The Emergence of Civilization

Prehistory

Exploring Prehistory

• Anthropologists- Study skeletal remains to see what early people looked like and how they lived.

• Donald Johanson-: Found “Lucy” 3 million years ago• Mary Leakey- Found a skeleton dating back 3.7

million years ago

• Archaeologists- study their artifacts and determine how they lived and what their culture was like.

“Lucy” the Hominid

Hominids-Neanderthals

• Describe the first known human beings:These individuals had powerful jaws, receding

chins, low foreheads, and heavy eyebrow ridges.

• Who were the Neanderthals?• What is known about them?They lived about 35,000 to 130,000 years ago.

They wore animal skins for clothing and used

fire for warmth and cooking. They differed from the hominids because they buried their dead.

Paleolithic Age-Old Stone Age

• Paleolithic means Ancient Stone• Glacier climate• Hunter-gatherers• Nomadic• Cave Paintings• Technology:

– Tools of stone, bone and wood– Fire– Later…Bow and arrow, fish hooks

Neanderthal

• The development of fire and clothing made it so the Neanderthal could live in colder regions.

Cro-Magnons

• Who were the Cro-Magnons? • Lived along side the Neanderthals • What is known about them?They lived about 35,000 years ago. They made

better tools and weapons than earlier peoples.

They left records in artifacts and

cave drawings.

Cave PaintingsLascaux in France, South Africa,

and Australia

Mesolithic Age- Middle Stone Age

• New environments developed• Many large animals became extinct-

smaller game hunted, and they tamed dogs.

• Fishing• Beginning of agriculture• Some permanent settlements• Technology:

• Tools developed for specific tasks• Stone sickles

• What was the Agricultural Revolution?• The spread of ideas from one culture to

other areas.• Why is it significant?This is the term given for the raising of crops and

domestication of animals. It allowed nomadic

peoples to establish permanent settlements.

Neolithic Age- New Stone Age

• First towns and cities appear• Advent of writing- History begins• Produce their own food• Animals domesticated• Agricultural Revolution• Technology:

• Made baskets and pottery• Wove cloth• Bronze and then Iron Age• Invention of the wheel and the Sail• Irrigation• Plow and ox teams

Four regions of first civilization

• Nile River Valley- Egypt

• Tigris and Euphrates Valley- Iraq

• Indus River Valley- India

• Huang or Yellow River Valley- China

Map of first civilizations

Characteristics of civilization

• People are able to produce a surplus of food

• People establish cities and town with some form of government

• People perform different jobs• Advent of the calendar• A writing system

• Division of Labor:

People specializing in different kinds of work. Which creates the artisan, class of skilled workers.

Merchants and traders set off for other towns and settlements and this creates a spread of ideas and culture known as cultural diffusion.

Family

Families: Women tended to the needs of the family, such as caring for the young, cooking, they invented weaving and pottery. Women did much of the early farming.

The Plow: once this tool was invented women loss independence, and power shifted to the men.

Religion

• Polytheistic belief in many gods and goddesses, they controlled all aspects of human life.

• Prayer, rituals, and offering of sacrifices.

Hieroglyphics- Early Writing