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Mayer - World History - Neolithic Age
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The Neolithic Revolution:The “New Stone” Age 10,000 B.C. – 4000 B.C.
WHAT? • The Neolithic (“New Stone”) Age. This is the period in history when humans become what we call modern humans. They begin to settle down and develop major civilizations. • WHO? • The first civilized human beings including; China, India Mesopotamia, Egypt, Rome, and Greece. • WHEN? • The Neolithic Age lasts from around 10,000 B.C. to 4000 B.C. • WHERE? • The Neolithic Age takes place all over the world. Anywhere humans live, they change their way of life and develop a more modern way of living that leads up to our modern world.
WORD WALL Neolithiccivilization agricultureartisans domestication monotheistic polytheistic animistic atheistic
Learning Goal • Students will be able to identifythe 7 elements of civilization and explain how these changes affected the way of life for Neolithic humans.
Neolithic Revolution • Homo sapiens complete the migration out of Africa, now settled on every continent • Discover the ability to produce their own food, no longer have to hunt and gather • Allows them to live in larger and larger group and settle into permanent locations • Leads to city-style living and more advancement, human culture begins to expand rapidly and technology grows at a much faster rate • This settled lifestyle leads to massive changes in way of life, humans begin organizing into what we consider civilizations
Neolithic Revolution • There are 7 elements that a group of humans need to have before they are considered a civilization. • Agriculture/Domestication • Specialized Jobs/Artisans • Cities • Writing • Government • Religion • Art/Architecture/Culture
Agriculture & Domestication • The process by which humans are able to control and produce their own food. • Humans are able farm and grow their own crops rather having to constantly follow food sources. Allows them to settle down in favorable locations. • Allows them to grow large amounts of food and store the extra. • First agricultural foods are rice, wheat, corn, peppers, squash, peas, and millet. • Domestication allows humans to raise and train wild animals as food or tools. Used for travel, work, hunting, and pest control. • First domesticated animals include cows, goats, sheep, dogs, chickens, pigs, horses, and cats.
Specialized Jobs & Artisans • Because humans can now store extra food they no longer have to hunt or gather every day to survive. Allows members of the population to begin experimenting with others jobs. • Leads to people taking on specialized jobs. • These specialized jobs preform a service or produce a product and then trade or barter that product for another needed product or food. Allows for full time production of goods and services. • These specialized workers who preform one specific task are called artisans. Because of specialization of labor, quality of goods improves and technology increases at a faster rate. • Full time production of goods creates surplus goods that can be traded between artisans.
Cities • As humans produce more food, family sizes grow. In turn, more living space is needed and small villages turn into big cities as the population increases. • Humans now flock to the best, most fertile land to grow food. Since the food grows best around large rivers, people begin moving to those areas in large numbers. • With some humans having specialized jobs they need customers to trade those products and services with. Cities grow even further as artisans move into cities to practice their trades. • Growing size of cities leads to other necessities to keep these cities running properly and safe for trade.
Writing • Increasing city size increases the amount of activity and trade between humans. Taxes must be collected, property ownership must be recorded, messages to friends and business partners must be sent. • To deal with this need for permanent records and fast traveling communication human being develop writing. • The first writing forms were pictures or symbols that represented words, called pictograms. • After several thousand years, humans develop a more efficient writing system using alphabets; using letters to represent sounds which are grouped into words. • Writing allows for higher levels of organization and more complex systems begin to form.
Government • Increased city sizes leads to confrontations between people. To control their cities and keep themselves safe humans create governments. • Government: • Provide laws to keep people and trade safe • Maintain certain services to make the cities run smoothly • Collect taxes to pay for walls and armies to protect the cities • First governments are very basic. One powerful or wealthy ruler is chosen to make all decisions and settle all disagreements. More powerful cities begin to overtake weaker cities and kingdoms and empires form. • Wars begin to become large and fought between armies to bring more cities under control of single leaders. • Over time more complex governments develop which give citizens a say in how the government runs.
Religion • Even with established governments to solve problems things still exist out of human control. • Humans create religion as a way to answer questions that cannot be explained. Religions give them a way to explain things that they do not understand. • By having a more powerful god behind the unexplainable problems of the world, humans are able to cope with their helplessness. Gives a way to communicate with and try to influence things they cannot control. • Also creates feelings of community and belonging that unify large groups of people; helps make government easier and run smoother.
Art, Architecture, & Culture • As the human population grows, so do cities, governments, and religions. • The leaders of these cities, governments, and religions grow richer and more powerful as their amount of followers grows. • In order to display their power and greatness to others, ancient leaders build massive architecture to celebrate themselves and their success. • Hire artisans to produce art and music to commemorate their greatness. Ancient religions build massive temples to their gods to try win their gods’ approval and to demonstrate the greatness of their religion. • City-style living allows faster exchange of ideas and creativity, new forms of art and culture emerge. • Expanding kingdoms and empires force blending of cultures, creating new culture and art.
As the human population grows, so do cities, governments, and religions. The leaders of these cities, governments, and religions grow richer and more powerful as their amount of followers grows. In order to display their power and greatness to others, ancient leaders build massive architecture to celebrate themselves and their success. They also train or hire artisans to produce art and music to commemorate their greatness. Ancient religions build massive temples to their gods to try win their gods’ approval and to demonstrate the greatness of their religion.
