Transcript Foundations of Civilizations

Foundations of
Civilizations
Sect 1: Understanding Our Past
Understanding Our Past
– Time before writing = Prehistory
– People lived in groups about 5,000 years ago
• Studying the Historical Past
– Historians study and write about the past
• use artifacts, or objects made by people, to help
understand what life was like
– Ex. coins, clothing, artwork, tombstones, photos, films…
• Historians try to understand what really when on,
what was really said
– Want to understand why events happened
– Try to be unbiased, difficult
– Different interpretations of evidence, differing theories
Understanding Our Past
• Investigating Prehistory
– Anthropology – study of prehistoric past,
started about 150 years ago
• Some specialize on bones, others on cultures
– Archaeology – study prehistory through
artifacts (tools, weapons, pottery, clothing,
jewelry)
• Draw conclusions about findings, cannot ever be
fully known
• Have to revise theories with discovery of new
evidence
Scholars who Study the Past
Understanding Our Past
– In the 1800s and early 1900s, Archaeologists
would pick a likely site
• Dig up, mark location of various artifacts
• Try to decipher what different locations may have
been used for
• Deeper materials are older, can also be roughly
dated with geological evidence
• Evidence about animals and plants help decode
the environment
• New techniques, like carbon dating, aerial views
also used now
Understanding Our Past
Relative Dating Methods
Useful for artifacts that
change over time,
organized from earliest
to latest
Older artifacts
generally found
deeper
Use geological
evidence nearby to
determine approx.
age
Absolute Dating Methods
Analyze the chemicals
in bones (lose at
specific rates) to see if
near things are from
same time
The ages of wooden
objects calculated
based on the artifacts
Carbon-14 dating is
used to date onceliving items (trees,
fish, wood, etc) since
it decays at a steady
rate
Understanding Our Past
• Discoveries in Africa and Beyond
• Prehistoric people did not live in cities and left every little
information about themselves
• In the 1950s a few key discoveries in East Africa; foot prints,
bones, tools
– Ancient Clues Found in East Africa
• Mary and Louis Leakey searched Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania
– Bottom 1.7-2.1 million years old
– Found tools along sides, this technology showed the
advancements of their creators
• Older tools simple, more basic
– 1959 – found skull of early hominid found
– Donald Johanson discovered mostly complete skelaton of “Lucy”
in 1974, ethiopia
Lucy
Foundations of Civilization
– Evidence of Early Hominids
• Australopithecines, approx 7 million years ago
– Lucy and evidnce Leakey’s found are this type
– All appeared to live in Africa
• Homo habilis, approx 2 million years ago; “handy
man”
– Believed 1st to use stone tools
– Older tools (2.6 million years ago) also found, unclear
who used
• Homo erectus, approx 2 million years ago; upright
walkers
– Larger brains, smaller teeth
– 1st to use fire, Hand Ax (also used for digging, shattering
bone/stone, etc)
– Found in Asia, Europe; 1st to migrate out of Africa?
