world histo chap 1
(CHP 1)A HISTORY OF THE WORLD: The Beginnings of Civilization
By Marvin Perry
Some of the most impressive achievements in human history were made in the period before people kept written records. the Paleolithic period (roughly 2.5 million years ago to 10,000 B.C.),
About 5,000 or 6,000 years ago, people in river valleys in Asia and Africa began to build cities, organize governments, and keep written records. The civilizations they built were based on the achievements made during the immense stretch of prehistoric time.
[1]Achievements Are Made in the Old Stone Age
The study of history depends greatly on written records; clay, stone, wood, bone, and paper.
PREHISTORY: the story of human progress is much older. The period of time before people kept written records is called prehistory.
THE STUDY OF PREHISTORY
UNWRITTEN EVIDENCES
Scientists study evidence of the human past. What we know about prehistoric times comes from unwritten evidence tools, drawings, pottery, weapons, jewelry, and other objects made by prehistoric people.
simple stone tools and weapons, the period as a whole has been named the Stone Age.
ARTIFACTS
objects shaped by human beings.
FOSSILS
human or animal bones and teeth and other traces left in rocks by plants and animals.
FIELDS OF STUDY
Archeologists
study places where prehistoric people lived, looking for the remains of homes, graves, and towns and examining the artifacts found there.
archeological dig: a site where ancient objects are deeply buried. Arche- ologists base their choice of the site for a dig on clues such as the ground surface and stories or traditions that indicate people once occupied the site. Sometimes a dig is made where artifacts have been found by accident.
Site Mapping:
Layer-by-Layer Excavation:
Artifact Handling:
Sifting Soil:
Artifact Documentation:
Cleaning and Preservation:
Study and Analysis:
Reconstruction and Interpretation:
Sample Analysis:
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Anthropology,
Scientist study artifacts, bones, and other clues and try to determine what people looked like, what they ate, how long they lived, and other characteristics.
Geologists
analyze fossils and the rocks in which they are found,
Chemists and Physicists
use special methods to estimate the ages of artifacts and other remains from the past
Botanists and Zoologists
also contribute their specialized knowledge about plants and animals.
Scientific techniques are used to find the age of artifacts.
How can archeologists know how old an object is?
[1948] American chemist, Willard Libby: CARBON-14 DATING
all living organisms, plant or animal, contain a certain amount of radioactive carbon, called carbon-14.
When the organism dies, the carbon-14 begins to decrease at a fixed rate. By analyzing how much carbon-14 is left in a piece of wood or bone or other once-living material, scientists can tell its approximate age.
Radioactive Elements,
such as potassium-40, uranium, and thorium, are also used in methods for dating rocks and minerals.
Chemical and Physical analysis
devised to date the remains of living things.
OLD STONE AGE HUNTERS AND GATHERERS
Old Age or Paleolithic Age: longest part of prehistoric times
Old Stone Age people hunt and gather food.
The men and women of the Paleolithic Age were nomads, people who have no permanent homes but wander from place to place.
Small groups, usually twenty to thirty people, traveled together following herds of wild animals, which they killed for meat.
Gathered wild fruit, nuts, seeds, honey, roots, and grains, and caught fish in streams and rivers.
Achievements of Paleolithic people
[460,000 years ago] in a Chinese village scientists excavated a cave and found over 100,000 stone artifacts and evidence that the cave dwellers used fire.
Paleolithic people did not build permanent dwellings or settle in villages. They made temporary homes in caves or in tents constructed of branches and animal skins.
When the animals left the area or the food supply ran short, the people moved on.
Early in this period, human beings made a variety of tools that had specific uses. Paleolithic tools found by archeologists are of stone, which is longer lasting than wood or bone.
daggers and spearpoints for hunting,
hand axes and choppers to cut up meat,
scrapers for cleaning animal hides.
Some tools were used to dig up roots, to peel the bark off wood, and to remove the skin from animals.
Sharpened wooden sticks, hardened in a fire, were used as spears.
Later in the period, splinters of bone were used as needles and fishhooks.
They learned to control and use fire, and they used spoken language.
FIRE and the Paleolithic people
Fire provided warmth and light in the cave or shelter and kept wild animals away at night.
Fire was useful in hunting: hunters with torches could drive a herd of large animals over the edge of a cliff rather than trying to kill them with their clumsy short spears.
Cook food :Smoke from a fire helped preserve food and make animal skins more waterproof.
Spoken language was a great advance for Paleolithic people.
speech contributed much to human progress and achievements. Knowledge, skills, and information could be passed from parents to children. People could discuss ideas and share experiences.
Paleolithic people | |
Neanderthal | Cro-Magnon |
One widespread group of Paleolithic hunting people was the Neanderthal. [lived from 100,000 to 40,000 years ago.] Artifacts and living sites found in Europe, Asia, and North Africa. They were named for the valley in Germany where their remains were first found. rituals they hoped would guarantee them success in the hunt. carefully buried their dead, placing tools, ornaments, food, and bunches of wildflowers in the graves. Paleolithic people had religious beliefs, including the idea of a life after death. |
Earliest Prehistoric art could have been inspired from Religious beliefs. This was created by people who have been named CroMagnon[ southern France where a road-building crew found a grave filled with artifacts.]
