Ancient Civ Unit 1

Historians

Primarily studied using written or oral evidence developed in 19th century, “past through the eyes of humans”

Archeologists

Study history with focus on narratives and artifacts “past through the eyes of what humans made or left behind”

Belief of Northern Kentucky institutions VS Belief of scientists and 20th century research about Earth’s actual age

Northern Kentucky said its 6000 years old and didn’t believe in evolution

Scientists said its 4.5/5 billion years old based on rock formation

How do archeologists date artifacts?

1. dendrochronology: how narrow tree rings are

2. radiocarbon dating: tracing carbon decay

3. stratigraphy: tracing ground levels

4. looking at their surroundings

Historical bias of written evidence VS oral and translation problem

Written and oral are not to be trusted because the validity of written evidence is questioned, translation problems can be bad handwriting, metaphors, numbers in sentences, and literal and word replacements. Translating can be done using medieval transcripts or illustrations on page margins

Rosetta Stone

Used to read hieroglyphs, includes 3 languages to be translated

Authentication of fossils

Some techniques help but it’s hard to determine when the carving was made, large industry of fake fossils now still exist but it’s still hard to determine when it was made and the location it originated from if you find one today

When did these happen? The Formosan, The Tasaday People, The Sokal Affair, The Grievance Studies Affair, The Piltdown Man, The Cardiff Giant, The Taung Baby, Chariots of the Gods, Charles Dawson and his co-conspirator death, Ota Benga feature in the World Fair, Speciesm origins, Patterson-Gimli Footage

The Formosan: 1702

The Tasaday People: 1971-1986

The Sokal Affair: 1996

The Grievance Affair: 2017-2018

The Piltdown Man: 1912, not confirmed as hoax until 1953

The Cardiff Giant: 1869

The Taung Baby: 1924

Chariots of the Gods: written by Erich Von Donken in 1968

Charles Dawson: Dawson does in 1914 and his co-conspirator in 1944

Ota Benga: 1904

Speciesm: term made in 1970

Patterson-Gimli Footage: 1967

Purpose and impact of hoaxes

Purpose is to point out the flaws in the scientific community and how easy it is to get around them.

Impacts:

1. causes harm and trauma

2. casts doubt on the scientific community

3. slows down progress in research

4. causes confusion

The Cardiff Giant

George Hull got mad in a religious argument and use Genesis 6:4 to come up with the idea of building a fake giant, “discovered” in his cousin’s backyard in 1869 to be evidence of the existence of giants, people believed it and payed money to see it (sold for 470000 to PT Barnum) he then later confessed and said it was a fake

Context behind this quote “There’s a sucker born every minute.”

Said by George Hull about his petrified giant

Giants

Smithsonian believed it to be real and said that they actively destroyed their skulls in 1930s as part of racist plot.

Piltdown Man

Created out of nationalism by Charles Dawson and that new humans existed in England and the associated of species to a race. “discovered” 2 skulls and jawbones to be a new species in 1912, found as hoax in 1953

Ancient Lost Civilization Theory

Ancient Apocalypse show theorized that there was a civilization years ago that had long-lost technology which is how they build the architectural buildings we have now and that they either got lost or spread to other countries.

Stonehedge

Build around 2000-3000 BCE by Mesolithic or Paleolithic era, archeological evidence of animal surrounding and left by a culture but no written record, we just know it was build by Neolithic Farming groups from Turkey, went to Europe and then finished by Bell Beaker and used for either:

• bridal sites

• healing Centre

• religious and celebration ceremony

• calendar and aligning winter solstice

• mystical portal to another dimension

Civilization

“Civil” is direct opposite of rude and barbaric, not a government but a place that people have civil rights, “complex society representing an advanced stage of human development” meaning people have stable food, place to live, marker, and economic development

Western Science

Responsible for cataloguing and categorizing the ancient past

Ota Benga

• Congolese, brought to USA and purchased by an america

• sharpened his teeth to make him seem more “animal”, displayed him in many zoos and the “monkey house”

• eventually release and found a job at Virginia Tobacco Factory, outbreak of WWI tied his ways and led to his suicide

Who “rediscovered” the Mayan Civilization?

