Fall Finals Set-A: Early Civilizations

Evolution of Homo Sapiens : Homo Erectus

* “Upright-walking human”
* Descendents of Australopithecus (made choppers & scrapers)
* Made cleavers & hand axes, started & tended **fires**, were able to organize their activites
* Brain not developed enough to speak and form language

Paleolithic Era: Nomads (hunting-gathering society)

* No private property or concept of property
* **Egalitarian** society (all are equal)
* Family and wealth did not serve as social status
* Men hunted meat and women gathered plants
* Plants kept people sustained when hunting or when hunting didn’t work out - backbone of society
* Hunting big game was very strategic & sometimes involved disguises & fires
* Seasonal migrations
* 30-50 people or couldn’t move & survive very well

Paleolithic Era: Neanderthals

* Homo neandertalensis
* Contemplated existence
* Life & death - burial rituals
* Different species of humans
* Not as creative as homo sapiens
* Traded with homo sapiens; not much interbreeding

Paleolithic Era: Homo Sapiens

* With creation of **language** were able to pass large amounts of knowledge through generations
* Less individual trial and error
* Cave paintings of game and aesthetic (Venus figurines)

Paleolithic Era

* “Old Stone Age”
* Nomads
* Hunting-gathering societies
* Neanderthals
* Homo Sapiens

Neolithic Era

* “New Stone Age”
* Refers to refinement of tools & shift from foraging to agricultural societies
* Emergence of urban life & rough manufacturing

Neolithic Era: Agriculture

* Previous agriculture wasn’t possible because of the Ice Age & extreme climate shifts
* Women began the study of plants & cultivation; men began capturing and raising livestock
* Popular agricultural method was the **slash-and-burn** method
* Cut down plants and burn them to enrich the soil to use for a couple years; repeat the process with a different area of land
* Rice, wheat, manioc, & maize
* Increase in food supply made population explode; villages started forming

Neolithic Era: Specialized Labor

* Not having to worry about food allowed people to focus on more specialized labor
* **Pottery** was used for excess for storage as well as artistry (earliest development)
* **Copper** metallurgy allowed people to make tools (hoes), weapons (knives & axes), and jewelry
* **Textile production** probably created by women

Neolithic Era: Social/Urban

* Predicted seasons using astrology (semi-calendar)
* Polytheistic deities - relating to cycles of life/natural world
* Had governors, military strategists, & tax collectors
* Created markets that drew people from other areas

River Valley Civilizations: Mesopotamia (Sumer)

* Between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in Iraq
* Was beneficial because it provided extensive irrigation systems (Sumer)
* Lots of Semetic (Semetic = language) migrants
* Was a center for religious, political, military, & marketplace organization
* Organized into city-states to avoid conflict (Ur, Uruk, Kish, ect.)