Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    From $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Ancient History: 4500 BCE to 500 CE Essentials
    Ancient History: 4500 BCE to 500 CE Essentials
    Ancient History: 4500 BCE to 500 CE Essentials
    Ebook173 pages2 hours

    Ancient History: 4500 BCE to 500 CE Essentials

    By Gordon Patterson

    5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    REA’s Essentials provide quick and easy access to critical information in a variety of different fields, ranging from the most basic to the most advanced. As its name implies, these concise, comprehensive study guides summarize the essentials of the field covered. Essentials are helpful when preparing for exams, doing homework and will remain a lasting reference source for students, teachers, and professionals. Ancient History: 4500 BC to 500 AD discusses Mesopotamian civilization, Egyptian civilization, Hebrew civilization, Greek civilization, Alexander and the Hellenistic Age, the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, and Christianity in the ancient world.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherResearch & Education Association
    Release dateJan 1, 2013
    ISBN9780738671543
    Ancient History: 4500 BCE to 500 CE Essentials

    Read more from Gordon Patterson

    Related to Ancient History

    Related ebooks

    History For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • UNLIMITED

      The Sun God's Journey

      Sep 7, 2023

      The sun god took different forms as he crossed the sky. He was Khepri when young in the morning, Re at his strongest at midday, and Atum when old in the evening. At night, he travelled through the afterlife realm, where he faced challenges, but was r

      1 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Representing The Aten

      Nov 18, 2022

      Representing The Aten
      6 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Treasures of Ancient Egypt

      May 28, 2021

      ANCIENT EGYPT PART 2 OF 2 Social sciences FOR more than 3 000 years the Ancient Egyptian civilisation flourished on the banks of the Nile River in northeast Africa. But after Egypt was conquered – first by the Greeks, then the Romans and eventually t

      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Mesopotamia’s Rise

      Aug 15, 2019

      Mesopotamia’s Rise
      2 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Introduction To Papyri: A Study In Six Examples

      Oct 19, 2021

      Our first example comes from the Egyptian town of Hermopolis and contains the myth of the battle between the gods Horus and Seth, a story we know primarily thanks to papyri. This fragment is not written in hieroglyphs. That script was designed for in

      2 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Greek Gods

      May 19, 2022

      Greek Gods
      12 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The Maya Count Begins

      Jun 11, 2022

      The Maya Count Begins
      1 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Akhenaten The Heretic Pharaoh

      Jul 18, 2019

      Akhenaten The Heretic Pharaoh
      9 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      In The Land Ot The Lost

      Jun 30, 2023

      In The Land Ot The Lost
      19 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Did Prehistoric Climate Change Help Make Us Human?

      Oct 23, 2020

      A sudden shift in how our ancient ancestors produced tools may be linked to a rapidly changing climate, say scientists.

      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      What a 9,000-Year-Old Spruce Tree Taught Me: How photographing the world’s oldest living things pushed me outside the boundaries of science.

      Mar 19, 2015

      I had little idea of what I would discover when I set out to find and photograph the oldest living things in the world. I expected that researching, traveling, and photographing would stretch my perspective, and force me to learn a lot of science: bi

      8 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The Modern Mind May Be 100,000 Years Old: New fossil evidence shows sophisticated thought began earlier than we thought.

      Sep 29, 2016

      When I started learning about the Ice Age, the oldest known cave art dated to about 35,000 years ago—now it’s closer to 41,000 years. And while they seemed like a fairly intelligent species, Neanderthals weren’t thought to have been capable of creati

      18 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      “Graves Are Like Time Capsules – Little Microcosms Of Prehistoric Culture”

      Jun 10, 2021

      Ellie Cawthorne: what kind of things might you find in a prehistoric grave, and what could they reveal about the past? Alice Roberts: Prehistory is intensely interesting to me because the only way that we can approach it is through archaeology. You a

      10 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      From Our Readers

      Oct 15, 2024

      In Jarrett A. Lobell’s Artifact about eyed needles (September/October 2024), archaeologists posit that as temperatures became colder and people had to cover themselves more than they had before, they stopped decorating their bodies and began to decor

      2 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      My 3 Greatest Revelations

      Feb 1, 2024

      My 3 Greatest Revelations
      3 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      An Archaeological Reckoning

      Dec 4, 2024

      An Archaeological Reckoning
      11 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      When Did Archery In The Americas Begin?

