Early Civilizations History

Module Overview

• This module is for the course SSEd 221 - World History 1.
• This module provides information on basic concepts, theories, and historical developments.
• Developments covered include the emergence of societies and civilization.
• Also discussed is the rise of kingdom-empire states, formation of states, and ages of exploration, expedition, colonization, and commercialization.
• This begins from pre-history up to the medieval period.
• Ancient and medieval history from prehistory to the mid-1500s is thoroughly covered.
• Special topics center on key eras, civilizations, and regions.
• Specifics covered include the ancient Near East, Egypt, Greece, Rome, ancient and medieval Africa, Asia, the Americas, medieval Europe, and the Islamic World.
• History is illustrated with instructional materials and infobase history that are fully cross-searchable.
• Topics covered include:
  • Early Humans and the First Civilization
  • The Civilization of the Greeks
  • The First World Civilizations: Rome, China, Silk Road
  • The New Patterns of Civilization
  • The Expansion of Civilization in South and Southeast Asia
  • The Flowering of Traditional China
  • The Making of Europe
  • The Byzantine Empire and Crisis Recovery in the West
• The module aims to achieve the following learning outcomes:
  • Describe significant historical developments on a world scale.
  • Examine cultural interactions through conquest, migration, commercial exchange, and cultural diffusion.
  • Evaluate the significance of turning points and events in world history.
  • Explain the development and importance of social, economic, and political systems.
  • Describe achievements in art and culture and discuss their impact today.
  • Assess the practices, ideals, and developments of major belief systems.

First Civilizations and the Rise of Empires

• Civilization refers to complex societies.
• Civilization's advent depended on agricultural settlements' ability to consistently produce surplus food.
• Surplus food allowed specialization in non-agricultural work.
• Specialization led to increased production, trade, population, and social stratification.
• First civilizations appeared in areas geographically suited to intensive agriculture.
• Governments and states emerged as rulers controlled larger areas and more resources.
• Writing and religion were used to maintain social hierarchies and consolidate power.
• Writing facilitated codified laws, better record-keeping, and literature, fostering shared cultural practices.
• A civilization is a complex society characterized by agricultural surpluses, specialized labor, social hierarchy, and cities.
• Markers of civilization include writing, complex religious systems, monumental architecture, and centralized political power.
• The development of civilization is debated as either bottom-up (instituted by the people) or top-down (forced upon them).
• Civilization can be viewed as a spectrum of complexity, ranging from hunter-gatherer societies to highly complex civilizations.

Chapter 1: Early Humans and the First Civilizations

• Prehistory is defined as events before written records in a given culture.
• History refers to the period after the invention of written records.
• Written records discovered in Egypt date back to 3200 BCE.
• Written records offer more detailed historical resources than archaeological or biological remains.
• Modern humans have existed for 200,000-300,000 of the planet's 4.5 billion years.
• 200,000 years represents at least 6,000 generations.
• Historians explore adventures, sorrows, environmental changes, and civilizations' rise and fall during this time.
• The main tool used to study history is written records.
• Archaeology and anthropology differ, focusing on the time before records were kept.
• Careful consideration is needed when using written records, accounting for potential biases or language barriers.
• Narratives are often transmitted orally before writing, changing with each storyteller.
• Diverse perspectives exist, even for recent events.
• Archaeologists infer prehistoric information from structures, burial sites, fossils, and artifacts (human-made items).
• Artifacts can be dated using carbon dating or stratigraphic dating.
• Linguists and geneticists trace migrations and connections through language and genetic similarities.
• Historians must critically read, source, interpret, contextualize, and compare historical evidence.
• Understanding the past is partial, incomplete, and subject to future questioning with new tools and evidence.

Homo Sapiens and Early Migration

• Homo sapiens evolved from hominid predecessors 200,000-300,000 years ago, developing language around 50,000 years ago.
• Modern humans migrated out of Africa 70,000-100,000 years ago.
• Humans adapted to diverse regions, resulting in historical and environmental impacts
• Hominids diverged from other primates 2.5-4 million years ago in Africa, sharing bipedalism.

