Transcript Rise of Civilization - Kentucky Department of Education

Group Task
 “If stranded on a desert Island what
tools would you need to survive?”
 How does this help us understand our
past?
 Create sentences using the following
words:
 Prehistory,
artifact, culture, technology
Rise of Civilization
Unit 1
Prehistory
 The period before people developed
writing.
3 types of early man
 Homo-habilis – man had ability
 Homo-erectus – man could walk upright
 Homo-sapiens – man could think
Civilizations
 A highly organized society marked by
knowledge of a written language, the
arts, sciences, and government.
Anthropologists
 Scientists who study past human
civilizations; they compare bones,
looking for changes in size and
structure.
Archaeologists
 Scientists who study the life and culture
of ancient peoples by excavating
ancient living sites.
Artifacts
 An object made by humans, such as a
tool, ornament, weapon, or pottery, that
has historical or archaeological
importance.
Culture
 The ideas, customs, skills, and arts of a
given people at a given time.
Aspects of culture
(ways of life)
 Language
 Foods
 Religion
 Achievement in art and music
 Use of tools
 Technology
Technology
 The skills and knowledge available to a
people.
Nomads
 A person without a permanent home
who moves about canstantly in search
of food.
Early Man
 When population was small, had a nomadic
lifestyle – men traveled in small groups
(tribes) usually following and hunting wild
herds of animals. They had no permanent
home; people traveled constantly. There
emerged a single leader. (Usually, the ruler of
each tribe was the 1. Strongest, 2. Eldest, 3.
Wisest, and 4. The highest religious leader.)
Early People
 Neanderthals
 Originated
in Africa and spread to Europe.
 Hunters/gatherers.
 Used fire for warmth and cooking. Use of
fire and clothing made migration to cooler
climates possible.
 Neanderthals (Cont.)
 Lived
in caves
 Some built shelters with skins.
 Cro-Magnons
 Originated
in Asia; artifacts in France
 Either lived at the same time as
Neanderthals or came to be when
Neaderthals disappeared.
 Develop knife and chisel
 Chopped down trees and built canoes.
 Cro-Magnons (Cont.)
 Developed
bow and arrow tohunt larger
animals and have a better food suply.
 Left behind cave paintings
 Human Race
 Creation
of Adam. Story of Genesis in the
Old Testament in the Bible. Genesis 3
shows how nomadic lifestyle began.
The Neolithic Revolution
 The development of Agriculture
changed the nomadic lifestyle as
farming tied people down to the land in
one permanent place/spot. Thus,
villages started to form and grow into
cities, and civilizations formed.
 People shifted from gathering/hunting food to
producing food.
 New innovations allowed this:
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Agriculture
Domestication of animals
Villages
Plow
Fertilizer
Loom
Wheel
Metalworking for weapons
 The domestication of plants and
animals led to the domestication of
humankind, meaning hunters lived in
nature, while farmers tried to control
nature.
4 Earliest Known Civilizations
 First highly organized societies that
developed out of river valleys:
 Mesopotamia (Iraq – on the Tigris and
Euphrates Rivers)
 Ancient Egypt (on the Nile River)
 India (on the Indus River)
 China (on the Huang/Yellow River that
empties into the Yellow Sea)
 “The test of civilization is the power
of drawing the most benefits out of
cities”-Emerson. What do cities
provide for people? Jobs,
government
Civilization
 A highly, organized society marked
by knowledge of a written language,
the arts, sciences, & government.
Most civilizations developed
out of the 4 River Valleys.
 Nile
 Tigris/Euphrates
 Indus
 Huang
Basic Features of
Civilizations:
 1. Food supply (is stable; often, a
surplus thanks to an Irrigation
System: rainfall fell to ditches, which
ran into canals, & into reservoirs.)
 Why must there be a surplus of food
before a city can develop and grow?
 In
order to free others to engage in
other activities.
 2. Specialized labor
 Artisan-A
skilled craftworker, such as a
builder, potter, & textile worker.
-worked one task
 -very skilled
 -produced large quantities
 -improved quality

 Metalworking-introduced
the Bronze
Age; used bronze which was easier to
pour into a mold and shape weapons.
Artisans had a major effect on the
economy.
 Economy-a
system of producing,
distributing, and consuming wealth to
meet people’s needs.
 Trading-the exchange of goods and
services thanks to the ability to travel.

HOW?
– A. Overland by animals or caravans
B. Water by small canoes and later, ships
 3. Government
 Govt. needed a way to supervise and protect
agriculture and trade.
 a. Government officials were created to
oversee collection, storage, & distribution of
the food surplus.
 b. Soldiers guarded the city’s territory and
trade routes.
c. The king was the head of government.
 4. Social levels followed the city’s
layout.
 a.
In the center were the government
and religious buildings;
 b. Then, houses of the ruling class;
 c. Then, groups of artisans;
 d. On the outskirts, farmers.
 Compare to the city of Glasgow.
 5. System of writing; tools of writing
were a quill pen and berry ink.
 -Writing
originated when priests would
record a surplus of food and the
distribution of food.
 -Early people used pictograms.
 -Early people also wrote true stories
and myths.
 6. Organized large-scale projects
 To
control flooding, dams and earthen
dikes were built