CIVILIZATIONS
Writing
• Humans lived for hundreds of
thousands of years before civilization.
• Our ancestors lived for millions before
that. Civilization was a new way of life.
THE FIRST CIVILIZATIONS APPEARED IN MAJOR
VALLEYS
WHERE FLOODPLAINS CONTAINED RICH
SOIL AND THE RIVERS PROVIDED
IRRIGATIONS FOR CROPS
AND A MEANS OF TRANSPORTATION
“Most Ancient civilizations have been
studied by archaeologist rather than
historians”
(Kottak, 2009)
Egalitarian
- “People did not differ much in wealth,
prestige, or power.”
- Archeologists do not always agree on
how a state should be defined, but
most think that hierarchical and
centralized decision making affecting a
substantial population is the key
criterion
- There is a hierarchical social structure
topped by an elite class from which the
leaders are drawn. The government
tries to claim a monopoly on the use of
force
- The states uses its force or threat of
force to tax its population and to draft
people for work and war
The Cradles of Civilizations
- It refers to a civilization that
Emerged INDEPENDENTLY
- All of these developed
around rivers
WHY RIVERS?
1. Farming – the land is perfect for growing
crops because of the frequent rise of water
2. Storing food – people abandon the
hunter-gatherer lifestyle to grow and store
surplus food
1. The Sumerian Civilization
Effects:
- Sumerians developed important skills:
This developed a hierarchal society with
building canals and making rules to prevent one
the division of labor which led to the
farmer from depriving others of water
growth of cities
5 Features of Civilization
1. Cities
2.
3. Specialization
4. Government
5. Religion
4 Cradles of Civilizations
1. MESOPOTAMIA
- This is part of what is called the fertile
cresent
- Comes From the word: MESOS
POTAMUS meaning between rivers
- This civilization was between Tigris and
Euphrates (rivers)
- Mesopotamia, is sometimes called the
Fertile Crescent because it is a
CRESCENT-SHAPED area
- Although empires would eventually
arise to unite it, ancient Mesopotamia
was a diverse, disorganized collection
of united by trade, by the and by a
shared with its characteristic ziggurat
temple
2. EGYPT
- The civilization of ancient Egypt is
known for its elaborate RELIGION
which emphasized life after death and
led to the development of
mummification
- The civilization of ancient Egypt is
known for its architectural
achievements, especially the famous
pyramids for its hieroglyphic system of
WRITING
3. CHINA
- Called the YELLOW civilization of china
- Chinese civilization developed a
RELIGION that emphasized ancestor
worship and a unique and complex
WRITING SYSTEM which combined
symbols representing sounds, with
those representing ideas.
4. INDIA
- Also called the INDUS VALLEY
CIVILIZATION
- The ruins of this civilization at such
cities as HARAPPA, DHOLAVIRA, and
MOHENJO DARO reveal that it was
probably the largest of the four ancient
civilizations.
RISE OF CIVILIZATION AND STATE
- The small Sumerian villages grew
into twelve city-states
 - each city-state included a city and the
country side around it
- self-governing and independent of
other city-states
• The Sumerians made
impressive achievements:
- houses, pottery, textiles for clothing
- carved wedge-shaped symbols called
Cuneiform - writing made it possible to
keep records of business deals, religious
beliefs, laws, and wars.