Evolution of Hominids

• The aridity hypothesis suggests early hominids evolved due to adapting to dry climates as Africa's savannahs expanded.
• The savannah hypothesis proposes tree-dwelling hominids adapted after environmental changes shrank forests.
• Hominids evolved with increased brain capacities.
• Homo habilis began using tools approximately 2.3 million years ago.
• Homo erectus migrated out of Africa into Eurasia a million years ago, controlling fire.
• Only Homo sapiens remains, and extinction is a normal part of evolution.
• Theories about why some hominid species didn't survive include inability to cope with competition, climate, and eruptions.

Migration and Population

• Homo sapiens migrated from Africa to Europe and Asia 70,000-100,000 years ago.
• They reached Australia by canoe 35,000-65,000 years ago.
• The Pleistocene Ice Age created a land bridge connecting Asia and North America over 13,000 years ago.
• People migrated over the land bridge into the Americas.
• Language, developed around 50,000 years ago, enabled planning and problem-solving.
• Migration motives likely included resource depletion and competition.
• Communication enabled assessing if pressures at home outweighed finding a new place.

Adaptation and Effects on Nature

• Migrating humans in colder climates used animal skins for clothing and fire for warmth.
• Sophisticated weapons such as spears and bows/arrows allowed efficient hunting of large mammals.
• Hunting methods and climate change contributed to megafauna extinction (mammoths and giant kangaroos).
• In addition to hunting for self defense, human used the earth's resources to construct semi-permanent settlements.
• Humans changed from nomadic to fixed homes, using natural resources locally.
• Semi permanent settlements were the building blocks for communities and agriculture.

Paleolithic Societies

• Foraging and hunting primarily defined Paleolithic societies.
• Cultural evolution accounts for Homo sapiens' significant changes over millions of years.
• Small hunter-gatherer bands lived, worked, and migrated together before agriculture introduction.

Sociocultural Evolution

• "Paleolithic" means "Old Stone [Age]," it refers to foraging, hunting, and fishing as primary food sources.
• Humans hadn't yet domesticated animals or plants. Intentionally.
• Hunter-gatherers depended on fluctuating ecosystems.
• Food production relied on ecosystem health.
• Communities worked to manipulate systems.

Cultural and Spiritual Development

• Transformation of hunter-gatherer happened 11,000 years ago.
• Early humans developed tools and methods to suit their respective environments.
• Early human study focuses on both biological and sociocultural evolution.
• Neanderthals practiced religious beliefs and rituals like funerals.
• A burial site in Shanidar Cave, Iraq, suggests Neanderthals believed in something beyond death.
• Paleolithic humans crafted tools and shelter.

Cultural Evolution

• Cultures evolved in response to specific environmental contexts, promoting community survival and unique development.
• "Culture" encompasses a wide array of learned behaviors, often linked to survival.
• Homo sapiens underwent significant cultural evolution with limited anatomical change over 120,000 years.
• Cultural creativity is pivotal for adaptation, outpacing physical transformations.

Connection Between Biological and Cultural Development

• Cultural evolution is tied to biological evolution, especially the development of the human brain.
• The evolution of a more highly developed and advanced human brain enabled cultural growth.
• Larger brain sizes necessitated cultural adaptations, difficult births, longer gestation and dependency periods, and advanced social structure.
• Homo sapiens' creativity allowed for symbolic expression in cultural and spiritual contexts (artwork and burial rituals).
• Wisdom characterizes the subspecies Homo sapiens sapiens.

Small Communities

• Human population expansion increased density.
• Competition (also cooperation) for resources happened regularly.
• Resource limitations led to small communities,division of labor, security, and exogamous marriage patterns ( marry or reproduce outside the group)
• Conclusions about Paleolithic people were drawn from modern hunter-gatherers and mathematical group models. .
• Paleolithic bands may have contained 25 people each, with 20 bands forming a tribe.

