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• Early humans transitioned from nomadic lifestyles to settled villages to ensure a steady food supply for families and cattle.
• The planting of barley and wheat marked a shift toward farming
• People formed tribes, uniting into larger groups with shared traditions, language, and culture.
• Tribes established their own rules and selected leaders to enforce laws.

Leadership and Early Forms of Writing

• Tribes chose leaders through various means, including fighting ability, religious beliefs, or inheritance.
• The earliest form of writing numbers involved carving marks into tally sticks for counting and communication.

Early Shelters and Villages

• Early shelters were constructed using logs and stones.
• Jericho, located along the Jordan River in modern Palestine, was a large village with clay houses.
• The village was surrounded by high walls for protection against animals and enemies.
• Clay tokens in different shapes served as an early form of money, each shape representing a different item or value.

Catal Huyuk

• Catal Huyuk, located in Turkey, was larger than Jericho, was another village where people settled
• Catal Huyuk residents lived in mud-brick houses with access through wooden ladders to high windows in the roofs.

The Rise of Civilizations

• Cities emerged as a result of population growth and village expansion.
• A civilization is defined as a group of people forming cities with their own cultural, social, and technological development.
• With the growth of cities, people began to specialize in specific jobs.

Trade and Transportation

• Long-distance trade led people to travel in caravans for protection.
• Camels replaced donkeys for desert travel because they could survive heat and store water efficiently.
• Traveling in groups helped traders defend themselves against thieves.

Mesopotamian Location

• Mesopotamia, now known as the Middle East, includes parts of southwest Asia and lands near the eastern Mediterranean Sea.
• The Middle East is the area where Africa, Asia, and Europe meet.
• Most of the Middle East countries are located in Asia

Key Geographical Features in Asia

• The Pacific Ocean borders Asia to the East, and the Indian Ocean to the South.
• The Mediterranean and Black Seas are located to the southwest of Asia.
• The Black Sea is an inland sea with an oval shape, extending to the Mediterranean Sea.
• Major rivers in the Middle East, such as the Nile Delta, Tigris, and Euphrates, support agriculture.
• The Empty Quarter is a large desert in Saudi Arabia with no settlements for a long time.
• Straits (narrow channels connecting larger bodies of water), such as the Dardanelles and the Bosporus in Turkey, separate Asia from Europe and serve as international trade routes.
• The Strait of Hurmuz connects the Arabian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman.

Gulf of Suez

• Africa and Asia are connected by the Mediterranean Sea at the Gulf of Suez in Egypt, which forms a sea area partially enclosed by land.

Fertile Soil and Early Writing

• The Nile River in Africa provided fertile soil and fresh water, enabling the development of one of the earliest and most famous civilizations.
• The first people who settled near the Nile called their land Kemet, meaning the black land, due to the presence of black fertile soil.
• The Egyptians used hieroglyphs as their first written language, composed of figurative and abstract drawings.
• Hieroglyphs were used on cave walls and developed into letters and words, becoming a means of communication.