ANCIENT AND CLASSICAL PERIOD

IN WORLD HISTORY:FROM THE DAWN OF TIME

TO 600 C.E.

CONTENT

HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY TO KNOW

• Historic Regions• All AP Regions• Mesopotamia, Mesoamerica• Sudanic Africa (West African Sahel)

• Historic States to Know• River Valley Civilizations• Amer-Indian geographic hearths• Classical Empires

• Locations of world religions• Internal vs. External migration

• Migration, Urbanization• Immigration

• Movement in History• Original spread of humans• Indo-European• Bantu• Germanic and Viking• Spread of world religions• Polynesian

A.P. GEOGRAPHIC REGIONS

MODERN NATIONS TO KNOW

THEMES

• THEMES (P.E.R.S.I.A.N., S.C.R.I.P.T.E.D.)• Social, Gender Structures including Labor Systems• Cultural and Intellectual Structures • Religious Structures• Interactions: War, Diplomacy, Trade• Political Culture, Political Organization, State

Structures, • Technology• Economics• Demography (geography) and Environment

• OTHER• Change and Continuity over Time• Cause and Effect (Causes and Processes)• Geography: Local and regional focus

THE ANCIENT AND CLASSICAL PERIOD

• PERIODIZATION• What themes set a period apart?• When did it begin, when did it end?• Nature and causes of change• Breaks and continuity within a time period

• 1,000,000 BCE TO 600 CE• Prehistoric: 1 million to 4500 BCE• Ancient: 4500 to 1000 BCE• Classical: 1000 BCE to 600 CE

• Breaks and Continuity within Period• Prehistoric: Rise of Humans, Hunter Gatherers• Ancient: Sedentary culture, domestications• Classical: Use of Iron

ENVIRONMENT

• HUMAN ENVIRONMENT INTERACTION• Man had to adapt to environment or live

• Climates diverse, man’s adaptations diverse• Man arose in Africa, spread out to other continents• Harshest climates around deserts, desert like conditions

• Environment often forced man to change• As civilization advances, man begins to change

surroundings• Hunter-gather nature• Slash and burn was the transition to sedentary agriculture

• AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES• Domestications

• Farming• Herding

• Sedentary civilization• PASTORAL SOCIETIES

• Nomads and their flocks• Relationship to agricultural societies

• DEMOGRAPHIC CHANGES WITH RISE OF CIVILIZATIONS

EARLY GEOGRAPHIC SETTING• PRE-HISTORIC

• The whole world in all settings• The first towns, cities arose in marginal zones

• Some building materials• Some foods, resources, marginal water, and

protection

• ANCIENT• Mesopotamia

• Sumer• Assyria and Babylon

• Nile River• Egyptian Kingdoms• Kush-Meroe

• Indus River• Harrappan, Mohenjo Daro• Aryans

• Yellow River• Xia• Shang

LATER GEOGRAPHIC SETTING CLASSICAL

• MEDITERRANEAN• Phoenicians, Jews, Persians• Greeks: Hellenes, Hellenistic Age• Romans: Republic and Empire

• SOUTH ASIA• Persians and Greeks• Mauryans• Guptans

• EAST ASIA• Zhou, • Qin, Han

• CENTRAL ASIANS• OTHERS

• Ghana, Axum-Ethiopia• Mayans, Toltecs, Aztecs• Incas and predecessors

CHANGE OVER TIME CULTURE• CULTURE

• Language, Religion• Traditions and Institutions• Occupations• Past-times

• ARTS, SCIENCES• TOOL MAKING CULTURE

• Hunter Gathers had tools, only primitive• Neolithic technology become complex, varies

• NATURE OF CIVILIZATION• Writing is at the center of a cultural change• Complex culture based on living in a city• People packed more closely together• Social mores reflect this change• Artisans, toolmakers have great influence

• SOPHISTICATION: Increased over time

CHANGE OVER TIME SOCIETY

• PRE-HISTORIC• Gender equality, work equality• Short life, Limited survival, foods• Small groups, bands led by elders• Religion: animist, afterlife

• ANCIENT: VILLAGE TO CIVILIZATION• Sedentary life led to rise of social classes• Social differences, gender differences• Specialized occupations• Rise of inequalities; rise of aristocrats, kings, priests• Villages and a few cities

• CLASSICAL• Continuation of Ancient although trends heightened• Classes often become rigid, rise of warriors, war

leaders

CHANGE OVER TIME SOCIAL STRUCTURE

• PALEOLITHIC• Egalitarian = Survival of the fittest• Men, women hunted, gathered so all would survive