Division of Labor

• Paleolithic humans focused territorially and fostered relationships with nearby communities due to limited control over the environment.
• Small, temporary settlements emerged (often near water).
• Labor divided along gender lines in settlements, Women would cook, rear children ect while men hunted. Despite common belief this wasn't the case for ALL Paleolithic societies.
• Some Middle Paleolithic cultures in Eurasia split work evenly between genders.
• Different gender dynamics existed in Paleolithic times.
• The division of labor doesn't indicate power differences.
• Hunting and gathering contributed, but there are competing nutrition or group health theories.

Paleolithic Technology

• Stone and natural fibers served as tools and objects with increasing complexity among Paleolithic groups.
• Language, art, inquiry, and religion contributed to innovations in the Paleolithic era
• Stone tools help historians reconstruct Paleolithic worlds.
• Stone progression tools define Paleolithic periods were the names are based in: Lower, Upper, Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) and Neolithic (New Stone Age).

Cultural Development of stone tools

• Paleolithic people hunted, foraged, and employed a communal system.
• Analogies can be drawn with modern hunter-gatherer groups.
• Cave art was translated and gave insight as to the hunting structures of groups
• Materials beyond stone was likely prevelant
• Neolithic "Ice Man was found in, was preserved in ice for 5,000 years.
• Including a longbow, arrows, a flint dagger, a copper axe, ect

Cultures language and art

• Languge was pivotal to advancing the Paleolithic era.
• Early use of language aided large land traversing, aided etablishing settlements, tool creation, trade ect
• Human cranium examination shows language developements with speech brain indentations
• Language allowed increasingly complex social structures, enhanced capacity for meaning making and deliberation ect
• portable cave art demonstrates sharing knowledge and experession of feelings
• Artwork can often relay culture in detail, statuettes also show cultural meaning

Venus of Dolní Věstonice

• The Venus figurine, a ceramic statuette of a nude female figure dated to
• 29,000-25,000 BCE.
• It was found at the Paleolithic site Dolní Věstonice in the Moravian basin

Dawn of Agriculture

• Agriculture began in the Neolithic Era before roughly 9000BC.
• Historians suggest the switch from hunting and foraging to settled agriculture may have happened as production surplus led to population growth.
• Specialization of labour and society complexity started with the focus on food production

Pre-Agriculture World

• Anatomically humans have existed for roughly 2-300,000 years (based on current archeological evidence)
• 15,000-20,000 years ago, we have no evidence that our ancestors farmed instead, we believe they strictly hunted or foraged for food.
• Early humanity struggled with energy intake from food compared to output and reproduction.
• Humans depended on seasonal and climate changes to find their food

Agriculture Emerges

• Between 10,000 to 15,000 years humans started to adjust nature and plants in multiple locations to their needs
• Mesopotamia, China, South America and sub-Saharan Africa these are all locations we had agriculture emergence.
• More locations will likely be discovered
• Birth of agriculture is known at the "Neolithic Revolution'
• Name stems from the stone artifacts becoming smooth and refined and facilitate early agriculture

Did and Where Did Agriculture Emerge

• Scientists are unsure
• The ice aged ended 10-15,000 years ago.
• The end of the era led to air more moist, soil less frozen
• Possible that 10-15,000 year humans had the right mix of human, environmental development to implement agriculture.

Pastoralism

• Pastoralism-began around the same time as cultivation of plants.
• Agriculture -called pastoralism-began around the same time as cultivation of plants.
• In regions where plant cultivation proved difficult due to climates that were inhospitable to plants, pastoralists herded
• Pastoralists milked resources and used their wool to make textiles.