John Lloys Stevens

Speciesm

Discrimination or unjustified treatment based on species membership, prioritizing one’s species over other, Animal Rights Advocated uses this arguments to prioritize humans over animals

Explain the beginning of the evolution theories

1. Jean Baptise LeMark: created the first theory that a chemical force drives organisms to complexity

2. Charles Darwin: refined the theory to Natural Selection

3. Natural Selection: biological process of traits being passed down to adapt and survive in new environments

4. Evolution: gradual change in inherited biological characteristics

5. Darwinism: adapted over time, survival of the fittest, and made out of chaos and cross-breeding to prove change is possible

Homo Species anatomicaly date back ——- years ago and behavioraly ——— years ago

Evolutionary Development Ideas

Out of Africa, Assimilation, and Multiregional

Paleolithic Era

• characterized by use of stone tools

• 2.6 million to 12000 years ago

• ended by development of agriculture and part of the prehistoric era

Lascaux Caves

Evidence that neanderthals’ made art, in Spain, over 350 drawings all over Europe, insight to the lives of Paleolithic people

Explain the history and development of farming

• first adapted 12000 years ago and led to development of state control and state government

• required co-ordination and increased the need for trade and slavery

• first instance of farmers were in Syria

• led to more planning and cross-breeding and assigning gender roles based on physical abilities

“Alcohol as the driving force” theory

Stated that people gathered grains to create alcohol and wanted more regular source of alcohol

Neolithic Revolution

• provided reliable food source leading to increase in population

• permanent settlements and increase in labor and slavery

• decrease in bio-diversity

Difference between cats and dogs (this is fun idc)

• dogs and humans lived together 5000 yrs before humans lived with other animals, according to the human and puppy skeleton dug up around 14000 years ago in Germany

• dogs have characteristics that make them more likely to associate with humans

• theories that humans took wolf pups and raised them in cross-breeding to achieve the benefits of dogs such as hunting partner, work, companionship and an alarm system

• cats existed since the classical period and bred 150 years ago, wild characteristics

• oldest confirmed trait of cat existence is cat mummies in Egypt

First “domesticated'“ species

Dogs

Second top reason for death in human history

Mosquitos and mosquito-borne diseases

Otzi the Iceman

• discovered in 1991 dating back 5300 yrs ago

• discovered in otzi mountain in Austria and displayes in museums now

• suspected to be murdered based on blood stains and wounds on the body

Most succesfull settlemetn in Neolithic Era and explain it

Fertile Crescent: extends to Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Middle East, earliest evidence of agriculture from River Civilization in Mespotamia

Gobekli Tepe

• oldest settlement found 11500 yrs ago

• no human carving, just headless human figured

Jeriko

One of the oldest examples of large-scale farming, close to water and had about 20 settlements

Catalhoyrik

• largest and best-preserved Neolithic settlement, might have worshipped a Mother Goddess and had proof of decoration and art

Explain the social organization of Sumarians

They had a lead figure as the “big man” who made decision for the city and was the highest authority figure, maintained from marriage and people could do arrange marriages to form a business contract.

Lupal’s main job

To protect, maintain, and divvy the water supply

Epic of Gilgamesh

Reflection of conflict between nature and civilization

Ziggurat

Used for religious ceremonies, made from 7 massive stacked platforms copied from other Mesopotamian cultures

Original purpose of writing

To keep track of debt, inventory, and financial decisions

Standard measurement for building

Cubit

Standards for currency to be accepted

• to be able to be controlled

• needs to be recognizable

• approved by authorities

• standardized

First currency in Mesopotamia

Shekels

Akkadians

• based around city of Akkad, founded by Sargon the conqueror

• adopted Sumerian writing and achieved culture and linguistically united all

Sargon

• to be killed as a kid, mother put him in the river, he was found and raised in humble surroundings

• Zabad tried to kill him, but he conquers him in 34 battles

• washes his sword after his win in the Persian Gulf and heads north into Persia