• NEOLITHIC• Gender differences set in with farming• Rise of elites to run government• Role specialization developed especially artisans

• ANCIENT• Formal classes begin to arise• Rise of formal religious, governing, commercial classes• Introduction of slavery, serfdom, unfree labor especially

farmers

• CLASSICAL• Rigid class structures tending towards castes• Rise of aristocracy, permanent warrior class; intellectuals• Gender differences became pronounced but not as rigid

yet

TECHNOLOGY OVER TIME

• The ability to make and use tools• Man has always been a toolmaker• Tools increasingly designed to meet specific

needs• Simple to complex

• Materials• Bone, Stone, Wood• Mixture of Media• Metalurgy: Copper, Bronze, Iron• Include domestications as technology if necessary• In many ways writing is a technology

• Technology really can only expand if group supports artisans who do not hunt, gather, farm

• Know how inventions improved life

CHANGE OVER TIME STATE STRUCTURES

• REGIONAL STATE STRUCTURES• Small city states

• Sumer, Indus, Xia• Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Mayans

• Regional states• Shang• Babylonia, Israel

• First Empire• Tribute empires• Egyptian Old Kingdom• Toltecs, Akkad

• MULTIREGIONAL STATE STRUCTURES• Empires

• Land empires• Sea-based empires

• Assyrians, Egyptian New Kingdom• Persians, Greeks, Romans• Mauryans, Qin, Han, Inca, Aztec, Toltec

• SPECIALIZED GROUPS TO RUN STATE, BUREAUCRACY

CHANGE OVER TIME RELIGIONS

• UNIVERSALIZING vs ETHNIC RELIGIONS• MAJOR FEATURES OF EACH, WHERE ARE RELIGIONS

LOCATED• EARLY RELIGIONS

• ANIMISM• POLYTHEISM• HINDUISM• SHINTO

• PHILOSOPHIES AND RELIGIONS BLEND• TAOISM, CONFUCIANISM, LEGALISM• BUDDHISM• HELLENIC PHILOSOPHY

• MONOTHEISM• JUDAISM• CHRISTIANITY• ISLAM

• RISE OF PERMANENT RELIGIOUS CASTE, MORAL CODES

CHANGE OVER TIME INTERACTIONS

• War• Not a new invention but rare in Pre-history• History introduces scarcity, contest for it• War becomes increasingly complex; warrior classes• Technology effected war; empires are core of

classical• Diplomacy

• Similar to War• Contact between states led to diplomacy• First treaty was between Hittites, Egyptians

• Trade• The simplest way for cities to overcome failings• Trade for what you do not have• Most international trade was for luxury• Commodities traded locally, internally

• Exchanges: ideas, diseases• Migration of nomads, Bantus, Indo-

Europeans• Interactions between nomads, sedentary

CLASSICAL ENDS

• Reasons for Decline• Geographic, Demographic, Environment• Military, Political• Economic, Social

• Decline in Given Areas• Mediterranean• South Asia• East Asia

• That which remains• Classical cultures• Classical religions• Classical traditions

• Interregional Networks: Trade, Spread of Religions

• Movements of Bantu, Huns, Germans, Polynesian

ESSAYS

COMPARISONS AND SNAPSHOTS

• Compare major religions and philosophical systems including similarities in cementing a social hierarchy, e.g. Hinduism contrasted with Confucianism.

• Compare the role of women in different belief - Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, and Hinduism

COMPARISONS AND SNAPSHOTS

• Understand how and why the collapse of empire was more severe in Western Europe than it was in the Eastern Mediterranean, China, or South India

• Compare the caste system to other systems of social inequality devised by ancient and Classical civilizations, including slavery

COMPARISONS AND SNAPSHOTS

• Compare societies and cultures that include cities with pastoral and nomadic societies.

• Compare the development of traditions and institutions in major civilizations, e.g. Indian, Chinese, Greek

• Describe interregional trading systems e.g. the Indian Ocean trade system and the Silk Road

COMPARISONS AND SNAPSHOTS

• Compare the political and social structures of two early civilizations using any two of the following:• Mesopotamia (Sumer through Persia)• Egypt (Old Kingdom through New Empire)• Indus Valley (Harappan to Aryan)• Shang Dynasty• Mesoamerica (Olmecs, Mayans, Toltecs)• Andean South America (Moche, Chan

Chan)