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Chapter 1. Early Civilizations. Everything we know about early humans comes from the research done by historians . Fossils and artifacts that humans leave behind provide clues about the past. .
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Chapter 1 Early Civilizations
Everything we know about early humans comes from the research done by historians. Fossils and artifactsthat humans leave behind provide clues about the past.
Historians learned that the 1st humans lived in a time called the Paleolithic Era. This was an “old stone age” that began about 2.5 million years ago.
Paleolithic people were nomads who needed to move from place to place in order to find shelter and hunt or gather food.
Most of the Paleolithic era took place during an ice age. The invention of fire changed human life because people could now see at night, cook food, and keep warm.
Paleolithic people were the 1st to use technology – in the form of tools – that made work easier. Most early tools were made from stone.
Around 8000 BC life for humans would change forever. A Neolithic Era would begin due to the most important event in human history.
For the first time on Earth, humans began to farm. The domesticating of plants and animals altered how people lived.
Instead of hunting animals, people began to train them to make farming easier. People spent less time hunting dinner, and spent more time on other important tasks.
Farmers began to settle in one place. No longer did people have to be nomads in order to find food. The first towns arose in Jericho and CatalHuyuk.
As more people began to settle in towns, fewer farmers were needed to grow food. People began to take on specialized jobs that filled other needs.
Crafts were made. Tools were made better. People began to trade goods with each other for the 1st time. The first markets were now born.
Thousands of years passed, and some of the farming villages transformed into civilizations. Civilizations are complex societies where people do many different things.
The first civilizations on Earth began to form by rivers. Life near water made farming much easier. People could also travel on water in order to trade.
Civilizations helped create the first governments and the first religions in the world. Large groups of people could now worship God & think of new ways to make life easier.
The oldest known civilization arose in a piece of land between 2 rivers called the Tigris and the Euphrates. The area between these rivers was called Mesopotamia.
Mesopotamia was hot and dry in climate. People used irrigation in order to help them farm the land.
By 3000 BC many cities had formed in a region called Sumer. Sumerian cities built homes and eventually temples out of mud-formed bricks.
These temples were called ziggurats. Priests and Kings ruled from these buildings.
The people of Sumer were divided into 3 social classes. The upper class was made up of royalty, priests, government, and the rich. This group was small.
The largest group was the middle class – made up of merchants, farmers, fishermen, and artisans. The lowest class of people in Sumer was the slaves.
Upper class people in Sumer could become scribes. Scribes were people who learned to write words called cuneiform. Only men could be scribes.
Sumerians were smart, and were able to invent things like sailboats, plows, and even forms of math. However, they often fought with each other. This was their downfall.
In about 2340 BC a king named Sargon conquered Mesopotamia and formed the 1st empire. Empires are large groups of land controlled by one ruler.
Sargon eventually lost his empire. The king of a land called Babylon would take over. King Hammurabi would famously make a set of laws to govern his people.
More and more people came to fight and create new empires in Mesopotamia. Next the Assyrian people took control using advanced weapons of war.
Assyrians were great soldiers and builders, but even they would be conquered. A group called the Chaldeans would then defeat them in war.
Chaldean ruler, King Nebuchadnezzar, was famous for building a hanging garden in the desert for his homesick wife.
Even though the Chaldeans were great traders and scientists, they too would be conquered. This pattern would repeat itself for thousands of years in Mesopotamia.
