Unit 1—

Foundations

8000 BCE
to 600 CE
We begin at about 8,000 BC
when village life began in
the New Stone Age. . . Also
known as the
Neolithic Revolution.

NEW STONE AGE

 A TOTALLY new way of living:
From
Hunter-Gatherers
to Agriculture
INVENTION OF AGRICULTURE
 Mesopotamians first to engage in
agriculture
 Around 8000 BC
 Cereal crops
 Wheat
 Barley
 Herd animals
 Sheep
 Goats
 Woman probably first farmer
 Grain-collecting then noticed that stored
wild grain could be grown on purpose
 Agriculture changed
how people lived
 Agriculture (Farming)

 Growth of Cities

 Division of Labor
(Specialization)

 Trade

 Writing and Mathematics

Human/Environmental interaction

 Tools and weapons

 Social and political
organization
 Homes
 Lake houses in Switzerland
 Long houses along Danube
 Stone huts in Britain
 Reed lean-tos in Egypt
 Clay brick huts in Middle East
 Broad language
groups appeared
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION
 Originally ruled by
council of elders
 Authority moved to
single leader
 Close-knit society
 Communal granaries,
ovens, and fields
 Private property
limited to personal
possessions
POSSESSIONS
 Needs of
agriculture and
stability
 Clay pottery
 Woven baskets
 Woolen and linen
clothing
 Sophisticated tools
and weapons
 Plow
 RESULTS OF AGRICULTURE

 Required
intensification of
group organization
 Neolithicfarmers
lived in settlements
 Ranged from 150
(Jarmo) to 2000
(Jericho)
 OUTSIDE CONTACTS
 Neolithic communities had links
 Walls indicate some fearful
 Others were more peaceful
 Obsidian and turquoise in Jericho
from several 100’s of miles away
 Either gifts or received in trade

Jericho
Origins and Spread of
Agriculture
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Self-actualization
(self-knowledge,
fulfillment of
personal potential)
Esteem
(autonomy, achievement, recognition)
Social
(belonging, affection)
Safety
(security, protection from harm)
Physiological
Civilization: Whose Definition?

 18th Century European

 Civilized vs. primitive
 White vs. everyone else
 What does it mean to be
civilized?
 Historians have determined 6
characteristics of civilization:
 Cities

 Organized central governments

 Complex religions

 Social classes

 Job specialization and the arts

 Writing
 Cities
 Rivers provided:
 water supply
 transportation
 food supply from animals Euphrates River

 Rivers provided challenges:

 flooding
 irrigation
 Required organized, mass labor
(corvee)
 Construction and repair of canals and
irrigation ditches
 Organized Central
Governments
 Central authority needed to control:
 Labor
 Storage of grain

 Dispersion of foodstuffs among

population
 Early governments first
led by priests
 Later controlled by warrior
chiefs or kings
 Organized Central
Governments
 Governments became more
complex as new responsibilities
arose such as:
 tax collecting
 law making

 handling public works projects

 organizing systems of defense

 Complex Religions
 Generally polytheistic
 Many gods represented natural forces
 Others controlled human activities
 Priests and worshippers tried to gain
gods’ favor through complex rituals
and sacrifice
 Directed by unquestionable ruling
class of priests
 King regarded as a god or as a
god’s agent
 Complex Religions
 Temples often built to honor
specific gods and goddesses

Mayan temple
Egyptian temple
Mesopotamian ziggurat
 Social Classes
 People ranked according to their
profession

Egyptian
social
structure

Chief
Priests
Nobles
Wealthy merchants
Artisans
Peasants/farmers
 Social Classes
 Priestly class is part of the beginning of
social differentiation
 Class structure based on specialization
of labor
 Generated class differences
 Priests (“We talk to god, you don’t.)
 Aristocrats/warriors (“We have weapons,
you don’t.”)
 Common people (“I guess we work...?”)

 Slaves (“Uh, oh!!!”)

