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TRANSCRIPT
QUOTE OF THE DAY
• Neolithic Revolution
• Lives of hunter-gatherers before Neolithic
Revolution was “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish,
and short.” – Thomas Hobbes
CHAPTER 1
FIRST RIVER
VALLEY
CIVILIZATIONS
PALEOLITHIC AGE• Homo sapiens
• The term means "consciously thinking human"
• Evolved as early as 250,000 years ago
• Brain with large frontal regions for conscious and reflective thought
• The advantages of intelligence over other species
• Migrations of Homo sapiens• Beginning more than 100,000 years ago, spread throughout Eurasia
• Several ice ages between 120 and 25 thousand years ago
• Land bridges enabled them to populate islands of Indonesia, New Guinea
• Arrived in Australia at least 60,000 or perhaps as long as 120,000 years ago
• Between 40,000 and 25,000 years ago, migrated to North America
• The natural environment • Homo sapiens used knives, spears, bows, and arrows
• Brought tremendous pressure on other species
HUMAN MIGRATION
ORIGINS OF AGRICULTURE• Neolithic era
• "New stone age" - refined tools and agriculture
• Time period: from about 12,000 to 6,000 years ago
• Most likely, Paleolithic women began systematic cultivation of plants
• Paleolithic men began to domesticate animals
• "Agricultural transition" is better than "agricultural revolution"
• Early agriculture • The earliest evidence found between 10,000 to 8000 B.C.E.
• Slash-and-burn cultivation involved frequent movement of farmers
• About 5000 B.C.E., agriculture well-established in Asia and Americas
• The spread of agriculture • Advantages of cultivation over hunting and gathering
• Developed indigenously in several different cultural hearths
• Agriculture provided a surplus
EARLY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY
• Population explosion caused by surplus• Leisure Time
• Emergence of villages and towns • Jericho, earliest known Neolithic village (north of the Dead Sea)
• Agricultural society, supplemented by hunting and limited trade
• Mud huts and defensive walls
• Specialization of labor • Neolithic site of Çatal Hüyük (south-central Anatolia)
• Developed into a bustling town with more than 8,000 inhabitants
• Craft industries - pottery, metallurgy, and textile production
• Ruling class, priestly, craftsmen, and merchants were common
• Social distinctions • Agriculture brought about private land ownership
• Social classes emerged, as seen in Çatal Hüyük site
• Beliefs • Neolithic peoples celebrated deities associated with life cycle
• Increasing deification, anthropomorphism of nature, seasons
• Increasing masculinization of deities
• Polytheism – belief in many gods
PRE-CIVILIZATION
• Stability due to need to control water
• Small groups could not regulate waters
• Small groups could not defend area
• Predecessors to civilizations
• Small farming villages
• First appeared in S.W. Asia
• Catal Huyuk as example
• Self-sufficient agricultural village in Turkey
• Evidence of trade, tool making, artisans
• Evidence of complex religion
• Specialization of occupations: politics, military
• Evidence of metal working (Copper Age)
CIVILIZATION
• Civilization as Advanced Culture
• Population dependent on cities
• From Latin civitas
• Permanent institutions
• Politics, Religion; ability to make war
• Social, labor, gender divisions, inequality
• Clearly defined sense of other: barbarian, nomad
• Artisan, intellectual classes favoring technology
• Form of record keeping, specifically writing
• Do not confuse with “good” or “superior”
BUILDING BLOCKS OF
CIVILIZATION
• What is a Civilization?
