools and animal bones
Evidence shows religious beliefs to be animistic
Burial indicates respect.
Statues to deities
“The Willendorff Venus”
Neandertal Burials
Burials indicate religion & respect for death
In an Israeli cave archaeologists discovered
a woman who died at the end of Paleolithic
times buried with roasted tortoise shells and
bones
Closing
• How did the technology of the Paleolithic era
change and adapt to the needs of the time?
Give at least three examples with explanation.
Key Concept 1.2. The Neolithic Revolution and Early
Agricultural Societies In response to warming climates at the end of the last Ice Age, from about 10,000 years ago, some groups adapted to the
environment in new ways, while others remained hunter-foragers. Settled agriculture appeared in several different parts of the world. The switch to
agriculture created a more reliable, but not necessarily more diversified, food supply. Agriculturalists also had a massive impact on the environment
through intensive cultivation of selected plants to the exclusion of others, through the construction of irrigation systems, and through the use of
domesticated animals for food and for labor. Populations increased; family groups gave way to village life and, later, to urban life with all its complexity.
Patriarchyand forced labor systems developed, giving elite men concentrated power over most of the other people in their societies. Pastoralism
emerged in parts of Africa and Eurasia. Pastoral peoples domesticated animals and led their herds around grazing ranges. Like agriculturalists,
pastoralists tended to be more socially stratified than hunter-foragers. Because pastoralists were mobile, they rarely accumulated large amounts of
material possessions, which would have been a hindrance when they changed grazing areas. The pastoralists’ mobility allowed them to become an
important conduit for technological change as they interacted with settled populations.
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I. Beginning about 10,000 years ago, the Neolithic Revolution led to the development of new and more complex economic and social systems.
A. Possibly as a response to climatic change, permanent agricultural villages emerged first in the lands of the eastern Mediterranean. Agriculture emerged at
different times in Mesopotamia, the Nile River Valley and Sub-Saharan Africa, the Indus River Valley, the Yellow River or Huang He Valley, Papua New
Guinea, Mesoamerica, and the Andes.
B. Pastoralism developed at various sites in the grasslands of Afro-Eurasia.
C. Different crops or animals were domesticated in the various core regions, depending on available local flora and fauna.
D. Agricultural communities had to work cooperatively to clear land and create the water control systems needed for crop production.
E. These agricultural practices drastically impacted environmental diversity. Pastoralists also affected the environment by grazing large numbers of animals on
fragile grasslands, leading to erosion when overgrazed.
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II. Agriculture and pastoralism began to transform human societies.
A. Pastoralism and agriculture led to more reliable and abundant food supplies, which increased the population.
B. Surpluses of food and other goods led to specialization of labor, including new classes of artisans and warriors, and the development of elites.
C. Technological innovations led to improvements in agricultural production, trade, and transportation.
Required examples of improvements in agricultural production, trade, and transportation:
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Pottery
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Plows
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Woven textiles
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Metallurgy
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Wheels and wheeled vehicles
D. In both pastoralist and agrarian societies, elite groups accumulated wealth, creating more hierarchical social structures and promoting patriarchal forms of
social organization.
The Neolithic Revolution
AKA – The Agricultural Revolution
c. 8000 BCE
First Farming – c 8,000 BCE
•People deliberately planted seeds and harvest
their crops ON PURPOSE is agriculture
•People could become sedentary
•Land is chosen for it’s fertile soil and production
potential
•Humans settled in 6 areas with similar
characteristics
First Farming Areas
RIVER VALLEY CIVILATIONS
•Southwest Asia
•Mesopotamia -- between Tigris and Euphrates Rivers
•North Africa
•Nile River
•East Asia
•Huang He or Yellow River
•South Asia
•Indus River (aka Harappan)
•Central America
•Southern Mexico (aka Mesoamerica)
•South America
•Andes Mountains
The discovery of farming during the Neolithic
Revolution allowed nomadic people to settle into
civilizations
First Agricultural Sites
Old World
New World
The world’s first civilizations
all began in river valleys
The first civilization
began in an area known
as Mesopotamia
Neolithic Timeline
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8000 bce – Mesopotamia, Nile
6000 bce – Indus, Huang He
2500 bce – Mesoamerica, Andes
Domestication of Animals
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Taming of wild animals for human use and
consumption
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Dog, cat, goat, sheep, cow, chicken, pig
Beasts of burden – horse
No horses in the Americas used llama and
alpaca
Closer contact with animals = higher disease
transference
Technological Developments
Increase Food Production
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More efficient planting and harvesting led to
more available food
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Wooden plows, wheels, sickles
More food and storage led to population
growth
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Clay pots, tightly woven baskets
Technological Developments
Increase Food Production
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Irrigation
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canals, reservoirs, shaduf
Metallurgy
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Melting and working with metal
Bronze
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Mixture of tin and copper
Greatly valued for sharp edge
Iron
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Much more durable than bronze
• Technology:
–Sumerians inventions
include the wheel, sail,
plow, & bronze metalwork
Population Grows
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The more food, the healthier people are
Healthy people are stronger, live longer and
have more children
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Population growth led to development of cities
Storage and accounting of food became a
major concern
The need for accounting for food availability
and distribution led to the first writing systems
Specialization of Labor and
Social Structures
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With adequate food supply people tended to
stay in one place
Better technology allowed for fewer farmers to
feed the growing population
Instead of concentrating on producing food,
people could focus on other types of
production
Lasting Contributions
■ Specialized Workers:
–At the top of society were
priests, and then kings
–In the middle were skilled
workers, like merchants
–At the bottom, were
common farmers & slaves
Specialization of Labor and
Social Structures
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Craftspeople
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Warriors
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Sprits tied to harvest
Scribes
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defense
Religious leaders
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Construction, food storage
recordkeeping
Kings
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Organized all of the above
Lasting Contributions
• Advanced cities:
–Sumerian city-states were
protected by high walls
–At the city center was a
temple called a ziggurat
Lasting Contributions
■ Specialized Workers:
–At the top of society were
priests, and then kings
–In the middle were skilled
workers, like merchants
–At the bottom, were
common farmers & slaves
Sumarian
E
G
Y
P
T
Math of the Inca
China
Lasting Contributions
• Writing:
–Sumerians made the world’s
1st writing called cuneiform
–Phoenicians simplified
cuneiform to a 22 letter
alphabet
–Phoenician merchants spread
the alphabet throughout the
Mediterranean world
–The alphabet influenced
Greek, Latin, & English
Lasting Contributions
• Religion:
–Sumerians & Babylonians
were polytheistic
–The Hebrews in Palestine
were the 1st monotheistic
faith in history (Judaism)
–The holy book of Judaism is
the Torah; God gave Moses
the Ten Commandments
which serve as moral laws
Crash Course
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yocja_N5
s1I&list=UUX6b17PVsYBQ0ip5gyeme-Q