2. Egyptian Civilization
• Egypt has been called the Gift
of the Nile
- without this river, Egypt would be a
desert
- it gave the country unity and the river
made it easy to go from one village to
another
• Life in Egypt centered on
religion
- art and literature
- view of nature
• The ruler of Egypt, the Pharaoh
was looked on both as a God
and a king
- was all-powerful
- directed the economic life of Egypt
• Journey to an “Other World”
- saw death as a continuation of life
3. 3. The Greece City-States
• Established a new way of
thinking about nature, society,
and the purpose of life
• Came to value the human being
and trust in the power of the
human mind
• Citizens became actively
involved in the community life
and felt close to the
government
• Located at southern Greece is
the city-state of Sparta
 Sparta
- conquered nearby regions and made
some inhabitants into state slaves
- aimed to produce strong bodied
fearless warriors
- Spartan boys as young as seven years
old are sent to military camp
• Citizens of Athens governed
themselves and did not want to
be ruled by a powerful king
• Believed in a free society that
allowed citizens to develop
their minds and talents
 Democracy
- developed from the Greeks
- from the Greek word that means
“ruled by the people”
• Greeks developed great
philosophers such as Socrates,
Aristotle, and Plato
4. Roman Republic
• Began as a small town near the
coast of Central Italy
• Influenced by two settlers – the
Greeks and the Etruscans
o From the Greeks –
adopted writing,
military techniques,
literature, art and
architecture
o From the Etruscans –
adopted techniques in
sanitation, road
building, architecture
and ceramics
• Later established a Republic – a
government without a king
o Roman Republic
- Led by two consuls, nobles who
directed daily affairs of the government
- Consuls are only elected for one year
term
- Assembly of soldier-citizens made laws,
elected officials decided issues of war
and space, included wealthy
landowners – Patricians, and common
people – Plebeians.
Senate
- Advisory council
- Most powerful arm of government
- Open only to Patricians
- Controlled important financial and
foreign affairs
- Reviewed laws made by assembly
 - Other scientists suggest that intellectual
advances in the human brain may have
NEOLITHIC AGE
caused people to settle down. Religious
- “NEO” means NEW
artifacts and artistic imagery—
- “LITHIC” means STONE
progenitors of human civilization—have
- Neolithic Age/ Revolution is also known
been uncovered at the earliest Neolithic
as New Stone Age & Agricultural
settlements.
Revolution
- The Neolithic Era began when some
groups of humans gave up the nomadic
1. PALEOLITHIC ERA
lifestyle completely to begin farming. It
- The first humans evolved in Africa
may have taken humans hundreds or
during the Paleolithic Era, or Stone Age,
even thousands of years to transition
which spans the period of history from
fully from a lifestyle of gathering wild
2.5 million to about 10,000 BCE.
plants to keeping small gardens and later
- During this time, humans lived in small
tending large crop fields.
groups as hunter-gatherers, with clear
gender divisions for labor. The men
NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION: FROM
hunted animals while the women
HUNTER-GATHERER TO AGRICULTURIST
gathered food, such as fruit, nuts and
- This transition everywhere is associated
berries, from the local area.
with the change from a largely nomadic
- Humankind gradually evolved from
hunter-gatherer way of life to a more
early members of the genus Homo—
settled, agrarian-based one, due to the
such as Homo Habilis, who used simple
inception of the domestication of various
stone tools— into fully behaviorally
plant and animal species—depending on
and anatomically modern humans
the species locally available, and
(Homo sapiens) during the Paleolithic
probably also influenced by local culture.
era.
- The domestication of animals provided a
- During the end of the Paleolithic,
new source of protein, through meat
specifically the Middle and or Upper
and milk, along with hides and wool,
Paleolithic, humans began to produce
which allowed for the production of
the earliest works of art and engage in
clothing and other objects. There are
religious and spiritual behavior, such as
several competing (but not mutually
burial and ritual.
exclusive) theories about the factors that
- Paleolithic humans were nomads
drove populations to take up agriculture.
- This eventually resulted in humans
spreading out from Africa (beginning
THEORIES THAT DROVE THE
roughly 60,000 years ago) and into
POPULATION TO AGRICULTURE
Eurasia, Southeast Asia, and Australia.
By about 40,000 years ago, they had
1. OASIS THEORY
entered Europe, and by about 15,000
- originally proposed by Raphael Pumpelly
years ago, they had reached North
in 1908, and popularized by V. Gordon
America followed by South America.
Childe in 1928.
