Lecture 4 World Civilization Summer 2021 NSU
Lecture 4 World Civilization Summer 2021 NSU
Lecture 4 World Civilization Summer 2021 NSU
LECTURE 4:
ORIGINS OF AGRICULTURE AND
FIRST RIVER-VALLEY CIVILIZATIONS
8000-1500 B.C.E: MESOPOTAMIA
7,550 Flooding of Black Sea from Mediterranean (the biblical flood of Noah's Ark)
4,000 Invention of ice-cream (China) || start of bronze age (Europe), first metallic
money
BEFORE CIVILIZATION
THE STONE (LITHIC) AGE
Ø Difficult environment for agriculture: Little rain, floods, change of the river
course
1. Warm climate & good soil
2. Used cattle-pulled plows and seed planter
3. Built irrigation canals to bring water to fields
4. Food & animals - no resources
5. Early people - Sumerians
MESOPOTAMIA: AGRICULTURE AND
NATURAL RESOURCES
§ Crops Animals
§ Date Palms Cattle
§ Vegetables Donkeys
§ Reeds
Camels
§ Fish
Horses
§ Land for grazing goats and sheep
§ No significant wood, stone, or metal resources
§
MESOPOTAMIA: CITY AND SOCIETY
§ 1. City-State – urban center w/ ag. territory
a. Sometimes traded, sometimes fought over resources
§ 2. Temples were more important than Palaces
§ 3. Large City-States – Sumer, Babylon, Akkad
§ 1. Social Classes (kings controlled most of the wealth)
§ a. Free Landowning class
b. Dependent farmers & artisans
c. Slaves – POW, minor part of economy
§ 2. Power shift – women men (agriculture)
§ 3. Women – no political role
Could: Own property, Control their dowry, Engage in trade
§ 1. Rise of urban merchant class greater emphasis on male privilege
and decline in women’s status.
MESOPOTAMIA
§ D. Gods, Priests & Temples
§ Each city-state had its own gods
§ Gods were humanlike – anthropomorphic
§ Priests were highly honored
§ Temples were the 1st monumental
MESOPOTAMIA
Science
1. Technology=specialized knowledge that is used to
transform the natural environment
2. Forms of technology - Irrigation systems, buildings
•– Transportation, Bronze metallurgy, Brickmaking
•– Engineering, pottery & potter’s wheel