World History I

Chapter 1 Early Humans and the First Civilizations

William Loftus

1849, an Englishman made a hazardous journey into the deserts and swamps of southern Iraq. He was guided by local Arabs. He is known for his explorations in Mesopotamia, contributing significantly to the study of ancient civilizations.

Anthropologists

Social scientists are those who study human societies, cultures, and their development, often through fieldwork and other research methods.

Archaeologists

are professionals who study human history and prehistory through the excavation and analysis of artifacts, structures, and other physical remains.

Hominids

Lived in Africa some 3 to 4 million years ago; umbrella term of the human family:

Australopithecines

Homo habilis

Homo erectus

Homo sapiens

Homo sapiens sapiens

Neanderthals

Australopithecines

(“southern apemen”), By the Australian anthropologist Raymond Dart, they flourished in eastern and southern Africa and were the first hominids to make simple stone tools; they were bipedal (walked upright on 2 legs)

Homo habilis

(“skillful human”), In 1959, Louis and Mary Leakey discovered a new form of hominid in Africa, had a 50 percent larger brain than Australopithecines and was more sophisticated in searching for meat, seeds, and nuts for nourishment

Homo erectus

(“upright human”), A new phase in early human development occurred around 1.5 million years ago: a more advanced human form that made larger, more varied tools and was the first hominid to leave Africa and move into Europe and Asia

Homo sapiens

('“wise human being”), Approximately 300,000-250,000 years ago, a crucial stage im human development began with the emergence of them

Homo sapiens sapiens

(“wise, wise human being”), Appeared in Africa between 200,000 and 150,000 years ago; recent evidence indicates that they began to spread outside of Africa around 70,000 years ago. Direct ancestors encountered Neanderthals; by 30,000 BCE, Homo sapiens sapiens had replaced the Neanderthals, who largely became extinct

Neanderthal

Remains were first found in the Neander Valley in Germany. Remains have since been found in both Europe and western Asia and have been dated to between 200,000 and 30,000 BCE. They relied on a variety of stone tools and were the first early people to bury their dead. Homo sapiens sapiens replaced them, and they largely became extinct

Multiregional Theory

Advanced human creatures may have emerged independently in different parts of the world, rather than in Africa alone

Paleolithic Age

(Paleolithic is Greek for “old stone”) One of the basic distinguishing features of the human species is the ability to make tools; the earliest tools were made of stone (c. 2,500,000-10,000 BCE). Hunting and gathering for food, they did not know how to grow crops or raise animals. They gathered wild nuts, berries, fruits, and a variety of wild grains and green plants. They also captured and consumed various animals, including buffalo, horses, bison, wild goats, reindeer, and fish. They lived in small bands of 20 to 30 people, nomadic, following animal migrations and vegetation cycles. The invention of the spear and later the bow and arrow, harpoons, and fishhooks made of bone increased the catch of fish. Everyone was responsible for finding food; women had and raised children, so they stayed close to camp, but they still gathered berries, nuts, and grains. The men hunted for wild animals, and the activity took them far from camp. There was a rough equality between men and women. Some groups found shelter in caves, but over time they created new types of shelter, the most common being a simple structure of wood poles or sticks covered with animal hides or bones of mammoths for framework, and covered with animal hides when wood was scarce. The systematic use of fire, which archaeologists believe began around 500,000 years ago, made it possible for the caves and human-made structures to have a source of light and heat, also allowed for cooked food, making meat last longer, taste better, and grains like wild grains easier to chew and digest. The making of tools and the use of fire were the 2 important technological innovations of Paleolithic people. They painted on cave walls; a cave was discovered by accident in southern France in 1994, known as the Chauvet cave, which contains more than 3 hundred painting of lions, oxen, owls, bears, and other animals. Most of these are animals that the Paleolithic people did not hunt, which suggests to some scholars that the paintings were made for religious or even decorative purposes.

Neolithic Revolution

(c. 10,000-4000 BCE), The end of the last ice age around 10,000 BCE was followed by this; it’s a significant change in living patterns that occurred in the New Stone Age (Neolithic is Greek for “new stone”). The name “New Stone Age” is misleading, however. Although Neolithic peoples made a new type of polished stone axes, this was not the most significant change they introduced.

An Agricultural Revolution

The biggest change was the shift from gathering plants and hunting animals for sustenance (food gathering) to producing food by systematic agriculture (food production). Between 8000 and 5000 BCE in four different parts of the world. The planting of grains and vegetables provided a regular supply of food, while the domestication of animals, such as sheep, goats, cattle, and pigs, added a steady source of meat, milk, and fibers, such as wool for clothing. Larger animals could be used as beasts of burden. The ability to acquire food on a regular basis gave humans greater involvement in their environment, and it enabled them to give up their nomadic ways of life and begin to live in settled communities. The increase in food supplies also led to a noticeable expansion of the population.