 Job Specialization
and the Arts
 Artisans specialized in various jobs,
such as:
 Bricklayers
 Blacksmiths
 Production of luxuries (Things You
Don’t Really Need)
 Metal technology
 Job Specialization
and the Arts
 Created great architecture and art
 monumental architecture
 pyramids, ziggurats, big cities
 huge temples and associated
structures
 to fill the needs of a god-oriented
state
 under the control of the priestly
class
 Writing
 Probably first used by priests
 Earliest writing used pictograms

Chinese calligraphy

Egyptian hieroglyphs

Mesopotamian cuneiform
 Writing
 Symbols later added to represent
words and then sounds
 Scribes were specially trained to
read, write, and record information
 Religion
 Trade
 Government

 Learning
became
cumulative
UNIQUENESS OF CIVILIZATION
 Civilization was not simply next
inevitable step from Neolithic Age
 Many peoples remained at simple food-
raising stage for thousands of years—
without developing any sort of civilization
 Only four locations developed
civilizations entirely on their own
 China
 Indus River Valley
 Mesopotamia/Egypt
 Central America and Peru
 Primary Phase Cultures
 ca. 3000-2500 B.C. to about
1800-1500 B.C.
 Either disappeared or changed by
1500 B.C.
 Common characteristics
 Consistent, worldwide
 Common Characteristics ??
 Water!!
 Deserts of river cultures short on
resources
 River Valley Civilizations

 Opportunity to adapt
environment
 Suitable for domesticated
plants/animals
 Relatively stable (a bit hot)
climate
GEOGRAPHY influenced the
development of river valley
civilizations.
 Early River Valley Civilizations
Environment
• Flooding of Tigris and Euphrates unpredictable
Mesopotamia • No natural barriers
• Limited natural resources for making tools or buildings
• Flooding of the Nile predictable
Egypt • Nile an easy transportation link between Egypt’s villages
• Deserts were natural barriers
• Indus flooding unpredictable
Indus River • Monsoon winds
Valley • Mountains, deserts were natural barriers
• Huang He flooding unpredictable
China • Mountains, deserts natural barriers
• Geographically isolated from other ancient civilizations
• Mountains and ocean natural barriers
Mesoamerica
• Warm temperatures and moderate rainfall
& Andes • Geographically isolated from other ancient civilizations
 Mesopotamia – Fertile Crescent
 Sumer – The
Earliest of the River
Valley Civilizations

 Sumerian
Civilization grew up
along the Tigris and
Euphrates Rivers in
what is now Kuwait.
Sumerian Writing: cuneiform

Cuneiform is created by pressing a

pointed stylus into a clay tablet.
 Sumerians invented:
 Brick technology
 Wheel
 Base 60 – using the circle . . . 360 degrees
 Time – 60 minutes in an hour, 60 seconds in
a minute
 12 month lunar calendar
 arch
 ramp
 ziggurat
Ziggurat – Holy Mountain

 Click on the pictures for more information on ziggurats.

 Babylon
 First know written law code
 “Rule of Law”

 Hammurabi’s Code - 1792 BC

 EGYPT
“The Gift of the Nile”
 Hieroglyphics
 Pyramids
 Geometry
 Advances in medicine and
surgery

Nile
River
Sahara
Desert
 Indus River Valley
2500 BC – 1500 BC
 Harappan culture
 Well planned cities
 Grid pattern
 Modern plumbing
 Built on mud brick platforms
 Protected against seasonal floods
 Larger cities
 Houses built of baked brick
 Smaller towns
 Houses built of sun-dried mud brick
 Aryan Migration

