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Paleolithic Era

Hunter/Gatherer culture & values:

  • similar gender roles

  • Very egalitarian (equal) → each person was a hunter AND gatherer 

Hunter/Gathered lifestyles:

  • They hunted and gathered scavengers

  • Nomadic

  • Small communities

Neolithic Era

Transition from Paleolithic to Neolithic:

  •  Began domesticating plants and animals → began agriculture 

Settled farmer culture

  •  Near rivers, more consistent food

Artisans and crafts - pottery, metallurgy, textiles

  •  able to do ts bc of agricultural surplus

Characteristics of civilization

  •  Big communities 

Specialization of labor

  • agricultural surplus allowed people to have so much food that they could do more than farming; socioeconomic stratification

Change in status of women from Neolithic Revolution

  • (Paleolithic) women went from a similar degree of equality w/ men to (Neolithic) belonging in the kitchen and taking care of kids at home, no more equality 

Pastoral vs Agricultural

  •  Pastoral was more egalitarian and focused on the caring of animals while agricultural was less egalitarian and focused on crops



River Valley Societies – Locations, similarities, differences 

  • Locations: 

    • Mesopotamia: between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and on the Irenian plate in modern day Iraq

    • Egypt: Nile River, surrounded by desert and borders Mediterranean, Red Sea

    • Indus Valley: modern-day Pakistan

    • Early China: China

    • Norte Chico: central coast of Peru near Supe River valley

    • Oxus: Central Asia, Amu Darya River Valley, north Afghanistan/South Turkmenistan

  • overall timeline: 1) Mesopotamia/Egypt 2) The Americas 3) China / Indus Valley

Including: Mesopotamia, Egypt, Indus Valley, Early China, Norte Chico, Oxus 


Mesopotamia 

  • Prone to invasion, moved from rural to urban areas

  • Rivers were unpredictable → flooding and drought

  • Women had few rights

  • Gods were seen as unpredictable → pessimistic outlook on life 

  • Multiple city states each ruled by a king/monarch 

  • ziggurats : stores food, temple maybe. A massive pyramidal stepped tower made of MUD BRICKS. It is associated with religious complexes in ancient Mesopotamian cities, made by Sumerians, distinctive stepped pyramids that house temples and altars to the principal of local deity

  • Cuneiform: 1st written language

  • Hammurabi’s code: code written by Hammurabi the king of Babylon, created the laws on stele, demonstrated how social class determined right and how higher ranking were favored, didn’t like stealing

  • Hierarchy yayayaya

    • Priest/king

    • Merchants, scribes, skilled laborers

    • Peasant + slaves 

  • Trade with Anatolia, Egypt, Indus Valley

  • Fertile land but over irrigation = soil salinization 

  • Sumer: earliest written language. Sumerian cities absorbed into larger Mesopotamian Empires

    • Competing city state = Uruk

Egypt

  • political: unified territorial state ruled by Pharaohs (Gods as human form); unity and longetivity; protected by natural defenses, could live in villages b/c safe; Pharaohs -> nobles -> scribes -> soldiers -> craftsmen -> farmers -> slaves

  • economic: based on Nile River, provided stable food source; sustainable agriculture practices less intrusive; wind patterns significantly helped facilitate effective communication and trade

  • social: optimistic view of life; focus on the afterlife and religion; complex hieroglyphic language system; diffusion of pyramids, religions, hieroglyphics

  • Nubia: south of Egypt, took shape as a unified territorial state where cities were less prominent, one central government 

Indus Valley

  • Expressed in elaborately planned cities

  • Common patterns: standardized weights, measure, architectural style

  • No political hierarchy (palaces, temples)

  • Repeated irrigation → environmental degradation

  • Invented indoor plumbing

Early China

  • Legendary Monarch in Xia Dynasty - Wu, organized public works projects, evident of a strong government. Shang Shou dynasty expands more on it

  • Zhou implemented the Mandate of Heaven. Writing & Oracle bone readings helped Chinese rulers govern 

Norte Chico

  • Little rainfall, 25 urban centers (caral) in the Supe River Valley. Smaller cities, economy based on fishing industry, no grain, pottery or writing 

Oxus

  • important focal point for trade in Eurasia

  • distinctive art style; chariots, hierarchy determined by types of clothes


Persia

  • Imperial system, king as divine

  • Absolute monarch

  • Famous rulers: Cyrus, Darius 

  • Religion: Zoroanstrianism → first monotheistic religions 

  • Satraps = governors.. An effective administrative system placed Persian governors, called satraps (SAY-traps), in each of the empire’s twenty-three provinces, while lower-level officials were drawn from local authorities

  • Will readily adopt foreign customs in order to gain more followers/supporters

  • Standard coins, road connected Empire (weight + purity) 

