From the Origins of Agriculture to the First RiverRiver-Valley Civilizations 80008000-1500 B.C.E.

Chapter 1

Before Civilization

Food Gathering and Stone Technology

 The

Stone Age

From 2 million years ago to 4,000 years ago People used stone, bone, skin and wood tools Includes the Paleolithic period
 Old

Stone Age

And the Neolithic period

Stone Age  Origins of agriculture
 New

 Stone

age people were likely foragers  Began using fire 1 million to 1.5 million years ago
No proof of actual cooking until 12,500 years ago when clay cooking pots were used in East Asia
 Women

were the main food gatherers  Men were hunters

 Nomadic

Followed migrating animals Lived in groups

 Had

enough people to do all of the work, but not so many as to need more than the available amount of food

Learned the uses of plants around them Left behind cave art depicting hunting and possible religion

The Agricultural Revolutions

 About

10,000 years ago  Some people began domesticating plants and animals, others remained hunter/gatherers  Around the time of the Neolithic Revolution
Archeologists found new stone tools

 How?

Could have happened accidentally as foraging groups dropped seeds and returned to the same camp the next season to find that plant growing there Eventually, they learned which strains of wild plants yielded the highest amounts of food
 Ex.

Emmer Wheat and Barley in the Middle East

 Plants

domesticated in the Middle East spread  In many parts of the world, agriculture occurred independently
Wheat and Barley cultivation
 Sahara

8,000 BCE  Greece 6,000 BCE  Central Europe (Danube River) 4,000 BCE
2,600 BCE began using Ox drawn plows

Equatorial Africa began cultivating yams

 Rice cultivation
 Southern

China, Southeast Asia, Northern India between 10,000 and 5,000 BCE Mexico 3000 BCE

Maize cultivation
 Central

Potatoes and quinoa

 Peru

3000 BCE

Tropical regions of Meso-America grew Mesotomatoes, squash, peppers and potatoes

 Domesticated

Animals

1st the dog

 Used

to help hunt that provided meat used for their milk, wool, and

Then
 Animals

Then
 Animals

energy
 Pastoralism

Depended on large herds of grazing livestock Nomadic Probably ate very little meat and traded with settled communities

 Why

did it happen?

9000 BCE evidence of global warming Foragers had difficult time finding food Evidence that people in regions where food was still available remained foragers
 Ex.

Australia and North America

 Population

5000 BCE 10 million people 1000 BCE between 50 and 100 million people

Life in Neolithic Communities

 Early

farmers

More reliable food supply Less variety and nutrition than foraging
 Skeletons

of farmers were shorter

Contagious disease spread quickly

 In

a time without waste management systems

Being able to store food led to farmers soon outnumbering non-farmers non Some people created specialized crafts

 Interaction

between foragers and

farmers?
Link or Clash?
 Hard

to tell without written history  Probably clash at first, as farmers took the best land and limited the food supplies of foragers  Perhaps link later with the development of trade relationships or as foragers gradually became farmers

 Farmers

often lived in large kinship groups known as lineages or clans

One can trace their lineage through the mothers side = matrilineal Or through the fathers side = patrilineal

 Religion

Foragers often worshipped sacred places and animals Farmers often worshipped an Earth Mother and a Sky God (usually male) as well as fire, wind and rain. Some used megaliths, or big stones megaliths, often related to astronomy. (Think Stonehenge)

 Some

Neolithic villages grew into

towns
They became centers for trade and specialized crafts Jericho
the Jordan River  First, small and round mud buildings; then, rectangular plaster buildings within a large city wall used for protection.
 On

 Catal Huyuk
 In

modern Turkey  People lived in plaster and mud brick houses. The houses connected to form a barrier to the outside.  Traded obsidian tools, baskets, pottery, cloth, shell beads, and worked leather.  Still respected hunters, but their economy was based on agriculture  Many religious shrines  Female religious statues outnumbered males, signs of both male and female priests  6,400 BCE signs of metalworking
Metal was a sign of power and wealth

Mesopotamia

Settled Agriculture in an Unstable Landscape

 Mesopotamia

= Land between the

rivers
Tigris and Euphrates Rivers Fertile land because of silt and flooding In present day Iraq 5,000 BCE begin agriculture 4,000 BCE Ox drawn plows 3,000 BCE begin irrigation

 The

Sumerians

Arrived around 5,000 BCE The first to leave written records Seemed to live in peace with the Semites in northern Mesopotamia
 The

Semitic people

Became politically dominant by 2000 BCE Cultural and biological blending between the Semites and Sumerians occurred

Cities, Kings, and Trade

 Villages

Farmers usually lived in villages of a few hundred people Worked together Satellite villages grew around successful villages
 Cities

Formed when villages merged

 City

Life

Many labored in the fields during the day Some made crafts and lived off of the surplus food
 Pottery,

artwork, weapons and tools

Some served the gods or were administrators

 The

CityCity-State

Cities would collect food surpluses from neighboring regions in exchange for military protection

 Irrigation

efforts

Intensive work Year round labor force needed Required a strong leader to get that many people to work on one thing
 Religion

Temples in the center of villages/cities Priest had high political and economic roles

 Kings

Between 2000 and 3000 BCE, evidence of kings in the city-states city May have been necessary due to citycitystates fighting over land and water rights The priests lost authority because the king had the backing of the army Some became strong enough to take over their neighbors

 Akkadian

State; 2350-2230 BCE 2350-

King Sargon began defeating neighbors Put governors in conquered cities Gave soldiers land to pay for their loyalty

 Third

Dynasty of Ur; 2112-2004 BCE 2112-

Smaller than the Akkadian state Well maintained roads and good messengers allowed for tighter control Standardized calendar Standard weights and measures Eventually toppled by neighbors

