UNIT 1: Technological and Environmental Transformations

1
UNIT 1 Technological and Environmental
Transformations

• To c. 600 B.C.E

2
Key Concept 1.3

• From about 5,000 years ago, urban societies
  developed, laying the foundations for the first
  civilizations. The term civilization is normally
  used to designate large societies with cities and
  powerful states. While there were many
  differences between civilizations, they also
  shared important features. They all produced
  agricultural surpluses that permitted significant
  specialization of labor. All civilizations
  contained cities and generated complex
  institutions, such as political bureaucracies,
  armies, and religious hierarchies. They also
  featured clearly stratified social hierarchies
  and organized long-distance trading
  relationships. Economic exchanges intensified
  within and between civilizations, as well a with
  nomadic pastoralists.
•  
• As populations grew, competition for surplus
  resources, especially food, led to greater social
  stratification, specialization of labor,
  increased trade, more complex systems of
  government and religion, and the development of
  record keeping. As civilizations expanded, they
  had to balance their need for more resources with
  environmental constraints such as the danger of
  undermining soil fertility. Finally, the
  accumulation of wealth in settled communities
  spurred warfare between communities and/or with
  patoralists this violence drove the development
  of new technologies of war and urban defense.

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Objective 1.3.1

• Core and foundational civilizations developed in
  a variety of geographical and environmental
  settings where agriculture flourished.
• Students should be able to identify the location
  of all of the following required examples of core
  and foundational civilizations.
• Mesopotamia in the Tigris and Euphrates River
  Valleys
• Egypt in the Nile River Valley
• Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa in the Indus River
  Valley
• Olmecs in Mesoamerica
• Chavin in Andean South America

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Objective 1.3.2

• The first states emerged within core
  civilizations.
• States were powerful new systems of rule that
  mobilized surplus labor and resources over large
  areas. Early states were often led by a ruler
  whose source of power was believed to be divine
  or had divine support and/or who was supported by
  the military.
• As states grew and competed for land and
  resources, the more favorably situated
  including the Hittites, who had access to iron
  had greater access to resources, produced more
  surplus food, and experienced growing
  populations. These states were able to undertake
  territorial expansion and conquer surrounding
  states.
• Early regions of state expansion or empire
  building were Mesopotamia, Babylonia, and the
  Nile Valley.
• Pastoralists were often the developers and
  disseminators of new weapons and modes of
  transportation that transformed warfare in
  agrarian civilizations.
•  
• New Weapons
• Compound bows
• Iron Weapons
•  
• New modes of transportation
• Chariots
• Horseback riding

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Objective 1.3.3

• Culture played a significant role in unifying
  states through laws, language, literature,
  religion, myths, and monumental art.
• Early civilizations developed monumental
  architecture and urban planning.
• Monumental architecture and urban planning
• Ziggurats
• Pyramids
• Temples
• Defensive walls
• Streets and roads
• Sewage and water systems
• Elites, both political and religious, promoted
  arts and artisanship.
•  Arts and Artisanship
• Sculpture
• Painting
• Wall decorations
• Elaborate weaving
• Systems of record keeping arose independently in
  all early civilizations and subsequently were
  diffused.
•  Systems of record keeping
• Cuneiform
• Hieroglyps

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Activator

• Complete the SPRITE worksheet on the earliest
  civilizations.

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Mesopotamia
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Culture

• Independent innovation that passed to Egypt/Indus
  
• 4000 BCE bronze, copper
• Wheel, irrigation canals
• 3500 Sumerians cuneiform first writing
  stylus objects gt sounds
• Number system 60 movement of heavenly bodies
• navigation
• time
• Architecture ziggurats 1) glory of
  civilization, 2) many gods
• Clay primary building material
• First epic Epic of Gilgamesh 1) great flood
  story
• Kings quest to achieve immortality
• great traders

