Rise of Civilization

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Rise of Civilization
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Hunters and Gatherers

• Nomads that moved from place to place.
• Lived in groups of 25-70
• Invented spears for hunting and digging sticks to
  pry plants loose.
• Food dependent on hunting and collecting plants

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Neolithic Revolution (Agricultural
Revolution)

• Man learned to farm and produce enough food to
  support communities.
• The revolution spread slowly throughout the world
  and communities became larger and more productive
  until they became civilized.

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• Causes are not known but it is believed that a
  warmer climate provided longer growing seasons
  and drier land for cultivating wild grasses.

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Early farming

• Slash and burn farming was an early farming
  technique.
• Land would be farmed for a couple of years and
  then burned and the ashes would act as a
  fertilizer while farmers would move to a new plot
  of land.

• Provided a steady source of food
• Invented new tools

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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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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)
• Jewelry, clothing, pottery

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Complex Institutions

• Government
• Religion
• Economy

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Record Keeping

• As institutions became more complex there was a
  need for documentation.
• Scribes professional record keepers
• Cuneiform- wedge shaped pictographs (symbols of
  objects they represented)

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Improved Technology

• New tools
• New techniques
• Bronze Age- people began to use bronze instead of
  copper and stone.
• Started in Sumer around 3000 B.C.

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Ur, was one of the earliest cities in Sumer, the
region known as Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq).
It is located between the Tigris and Euphrates
Rivers where yearly flooding made the region
fertile.
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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