  • Elaborate imperial centers like Susa, Persepolis

  • Royal road = facilitated communication and commerce

Greece

  • Collection of several independent city states, most notably Athens (direct democracy w/ citizen participation, no slaves/non-citizens/women)

  • direct democracy (Athenian Democracy): radical form of democracy w/ free males that could vote in Assembly, officeholders chosen

  • some city states had an autocracy: govt giving absolute power to one person specifically 

  • Hellenistic Era: period after Alexander the Goat died; Greek culture diffused to Middle East and some of Indian cities/kingdoms ruled by Alexander’s political successors

    • Alexander the Great: Macedonian ruler unified Greek city-states thru 10 year expedition and conquered

  • conquested b/c now unified Greeks (bc of Philip II) were pissed off at Persians for attacking and wanted vengeance -> unify “fracitious” Greeks against a common enemy

  • defeated Persia ez 

  • Greek learning, architecture, language, style, assemblies, markets, everywhere, noticeably diffused through the establishment of “Alexander” cities throughout the empire

  • Cultural diversity, Greek arrogance pissed everyone off


Greek Rationalism

  • Socrates -> 1st major philosopher, socratic method

  • Plato -> “The Republic” ideal political system based on logic

  • Aristotle -> WROTE abt physics astronomy whatever


Art


Characteristics of all Cave Paintings

  • Oxidized iron pigment

  • Left hands on the wall → right hand was used to put on the pigment. 2 assumptions were made

    • Paleolithic people are small

    • The hands were created by children 

  • Ideomorphic: stationary

  • Mobiliary (move) 

  • Hand and animals (are realistic → demonstrates their value)

  • Domesticated animals??

  • People move in packs – hunters and gatherers??

  • Human breath, bacteria, artificial light, AC, which is how some of the arts deteriorated

Sumerian statuettes of worshippers

  • Rigid, big eyes (made of shell and black limestone), made from gypsum, eternally watching a god/gods, holding something (offering or liberation??), represents actual people who are eternally honoring the god, dissimilar to egyptian statues (pharaohs) 

Stele with the Law Code of Hammurabi

  • Babylonian

  • Stele = stone column

  • Bass relief (carving) → carved out 

  • Depiction of Hamurabi’s code 

  • Depiction of god shamash giving the laws to hammurabi (laws come from god not man)

  • Shamash is tall because they are at the same height even tho he’s seated


Ziggurat at Ur

  • 4 sided building going up the Gods

  • engineering/technological marvel 

  • Not smooth (tierea), had drainage system (b/c of erosion)

  • Oriented towards the North 

  • Blue glazed bricks @ top tier (dedicated to moon goddess nanna)

  • 3 stairs to 2nd tier

  • 1 stair to 3rd tier 


King Ashurbanipal Hunting Leon

  • Bass relief carving

  • Plaque not stelle 

  • Palaces covered in these plaques

  • Plaques depicted the king strength and military service 

  • Hunting lions → only king does it (royalty)


Great Pyramids of Giza

  • 2.3 million bricks, smooth and encased in limestone

  • Top has some blackstone on it

  • Believed to be built in the 4th dynasty

  • Huge leap in math and tech from 3rd-4th dynasty

  • Decline in advancements in the 5th dynasty


Last Judgment of Hu-Nefer

  • from the book of dead: what happens to Egyptians in the afterlife

  • Hu-Nefer = scribe (super prestigious job), hieroglypher

  • story of Hu Nefer dying and getting his heart weighted against a feather -> if heavier, ur cooked, if heart = feather ur welcome

Venus de Milo

  • Aphrodite of Melos

  • Aesthetic beauty is less important

  • realistic (heavy) proportions of human form

  • one arm rested on Aries, war god

  • spiral composition -> left leg right, shoulder front

  • “wet fabric”

Identify 3 types of columns

  • Doric capital = basic and boring column

  • Ionic capital = spiral column

  • Corinthian capital = super fancy vegetative(?) column

Kritios and Spear Bearer

  • Kritios = rigid, left foot forward, stiff posture, solemn expression

  • transition from Archaic to classical

  • short -> tall

  • hips uneven

  • contrapposto: S-shape raising hip and shoulder, natural posture

Parthenon and Greek Architecture

  • Focus on geometry and simplicity

  • pediment = triangular shape on top of buildings

  • frieze = rectangular flat cap on top of columns

  • Traditionally, columns went all the way around

  • Parthenon on top of Acropolis -> honored Athena w/ gold ivory 

  • Athena temple -> Greek Orthodox church -> mosque -> ammunition -> exploded

Archaic Greek Sculpture characteristics

  • large, rigid sculptures

  • similar to Egyptian Art, learned where to find stone to carve

  • “Archaic smile” 

Winged Victory of Samothrace

  • Nike = Goddess of victory

  • lost head and arms

  • “ocean spray hitting her on a ship” 

  • spiral composition -> realistic!