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Discoveries | |
Cave Altamira | The Lascaux cave. |
[1875] a Spanish nobleman, Don Marcelino de Sautuola [1879] his young daughter Maria came to the cave with him found that the ceiling was covered with paintings of animals. pictures of more than twenty-five ani- mals. There were bison, deer, horses, and other animals, some life-size or larger, painted in red, brown, yellow, and black. | [1940] when four young french boys in Lascaux (lahs-KOH), France. contains dozens of paintings of animals in an even wider range of colors than those of Altamira. |
hundred decorated caves and shelters have been found in this part of Europe.
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The environment undergoes changes.
Late in the Old Stone Age, the earth's weather and climate changed and grew cooler.
variations in temperature have produced at least four long cold periods, Each Ice Age probably lasted tens of thousands of years.
Most recently reached its height about 20,000 years ago.
[2]The New Stone Age Brings Change
Neolithic Period
Period of prehistory that began about 10,000 years ago
still made tools of stone, they learned to shape and polish them more carefully
Neolithic Age, or New Stone Age. (Neo- means "new.")
Neolithic Discoveries and developments
Developed farming, tamed animals, established villages
They also learned to make pottery, weave cloth, and work with metals.
made first by people in the Near East, the area from Egypt to Mesopotamia( where wheat and barley grew wild as grasses, and wild sheep and goats roamed the hills.)
Farming and herding begin in the Near East.
cultivation of food-producing plants and the domestication of animals gave people more dependable sources of food.
Some farming societies men continued to hunt animals for meat, while women and children tended the crops.
Herders sometimes kill/ source food within their own animals
Domesticated animals provided milk and cheese as well as meat and hides for both farmers and herders
Near East, the area from Egypt to Mesopotamia |
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The Americas |
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Southwestern Asia |
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Southeastern Asia |
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France |
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Farmers settle in villages
To be near their growing crops and to store the extra food they grew, farming peoples began to build permanent settlements or villages.
They spent part or all of a year in areas where food was abundant - near a river or lake well-stocked with fish or in a valley with plenty of wild wheat and barley and herds of gazelles or goats.
Near East, where farming began, villages were common by 8,000 years ago.
Earliest known town was the walled city of Jericho, built about 7000в.c near the eastern end of the Mediterranean.
And Catal Hüyük in Asia Minor 8000в.c was built about a thousand years later
Villagers develop special skills.
Villages allowed people to develop non farming skills- Some people had time to make tools and weapons; some made shelters or clothing from animal skins.
weave reeds into baskets;
some made pottery containers for cooking and for storing food and water.
Artisans; people with skills in specialized crafts.
Toolmaker might trade with a farmer, exchanging a stone hoe and ax for grain or a sheep.
Potter : might trade clay pots . for animal skins to make boots or clothing.
BARTER; trade, in which one good is exchanged for another,
Increased trade and village living allowed people to acquire more possessions.
People began to be concerned about protecting what they owned from stealing or raid
Catal Hüyük provides information about Neolithic life.
unearthed several Neolithic settlements.
Catal Hüyük, which had between 3,000 and 6,000 in- habitants.
HOUSES: built rectangular, flat-roofed houses made of oak and bricks of dried mud. Only entrance was the roof and down a ladder.
provide protection and make construction easier, they built the walls of the houses against each other.
decorated their buildings.Benches and pillars were decorated with cattle horns; wals were painted with colorful flowers, geometric designs, playful leopards, dancers, and hunting scenes.
Archaeologist concluded that the art had religious significance
Some buildings probably were shrines, decorated with plaster carv- ings and statues of clay, marble, or limestone.
The main deity was a mother goddess who was believed to control the harvest and therefore the life of the village.
Examining skeletal remains, anthropologists estimate that the average person in Catal Hüyük lived about thirty years.
The dead were buried in their homes and food was put into the graves. This suggests that people believed in some kind of life after death. Graves also contained tools, jewelry, mirrors, and weapons.
Catal Hüyuk was a farming village whose people grew crops of wheat and barley and raised herds of sheep and cattle.
Catal Hüyuk were skilled artisans who made finely woven clothing of wool and linen. Traders from other regions brought alabaster and marble to exchange for obsidian, a volcanic rock resembling glass. Artisans used obsidian for making jewelry, mirrors, and knives.
Neolithic New Technology
Neolithic people specialized in certain crafts, they developed new technology. That is, they learned to use new methods and materials and to create new tools for their work
bake clay pottery and bricks to make them more long-lasting. By turning clay on a flat disk, or potter's wheel, they could shape plates or bowls quickly and precisely.
Sharpened stone tools by grinding them on rocks rather than chipping off flakes. Their finely polished tools were sharper and more durable than earlier ones.
plow, which was pulled by oxen. This invention enabled Neolithic farmers to bring more land under cultivation.
spin wool into thread and make looms for weaving thread into cloth.
wheel and the sail, both of which improved transportation and encouraged trade.
