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1101:
Western
Civilization I
New York City College
of Technology
Fall 2011 Section 6744
Mon. & Wed., 2:30 3:45 PM
Brendan P. OMalley, Instructor
bomalley@gc.cuny.edu
Paleolithic Characteristics
Technology: Humans fashioning primarily stone tools, but also some
from bone and wood.
Nomadic hunter/gatherer groups of 30-40 individuals.
Impulse to Make Art: Venus Figurines, as early as 33,000 B.C.E.;
Chauvet Cave Paintings, earliest known ca. 30,000 32,000 B.C.E.
Long-Distance Trade Networks: Example of bloodstone from
Scottish island found across Northern Europe.
Paleolithic Chronology
Roughly 60,000 B.C.E.: Human migration from Africa to Eurasia
via the Arabian Peninsula
Emergence of Homo sapiens sapiens (thinking, thinking man),
fully modern human beings, around 40,000 B.C.E.
Neanderthals die off around 30,000 - 25,000 B.C.E.
Maximum glaciation reached around 18,000 B.C.E., with significant
retreat of glaciers by 10,000 B.C.E., which is also the end of the
Paleolithic period.
By 10,000 B.C.E., European human population is about 20,000.
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Sumerian Religion
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Indo-European Contributions
Black Sea and Caucus Mountains: Produced a people who often
invaded the Fertile Crescent and spread cultural practices, having a
profound effect on the development of the West.
Language: Linguists have labeled these invaders from Central Asia
Indo-Europeans since their language served as the basis for all future
European languages (except for Finnish, Basque, and Hungarian). In
addition to invading Europe, some settled in India, Iran, and Turkey.
Horsemanship and Warfare: Excellent warriors who used horses,
becoming proficient in archery while riding chariots.
Developed four-wheeled, horse-drawn carts.
Created their own written languages after contact with Mesopotamians.
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Chart showing the many languages that branched off from the original Indo-European tongue
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Hittite Empire
Indo-European people known as the Hittites establish a kingdom
in what is now modern-day Turkey around 1650 B.C.E.
Integrated many aspects of Mesopotamian culturelike writing
but remained a violent and warlike people.
Developed a potent new weapon: the war chariot.
In addition, the Hittites were skilled archers.
King Suppiluliuma I (r. ca. 1380-1345 B.C.E.) conquers much of
Mesopotamia.
Battle of Kadesh (1299 B.C.E.): Hittites clash with Egyptians.
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Ancient Egypt
Society grew along the banks of the Nile, a 4000-mile
African river that flooded from June to October every year,
creating fertile lands and good growing season.
Egyptian society developed in a more isolated state than
the societies of Mesopotamia, with less fear of invasion.
Egyptians felt their lives were structured by a consistent
pattern provided by the Nile. More optimistic in their
outlook than Sumerians.
According to tradition, a king named Menes consolidated
Egypt as a unified kingdom for the first time around 3100
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B.C.E.
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Phoenicians
Successful oceangoing trading people based in the cities of Byblos,
Sidon, and Tyre, located in what is now Lebanon.
Created a major trading colony at Carthage, in what is now Tunisia.
Traded beyond the Straits of Gibraltar, down the African coast,
Spain, and up to Britain in search of metals for tools and weapons,
and also for luxury goods.
Improved on Sumerian writing by creating a purely phonetic
alphabet of twenty-two letters, a system later adopted by most
Western languages.
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Phoenician Alphabet
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