Foundations of Civilization
– First find of humans around the world
• 250,000-100,000 years ago Homo erectus
disappears, Homo sapiens appear
– Some believe ‘out of Africa’ theory
– others that Homo sapiens developed simultaneously
around the world
• 2 groups; Neanderthals, and early modern humans
– Neanderthals lived in Europe, W. Asia
– Humans spread around the world
– Neanderthals disappeared between 50,000 and 30,000
years ago
Early Hominids
Foundations of Civlization
Sect 2: The New Stone Age
Town Life
• Last ice sheet retreats, leaves fertile soil
– “Fertile Crescent”
– Rainfall, irrigation in valleys
– Wild game, plants on hills
• Neolithic – new stone age
– Between hunter/gathers and settled
communities
Town Life
• Nomads found good spots for food
– Plants or animals
– Groups grow from 50-60 to several hundred
• No longer kinship groups
• Living in larger groups had benefits
– Larger projects
– Security
– Share stories, recreational activities
– Wider choice for mates, more security for
children
Town Life
• Natufians – western Fertile Crescent
(Syria, Jordan, Israel)
– Diet of wild barely and wheat
– Used pestle and mortar to make flour
• Specialization possible
– Man good at making arrow heads trades to a
good hunter, etc
– Basic trade economy
– Leads to private ownership, homes to store
possessions
Jericho and Çatal Hüyük
• Access to water important for settlements
– Jericho on Jordan River, 3 days journey from
Mediterranean
• 1st settlers about 10,000 years ago
– Oldest town – pop. 2,500
• Fresh water spring, center for trade
– Desert goods – dates, salt
– Mediterranean goods – fish and timber
– Merchants became wealthy
Jericho and Çatal Hüyük
• Jericho
– Made primarily out of mud-brick
• Tall tower gave sense of security
• Heavy rains required multiple rebuildings on top of
one another
– Today – mound is 70 feet high
• Çatal Hüyük
– Largest known Neolithic town, SE Anatolia
(Turkey)
• 32 acres, pop. Est 6,000
Jericho and Çatal Hüyük
• Çatal Hüyük
– Homes built of mud-brick
• Led to layers of homes built on terraces
• Used ladders to get between layers
– Trade established around obsidian
• Black stone like flint – good for knives and arrowheads
– 1/3 of homes had religious shrines
• Featured art of people and animals, especially a
mother goddess
– Height from 7000-5600 BC
• Unknown reasons for decline – new sources for
obsidian, or new technology (copper tools?)
Invention of Farming
– Settlements used to be dependent on hunters
and gathers
• 9,000 BC – Agricultural Revolution
– Domestication of wild plants and grains
– Likely started as small gardens for ease
– As soil became exhausted, needed new land
• Slash and Burn to clear trees, increase life of soil
– Many cereal grains (wheat and barley) grew
well in the Fertile Crescent
• Spreads to other areas (Egypt, Indus Valley,
Europe, etc)
Invention of Farming
– 4,000 BC – millet farming appears in China
• Rice in 2,400 BC, also soy beans
– SE Asia – root crops (yams and taro) as well
as bananas, sugar cane, orange and lemon
trees
– Western Sahel region of Africa (btwn desert
and grasslands) – pearl millet, sorghum,
gours, cassava, watermelon, palm and kola
nuts, coffee beans
– Europe catches up around 6,000 BC
Invention of Farming
– Americas seem to develop independently
• Oldest center in Peru, domestication around 7,000
BC
– Lima beans, sweet potatoes, peanuts, tomatoes,
tobacco, cotton, and potato
• Mexico had diverse climate, also about 7000 BC
– Pumpkins, squash, avocados, chilli peppers, and cocoa
beans, also cotton, and corn
• Corn developed due to cross breeding of wild
grasses
Animal Herding
• Dogs
– 1st animal domesticated
– Joined hunters, shared experiences
• Sheep
– Began keeping young until old enough to eat
– Provided wool, milk
• Cattle
– Extinct aurock – massive and strong
– Selective breeding
– Worshiped around SE Asia
Animal Herding
• Pig
– In hills of Fertile Crescent; many avoided
because of foraging in human garbage
• Horses
– Finally worked about 2,000 BC, beasts of
burden
• Camels
– Beasts of burden
• Chickens
– Meat, eggs, feathers in India
Animal Herding
• Elephants
– Beasts of burden in India, not tamed in Africa
• Llama and Alpaca
– S. American beasts of burden
• Guinea pig
– S. American – raised for meat
• Turkeys
– N. American – raised for meat
• Australia had no domesticated animals
– Hunters/gathers until European contact (300 yrs
ago)
Technology in the New Stone
Age
• Herders were nomadic
• Farmers settled
– First homes were huts, hearths – mud-brick
increases comfort
– Baskets increased, hold water
– Pottery – starts in Japan, variety around world
• Metal working
– Hammering increases (6,500 BC – SE Asia)
– Smelting appears around 4,000 BC
– Bronze appears around 3,200 BC (Fertile
Crescent)
Megalith Builders
• About 6,000 BC – Neolithic farmers cross into
Europe
– Population lived in small hunter/gathering groups