      Dec 21, 2023

      People in the Americas started to use bow and arrows around 5,000 years ago, according to a new study. The research indicates that adoption of the technology coincided with the both the expansion of exchange networks and the growing tendency for peop

      2 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Michael Wood On…

      Sep 1, 2022

      In my job, travelling the world making films on history and culture, I’ve spent a lot of time exploring religion in its many manifestations. Religion, after all, is a gift for the camera: full of colour, action and often moving rituals. It’s also a c

      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Ancient History

    5/5

    1 rating1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      The is the best book on ancient history. Great Job!!!!

    Book preview

    Ancient History - Gordon Patterson

    more!

    CHAPTER 1

    THE EARLIEST BEGINNINGS OF CIVILIZATION

    1.1 HISTORY AND PREHISTORY

    1.1.1 Definition of History

    The word history comes from the Greek historia, which means to inquire or to research. The content of history consists of all past human actions (thought and deed). Historians are responsible for discovering facts or evidence about past actions and interpreting or evaluating the meaning of these facts as they narrate the story of the past.

    1.1.2 Period of Ancient History

    Ancient history covers the period from the first appearance of human beings up to the middle of the sixth century of the Common Era (550 C.E.).

    1.1.3 Difference Between History and Prehistory

    Prehistory refers to the period prior to the discovery of writing around 3500 B.C.E. (Before the Common Era) in the ancient Near East. Before the discovery of writing, historians rely on the techniques of archaeologists and anthropologists in constructing their descriptions of ancient life.

    1.2 THE APPEARANCE OF MAN

    1.2.1 Human Evolution

    Scientists estimate that the Earth is 4 to 6 billion years old. A controversy rages among paleontologists (scholars who study fossils and ancient forms of life) as to the date of the evolutionary split between ape-like (pongids) and man-like (hominid) creatures. A few scholars maintain that an animal called Ramapithecus, which lived 14 million years ago, is man’s most distant ancestor. Most paleontologists, however, believe that the evolutionary split which led to the appearance of Homo sapiens (thinking man) occurred 4 million years ago. Fossil remains from East Africa of the earliest known hominid, Australopithecus afarensis, support this conclusion. Though this creature did not belong to the Homo family, one branch of its descendents developed a larger brain, a slender body, and smaller teeth, and is therefore considered the direct ancestor of modern humans.

    1.2.2 The First Humans

    In 1974, Donald Johanson and Maurice Taieb discovered in Ethiopia a partial skeleton of a three-foot-tall female member of the species Australopithecus afarensis. Known popularly as Lucy, she was very apelike in build and estimated to be just over 3 million years old. Emerging perhaps 2.5 million years ago was Homo habilis, who walked erect, had a larger brain than the apes, and fashioned primitive tools. In 1960, the first early member of this genus was identified by Louis Leakey at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania. Homo habilis is the likely immediate ancestor to Homo erectus (who appeared about 1.6 million years ago), which is to say, the first in a line that leads to us. It was Richard Leakey who, in 1984, found a nearly intact skeleton of Homo erectus that was more than 1.5 million years old; the fossil was dubbed Turkana Boy (after Lake Turkana in northern Kenya). Members of this species were taller than their predecessors and possessed a brain sufficiently developed to allow them to make stone tools and harness fire.

    1.2.3 From Nature to History

    Early human development was marked by four periods of glaciation (Ice Ages) that occurred intermittently from 3 million B.C.E. to 40,000 B.C.E. Humans (Homo sapiens) appeared near the beginning of the last Ice Age (80,000-70,000 B.C.E.). Homo sapiens, sometimes called Cro-Magnon Man (after a cave where fossil remains were discovered in France), shared the world with other populations. Neanderthal Man (whose remains were discovered in the Neander River valley in Germany) was Cro-Magnon Man’s chief competitor. Neanderthals lived in camps, used fire, and ritualistically buried their dead. Cro-Magnon Man triumphed over his rivals by 40,000 B.C.E. (end of last Ice Age).