BRONZE AGE
Artisans learn to work with metals. In late Neolithic times artisans in the Near East learned to work with metal to make tools and weapons [metalworking]
Copper was probably the first metal used, for it is easily worked and easy to extract from the rock where it is found.
Copper tools and weapons could be sharpened more easily than those made of stone, and they could be recast and reshaped if broken.
to make bronze- combine copper with a small amount of tin. Bronze was harder and more durable than copper. It made weapons and tools with a sharper cutting edge.( higher demand for copper and tin led to a great increase in trade.)
Bronze Age is used to describe the period when bronze replaced copper and stone as the main material used in tools and weapons. This period began in different parts of Asia and Europe. Knowledge of Bronze- working was discovered first in southwestern Asia about 5,000 years ago.
[3]Civilizations Emerge ni Asia and Africa
Neolithical people's food supply became more reliable, the population increased, and trade expanded. Settlements became larger, and some grew into cities.
Characterization of early civilization: organized government and religion, the development of specialized occupations and advanced technology, and the use of written symbols to keep records.
The first civilizations are in river valleys.
emerged ni four great river valleys in Asia and Africa.
Tigris and Euphrates river (Mesopotamia)
Nile River (Egypt)
Indus River (India)
Yellow River (China)
Mesopotamian civilization, appeared about 5,000 years ago in the region between the Tigris and Euphrates river
Egyptian civilization developed on the banks of the Nile River in northern Africa.
Civilization in India emerged in the valley of the Indus River,
Chinese civilization took shape along the Yellow River.
Why civilizations developed first in river valleys.
source of food and fresh water for both human beings and a variety of wild animals. And agriculture
Food source: fish, seafood, water supply for livestock and humans.
Water Source: agriculture developed, the rivers supplied water for growing crops and raising livestock.some rivers flooded each year and deposited fertile soil on the fields. watered by irrigation.
Trade: Because travel by water was easier than travel on foot, rivers encouraged trade.
FEATURES OF EARLY CIVILIZATION
Among the earliest cities in the world was Mohenjo- Daro (top), which was built to a carefully planned pattern. As centers of civilization, early cities depended on people to keep records (center, record- keepers in Egypt).
Governments are organized.
Rivers presented Challenges to the Neolithic Settlers and farmers
learn how to control the flood waters so they could farm the land.
store water for the dry season.
required planning, leadership, cooperation, and the labor
need to plan and direct irrigation and flood control was one reason why governments were organized.
There were leaders and families who had more power and prestige than others. In the first cities, such leaders became rulers
armies for defense
brought together large numbers of people to work on projects like flood control and the building of wals, palaces, and temples.
City Population and Power: larger populations in cities also made organized government necessary.
Laws were issued to keep order among the people.
Government officials were chosen to oversee large projects, to judge those who broke laws, and to collect taxes to pay for the protection and up- keep of the city.
Rulers territory
Sometimes a single city and the surrounding area
Sometimes larger territories with several cities and small villages.
Government and religion are closely con- nected.
Even in Paleolithic times and Neolithic times people had beliefs involving nature and animal spirits and some form of life after death.
Neolithic farming peoples believed that there were gods who controlled the sun, the rain, the winds, and other natural forces.
People sought ways to win the gods' help and approval.
By the time of the first civilizations, religious rituals and the priests who performed them held great importance
Beliefs And Rituals Helped shape the governments that developed in the river valley civilizations.
Rulers seen either as gods or as the chosen representatives of the gods. In this role, the ruler served as chief priest and led religious observances.
Laws were seen as Rulers carrying out the command of God
In the ancient river civilization of China, for example, rulers were thought t o have a "mandate from heaven" - the gods' approval ot rule as long as they ruled well
Cruel/ weak rulers were thought to lose this approval and thus fall from power.
Priests held great power in the government.
People labored and paid taxes for the building of huge temples. In special areas of the temple, the priests lived, studied, and taught younger priests. From the offerings of people who wanted the gods' help, the temples became wealthy as well as powerful.
People in cities follow specialized occupations.
Many specialized occupations were opened aside from agricultural workers
artisans,
merchants,
government officials,
a large number of ordinary laborers, farmers, and fishermen.
Working full-time at specialized jobs encouraged the growth of new skills and new knowledge. Living in the city they could share these ideas and try new methods that further improved their skills and products.
traders from other cities and towns brought new ideas, materials, crafts, and meth- ods. Such inventions as the loom and the pot- ter's wheel may have been spread through the ancient world by traders.
Craftsmen and artisans in the city shared knowledge with each other: weaving cloth, for example, became very skill- ful. Living in the city, they could share ideas with other weavers.
Systems of writing and record-keeping de- velop: the Birth of written History
Government, religion, and trade became more complex and organized, some kind of record keeping was necessary.
write down what taxes were owed or how much grain was stored in a warehouse.
Laws also had to be written down.
Priests needed to keep track of the passage of time or the positions of the sun or moon, which were important in religious rituals.
Merchants wanted to identify their goods and keep records of what they bought and sold.