Book notes

LO1: trace the key developments of prehistory, from the emergence of our human ancestors to the beginnings of village life 
LO2: explain why the society that grew up in Sumer is considered one of the first civilizations, and describe later developments in Mesopotamia 
LO3: contrast the ancient civilization of the Nile with that of the Tigris-Euphrates, and discuss the defining features of Egyptian life

"Language, religion, art, technology, farming, family life, and village features of human existence originated in prehistoric times."

What do you think? with the development of agriculture and the move away from a hunting and gathering way of life, the quality of human life improved. 

Prehistory: the millions of years in which human beings appeared on the earth, spread across the planet, and advanced in organization and skills. 

Picture caption: the temple of Amon constructed about 1600 BC near the Egyptian city of Thebes, remains the world's largest religious building even today. In the Hypostyle Hall (Hall of columns) a gigantic porchlike structure leading from the temple's piter courtyard to a series of inner shrines where the actual worship took place, priests prepared themselves to perform the holy rituals of the god. 

Prehistory: the period before history was recorded through written documents. 

LO1: before 
Paleolithic (old stone) age 

• the earliest and longest period of prehistory, when humans used simple stone tools
• civilization is a very recent development. 
• began with the earliest human types 

Chronology:

-2.5 million years before the present: appearance of first human like species

-200,000- 150,000 BP: scientists have traced our genetic ancestry to a "scientific eve" living in Africa at this time

-50,000 BP: scientists theorize that humans began migrating out of Africa around this time

-8,000-4,000 BC: agricultural revolution 

-3500- 3000 BC: rise of first civilizations in Mesopotamia and Egypt

-2400 BC: Sumer falls to Sargon of Akkad; Sumerian civilization continues under a succession of foreign rulers

-1600 BC: the Hitties dominate Anatolia 

-1100 BC: end of New Kingdom in Egypt; Egyptian civilization continues under a succession of foreign rulers 

"If we reduce the time since the first humanlike species appeared (about 2.5 million years ago) to the period of a twenty-four-hour day, the five-thousand-year era of civilization takes up less than the last three minutes!"

Neolithic (new stone) age

• the period of human history characterized by advances in stone tool-making and the beginnings of agricultural 

Neolithic age- the subsequent period/ the period of human history characterized by advances in stone tool-making and the beginnings of agriculture 

Picture caption: the images of the wild beasts were painted about 25,000 years ago in a cave in southern France. Nearer the entrance, people had their dwellings. To judge from animal bones found in their garbage piles, they did not hunt these beasts; instead, perhaps they worshiped them. Layers of paint suggest that the paintings were continually restored, so they must have been very important objects.

Agricultural Revolution also called the neolithic age: the shift from hunting and gathering food to a more settled way of life based on farming and herding that occurred gradually between 8000 and 4000 BC in much of western Asia, northern Africa, and Europe, and separately in other parts of the world. 

Map: Southwestern Asia

• the agricultural revolution began in the lands of the Fertile Crescent where farmers could depend on regular rainfall 
• it took place in several times throughout the world 
• first in Southwestern Asia 

The reasons why...

NEW ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS 

• around 10,000 bc the planet was warming and the ice sheet that covered much of the Northern Hemisphere began to melt and withdraw northward 
• southwestern Asia emerged as a region with a mild climate, fertile soil, and a good water supply- key elements for cultivating crops
• wild grasses that bore nourishing seeds flourished naturally in the grasslands above the river valleys of the region

THE DEVELOPMENT OF TECHNIQUES FOR DOMESTICATING PLANTS

• women of hunting and gathering bands, who were responsible for plant food, were probably the ones who noticed the seeds of wild grasses could sprout into plants, and they began tending garden patches 
• by choosing to put back into the soil the seeds of those grasses that grew best and were easiest to harvest, cultivators helped breed (over many generations) wheat and barley 
• tools were fashioned to make farming possible on a large scale. Stone-bladed hoes loosened the soil for seeding, and flint-edges sickles cut the edible seeds from stalks 

THE DEVELOPMENT OF TECHNIQUES FOR DOMESTICATING ANIMALS 

• wild dogs were the first animals to be tamed- probably by the men of hunting bands
• sheep, goat, pigs, and cattle were domesticated to provide meat, wool, skins, and milk
• toward the end of the Neolithic age, humans began to use oxen for farming, along with a new tool- the plow. The oxen and plow made it possible to cultivate larger fields and feed more people. 
• with the invention of the wheel , oxen were also used to pull carts and transport goods and people

polytheism: the belief in many gods and goddesses 

"over many generations, the life of village communities and families came to be regulated by complex systems of tradition, custom, and authority, out of which the law of government of civilized societies would ultimately grow" 

"nurtured by a favorable environment and then toughened by harsher conditions, there grew up in southern Mesopotamia a new kind of society, so much more complex then the older one that today it counts as one of the world's first true civilizations" 

Sumer:

• the scene of the development was a vast plain stretching between two great rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates