Period One outline:
Period 1: Technological and Environmental Transformations, to c. 600 BCE
Key Concept
1.1 Big Geography and the Peopling
of the Earth
Supporting Concept
 Migration of nomadic groups and
adaptation to climate
Supporting Evidence/Examples
 Used fire
 Developed tools
 Kinship groups, foraging bands
 Cultural exchanges between
groups
Stuff you NEED to know !
 Paleolithic human migration out of
Africa
 Nomadic bands were egalitarian
1.2 Neolithic Revolution and Early
Agricultural Societies
 Neolithic Revolution led to new
and more complex economic and
social systems
 Eastern Mediterranean.
Mesopotamia, Nile, Sub-Saharan
Africa, Indus, Yellow, Papua New
Guinea, Mesoamerica, Andes
 Pastoralism in Afro-Eurasia
 Different crops and animals in
different places
 Agricultural communities work
together to clear land and irrigate
 Farming impact on environmental
diversity. Pastoral overgrazing 
erosion
 Reliable and abundant food
supplies  increase population
 Surplus  specialization of labor
(artisans, warriors) and
development of cities
 Technology  improved food
production, trade, transport
 Formation of elite, hierarchies,
patriarchy
 Mesopotamia
 Egypt
 Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa
 Shang
 Olmecs
 Chavin (Andes)
 Agriculture
 Reliable but less diverse food
supply
 Changes environments
 Domestication
 Population increase: villages and
cities
 Patriarchy and forced labor
 Pastoralism – conduit for
technological change
 Agriculture and pastoralism began
to transform human societies
1.3 Development and Interactions of
Early Agricultural, Pastoral, and
Urban Societies
 Core foundational civilizations
 Improvements in agricultural
production, trade, and
transportation: pottery, plows,
woven textiles, metallurgy,
wheels/vehicles
 Civilizations formed with surpluses
and specialization, cities, complex
institutions, social stratification,
long-distance trade
 More economic exchanges
between civilizations, with nomads
 Competition for surplus resources
led to stratification, specialization,
trade, complex government and
religion, record keeping
 Warfare, driving technologies
Key Concept
Supporting Concept
 First states emerged
 Culture unified states through
laws, language, literature, religion,
myths, and monumental art
Supporting Evidence/Examples
 Powerful new systems to mobilize
surplus labor, led by divine and
military supported leader
 States with better resources
produced more food and people,
conquered neighbors
 Pastoralists developed new
weapons and transportation
 Monumental architecture and
urban planning
 Elites promoted arts and
artisanship
 Systems of record keeping
 Developed legal codes
(Hammurabi) that reflected
hierarchies and facilitated rule of
governments
 New religious beliefs
 Trade expanded from local to
regional/transregional
 Social and gender hierarchies
intensified
 Literature
Three time periods
1. Paleolithic humans
a. Characteristics of Paleolithic societies
b. Adaptations to environments
2. Early agricultural settlements
a. Compare Paleolithic and Neolithic societies
b. Compare agricultural and pastoral societies (know locations)
c. Social and environmental changes of food production rather than gathering
d. Interaction of settled and nomadic peoples
3. Early civilizations and states
a. Development of first civilizations
b. Intensification of social, political, economic, trade patterns
c. Development of states and empires
d. Development of complex cultures
Stuff you NEED to know !
 Hittites and iron
 Mesopotamia
 Babylonia
 Nile Valley
 New weapons: iron
 New transportation: chariots,
horseback riding
 Monumental architecture and
urban planning: ziggurats,
pyramids, defensive walls, sewage
and water systems
 Example of arts and artisanship
(page 29)
 Systems of recordkeeping:
cuneiform, hieroglyphs, alphabets,
quipu
 Vedic, Hebrew, Zoroastrian
religions
 Trade expansion: Egypt and Nubia,
Mesopotamia and Indus
 Literature: Epic of Gilgamesh