 pastoral  depended on their cattle

 warriors  horse-drawn chariots
Varna (Social Hierarchy)
Brahmins

Kshatriyas

Vaishyas

Shudras

Pariahs [Harijan]  Untouchables

 Shang China
1600 BC – 1027 BC
 Yellow River Valley
 Bronze, jade, stone, bone and ceramic artifacts
 Advanced culture
 Divinations
 Religion
 Astronomy
 Calendar
 Art
 Medicine
 Shang China
1600 BC – 1122 BC
 Religion
 Human as well as animal sacrifices
 Regarded their land as only civilized land
and called it Zhongguo (Middle Kingdom)
 Lack of contact with foreigners led to
belief in:
 Strong sense of identity
 Superiority
 Center of earth
 Sole source of civilization
 Zhou China
1122 BC – 256 BC
 Bronze, jade, silver, gold
 Mandate of Heaven
 Power to rule came from heaven
 Power could be removed if ruler
not just
 Veneration of ancestors
 All must honor family responsibilities
 Period ended with
Era of Warring States
 Mesoamerica and
Andean South America
2900 BC – 1400 BC
 Mesoamerica
 Maize, chili peppers, avocados, beans
 Pottery
 Stone bowls
 Beads
 Waddle and daub structures
 No draft animals
 Mesoamerica and
Andean South America
3500 BC – 1400 BC
 Andes
 Textiles technology
 Sophisticated government
 Religion
 Lacked ceramics
 Largely without art
 Most impressive achievement was
monumental architecture
 Large platform mounds
 Sunken circular plazas
 Civilization
 A civilization is built on what is
required of men, not on that which
is provided for them.
 Antoine De Saint-Exupery
1900-1944, French Writer

 Increased means and increased

leisure are the two civilizers of
man.
 Benjamin Disraeli
1804-1881, British Statesman Prime Minister

 To be able to fill leisure

intelligently is the last product of
civilization.
 Toynbee, Arnold
1852-1883, British Economic Historian and Reformer
 Civilization
 Cities that served as administrative centers
 Political system based on control or defined
territory rather than on connections of kinship
 Significant number of people engaged in
specialized, non-food-producing activities
 Status distinctions, usually linked to
accumulation of substantial wealth by some
groups
 Monumental building
 System for keeping permanent records
 Long distance trade
 Major advances in science and arts
 Richard W. Bulliet
 Civilization
 "All peoples from small bands of hunters and
gatherers to farmers and factory workers live
in societies. All societies produce cultures:
combinations of the ideas, objects, and
patterns of behavior that result from human
social interaction. But not all societies and
cultures generate the surplus production that
permits the levels of specialization, scale, and
complexity that distinguish civilizations from
other social organizations. All people are
capable of building civilizations, but many
have lacked the resource base, historical
circumstance, or, quite simply, the motivation
of doing so.“
 Peter Stearns on culture vs. civilization
Classical India
Mauryan Empire (320 BCE-320 CE)

 Chandragupta
Unified northern India after
Alexander the Great withdrew
 Set up efficient bureaucracy

 Asoka (grandson)
 Dedicated life to Buddha
 Continued bureaucracy

 Hospitals, roads
 Gupta Empire (320-647 CE)

Chandra Gupta I
Bureaucracy
Allowed local
government in south
 Social Structure

 Patriarchal
 Women were legally minors
 Women under control of fathers,
husbands and sons
 Caste system continued
International Trade Routes
Items Traded

spices

gold & ivory

 Gupta
Art

Greatly influenced
Southeast Asian art & architecture.
 1000 diseases
Gupta Achievements 500 healing classified
plants identified
Printed
medicinal guides Kalidasa

Plastic Literature
Surgery Medicine

Inoculations
C-sections Gupta Solar
performed India Calendar

Astronomy
Decimal Mathematics
System
The earth
PI = 3.1416 is round
Concept
of Zero
Classical China
Qin [Ch’in] Dynasty (221-206 BCE)

 ShiHuangdi
 Legalist rule 
 Bureaucratic,
centralized
control
 Military expansion

 Book burnings -->

targeted Confucianists
 Buried protestors alive!
Terra Cotta
Great Wall
Army
 Han Dynasty (202 BCE-220 CE)