    1.3 STAGES OF HUMAN HISTORY

    1.3.1 Epochs of Human Development

    The earliest ancestors of the human race left no written records. Archaeologists use the remains of prehistoric man’s material culture (broken tools, artifacts, and burial sites) as the basis for their description of antiquity. All of history can be divided into two great periods: The Age of Stone and the Age of Metals. Each of these ages derives its character from the material that formed the basis of its development. The earliest tools were made of stone. Metal tools did not appear until 3500 B.C.E.

    THE STAGES OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

    1.4 THE PALEOLITHIC AGE

    1.4.1 The Early Paleolithic Age

    Archaeologists divide the Age of Stone into the Paleolithic Age (Old Stone Age) and the Neolithic Age (New Stone Age). The Paleolithic period runs from roughly 2 million B.C.E. to 10,000 B.C.E. The early Paleolithic peoples (up to 30,000 B.C.E.) lived as foragers. Hunting and gathering formed the basis of human life. The availability of food regulated population growth. Humans lived in small groups of 20 to 50 members. Archaeological evidence suggests that the earliest division of labor was based on gender.

    1.4.2 The Later Paleolithic Age

    Between 30,000 and 10,000 B.C.E., Paleolithic peoples showed a notable advance. New and more complicated tools like the fishhook and harpoon appeared. Animal skins were sewn (the needle was invented during this period) into garments and caves were used for shelter. But perhaps the most remarkable legacy from the late Paleolithic Age are the extraordinarily naturalistic depictions of bison, bulls, fish, and other creatures that appear on the walls and ceilings of caves (25,000 B.C.E.). The motivation for these paintings was probably a desire to create some kind of sympathetic magic that would ensure the supply of animals for the clan (an extended family) or tribe (a group of clans).

    1.4.3 End of Paleolithic Age

    The Old Stone Age ended around 10,000. The retreat of the glaciers that followed the end of the Ice Age transformed the available food supply. Some animals, such as the reindeer, migrated to the north. Others, such as the mammoth, became extinct. The period from 10,000 to 5000 is called the Mesolithic Age (Middle Stone Age). This was a transitional period in which new sources of food supply were developed and humans assumed a more sedentary existence. The beginning and end of the Mesolithic Age varied. Some peoples had entered into a new productive relationship with nature by 10,000 B.C.E.

    1.5 THE NEOLITHIC AGE

    1.5.1 The Agricultural Revolution

    The development of systematic agriculture and the domestication of animals (10,000 to 6000 B.C.E. in the Near East) made possible the emergence of civilization. Wheat and barley were probably the first wild grasses to come under cultivation. Animals such as sheep, goats, pigs, and donkeys were adapted to human use. Archaeologists speculate that the dog was the

    LAND RESOURCES

    first animal to become domesticated. Systematic agriculture and the domestication of animals gave humans control over their food supply.

    1.5.2 Economic and Social Character of Neolithic Cultures

    The agricultural revolution provoked changes in population, the division of labor, and trade.

    Population. The revolution in agriculture had a direct impact on population growth. Archaeologists have found evidence of a sharp increase in population among Neolithic peoples. Population size was limited in the Paleolithic Age by the food resources of a given territory. Agriculture removed this restriction. Children become economically useful as agricultural workers whereas in the Paleolithic Age children posed a burden to the clan or tribe’s movement. After 8000 B.C.E., villages appeared in such places as Jericho (Palestine), Jarma (Iraq/Kurdistan), and Catal Huyuk (western Turkey).

    Division of Labor. The division of labor became more complex in the Neolithic Age. The existence of an agricultural surplus permitted specialization. There is evidence

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1
    pFad - Phonifier reborn

    Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.

    Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.


    Alternative Proxies:

    Alternative Proxy

    pFad Proxy

    pFad v3 Proxy

    pFad v4 Proxy