Effects of Agriculture Implementation

• Plant and animal breeding has had clear increase in quantity of humanity.
• Consumable calories per square kilometer and made things grow that we'rent.
• Agriculturalists harvested forest and slash and burn techniques, as tree ash acted like a nutrient to plant and help fertilize soil

Herds Concentration Effects

• Overgrazing was common with herds concentration
• Animal domestication increased to people also bringing a higher potential that animal diseases spread to humans

The results

• The abundance of food led to food being traded among agricultural societies.
• Trade led specialisation, better tools, and the first forms of government
• Populated centres have evolved

Agriculture Advancements

• Within a few 1000's of years of its revolution, the first city-states began to emerge
• Complex beuracracies were developed for taxing and administering their people which catalised early form of writing

First Civilizations

• Valleys appeared in major rivers, land was highly nourished, good resource of transports
• The first civilisations was independent from outside influence
• Future civilisaitons built off past civilizations, and conquered them

what civilisations have in common

• Cities at the centre where people work and reside, with government, institutions and languages to aid
• Cities would previously create political and religions, the more spread out the better
• Belief systems allowed for a level and structure to have mutual trust for respects

First Civilisations (cont)

• Rulers acted at relgious leader, an example of this is In Ancient Egypt, the kings-later called pharaohs-practiced divine kingship
• Artisans, laborers and slaves contributed to the civilisation which helped with economic growth

Writing effects

• Lead to better record keeping for managments and other complexities
• Cuneiform, Bone Inscritptions and Quipu were types of writing systems
• Writing was limited

Further

• Monumental arcitecture was created for political and religious reasons, also to provide defence
• Egypt pyramids are good examples of historical architecture

Shared traits

• The early civilisations have developed common traits
• Developed from agriculture
• Intesified class hireachies
• developed powerful states, which collected taxes

Civilisation, and more

• Civilization is described as a tricky concept it can be hard to define what conditions classify a civilisation, though traits are shared

Early Civilizations

Civilizations: Social Organization and the Importance of Agriculture

• Intensification resulted in Important consequences for larger social groups.
• Society is required more sophisticated systems

The effect and importance of Labour

• A growth in population, villages, and states has led to distinctive social classes by specialized labour.
• Societies recording had symbolic expressions and writing .

Social Group Formation

• Social population (complex socities-civilizations)
• There are many features, this included having a dense population, Agriculture based communities hierarchy divisions e.g a centralised govenment
• monuments, record-keeping etc
• It would require an advanced energy extraction for resources, food and water.
• These first cities power in the form of culture production and innovation
• The first set of these cities had lots of irriversabale manipulation and extractions and order for energy.
• The lack of such also led these civilisatons to be susceptible to weathers or climate.
• Outbreaks, conflict shortages, and the lack of water was felt more by people for this lack of such
• Communities developed ways to anticipate changes in their environment, like food and water resourcing
• Villages to thousands of residems these early settlers were faced with obstacles and organisation.

Further

• Governments arose and social classes appeared to facilitate larger communities through infrastructure
• Social classes and governments organised and provided armies, trade markets and merchants and spiritual leaders

Governments and Social Classes

• The first civilisations created social infrastructure in the form of governments
• Most cities grow out of small villages and become self governing under agricultural terrorties

Cooperation and class

in this regard, large monuments would need to be created needing leaders and politics centralising leadership and order

Ancient Mesopotamian Civilization

Overview

• Rose on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in modern Iraq and Kuwait around 12000 BCE
• Technological and literary advances are common in these societies

River Influence

• Rivers offered land nutrition in the form of regular floods
• Agriculture allowed for the specialisation in certain roles in Mesopotamian societies

Mesopotamia

• Crossroads of languages and cultures that stimulated a lasting impact to technolgy and writing
• A complicated area as cultures interracted with and ruled one another out

Sumerians

• The Sumerians would be the first known civilisation around 4000 BC
• The Mesopotamians would be noted for developed scripts arond 3000 B.C.E, writing to also record sales and tell stories

Invention

• They would invent the wheel at 3500 B.C.E, and used ships to to sail through the persian gulf