in forests, slash and burn farmers
– 4,500 BC, farmers began building huge stone
monuments; lasts centuries
• Some appear to be tombs of chiefs, temples,
observatories
• Stone quarried a distance away – need lots of labor
• Stonehenge most famous – unknown purpose
• Largest in Brittany, France (Grand Menhir stone = 385
tons)
Conclusion
• Domestication of plants/animals critical
– Allowed control of environment, larger
populations
– Unsuccessful in tropics and Arctic extreme
temps
– Required hard work
• Climate could cause problems
• Development of tools increased storage, yeilds
Foundations of Civilization
Sect 3: Beginnings of Civilization
First Cities and Civilizations Arise
• The earliest civilizations—such as Sumer, Egypt,
and the Indus and Shang civilizations—
developed along large rivers
– Transportation, regular water supply
– Periodic river flooding made the soil fertile for farming
– Farms produced surplus food and people were able
to specialize in other types of work
• The exceptions were the first civilizations of the
Americas, where cities were built on swamps or
in the mountains
First Cities and Civilizations Arise
– Surpluses allowed growing populations, storing food
for the future
• some villages swelled into cities
• People were able to specialize in jobs
• New form of economy; no longer traditional economy
– Civilizations arose that were complex
• organized governments, complex religions, job specialization,
social classes, arts and architecture, public works, and
writing
• Arose independently in different river valleys
– Nomadic cultures had some of these characteristics,
but they did not build cities and had simpler forms of
government
• Included those that developed on the steppes, especially
herders
First Civilizations and Cities Arise
Basic Features that Define
Civilization
• Organized Governments
– Some councils of elders, others more
complex and powerful
– Needed to oversee food production, control
flooding/irrigation, other public works
– Used officials to collect taxes, enforce laws,
defense
• Grew more complex over time, specialization
within the government
– Perhaps priests had most power early, over
time, religious connection used to legitimate
government
Basic Features that Define
Civilization
• Complex Religions
– Most ancient people were polytheistic
• Gods of sun, river, other natural forces
• Tried to gain favor of the gods with offerings, building
temples, sacrificing animals, crops, etc
• Job Specialization
– New crafts required too much time/effort for one
person to master them all
• Became skilled artisans, metal working esp important
– Also brick layers, soldiers, merchants, etc
• People became more interdependent
Basic Features that Define
Civilization
• Social Classes
– Some jobs held better esteem than others,
classes emerged, often with priests/nobles at
the top, then merchants, artisans, peasants,
and slaves
• Arts and Architecture
– Expressed the talents and beliefs of the
people
– Rules used temples/monuments to remind
people of their power
Basic Features that Define
Civilization
• Public Works
– Strong rulers completed for the betterment of
their people, civilizations, own reputation
• Irrigation, roads, bridges, walls
• Often costly in labor, lives
• Writing
– Began in multiple places, used for economic
or political reasons
• Pictographs develop into more complex writing
• Scribes were those who were taught to read/write
in later civilizations (mostly men)
Basic Features of Civilization
Basic Features that Define
Civilization
• Comparing Nomadic Life and Civilizations
– Many characteristics were simpler forms
– Although lacking many of the characteristics
of civilization, many were advances in art and
science
Civilizations Change Over Time
– Physical changes and interaction btwn people
• Environment Affects People’s Lives
– Depended on rain and fertile soil to farm,
resources such as timber and metals
– Sudden, drastic events (earthquake, volcano)
would destroy entire civilization
• Over farming hurts fertility, rivers can become too
salty leading to famine, could run out of timber
• People had to adapt to changes, trade with others,
or relocate
Civilizations Change over Time
• Culture Changes Hands and Changes
Shape
– Ideas and customs were shared through
cultural diffusion from trade, migration, or
warfare
• Skills such as writing, religion, shared
• Victorious armies might force their way of life or
beliefs upon those they conquer
Civilizations Change over Time
• Cities grow into City-States
– As governments surrounded to the towns,
villages around the city, City-States
developed
– Government would tax the outlying farms,
people to support the city and government
• First Empires are Established
– Governments took over several cities or citystates, leading to the 1st empires
• Defeat could be painful, also brings peace
Changes as Civilization Develops