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State

• Unpredictable flooding need for government
  irrigation
• City-states controlled city surrounding area
• Geography lack of natural barriers invasion
  defensive walls
• Conflicts over water/property rights
• Akkadians/Babylonians spread Sumerian culture
• Code of Hammurabi first written law code
• Different rules for gender/social classes
• Very harsh, favored upper class
• Systematic, consistent set of regulations, not
  arbitrary will of a ruler
• After 900 BCE Assyrians and Persians ruled
• king-like figure lugal big man

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Social Sturcture

• Ruled by elite, rulers, priests
• Farmed by slaves could purchase freedom
• Patriarchal men could sell wives/children to
  pay debts
• 1600 BCE women wearing veils
• Butwomen could gain power courts, priestesses,
  scribes, small business

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Egypt
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Culture

• 3000 BCE Nile River
• pharaoh pyramids tombs for self/families
• Decorated w/ colorful paintings
• polytheists afterlife gt mummification
• Egyptian Book of the Dead what happened to
  soul, how to reach happy
• afterlife gt mummification and tombs
• bronze tools weapons after Mesopotamia
• Kush independent innovation iron spread to
  Egypt
• some trade w/ Kush and Mesopotamia
• hieroglyphics from trade contacts Mesopotamia
• papyrus paper making
• geography protected could create unique
  civilization
• less urban than Mesopotamians
• 365 day calendar, medicine, math, astronomy

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State

• Nile overflowed annually predictable
• irrigation led to organization/government
• agricultural villages engaged in trade
• pharaoh king power
• living incarnation of sun god
• geography protected from invading people
• beginning 3100 when Menes unites Upper and Lower
  Egypt
• 2040-1640 BCE Middle Kingdom culturally dynamic
  
• New Kingdom 1500 regained from foreign
  invaders Hyksos focused on military
• by 900 in control of foreign invaders internal
  disorder, invasions

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Social Structure

• Social classes, but commoners could enter
  government service rise in social status
• Patriarchal, but women had some privileges
• Women sometimes acted as regents for young
  rulers, priestesses, scribes
• managed household finances/education of children
• right to divorce husbands/alimony
• could own property
• Queen Hatshepsut

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Indus 2500 BCE Indus River - Pakistan
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Culture

• Streets laid out in precise grid houses had
  running water/sewage
• Harappan writing not deciphered much unclear
• active trade w/ Indus valley and Sumer ores
  from one place found in others
• blend of Aryans and Indus valley people affected
  future course of history
• quite large size of France/urbanized

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State

• unpredictable flooding
• Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro
• Because of similarities of cities, tightly
  unified, centrally controlled
• Overtaken by Indo-Europeans Aryans
• Already dying out 1) river change or 2)
  earthquake, 3) erosion of soil 4) salt in wells
• whole societies all over Harappa and
  Mohenjo-Daro only tip, last

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Social Structure

• little known Dravidians relatively egalitarian
• not as patriarchal
• Aryans based it on color Varnu
• Aryans eventually control politically, but
  Dravidians would win out culturally

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Shang most isolated Huange He valley Yellow
River Chinas Sorrow
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Culture

• Isolated by deserts, mountains, and seas
  unpredictable flooding
• Still some trade w/ Southwest Asia and South Asia
  
• Shang Dynasty (1766-1122 left written records)
• Knowledge of bronze metallurgy from Southwest
  Asia
• Strengthened Shang war machine
• 1000 BCE Ironworking
• Fortune telling and ancestor worship started here
  
• Palaces/tombs built for emperors
• Writing oracle bones
• Oracle scratch persons question on bone/shell
  heat it
• Resulting cracks read to learn message from gods

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State

• Dynasties
• Central rule to oversee irrigation/flood-control
  projects
• Walled cities center of cultural, military,
  economic set precedent in villages
• Zhou replaced Shang mandate of heaven if
  leader governed wisely and fairly, he could claim
  right to divine rule
• Warrior aristocracy
• fought northern/western neighbors barbarians
  expanded empire
• Tradition of central authority
• Began as small agricultural cities along Yellow
  River

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Social Structure

• Stratified ruling elites, artisans, peasants,
  slaves
• Patriarchal father needs to know children are
  his
• Subservient
• multiple marriages
• preference for sons - infanticide
• ancestor worship
• Matrilineal society before Shang