Mesolithic Age

(“Middle Stone Age”, c. 10,000-7000 BCE), saw a gradual transition from a food-gathering and hunting economy to a food-producing economy, and witnessed a gradual domestication of animals as well. Likewise, the movement toward the use of plants and their seeds as an important source of nourishment was not sudden. Throughout the Neolithic period, hunting and gathering as well as nomadic herding remained ways of life for many people around the world. Systematic agriculture developed independently in different areas of the world between 8000 and 5000 BCE. Inhabitants of the Middle East began cultivating wheat and barley and domesticating pigs, cattle, goats, and sheep by 8000 BCE. From the Middle East, farming spread into southeastern Europe and, by 4000 BCE, was well established in central Europe and the coastal regions of the Mediterranean. The cultivation of wheat and barley also spread from western Asia into the Nile Valley of Egypt by 6000 BCE and soon moved up the Nile to other areas of Africa, especially Ethiopia. In the woodlands and tropical forests of West Africa, a separate agricultural system emerged, based on the cultivation of tubers or root crops such as yams. The cultivation of wheat and barley also moved eastward into the highlands of northwestern and central India between 7000 and 5000 BCE. By 5000 BCE, rice was being cultivated in southeastern Asia, and from there it spread into southern China. In northern China, the cultivation of millet and the domestication of pigs and dogs seemed well established by 6000 BCE. In the Western Hemisphere, Mesoamericans (inhabitants of present-day Mexico and Central America) domesticated beans, squash, and maize as well as dogs and fowl (birds like chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese) between 7000 and 5000 BCE.

Neolithic Farming Villages

Growing crops on a regular basis gave rise to more permanent settlements, which historians refer to as Neolithic farming villages or towns. Although Neolithic villages appeared in Europe, India, Egypt, China, and Mesoamerica, the oldest and most extensive ones were located in the Middle East. Jericho, in Canaan near the Dead Sea, was in existence by 8000 BCE and covered several acres by 7000 BCE. It had a wall several feet thick that enclosed houses made of sun-dried mudbricks. Catal Huyuk, located in modern Turkey, was an even larger community. Its walls enclosed 32 acres, and its population probably reached six thousand inhabitants during its high point from 6700 to 5700 BCE. People lived in simple mudbrick houses that were built so close to one another that there were few streets, and to get into their homes, people would walk along the rooftops and enter the house through a hole in the roof. Archaeologists have discovered twelve cultivated products in Catal Huyuk, including fruits, nuts, and three kinds of wheat. People grew their own food and stored it in storerooms in their homes. Domesticated animals, especially cattle, yielded meat, milk, and hides. Food surpluses also made it possible for people to engage in activities other than farming. Some people became artisans and made weapons and jewelry that were traded with neighboring peoples. Religious shrines housing figures of gods and goddesses have been found at Catal Huyuk, as have a number of female statuettes. Molded with noticeably large breasts and buttocks, these “earth mothers” perhaps symbolically represented the fertility of both “our mother” earth and human mothers. The shrines and the statues point to the important role of religious practices in the lives of these Neolithic peoples.

Consequences of the Neolithic Revolution

Once people settled in villages or towns, they built houses for protection and other structures for the storage of goods. As organized communities stored food and accumulated material goods, they began to engage in trade. In the Middle East, for example, new communities exchanged such objects as shells, flint, and semiprecious stones. People began to specialize in certain crafts, and a division of labor developed. Pottery was made from clay and baked in fire to make it hard. The pots were used for cooking and to store grains. Woven baskets were also used for storage. Stone tools became refined as flint blades were used to make sickles and hoes for use in the fields. Obsidian (a volcanic glass that was easily flaked) was also used to create very sharp tools. In the course of the Neolithic Age, many of the food plants still in use today began to be cultivated. Moreover, vegetable fibers from such plants as flax and cotton were used to make thread that was woven into cloth. The change to systematic agriculture in the Neolithic Age also had consequences for the relationship between men and women. Men assumed the primary responsibility for working in the fields and herding animals, jobs that kept them away from the home. Women remained behind, grinding grain into flour, caring for the children, weaving cloth, making cheese from milk, and performing other household tasks that required considerable labor. In time, as work outside the home was increasingly perceived as more important than work done in the home, men came to play the more dominant role in human society, which gave rise to the practice of patriarchy, or a society dominated by men that only now is being slowly changed. The Neolithic Revolution was truly a turning point in human history. Between 4000 and 3000 BCE, significant technical developments began to transform the Neolithic towns. The invention of writing enabled records to be kept, and the use of metals marked a new level of human control over the environment and its resources. Before 4000 BCE, artisans had discovered that metal-bearing rocks could be heated to liquefy the metal, which could then be cast in molds to produce tools and weapons that were more useful than stone instruments. Although copper was the first metal to be used for producing tools, after 4000 BCE, metalworkers in western Asia discovered that a combination of copper and tin produced bronze, a much harder and more durable metal than copper. Its widespread use has led historians to call the period from around 3000 to 1200 BCE the Bronze Age; thereafter, bronze was increasingly replaced by iron. At first, Neolithic settlements were hardly more than villages. But as their inhabitants mastered the art of farming, the more complex human societies gradually emerged. As wealth increased, these societies sought to protect it from being plundered by outsiders and so began to develop armies and to build walled cities. By the beginning of the Bronze Age, the concentration of larger numbers of people in river valleys was leading to a whole new pattern for human life.

