Key Terms - Early Civilizations

1. Domestication Pastoral Societies Key Terms - Early Civilizations • Nomads • Old Stone Age • Neanderthals • Homo Sapiens • Ice Age • Cro-Magnon Man • Homo Sapien Sapien • New Stone Age/Neolithic Revolution

2. The Old Stone Age • Old Stone Age → occurred roughly between 500,000 and 10,000 years ago. • Period of time where language was simple and no written histories were kept • Most of our knowledge of the time comes from artifactal evidence

3. Nomads • Old Stone Age societies were nomadic in nature. • Nomads → people who move from place to place in search of food. • Would rarely maintain large populations. • Would hunt in circular patterns.

4. The Ice Age and Middle Stone Age • With the advent of the Ice Age, a new form of man came into being known as the homo sapien (wise man). • Ice Age → occurred during the Middle Stone Age (10,000-8,000 years ago); was a period of time where the world was covered in ice • Neanderthals → people who lived in Europe and the Middle East and adapted to survive the Stone Age.

5. Ice Age and Middle Stone Age (cont.) • Many changes occurred during the Ice Age and Middle Stone Age. • Societies needed to cooperate to be able to survive the larger animals and colder temperatures of the time period. • There would be rapid advances in technology. New weapons would be created (harpoons). Culture would advance as well with evidence of burial rituals being prevalent during the time.

6. Cro-Magnon Man • With the end of the Ice Age, came the extinction of many of the animals that had lived during it. • These larger animals were replaced with smaller animals that could not be hunted by Neanderthals. • Cro-Magnon Man → known as homo sapien sapien (wise wise man), closest relative to modern man

7. The New Stone Age – Neolithic Revolution • Cro-Magnon Man would usher in a new time period known as the New Stone Age or Neolithic Revolution → period of time where man shifted from nomadic herding to settled farming.

8. Changes in the Neolithic Revolution • People during the Neolithic Revolution underwent many changes to culture and society. • First, man learned how to domesticate (tame) plants, fire and animals. • This allowed man to plant crops and raise animals which allowed for the beginning of settled societies. • Second, language developed and man was able to communicate with others through more than just utterances. Written language slowly develops • Lastly, towns and communities would begin leading slowly to a higher form of life evident in civilizations

9. The First Economies and Social Classes • Economies grew out of people who had certain items lending them or trading them to others. • Those individuals who borrowed were immediately now in a position of less power than those who lent. • Debt would be created from this relationship and also would lead to those who did not have resorting to theft. • Those who had the ability to lend would then separate themselves from those who borrowed to protect themselves leading to social classes.

10. Pastoral Societies • Some individuals chose to remain on the move and take their animals with them and establish their own communities without social classes or hierarchies (systems of rank) • These societies were pastoral societies → societies in which herders and farmers would travel with their kin from area to area living without the conventions of the new societies (economies and social classes)