Foundations of Civilizations

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Foundations of Civilizations
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Hunter-gatherer Society
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• Hunter-gatherers led a nomadic lifestyle moving
  from place to place searching for new sources of
  food
• Hunter-gatherers were groups of nomads whose food
  supply depended on hunting animals and collecting
  plants
• This lifestyle was used for tens of thousands of
  years..Why?
• It worked

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Neolithic Revolution
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What was the Neolithic Revolution?

• An agricultural revolution- (far-reaching changes
  in human life resulting from the beginnings of
  farming
• This allows people to settle down in one area

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Causes for Neolithic Revolution

• Change in climate
• Rich supply of grain supported a small population
  boom
• Pressures to find new food sources made farming
  an attractive alternative because of its steady
  supply of food

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Impacts the Neolithic Revolution

• Farming provides a steady source of food
• Domestication of animals (taming animals) so they
  can be herded into human-made enclosures, farmers
  can now keep them as a constant supply of food
• Settling in one place allows for specialized
  workers and a varied culture
• Farms and villages could be destroyed by natural
  disasters.
• Slash and burn farming (burned land where ashes
  would act as fertilizer)- once farmers burned the
  land they would move on to another area. Other
  people could use the land in a couple of years
  and the soils nutrients would be replenished

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Domestication

• Taming of animals
• Helped by hunters knowledge of wild animals
• Instead of trapping to slaughter they would trap
  to enclose animals

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What types of things would people need to have an
agricultural society where they could live in one
place?

• Food supply
• What do you need to grow food?
• Water and labor
• Where is the best place to find a source of fresh
  water?
• By a river
• So naturally the first civilizations developed
  around Rivers
• What other things need to happen for a
  civilization to thrive.
• Division of Labor
• Specialized workers
• Civilization will lead a surplus of goods and
  allow for population growth.

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Changes in early civilizations
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Economic Changes

• Irrigation systems allow for villagers to pursue
  jobs other than farming
• Specialized workers rise- people become
  craftsmen, such as potters, metallurgists, and
  weavers.
• Other people become traders and are able to
  profit from their transactions
• Inventions such as the wheel and sail allow
  traders to move goods over long distances

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Social Changes

• Specialized groups of workers develop
• Social classes (varying levels of wealth, power,
  and influence) emerge
• Religion becomes more organized (polytheistic in
  nature)

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5 Characteristics of a Civilization
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5 Characteristics of Civilization

• Advanced cities
• Specialized workers
• Complex institutions
• Record Keeping
• Advanced Technology

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Advanced Cities

• Not a just a place with a large population
• Being a center of trade for a large area
  differentiated villages from cities

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Specialized Workers

• Food Surpluses allow for specialization
• Made it possible for people to become artisans
  (skilled workers who make goods by hand)
• Merchants, soldiers, priests potters, scribes,
  teachers, metal workers, government officials,
  farmers, and weavers

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Complex Institutions

• Governments- formal govt w/ officials and laws
• Priests have both religious and political power
• Education- rigorous system of training for
  scribes
• Economy- Temples served as religious and
  political institutions, as well as the cities
  economic center

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Record Keeping

• Cuneiform by scribes, hieroglyphics in Egypt
  (purpose document tax collections, laws,
  historical events, and storage of grain, etc)

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Advanced Technology

• New tools, ox-drawn plow, irrigation systems,
  potters wheel, and Bronze Age (Bronze weapons
  and body armor gave Sumerians a military
  advantage)

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Early River Valley Civilizations
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Mesopotamialand between the rivers
Natural barriers surrounding the Fertile
Crescent?
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Sumerian Science and Technology

• Used geometry to erect walls, build, complete
  irrigation systems, survey land and developed
  measurement system that is the basis for
  measuring time (60 minutes 1hour) and the 360
  degrees of a circle
• Architecture- arches, columns, ramps, ziggurat
  (pyramid shaped temple mountain of God)

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Sumerians faced three problems. They solved each
through technology.

• Water---irrigation
• Defense---walled cities
• Limited resources--trade

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Sumer showed all five marks of civilization.