 Babylon

Ruled by Hammurabi (r. 1792-1750 BCE) 1792 Hammurabis

Law Code  Severe physical punishment used rather than just paying fines for crimes

Babylon became the capital city of a wide spread state

 Trade

Seagoing vessels ~ 4000 BCE Wood, metals and stone exchanged for wool, cloth, barley and vegetable oil Most merchants worked for the palace
 Independent

merchants gained influence

~1000 BCE

Mesopotamian Society
 Urbanized

civilizations foster social

division
Obvious variation in the status and wealth of different groups Hammurabis Law code identifies these:
 1.

free land-owning class land 2. dependent farmers and artisans  3. slaves

 Role

of Women

Hard to tell, since most scribes were educated males Believed to have lost social standing with the spread of agriculture
 Provided

most of the food in hunter/gatherer communities  Agriculture depends on heavy labor, therefore men begin to provide the most food  Their focus turned to raising larger families now that more food was available

Women could own property and work outside of the home

Gods, Priests, and Temples

 Sumerian

gods represented the forces of nature

Sky, air, water, sun, moon, sexual attraction and violence

 Semetic

people adopted the Sumerian gods and gave them new names

 Cities

built temple complexes  Priests passed their knowledge to their sons  The temple complex focused on the ziggurat  Elite and common folk came together at religious festivals

Technology and Science

 Technology
 Tools

used to manipulate the natural world  specialized knowledge used to transform the natural environment

Irrigation networks
 Required

construction and maintenance of canals and dikes

Writing
 Pressed

a pointed reed into wet clay  Cuneiform (Wedge-shaped) writing (Wedge-

 Metal Working
 Imported

metal to make tools that were stronger and sharper than stone of clay were the main building material pottery to be made faster

Bricks
 Made

Pottery Wheel
 Allowed

Military Technology
 Year-round Year-

standing military  Idea of horse-drawn chariots from Asia horse-

Base 60 Number System Astronomy

Egypt

The Land of Egypt: Gift of the Nile

 The

Nile

Flows northward through Egypt to the Mediterranean The banks of the river or fertile, as is the river delta Travel and communication center on the river
 The

Other 90%

Deserts, mountains, rocks

 Upper  Lower

Egypt Egypt

Southern Egypt Northern Egypt, called that because of the northerly flow of the river
 Cataract

A series of impassable rocks along the Nile

Divine Kingship
 Larger

population required unification by a king

Narmer, around 3100BCE United upper and lower Egypt

 History

broken into segments

Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom and New Kingdom

 Divided

by periods of political fragmentation

 Pharaoh

King, was considered to be a god on earth His role was to maintain maat, or order to the universe Elaborate burial and funerary practices eventually led to building pyramids as tombs
 Used

stone tools, levers, pulleys and rollers  Large numbers of people

Administration and Communication

 Capitals

Old Kingdom = Memphis (near Cairo) Middle and New Kingdoms = Thebes
 Complex

bureaucracy

Kept detailed records Collected taxes

 Government

monopoly over economy and long distance trade

 Hieroglyphics

Picture symbols stood for words

 By

2500 BCE, records were kept in script written on papyrus  Literary works
Tales of adventure and magic, love poetry, religious hymns and instruction manuals

 Tension

between the bureaucracy and the centralized power of the monarchy  An economy based on agriculture  Isolated during the Old and Middle Kingdoms
All foreigners seen as enemies Local militia units backed up a small standing army Did trade to maintain access to resources

 Traded

southward on the Nile

Gained gold from Nubia Incense, ivory, ebony and exotic animals
 Eventually,

Egyptian forces moved south and took control of Nubian gold fields

The People of Egypt

 Mixed

population

From dark-skinned people from subdarksubSaharan Africa to lighter skinned people from North Africa and Western Asia
 Social

divisions

From King to peasant farmers

 Village

life

Peasants focused on agriculture and irrigation Villages probably helped one another during agriculturally important times Held religious festivals Flight into the desert was the only way to escape forced labor and heavy taxation
 Slavery

Existed on a small scale Debtors, criminals, prisoners of war

 Lives

of elite women

According to pictures
 Subordinate

to men  Went with their husbands  Engaged in domestic activities  Usually stayed indoors

According to legal documents

 Could

own property  Women could end a marriage and retain her dowry  Priestesses supervised the cults of female deities

Belief and Knowledge

 Imagined

the sky as a great ocean and the sun god, Re, traveled its waters every day and returned to the underworld every night  The Egyptian King was seen as the go between for the people and the gods

 Much

of the countrys wealth was spent on religious monuments  Obsession with the afterlife
Led to practice of mummification
 To

preserve the body

Food, objects and pictures were buried too

 Egyptian

learning

Learned anatomy and chemistry from mummification procedures Learned math through agriculture
 Figuring

out how much was owed to the

state

Developed a calendar
 Had

to be able to predict flooding

The Indus Valley Civilization

Natural Environment
1

million acre flood plain

The Indus river floods twice a year Once from melting snow in the Himalayas Once from seasonal heavy rainfall

Material Culture
 Remains

found of two urban sites

Harappa Mohenjo-Daro Mohenjo Both had high brick walls, streets in a rectangular grid, covered drainpipes

 Agriculture  Writing

in this region

Since 5000 BCE

system

Used more than 400 signs to represent sounds or words

 Technology

Irrigation systems Potters wheel Baked bricks Metal smiths gold, silver, copper, tin

Transformation of the Indus Valley Civilization

 Cities

abandoned around 1900 BCE

 Maybe

a failure of the political, social and economic systems  Maybe a natural disaster  Maybe gradual ecological changes
 Small

agricultural villages took their

place