Religion

• Sumerian religion was polyheistic
• Gods were anthromorphic, and temples are the site of these Gods

Akkadian Empire

• Akkadians lived in northern Mesopotamia, where language is similar
• The Akkadian and Arabian language are knowen as semetic languages
• Sargan of Akkad came to power and made a dynastic empire in 2154 B.C.E

Assyrian Empire

• They had taken the land from Sargon of Akkad

Babylon Empire

• Hammurabi would be a efficiant centralised ruler, freeing them of their country
• Hammurabi would establsih the code of hammurabi which was written in 1754 B.C.E
• It was writted as a standard of justice as equal

Ancient Egypt Early Egypts

• Much of the history of Egypt is divided into "kingdoms, new and old- with short periods
• Time was spent in political power, and the time before kingdoms came around a reliance on Agrictulture would lead the way for urbanisation
• The Sahara Desert's expansion drove people to Nile river, causing humans to be closer to water and resourcefullness

The Nile

• The Nile would serve as the first tool for agriculture giving the first tool with soil each year due to the flooding of the nile.

Upper Vs Lower egypt

• Lower would refer to delra in north, and upper would refer to the south

Culture in egypt

• Political unifications would form new leaders such a devine or "God like people."
• The use of Hieroglypics and writting also happened for large scale projects a form of writing system
• Rulers could coordinare recources and labor more eaisly and could improve irrigation

Egyptian tombs

• Egyptian elites would be in better positioned socially
• The better wealthy positions were preserved tombs

Old Egyptian Kingdoms

Egyptian Civilization

• During this Old Kingdom period, Egypt was unified into a single state.
• The first pyramids were building during this period, showing monumental arcitecture

Late Egyptians

• The great sphinx, a mythical creature would be made during later years with the aid of commoner help paying taxation and help to facilitate labor work
• Egyptians bulding ships during this periods trading Gold, Copper and ceder
• The expansion of egypt happened in the new kingdom

More over Egypts later rule

• Hatsehut would be be the queen. The best most powerful in eygpts power building temples and statuary

• Also repairing temples

• The King palace became a form of adress for kings as a rule which allowed people to have godly associations

• Kings would wouship amur-Ra

• Akenhalm would attempt to this tradtion when choosing to wouship Aten excusiively and even changed his name for it hounor

• Egyptian civilisations was strong

• The Hitties were also a component for the Egyptian civilisaiton

• Costs of war made internal conflict for fragmentation, resulting the Nubains taking control

Hitties origin and Anatolia connections

• The Hitties where indo Europians whom moved into asia minor and formed an empire at Hattuasa around 1600 B.C.E
• Domestications of horsed aided the to expand trade such as with mesoptotamia
• There is turmoil and general unrest with sudden arrival and attacks from seapeople

Governence

• The head of the state and position are followed by the same position are followed by and born from the same succession.
• Officals were appointed to different offices are appointed independlty and lead differeent aspects in different roles

Hities culture

• A language memebr that we use today in Europe Asia and the Americas.
• they had used this knowledge from the biblical htties

The Iron Age

• Hities had a boom with iron and the bronze age
• They eventually started to use smelting for metalworking wich has led to metal extraction for Iron

Govermental traits of th ehyities

• Hities used akkadian structure, and writting with it, while also applying sea codes and other forms of structues.
• Kingship is always done via force and blood.

Religion

• Storms Gods wee prominent
• Tarhunt, King of heaven would often make a impact on a value on military

Battle of Kadesh

• A long standing value battle lasting in part in 1274bce
• Long standing treat that made them the frist to claim
• Was a long trade conflict having great influence in Egypt
• There armies were pretty even making it hard to determine whom was better in conflict

Indus Valley Civilization

• The Indus Valley Civilization, is also known as the Harappan Civilization
• Is extended from what modern day Afghansitan and pakistan are.
• Important innovations include standardized weights and measures, seal carving, and
• Metallica as a whole .
• Unsure if there was systems set or anything .