The Emergence of Civilization

A civilization is a complex culture in which large numbers of people share a variety of common elements. Historians have identified a number of basic characteristics of civilization, including the following:

An urban focus: Cities became the centers for political, economic, social, cultural, and religious development. The cities that emerged were much larger than the Neolithic towns that preceded them.

New political and military structures: An organized government bureaucracy arose to meet the administrative demands of the growing population, and armies were organized to gain land and power and for defense.

A new social structure based on economic power: While kings and an upper class of priests, political leaders, and warriors dominated, there also existed large groups of free common people (farmers, artisans, craftspeople) and, at the very bottom of the social hierarchy, a class of enslaved people.

The development of more complexity in a material sense: Surpluses of agricultural crops freed some people to work in occupations other than farming. Demand among ruling elites for luxury items encouraged the creation of new products. And as urban populations exported finished goods in exchange for raw materials from neighboring populations, organized trade grew substantially.

A distinct religious structure: The gods were deemed crucial to the community’s success, and a professional priestly class, serving as stewards of the gods’ property, regulated relations with the gods.

The development of writing: Kings, priests, merchants, and artisans used writing to keep records.

New forms of significant artistic and intellectual activity: For example, monumental architectural structures, usually religious, occupied a prominent place in urban environments.

Early Civilizations Around the World

The first civilizations that developed in Mesopotamia and Egypt will be examined in detail. But civilizations also developed independently in other parts of the world. Between 3000 and 1500 BCE, the valleys of the Indus River in India supported a flourishing civilization that extended hundreds of miles from the Himalayas to the coast of the Arabian Sea. Two major cities, Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro, were at the heart of this advanced civilization, which flourished for hundreds of years. As in the city-states that arose in Mesopotamia and along the Nile, the Harappan economy was based primarily on farming, but Harappan civilization also carried on extensive trade with Mesopotamia. Textiles and food were imported from the Mesopotamian city-states in exchange for copper, lumber, precious stones, cotton, and various types of luxury goods. Another river valley civilization emerged along the Yellow River in northern China about four thousand years ago. Under the Shang dynasty of kings, which ruled from 1570 to 1045 BCE, this civilization contained impressive cities with huge city walls, royal palaces, and large royal tombs. A system of irrigation enabled early Chinese civilizations to maintain a prosperous farming society ruled by an aristocratic class whose major concern was war. Scholars long believed that civilizations emerged only in four areas: the fertile river valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates, the Nile, the Indus, and the Yellow River- that is, in Southwest Asia, Egypt, India, and China. Recently, however, archeologists have discovered other early civilizations. One of these flourished in Central Asia (in what are now the republics of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) around four thousand years ago. People in the civilization built mudbrick buildings, raised sheep and goats, had bronze tools, used a system of irrigation to grow wheat and barley, and developed a writing system. Another early civilization emerged in the Supe River Valley of Peru. At the center of this civilization was the city of Caral, which flourished around 2600 BCE. It contained buildings for officials, apartment buildings, and grand residences, all built of stone. The inhabitants of Caral also developed a system of irrigation by diverting a river more than a mile upstream into their fields. This Peruvian culture reached its height during the first millennium BCE.

Why Did Early Civilizations Develop?

Since civilizations developed independently in different parts of the world, can general causes be identified that would explain why all of these civilizations emerged? A number of possible explanations of the beginning of civilization have been suggested. One theory maintains that challenges forced human beings to make efforts that resulted in the rise of civilization. Some scholars have adhered to a material explanation and have argued that material forces, such as the accumulation of food surpluses, made possible the specialization of labor and development of large communities with bureaucratic organization. But some areas, such as that of the Fertile Crescent, in which civilization emerged in Southwest Asia, were not naturally conducive to agriculture. Abundant food could be produced only through a massive human effort to manage the water, an undertaking that required organization and bureaucratic control and led to civilized cities. Other historians have argued that nonmaterial forces, primarily religious, provided that sense of unity and purpose that made such organized activities possible. Finally, some scholars doubt that we will ever discover the actual causes of early civilization.