Chapter 1

1. Chapter 1 From the origins of agriculture to the first river-valley civilizations 8000-1500 B.C.E.

2. Before Civilization • Human life before 8000 b.c.e. • Exact date of first humans is debatable (6-8 million years ago) • Humans=bipedalism (walking on 2 legs), opposable thumbs and a large brain. • Paleolithic age (70,000 years ago to 8000 b.c.e.) • Humans inhabited all the continents (except Antarctica) • Survived by hunting and gathering • Traveled in small groups (nomads) • Did not develop a sense of property ownership • No organized government structure • Division of labor was based on sex • Use of tools and weaving of cloth (26,000 years ago) • Knowledge of natural environment (edible v. poisonous plants) • Cave art and religion based on natural phenomena

3. The Neolithic (agricultural) Revolution • Refers to the changeover from food gathering to food producing that serves as a “marker” event to begin the foundations period. • Not a single event, but a process (probably brought about food shortage due to climate changes) • Middle east has earliest evidence of agriculture. • Agriculture spread through cultural diffusion, but also rose as an independent invention. • This revolution included the domestication of animals for food and work

4. The Neolithic Revolution as a “Marker Event” • Agriculture brought great change: • People settled down • Private property • Division of Labor • Social Inequality (landowners v. peasant) • Gender Inequality-male superior physical strength gave them advantage. Women’s contribution was no longer central to the survival of the village. • Importance of surplus • Religious changes- from spirits to gods with human characteristics (polytheism) • 3 craft industry emerged: pottery, metallurgy, & textiles

5. Earliest Civilizations • What are indicators of a civilization? • Cities that serve as administrative centers • A political system based on the control of a defined territory • Highly specialized occupations • Clear social class distinctions • Long-distance trade • Organized writing system • Monumental buildings and major advances in science and the arts

6. Cultural Hearths • Areas where civilization first began that spread the ideas, innovations, and ideologies that culturally transformed the world. • Mesopotamian cultural hearth • Nile Valley cultural hearth • Indus Valley cultural hearth • East Asian cultural hearth • Cultural hearths in the Americas: • Olmec and Chavin

7. Mesopotamia “Land between two rivers” • Developed during 4th Millennium B.C.E. • Writing developed by 3500 B.C.E. • Governments by 3000B.C.E. • Cities grew along the Tigris and Euphrates River • Because of location in the Middle East it became a “crossroads” • Two main groups settled here: Semites and Sumerians • They built competing city-states that engaged in unceasing warfare • Sumerians were the dominant group

8. Mesopotamia:economic development • Majority were farmers, herders, or workers directly associated with agriculture • About 5% lived in cities and did not grow their own food • People involved in trade…traded food • Most people in cities were craft men, scribes (read/writing) or worked to ensure a reliable water source • Many were slaves that did the worst jobs

9. Mesopotamia: political development • Before 2300 B.C.E. city states were theocracies (governed by gods or priests) • Constant warfare gave the “warrior king” increased power • A Semitic group led by Sargon the Great conquered the area and founded the Akkadian Empire • Sargon and his descendents assumed responsibility for temples, city defenses, irrigation channels, and system of justice • The Akkadian Empire lasted a little over a century

10. Mesopotamia: political development • After Akkadian Empire: • 1700s B.C.E. Hammurabi led the Babylonians to conquer Mesopotamia • 1500s B.C.E. Hittites conquered Mesopotamia • 900s B.C.E. Assyrians conquered it • 500s B.C.E. New Babylonians come to power

11. Mesopotamia: political development • Marker Event • Hammurabi’s Code • First known written law code • Used by judges to punish crimes based on a standard set of rules

12. Mesopotamia: Social Distinctions • Hammurabi’s Code identified 3 distinct classes: • Free land owners: royal family, priests, warriors, high gov. officials, merchants and some craftsmen and shopkeepers. • Dependent farmers and craftsmen: worked for free a land owners • Slaves: did domestic work and less desirable jobs. They were prisoners of war or debtors. They could win their freedom. Identified by haircut, which could be changed when freed.

13. Mesopotamia: Social Distinctions • Women lost social standing and freedom with the spread of agriculture: • Food surplus made large families possible and tied women to the home. • Women could own property, control their dowries, and participate in trade, but men control political and religious life. • Their status decline over time. In later Mesopotamian history, men are allowed to take other wives.

14. Mesopotamia: Cultural Characteristics • “Marker Event” about 3500 B.C.E.: the Sumerian invention of writing. • Earliest writing evolved from pictures of objects on clay cylinder seals to symbols and eventually into phonetic elements baked on clay tablets and written with a wedge-shaped stick-cuneiform. • It was difficult to learn so scribes had power and status. • Epic of Gilgamesh: story that explored human friendship, relations with gods, and meaning of life & death (included story of the great flood — continuity over time)

15. Mesopotamia: Religious Beliefs • Mesopotamians believed that gods interfered in human affairs and they must pleased the gods to survive. They were associated with forces of nature. • Each city had its own principal god and a main temple at the center of city, usually ziggurats-brick pyramids with ramps and stairs. • Priest had high standing and passed their positions/knowledge to their sons • Priests preformed rituals, provided music, exorcised evil spirits, and interpreted dreams. • Afterlife was full of suffering.

16. Indus Valley Civilization • Agriculture had developed by 5000 B.C.E. and villages and towns by 3000 B.C.E. in what is now Pakistan • Its origin remains a mystery. • The area around the Indus River was lush and fertile and was formed from water running from Himalayas and Hindu Kush • Mountains provided some protection from invasion, but passes where discovered early by Aryans. Harappa Mohenjo-Daro

17. Indus Valley Civilization: Economic Characteristics • Advanced agricultural system • Many animals were domesticated • Abundant crops allowed job specialization in the cities. Craftsmen appear to have been inferior to those in Egypt and Mesopotamia. • 2 large cities have been discovered – Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa. • They were centers of trade with China, Southeast Asia, southern India, Afghanistan and Mesopotamia.

18. Indus Valley Civilization: Political Development • Very little is known about the political system: • Construction of cities suggest a well-organized government • Streets, fortifications, large granaries and sewage system were probably controlled by governments.

19. Indus Valley Civilization: Society & Culture • Evidence (size and sophistication of dwellings) suggest that there were clear social classes. • Little is known about its religion. They had a number of gods and goddesses. • Few artistic evidence: few fertility figurines • They had a writing system found in seals, but archeologists have had little success in deciphering them.

20. Decline of Indus Valley Civilization • Indus valley cities were abandoned around 1900 B.C.E. (reasons are uncertain). Decline is gradual, with Mohenjo-Daro abandoned around 1200 B.C.E. and Harappa somewhat later. • Theories: • Systems failure: breakdown of econ., political and social systems • Earthquake, flood, or ecological changes • Large population put stress on environment