• Cities- Ur, Lagash, Umma
• Writing- cuneiform
• Technology- irrigation, plow, metalworking
• Complex institution- government (organized armies
  public works such as irrigation) , religion,
  and trade (people would barter goods to get what
  they needed- no money yet)
• Specialized workers - scribes, schoolmasters,
  artisans, priests, rulers, merchants.

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Other Problems Civilizations faced

• Drought which would lead to people starving
• Floods and fires could kill villages people
• Diseases spread easier since people were living
  in closer proximity towards one another.
• Separation of tasks and growing civilizations led
  to social classes which divided people

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Religion was one of Sumers complex institutions.

• Polytheists (belief in many Gods- each city had
  its own God)
• Built ziggurats (Pyramid shaped temple- huge)
• Priests headed the community
• Sacrificed animals believed in afterlife

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Hammurabi

• Emperor of Babylonian Empire from 1792 B.C. to
  1750 B.C.
• Known for Hammurabis Code- (a uniform code of
  laws would help unify groups in the empire

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Hammurabis Code

• 282 laws (family relations, business conduct and
  crime)
• Applied the principle of an eye for an eye
• Different punishments for rich and poor
• Government had the responsibility for what
  happened to people in society (repaid people if
  they were robbed and the criminal was not caught)

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• Part One-Read the law from Hammurabis law code
  below. Each law will give you a clue about the
  values of the people and way of life in Ancient
  Babylon. For each, draw an inference about the
  way of life or value in ancient Babylon as well
  as identifying a possible reason for this being a
  law.
• If one man has accused another of laying a nertu
  (death spell) upon him, but the charge has not
  been proved, the man making the accusation shall
  be put to death.
• If a son has struck his father, the sons hands
  shall be cut off.
• If a man has hired a boat and boatman and loaded
  the boat with corn, wool, oil, dates, or anything
  else, and the boatman has been careless and sunk
  the boat, the boatman shall restore the boat and
  whatever was lost that was in it.

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• If a man borrows silver, he must pay 20
  interest in return. If a man borrows grain, he
  must pay 33 1/3 in interest.
• If a man owes a debt and has given his wife,
  his son, and his daughter as hostage for the
  debt, the hostage shall do work in the house of
  the creditor. But in the fourth year, the
  creditor shall set the hostage free.
• If a life has been lost, the city or district
  governor shall pay one mina (a measurement) of
  silver to the dead persons relatives.
• Conclusion Think of a law in todays United
  States and list the law. What does that law tell
  you about life in the United States.

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Egypt, the Gift of the Nile

• Nile, the longest river in the world, 4,100 miles
  long, flows North
• Egyptians worshiped the Nile as a God because it
  gave them abundance in the middle of a desert
• Egypt was one country united by the Nile River

• Farmers counted on yearly flooding of the Nile to
  provide them with fertile soil for their crops.

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Egyptians lived in farming villages as far back
as 5000 B.C.

• Eventually they came together in farming
  districts called nomes.
• Earliest Egyptian trade included trade with
  Mesopotamia.

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Around 3100 B.C., King Narmer of Upper Egypt
(white Crown) conquered Lower Egypt (red crown)
and united the two kingdoms.

• The Egyptian kings acquired the title of
  pharaoh and became the center of both
  government and religion for the Egyptian people.

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Pharaohs

• Egyptian kings who ruled as Gods
• Part of a theocracy (rule based on religious
  authority)
• The pharaoh caused the sun to shine, the river to
  flood, and the crops to grow according to the
  people.

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Pyramids

• Egyptians believed their king ruled after death
• Pharaohs were expected to rule forever, which
  made their tombs more important than their palaces

• Exhibit economic strength and technological means
  to build such large public works

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Egyptian Marks of Civilization

• Cities - capital city
• Technology- metal work, architecture,
  mummification (embalming and drying the corpse to
  prevent it from decaying), calendar
• Complex institutions- religion/government
• Specialized workers - priests, tax collectors,
  doctors, architects
• Writing- hieroglyphics (sacred carving
  pictures could stand for sounds as well as
  ideas- like letters for an alphabet) wrote on
  papyrus reeds (better writing surface than stone,
  grew in marshy delta)

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• What are the similarities and differences in
  Egyptian and Sumerian religion and language?