 Strong, centralized bureaucracy

 Extended Great Wall
 Roads (including Silk Road), canals
 Emperor Wu Di (141-87 BCE)
 Public schools
 Colonized
Manchuria,
Korea, &
Vietnam
 Civil service
system
 Chang’an
The Han Capital
 Han Artifacts

Imperial
Seal

Han Ceramic
House
Han – Roman Empire
Connection
Trade Routes of the Ancient World
Classical Greece
 Early History
(3000 BCE-750 BCE)
 Minoans
 Crete
 Seafaring merchants
 Sophisticated civilization
 Hellenes
 Merged with native Greeks
 Dark Age

Homer
 Geographic
Influence
 Mountains
 Independent city-states

 Insufficient farmland
 Founded colonies on Mediterranean
coast

 Location
 Peninsula in Mediterranean
 Exchange of culture/trade

 Deep harbors
 Numerous good harbors on its
irregular coastline
 City-States

 Athens
 Democratic, leading city-state
 Sparta
 Aristocratic/military city-state
 Corinth
 Trading center
 United by language, culture and
fear of Persians
 Alexander the Great
(336-323 BCE)

 Taught by Aristotle
 Conquered Persian
Empire
 Created
Hellenistic
culture
 Died suddenly
at 33
 Athenian Contributions
 Theater, poetry and historical writing
 Science and math
 Architecture and sculpture
 Philosophy
 Socrates
 Individual
 Plato
 Group
 Aristotle
 World
Classical Rome
 Ancient Rome
(1500 BCE-500 BCE)

 1500BC-Latins
crossed Alps
 Founded Rome
 Conquered by Etruscans
 New Romans
 Roads, walls, & buildings
 Metal weapons
 Republic
500-27 BCE
 Social aristocracy
 Patricians
 Plebeians
 Senate
 Conquered Mediterranean world
 Italian Peninsula and west
 Client states
 Spread Greek culture
 Began to end with assassination of
Julius Caesar in 44 BCE
 Empire
27 BCE-476 CE
 Octavian (Augustus)
 Began Pax Romana
 Spread Greco-Roman civilization
 Law, language, historical writing
 Trade, industry, science, architecture
 Diocletian
 Divided Empire
 Constantine
 Reunited empire
 Converted to Christianity
 Germanic Invasion

 Germans allowed to settle

 Huns pushed more Germans in
 476 CE—last Roman emperor
 Classical
Mesoamerica
 Maya (1800 BCE-800 BCE)
 Led by ruler-priests
 Only known fully developed written
language of time/area
 Art, architecture
 Writing, math, astronomy, calendar
 Cultural diffusion across Mesoamerica
 Chavin (900 BCE-200 BCE)
 Pottery
 Metalwork (including gold and
silver)
 Religion promoted fertility
 Built temples
 Used hallucinogens
 Trade
 Why civilizations fall
 External  Internal
 Overpopulation
 War
 Economic
 Natural
problems
disaster  Social
 Disease disruption
 Political
struggles
 How do civilizations
collapse?
 Population size and density decrease
dramatically
 Society tends to become less politically
centralized
 Less investment is made in things such as
architecture, art, and literature
 Trade and other economic activities are
greatly diminished
 The flow of information among people
slows
 The ruling elites may change, but usually
the working classes tend to remain and
provide continuity
Is it possible to prevent collapse?
 Every society must:
 answer basic biological needs of its members:
food, drink, shelter, and medical care.
 provide for production and distribution of goods
and services (perhaps through division of labor,
rules concerning property and trade, or ideas
about role of work).
 provide for reproduction of new members and
consider laws and issues related to reproduction
(regulation, marriageable age, number of
children, and so on).
 provide for training (education, apprenticeship,
passing on of values) of individuals so that they
can become functioning adults in society.
 provide for maintenance of internal and external
order (laws, courts, police, wars, diplomacy). Thuman
and Bennet
 provide meaning and motivation to its members.
 Unit 1—
Foundations

8000 BCE
to 600 CE