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Mesoamerica and Andean South
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Culture

• lacked knowledge of wheel
• Olmecs/Maya pyramids/temples
• Polytheistic
• Cultural diffusion maize, terraced pyramids
• Calendars
• Ball game on a court
• Quetzalcoatl god who would return to rule world
  in peace
• Mayan reached height in 300 CE
• system of writing pictographs
• value of zero
• astronomy predicted eclipses
• length of year within a few seconds

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State

• small city-states ruled by kings fought
  against each other
• Prisoners of war slaves/sacrifices to gods
• lack of pack animals/geography prevented
  communication
• Inhabitants cooperated for irrigation systems
• Rugged terrain of Andes prevented central govt
  from organizing

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Social Structure

• Elite class of rulers/priests vs. commoners and
  slaves

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Geography

• not in valleys of major rivers
• smaller rivers/streams near oceans
• no large animals/beasts of burden llama biggest
  animal human labor

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Small Points

• Culture played a significant role in unifying
  states through laws, language, literature,
  religion, myths, and monumental art.
• Early civilizations developed monumental
  architecture and urban planning.
• Monumental architecture and urban planning
• Ziggurats
• Pyramids
• Temples
• Defensive walls
• Streets and roads
• Sewage and water systems

29
Small Points

• Culture played a significant role in unifying
  states through laws, language, literature,
  religion, myths, and monumental art.
• Elites, both political and religious, promoted
  arts and artisanship.
•  Arts and Artisanship
• Sculpture
• Painting
• Wall decorations
• Elaborate weaving

30
Small Points

• Culture played a significant role in unifying
  states through laws, language, literature,
  religion, myths, and monumental art.
• Systems of record keeping arose independently in
  all early civilizations and subsequently were
  diffused.
•  Systems of record keeping
• Cuneiform
• Hieroglyps
• Pictographs
• Alphabets
• Quipu

31
Small Points

• Culture played a significant role in unifying
  states through laws, language, literature,
  religion, myths, and monumental art.
• States developed legal codes, including the Code
  of Hammurabi, that reflected existing hierarchies
  and facilitated the rule of governments over
  people.

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Small Points

• Culture played a significant role in unifying
  states through laws, language, literature,
  religion, myths, and monumental art.
• New religious beliefs developed in this period
  continued to have strong influences in later
  periods.
•  Required examples of new religious beliefs
• The Vedic religion
• Hebrew monotheism
• Zoroastrianism

33
Small Points

• Culture played a significant role in unifying
  states through laws, language, literature,
  religion, myths, and monumental art.
• Trade expanded throughout this period from local
  to regional and transregional, with civilizations
  exchanging goods, cultural ideas, and technology.
•  Required examples of trade expansion from local
  to regional and transregional
• Between Egypt and Nubia
• Between Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley

34
Small Points

• Culture played a significant role in unifying
  states through laws, language, literature,
  religion, myths, and monumental art.
• Social and gender hierarchies intensified as
  states expanded and cities multiplied.

35
Small Points

• Culture played a significant role in unifying
  states through laws, language, literature,
  religion, myths, and monumental art.
• Literature was also a reflection of culture.
•  Literature
• The Epic of Gilgamesh
• Rig Veda
• Book of the Dead

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Questions to Ponder

• How was Sumeria politically organized?
• What event/happening do most historians begin the
  history of Egypt?
• On what did Egyptian civilization depend?
• How did ancient Egypt civilization and the
  Mesopotamian civilization resemble each other?
  How did they differ?
• What major similarities did the four great river
  systems have in common? Where are they? What
  differences do they have?
• Major characteristics of the Shang dynasty?
• What was the longest Chinese dynasty and what
  were the factors for its longevity?
• Major results for the fall of the Zhou Dynasty?
  What major philosophies came out of this time
  period? Explain basic tenets of each.
• Most significant contribution of Judaism?
• Contributions of the Phoenicians?