Though they did not know it then, and though the first major excavations did not take place until the 1920s, these railway workers had happened upon the remnants of the Indus Valley Civilization, first excavated

• there sites to be excavated, in what was then the Punjab province was first seen thought the ancient Maurya Empire was found.
• the history of the Indus Valley Civilization in an entirely different environmental context.

More on archelogy

• scholars are now piecing together information though its rediscovery
• There have been many cities to study of this that have provided great great deal of insight
• This culture would be split int to 3 phases
• Early Harappan, Mature Harappan late.

More traits

• Indus cities would pride for urban planning an technical
• Baked brick houses elaborate drainage systems

End-

• The Indus Valley Civilization began to decline around 1800 BCE, with the writing also disappearing

Shang Dynasty

• Had a large focus on religious and asking the qyestions of their ancestors.
• Used writing, putting the bones in fire
• The shang would be bronze, and lead

Historical influence

• The earliest period from the time

Writing form shangs

• people was find bones and with inscriptions, excavations provided inscriptions this allowed the study
• there king fulfil a secret role which allos council to do govermant.

Yellow River

• The River's sediment helped the Shange and aid them with resources

End

• Shang would be a part as it contrinved in their future dynasty, it will fall in 1066 B.C.E

Greek Civilisations

• The civilization's of Greece
• The object of greece is history greek civilisaitns and affect, Identify chief state of the city's, this helped the greeks in hellisitic era
• Greeks had a civilisation's which many lands around the mediterrance

Ancient Greek Civilization

• Objectives explore how

1. what the geography of early civilisation had on life?
2. Chief state of the city
3. Explain that if Athens is that democratic
4. differenciate all aspects, like social political etc aspects in the civilization

Ancient Greek

• The Greek city's states, which may be had to contact

Bronze Age Greece

(3200-1150,B.C.E) cultures flourished where farms dominated trade

Mycenean Culture

flourished, and later collasped in trade as states emerged

Archic period

(3000,BcE,500,BCE), states emerged from two figures

Archaic traits

• The first few states had a way about expressing them self, which would be considered as expressions of their beliefs

Classical period

• The rules that a Greek democracy would abide under, was established, at one point, philosophy, literature would not be topped here the Empire would even expand.

Late Greek civilisaitons

• the division of the world as a big thing. as it took a power to extend middles east, all way the valleys. but we can assume they had influence from Roman
• The first one to show clean shaven who inspired the rest
• Has great variety in the types of gree
• The trade for silk allowed them to prosper in wealth, the Romans was also in power

The third

• The third trade civilization to be mentioned
• To do this we will have the ability to identify, the main goal is to discuss what the trade is.

State power

• expansion trade increased, with their empire with the chinese state where raids for power
• Wu looked for his cavarly and wanted to be a threat
• Wu wanted to send, in his team for alies where he and zhang returned with silk, with its wonder

Silk for travel

• The silk road become trade and trade with other, and allowed the open access to the west
• The Chinese state had allowed in all supply increase in military power

Trade expansion

• The way a civilization is lead is to open up trade which can aid the civilization by a good standing rate roman victory allowed for the expansion too all lands, giving what could bring in peace. which allowed rome acess to all trade, giving india and egypt to also allow prosperity

• As rome and han civilization the area with mountains desert, and grass land

• People is allowed a central link who could spread throughout civilization, through trade

silk Trade

• the trade has been great throughout africa it allowed the access to trade
• They're was a big increase, on how the trade
• The market could to be be accessed by new trade opening
• Trade for silk and the trade
• Emperors said. that no one could be silk or people
• Trade would happen.

the trade

• It became easy for traders to exchange things
• People like Asia that would travel with camels the could hold great trade material, by bringing access through silk to all through travel There's a reliance that sailor's need an understanding for all travels it would mean that trade