PREHISTORY OF ASIA

PLIOCENE EPOCH

– EARLY HUMAN SPECIES LIVED

 AUSTRALOPITHECINES
 PLEISTOCENE EPOCH – Australopithecines
evolved into homo species (homo erectus)
 Homo erectus
1.9 million years ago and the most recent to around
143,000 years ago
In Asia..

 Homo erectus-walk upright

◦ China
◦ Indonesia
Sinanthropus pekinensis
Zhoukoudian is a small village situated
about 50 km southwest of Beijing
Between 1929 -1937, discovery of several partial
skulls of the species Homo erectus near Beijing.
 Hominids lived around
400,000 years ago

 First complete skullcap

discovered at the
Peking Man site was
unearthed by a Chinese
team in a candlelit pit
in 1929.

Typical Homo erectus

features
 Sloping forehead
 Thick brow ridge in
front

PEKING MAN
• Jinniushan skeleton excavated in 1984 from a limestone cave
near Sitian Village, southwest of Yinkou in Liaoning Province

280,000 years old

 JAVA MAN
- 1891 at Trinil - Ngawi
Regency on the banks
of the Solo River in East
Java, Indonesia
- 700,000 years old
- Eugene Dubois
identified and described
a new human-like set
of Indonesian fossils
- Pithecanthropus
erectus (upright, ape-
man)
A partial skeleton of Australopithecus afarensis and Homo
erectus partial skeleton showing the large size increase
associated with the genus Homo
◦Homo floresiensis or the
“Hobbit”
- Discovered in 2003 in Flores,
Indonesia
- 3.5 ft.
- 55 pounds
 Homo sapiens neaderthalensis
(Neanderthals)
◦ Lived 200,000 - 28,000 years ago in
southwestern to central Asia
 Homo-sapien Cro-Magnonensis

 CRO-MAGNON MAN
 Found in 1868
 Human remains are of the Upper Paleolithic
period, 40,000 –10,000 years ago
 Settled in steppes of Central Asia and West Asia
 Denisovan
 Discovery of finger bone fragment of
female who lived about 41,000 years ago
 Discovery of tooth
 in Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains
in Siberia
 Tabon man
 Callao fossil
 CULTURAL EVOLUTION

 PALEOLITHIC
 NEOLITHIC
 METAL
AGE/IRON AGE/
BRONZE AGE
 PALEOLITHIC

◦ OLD STONE AGE

◦ two million years
ago to 8500 B.C.E
 Azerbaijan,Iraq, Israel, Iran,
Georgia, Armenia, Wong Tei
Tung (Sam Chung) in Hong
Kong, Zhoukoudian in China,
Syria, Turkey, Lebanon

PALEOLITHIC SITES IN ASIA

PALEOLITHIC PEOPLE

- NOMADIC = cave
dwellers
- LIVED IN CAVES OR
TENTS MADE OF
BRANCH AND ANIMAL
SKIN
- HUNTERS AND
GATHERERS
- TRAVELLED IN
SMALL GROUPS
- MOVED TOGETHER
TO HUNT
- GATHERED WILD
FRUITS, NUTS, SEEDS,
HONEY, ROOT CROPS,
GRAINS
- CATCH FISH IN
RIVERS AND
STREAMS
 Use of crude stone
tools to cut meat,
dig-up roots, peel
bark of trees, remove
animal skin
 Use of fire to drive off
animals; to provide
warmth and light in
caves and shelters.
 Belief in afterlife –
bury dead
 Neanderthals in Asia
PALEOLITHIC PERIOD
 NEOLITHIC PERIOD
– 8000 B.C.E. to 3000 B.C.E.
 Iran,
Israel, Çatalhöyük in
Turkey, Jericho in Palestine,
Mehrgarh, Pakistan

NEOLITHIC SITES
Agricultural
revolution
Wheat and barley: cereal grains as moving
powers of civilizations
 Use of polished stone tools
 Control of nature: Domesticate and
herding of animals
 Permanent settlements and establishment
of villages
Development of pottery traditions
= Storage of surplus food
 NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION

◦ Baked clay pottery and bricks

◦ Sharpened stone tools
◦ Use of plow
◦ Spin wool into threads
◦ Made looms for weaving thread into
clothes
◦ Wheel and sail for improved
transportation
Baked bricks for houses
Indus valley civilization located
near river system
Jericho – first city
An aerial view of Jericho, showing the ruins
of Tell es-Sultan
Dwelling foundations unearthed
at Tell es-Sultan in Jericho
 Çatalhöyük (Catal Huyuk)

Yellow plains of central Anatolia

About 6300-5500 BCE
 Village of 300
mud brick
Worship of shrines dedicated to what has been
called the "Mother Goddess – a seated
goddess flanked by two felines
Impact of Neolithic Period
 METAL AGE

 1200 BCE- 300 CE

 Use of metal in West Asia to make tools
and weapons
 Use of copper as the first metal
 Developed bronze by combining copper
and tin
 BRONZE AGE

 Period when bronze replaced copper and

stone as main materials in tools and
weapons
 Developed in Asia around 2000 to 1750
BCE and continuing until around 500 BCE.
 Bronze Age
Archaeological Sites

 Beycesultan, Turkey
 Knossos, Greece
 Troy, Turkey
 Ugarit, Syria
 Uluburun, Turkey
 China
Ancient Near East (1200 BC – 500 BC)
Anatolia, Assyria, Caucasus, Cyprus, Egypt,
Levant, Neo-Babylonian Empire, Persia

 India (1200 BCE – 200 BCE)

 China (600 BCE – 200 CE)
 Japan (100 BCE – 300 CE)
 Korea (400 BCE – 400 CE)

BRONZE AGE
Chinese bronze vessel
Ritual food vessel (ding), Shang dynasty (1600-
1050 BCE). China. Bronze
Standing male figure, Bronze and Iron Age,
300 B.C.–200 A.D. Indonesia, eastern Java
 Iron Age

 Begunin the 12th

century BCE in the ancient
Near East, ancient
Iran, ancient India
 IRON AGE
 Use of iron or steel as
weapons
 Developed in West Asia,
South Asia and China
 Hattusa, Turkey
 Nineveh, Iraq
 Hassanlu, Iran
 Zywieh, Iran
 Bukan, Iran
 Taite, Syria

Iron Age Sites

 CIVILIZATION
 Civitas = city
 A complex way of life of a society
showing:
◦ Organized and centralized government
◦ Organized religion
◦ Specialization in economic activity
◦ Social stratification
◦ Knowledge in Science, Arts, Architecture
◦ Developed system of writing
◦ Development of cities and urban life
 How did civilizations develop in Asia?

 Features and Legacies of the Asian

civilization?
◦ Political
◦ Economic
◦ Social
◦ Cultural
◦ Intellectual