What is History?

8000 BCE-600 CEFirst Peoples; First FarmersAPWH

PERIOD ONE

From PRE-history to CIVILIZATION

First People – First Farmers

Key Concept 1.1. Big Geography and the Peopling of the Earth

The term Big Geography draws attention to the global nature of world history. Throughout the Paleolithic period, humans migrated from Africa to Eurasia, Australia, and the Americas. Early humans were mobile and creative in adapting to different geographical settings from savanna to desert to Ice Age tundra. By making an analogy with modern hunterforager societies, anthropologists infer that these bands were relatively egalitarian. Humans also developed varied and sophisticated technologies.

What key points should we take from this key concept?

Nomads: Follow the Food

Foraging Societies Foraging is hunting and gathering

Small groups nomadic groups that follow food

At the mercy of nature Natural phenomena could endanger entire

communities Few possessions

Pastoral Societies Domestication of animals Mostly in mountain regions and in areas

that could not support crops. Supplemented with small scale

agriculture Mostly egalitarian Concept of extended family

Pastoral cont. Social class based on size of herd Few possessions

Key Dates

• 250,000 BP - Physical modernity

• 100,000 BP - Out of Africa

• 10,000 BP – end of Ice Age

• 10,000 BP – farming Neolithic RevolutionAgricultural Revolution

8,000 – 3,500 B.C.E.Neolithic (New Stone Age)

PaleolithicMesolithicNeolithic

Early Stone AgeLate Stone AgeMiddle Stone Age

The Last Ice Age

100,000 – 10,000Years ago

Gathering hunting peoples = hunting foraging bandsAP Term!

How did we go from fewer than 10,000 individuals 100,000 years ago to… LINK today?

In Africa (250,00 – 100,000 BP)

• Adapt to range of environments

• Tools – stone, bone, hand axes

• Hunting and fishing

• Seasonal settlements

• Exchange of ideas/goods – 200 miles

• Symbolic behavior - Body ornaments and burials

How did people survive before hunting and fishing?

What is the advantage of moving around?

And then they started to

leave Africa…

Eurasia 100,00040,000

• Hunting• Clothing• Storage• Venus Figurines

• Bone needles – layered doting

• Spears, bow and arrow

• Cave paintings

Australia 60,000

• 1st boats• Local plants and animals• Dreamtime• Pituri

Americas 30,000-15,000

• Bering Strait or West Coast?• Large animals * environmental

• Clovis point• Diversification after ice age

Development of weaponryAnimal-skin disguisesStampeding tacticsLighting of fires, etc. to drive game into kill zones

• From Philippines and New Guinea• Ocean going canoes• Brought domesticated plants/animals• Stratified• Extinction of animals – flightless birds – moa• Stratified society - Chiefdom

3,500 years ago

Pacific

Social Organization

Small (20-50) kinshipEgalitarian – no permanent leaders, wealth (insulting the meat), skill set, women and men (70%-30%)

Agricultural

More free time – work less than Neolithic societiesManipulate environment – fire (eucalyptus trees) large animals gone (mammoth flightless birds) Other hominids (Flores man, Neanderthal)

ReligiousNo full time religious leaders, rock art Lascaux, feminine mystique , animistic – animal, rock, tree spirits

COT

25,000 smaller tools Africa10,000 climate warms, more plants, settling = stored and accumulated goods , less egalitarian – some more talented or lucky1,200-4,000 more tools, specialized tools – bow & arrow, pottery, canoes, paddles, more elaborate burial sites

Paleolithic Societies

1. How did a gathering and hunting society impact the accumulation of surplus?

2. How would this impact equality within a society?

Agricultural Development

12,000 – 4,000 year ago

Separately and Independently

(Not an actual fight or lunge for power)…

Settling Down: Neolithic Revolution

Agricultural Revolution =

Neolithic RevolutionCultivation of plants and domestication of animals

• People don’t use what they find in nature, they change nature to get what they need

Occurred separately and independently

See page 28-29

Agricultural Societies Neolithic Revolution=Agricultural

revolution Neolithic revolution when people began

congregating and forming small villages Relied more on environment (soil and

water) More sense of unity with sustained

cultural interactions

Agricultural Soc. Cont. Idea of ownership of property Food surplus=specialization of labor

Irrigation lead to even greater surplus Civilizations emerge

Impact of Agriculture on Environment

Farming villages changed environment by rerouting water, clearing land, and building cities

Land and resources reconfigured to fit needs of growing civilization

Animals used for both food and labor Metallurgy= reliable tools and weapons Latter part of Neolithic

revolution=Bronze Age

Causes - spread of Neolithic Revolution• Diffusion of ideas /technology• Migration• Disease• Intermarriage• Violence

Impacts of Neolithic Revolution• Technological improvements • Pottery, plows, textiles, • metallurgy, wheels

• Food surplus• Population increase• Specialization

Development of Complex Societies

First complex societies

3500 BCE – 500 BCE

Hunting and

ForagingAgriculture Complex

Societies

Surplus

needed to

allow

specialization

Questions

Refer to pages 28-29

Which agricultural center did not spread agricultural knowledge much beyond its core region?

Where would you have expected this region to spread its use of agriculture?

Chiefdom vs. Stateless Societies

Chiefdom• Inherited power• Control by gifts, charisma• Priests organize projects• Tribute collections –

specialization• Polynesian, N America

Stateless• Gender equality• Specialization – little

inequality• Group decision making

through lineage• Some social stratification-

but not inherited• Çatalhöyük, Turkey, Tiv,

Nigeria

Civilizations

Competing chiefdomsNeolithic RevolutionSurplusLarge populationsSpecializationLarge scale irrigationPowerful statesInequalitySocial stratification

Independent, global, 3,500 B.C.E. – 1000 B.C.E.

Mesopotamia

Nile River Valley

Indus River Valley

ShangOlmecs

Norte Chico

Core and Foundational Civilizations

Rise of Patriarchal Societies

WarfareTaming natureMore children and less resourcesContinues today

Describe rights of Egyptian women

Rise of the State

• Purpose of states • Conflict between peoples• Large scale irrigation• Warfare and protection

• Source of Power• China – son of heaven• Stewards of local god• Ability to collect and distribute tribute• Force is possible

Primary Source Reading

Mesopotamia

• 3,000 B.C.E. – 100,000

• Temple• “Mountain of

the Gods

• 80% Urban

Ziggurat at Ur

Defensive Walls

Legal System

• The Code of Hammurabi • Established high standards of

behavior and stern punishment for violators– lex talionis – “law of retaliation”– Social status and punishment– women as property, but some rights

Cultural Hearths – centers of innovation, where key cultural traits develop and influence surrounding areas (writing, metullargy, astronomy, long-distance trade, math, specialization of labor, and formal governments )

Writing 5000 years ago Mesopotamia and Egypt

Cuneiform and Hieroglyphics