CAUSES OF THE NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION - - The theory that humans were forced
into close association with animals due
- The causes of the Neolithic Revolution to changes in climate.
may have varied from region to region. - - that people started to domesticate
The Earth entered a warming trend plants and animals because they were
around 14,000 years ago at the end of forced to, because of climate change.
the last Ice Age. 2. HILLY FLANKS HYPOTHESIS
- Some scientists theorize that climate - proposed by Robert Braidwood in 1948.
changes drove the Agricultural - - The theory that agriculture began in
Revolution. In the Fertile Crescent, the hilly flanks of the Taurus and Zagros
bounded on the west by the mountains, where the climate was not
Mediterranean Sea and on the east by drier, and fertile land supported a variety
the Persian Gulf, wild wheat and barley of plants and animals amenable to
began to grow as it got warmer. domestication.
- Pre-Neolithic people called Natufians 3. FEASTING MODEL
started building permanent houses in - by Brian Hayden.
the region.
- - The theory that displays of power
through feasting drove agricultural
technology.
- - the notion that agriculture,
domestication, and the sedentary
lifestyle were perpetuated by man’s
desire to show wealth through
extravagant displays of food.
4. DEMOGRAPHIC THEORIES
- proposed by Carl Sauer and adapted by
Lewis Binford and Kent Flannery.
- - Theories about how sedentary
populations may have driven agricultural
changes.
- - the increase in human population is
hampered by the carrying capacity of the
natural environment in supplying food.
With further increase in population, the
food that the wild naturally supplies
became too insignificant.
5. EVOLUTIONARY/ INTENTIONALITY
THEORY
- developed by David Rindos and others
- - theory that domestication was part of
an evolutionary process between
humans and plants.
- - it describes agriculture as a form of co-
evolutionary adaptation of humans and
wild plants. It started with the mere
protection of wild plants and progressed
until their domestication improved.
EFFECTS OF NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION ON
SOCIETY
1. The shift to agricultural food
production supported a denser
population, which in turn supported
larger sedentary communities, the
accumulation of goods and tools,
and specialization in diverse forms of
new labor.
2. Food surpluses made possible the
development of a social elite freed
from labor, who dominated their
communities and monopolized
decision-making.
3. There were deep social divisions and
inequality between the sexes and
Social class was determined by
occupation.
4. Neolithic populations generally had
poorer nutrition, shorter life
expectancies, and a more labor-
intensive lifestyle than hunter-
gatherers. Diseases jumped from
animals to humans, and
agriculturalists suffered from more
anemia, vitamin deficiencies, spinal
deformations, and dental
pathologies.
OVERALL IMPACT OF NEOLITHIC
REVOLUTION TO MODERN LIFE
- The way we live today is directly related
to the advances made in the Neolithic
Revolution. From the governments we
live under, to the specialized work
laborers do, to the trade of goods and
food, humans were irrevocably changed
by the switch to sedentary agriculture
and domestication of animals. Human
population swelled from five million to
seven billion today.
CLOTHING
Paleolithic age – clothing was made from
fur and that the climate that time was
cold, so people dressed to stay warm
Neolithic age – animal skins; people
were able to make fabric in some places
FOOD
Paleolithic age – men hunted for food,
and women gathered food
Neolithic age – people learned how to
grow their own food, and people
domesticated animals. Farming and
Herding was an important part of the
Neolithic age
SHELTER
Paleolithic age – there were no
permanent homes ; since people hunted
and gathered, they had to move where
the food was. Therefore, homes were
temporary
Neolithic age – they had permanent
homes; homes were usually made from
timber, wattle & daub, or mud brick
TOOLS
Paleolithic age – simple shaped stone
tools like cutters, scrapers, and hand
axes
Neolithic age – widespread use of
ground-stone tools; more advanced
shaped tools like bows and arrows and
harpoons; antler or wooden plows; ends
with use of metals (copper)
CULTURE
Paleolithic age – Animistic religions;
ceremonial burial and musical
instruments
Neolithic age – use of statues,
monuments, and temples for religion;
monumental burial grounds
SOCIETY
Paleolithic age – some trade for key
goods (flint) ; very low population
density; more equal and based on
sharing; learning similar broad skills
Neolithic age – more trade, including
status for goods; centers of population
(towns/cities); specialization; elites and
lower classes; surpluses have to be
protected