• Economic System
• Political Organization
• Moral Code (Religion)
• Written Language and Intellectual
Tradition
• Division of labor
THE MAP OF 1ST CIVILIZATIONS
ANCIENT HUMOR
ENVIRONMENT AS CATALYST
• Mesopotamia (land between rivers)
• Harsh heat, drought; unpredictable floods
• Few natural resources short of mud; no wood
• No natural defensive areas such as hills
• Area open to invasion by migrating nomads
• People in area must
• Provide permanent food supply
• Regulate, provide permanent water supply
• Provide defense against invaders
• Acquire materials such as timber, minerals
TIGRIS-EUPHRATES
“Necessity is the mother of invention”
Sumer in S. Iraq was first civilization
• Cuneiform, sciences, math aided farming
• Polytheistic religion
• Religion was to appease gods, control nature
• Art, architecture dedicated to gods, religion
• Priests, later kings rule city-states
• Land owning aristocracy dominate
• Warlike society with slavery
• Trade for needed materials
LATER MESOPOTAMIANS
• Cycle of Civilization
• Nomads come in and conquer sedentary people
• Conquerors assimilate local sedentary culture
• New civilization blends cultures, thrives for a while
• “New” civilization grows old, invaded by nomads
• Akkad “First”
• First Empire
• Sargon conquered all of Sumer
• Babylon “First”
• City at junction of Tigris-Euphrates
• Hammurabi’s Law Code – an eye for an eye
• Laws included in Jewish Torah
MESOPOTAMIA AS A CHART
THE NILE RIVER
• Egypt
• Society very different from Sumer
• Nile flooded regularly, predictably
• Provided rich soil, Easy soil to farm
• Civilization regulated flooding, surveying
• Location isolated
• Pharaoh was considered god-king
• Theocracy, almost absolute
• Built pyramid tombs for dead
• Egypt unified for most of history
• Achievements
• Mathematics especially geometry; architecture
• Sciences, Medicine
• Art was both secular and sacred
• Religion was positive, egalitarian in many ways
INDUS VALLEY
• Arose around 2,500 BCE
• Mohenjo Daro, Harappa main cities
• Independent city-states, strong government
• Extremely well-planned, coordinated cities
• Elaborate writing system (undeciphered)
• Religion worshipped mother goddess
• Little evidence of warfare until end
• Devastated by environmental upheavals
• Destroyed by Indo-European (Aryan) nomads
HUANG-HE (YELLOW) RIVER
• Developed in isolation
• Compare with ancient Egypt
• Xia Dynasty (Mythical?)
• God-like kings
• Taught irrigation, sericulture
• Shang Dynasty
• Warlike kings, landed aristocracy; few priests
• Most people worked land as peasants
• Elaborate bronze workings; naturalistic art
CHINESE WRITING
• Ideographic
• Writing denotes ideas
• First used on Oracle Bones
• Priests asked gods questions
• Wrote questions on bones
• Tossed into fire; cracks read by priests (divination)
• Elitist technique = scholar-bureaucrats
• Extremely difficult to read
• Required well-educated class to use
• Only elite had time to learn
• Cuneiform, hieroglyphs had similar effects
DYNASTIC CYCLE
• One ruling family replaces another
• The Dynasty Changes
• Due to the loss of the Mandate of Heaven
• Stages in Cycle
• New dynasty arises, takes control of China
• Strengthens rule, reestablishes prosperity, peace
• Weakens, becomes lazy, problems arise
• Invasions, revolts toss out reigning dynasty
• Shang replaces Xia, Zhou replaces Shang
MANDATE OF HEAVEN
• Chinese political idea
• Rulers exercise power given by heaven
• Rulers continue to rule if heaven pleased
• Heaven will take back mandate to rule
• Heaven will replace ruling dynasty
• Indicators of a Lost Mandate
• Wars, invasions, military disasters
• Over-taxation, disgruntled peasants
• Social, moral decline of elite classes
• Increased crime, banditry
HOW
THE
CYCLE
AND
MANDATE
WORK
TOGETHER
HERITAGES
• First heritages passed on
• Writing systems inherited
• Intellectual systems, art copied
• Religious, philosophical systems copied
• Useful inventions rarely forgotten, easily spread
• River valley civilizations decline by 1000BCE
• All subject to nomadic invasions
• Indo-Europeans and Semites were strongest
• Geographical centers shifted (all except China)
• Political Structures often not continued
CIVILIZATION SPREADS
• Phoenician Sailors in Lebanon
• City-states traded across Mediterranean
• Invented alphabet
• Lydians, Hittites in Asia Minor
• Introduced Iron, coinage to area
• Hebrews in Palestine
• Large Semitic migration in area
• Ethical monotheism
• Conduct determines salvation
• There is only one God speaking through prophets, priests
• God made a covenant with the Jews, his Chosen people
NOMADS: BARBARIANS?
• Pastoral herding on fringes
• Seen as savages
• Interaction vs. conflict
• Nomads traded, coexisted with settled areas
• Nomads warred on, conquered settled areas
• Often protected merchants, allowed trade
• Prior to 1500 BCE little major threat
• Chariot Peoples (Central Asian Indo-Europeans)
• Domesticated horse, invented chariot, iron weapons
• Pushed into SW Asia, S. Asia, E. Asia, Europe
• Responsible for spread of ideas, trade