Module in World History 1 PDF

Module in World History 1 Dr. Leonora M. Rodriguez Faculty, CTE Batangas State University Module in SSEd 221 - World History 1 This module is intended for the course SSEd 221 - World History 1 which provides the basic concepts, theories and historical developments like emergence of societies...

Module in World History 1 Dr. Leonora M. Rodriguez Faculty, CTE Batangas State University Module in SSEd 221 - World History 1 This module is intended for the course SSEd 221 - World History 1 which provides the basic concepts, theories and historical developments like emergence of societies and civilization, rise of kingdom-empire states, formation of states age of exploration, expedition and colonization and age of commercialization from pre-history up to the medieval period. Ancient and medieval history provides thorough coverage of world history from prehistory through the mid-1500s with special topic centers on key eras, civilizations and regions, including the ancient Near East, Egypt, Greece and Rome; ancient and medieval AFrica, Asia and the Americas and medieval Europe and the Islamic World. Each civilization’s history is brought to life by the different instructional materials and infobase history which are fully cross-searchable. In this module, you will learn the periods of world history from ancient to medieval period. You will study these lessons, namely: Chapter 1 - Early Humans and the First Civilization Chapter 2 - The Civilization of the Greeks Chapter 3 - The First World Civilizations: Rome, China, Silk Road Chapter 4 -The New Patterns of Civilization Chapter 5 - The Expansion of Civilization in South and Southeast Asia Chapter 6 - The Flowering of Traditional China Chapter 7 - The Making of Europe Chapter 8 - The Byzantine Empire and Crisis Recovery in the west TARGET SCHEDULE: WEEK 1-2 - Chapter 1 WEEK 3-4 - Chapter 2 WEEK 5-6 - Chapter 3 WEEK 7-8 - Chapter 4 What are the intended learning outcomes of this module? INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES 1. Describe significant historical developments made on a world scale. 2. Examine ways in which different cultural groups have interacted through conquest, migration, commercial exchange and cultural diffusion. 3. Evaluate the importance of significant turning points and events in the world history. 4. Explain the development and significance of different social, economic and political systems. 5. Describe achievements in art and culture and discuss their impact on today’s society. 6. Assess the practices, ideals and developments of major belief systems. THE FIRST CIVILIZATIONS AND THE RISE OF EMPIRES The term civilization refers to complex societies, but the specific definition is contested.The advent of civilization depended on the ability of some agricultural settlements to consistently produce surplus food, which allowed some people to specialize in non-agricultural work, which in turn allowed for increased production, trade, population, and social stratification.The first civilizations appeared in locations where the geography was favorable to intensive agriculture.Governments and states emerged as rulers gained control over larger areas and more resources, often using writing and religion to maintain social hierarchies and consolidate power over larger areas and populations.Writing allowed for the codification of laws, better methods of record-keeping, and the birth of literature, which fostered the spread of shared cultural practices among larger population. Today, almost every city has a supermarket with a wide variety of available foods.We take for granted the fact that people have different types of jobs and that governments exist. But, reliable food sources, specialized work, and governments did not exist for most of human history! They are the products of historical processes that began with the first civilizations several thousand years ago.A civilization is a complex society that creates agricultural surpluses, allowing for specialized labor, social hierarchy, and the establishment of cities. Developments such as writing, complex religious systems, monumental architecture, and centralized political power have been suggested as identifying markers of civilization, as well. When we see these changes occur, we should stop and ask, “Did people institute these practices because they were beneficial, or were they forced on them?” Historians debate this very question, trying to determine whether civilization was a bottom-up or top-down development.Most likely, it was a bit of both. Some people think civilization is an advanced stage in the progression of human cultural evolution. But, when historians or anthropologists use the term civilization, they mean a society has many different, interconnected parts. So, rather than thinking about different forms of social organization as completely separate models, it’s helpful to think in terms of a spectrum of complexity. On one end, we have hunter-forager societies—which have little complexity—and on the other end, we have civilizations—which are highly complex. In between lie a wide variety of social structures of varying types and levels of complexity.  CHAPTER 1 EARLY HUMANS AND THE FIRST CIVILIZATIONS What are the objectives of this lesson? At the end of this lesson, you are expected to be able to: Differentiate Paleolithic and Neolithic Age ; Identify the different characteristics of civilization evident in ancient Mesopotamia Enumerate the basic features of the major periods of Egyptian history. Overview of the topic Scholars define prehistory as events that occurred before the existence of written records in a given culture or society. History refers to the time period after the invention of written records in a given culture or society. Archaeologists have discovered written records in Egypt from as early as 3200 BCE, which is the accepted date at which history "begins" there. Written records give historians resources to deal with that are more detailed in some ways than other records, such as archaeological or biological remains. The scope of history Historians currently think that anatomically modern humans have been around for between 200,000 and 300,000 of the planet’s 4.5 billion years. And even though 200,000 years is less than one 20,000th of the history of the planet, it is still a very long time!For context, 200,000 years would represent at least 6,000 generations of your ancestors (your grandparents are only 2 generations from you). 200,000 years is also nearly 1,000 times as long as the United States has been a country. It is 100 times as distant in the past as the time of Jesus and the Roman Empire. It's also 40 times as distant in the past as the earliest written records we have found. Think about the scope of what must have happened during that time: adventures, sorrows, environmental change, and the rise and fall of civilizations. As historians, we have the privilege of exploring this vast expanse of human experience. Written records Our main tool as historians is what has been written by those who came before us. In fact, this is what formally defines history and sometimes sets it apart from archaeology and anthropology. For example, the oldest written records archaeologists have discovered in Egypt are from over 5,000 years ago; the date when they were created is the currently accepted date at which formal history (as opposed to "prehistory") begins in that part of the world. Of course, we might one day find older records! Even with written records, though, we have to be careful and thoughtful. The writing may be in a dead language that we know little about. If one tribe conquers another, we might only get the biased, one-sided story of those who won and wrote about it. Many times, narratives are only written down after generations of being transmitted orally, through speech, with every transmitter of the story consciously or unconsciously changing the specifics. Even for events that happened yesterday, two direct observers could have two completely different perceptions of what happened, how, and why. You can imagine that things get even tougher for prehistory, or the events that occurred before the existence of written records. But we still have many tools. Archaeologists can excavate ancient structures and burial sites and begin to infer how the people lived from fossils (like human remains) and artifacts (human-made items). Archaeologists can estimate the age of fossils and artifacts through several techniques. Carbon dating measures the amount of radioactive carbon in fossils to place them in time. Age can also be determined by identifying the age of the layer of rock that the artifacts are buried in. This is called stratigraphic dating, from the Latin word stratum, meaning "layer."Linguists can often piece together possible human migrations and connections based on similarities in modern, living languages.Similarly, geneticists can piece together how humanity may have spread and intermingled based on genetic similarities and differences in populations today. Uncertainty remains By putting all of these pieces together, we can construct surprisingly rich narratives of the distant past. But we should never let the tools and knowledge we have make us overconfident. After all, every piece of historical evidence needs to be closely read, sourced, interpreted, contextualized, and compared with other available sources. These kinds of thinking and questioning are the historians' toolkit. Even today, we can only piece together a tiny fragment of all that has occurred. And a lot of that understanding could very well be wrong because it is inevitably partial and incomplete. Many things that historians take as a given today will be questioned by future historians armed with new tools and new evidence.  Photograph of skeletons at an archaeological dig in Whithorn Priory, Scotland. The skeletal remains of about five humans are visible in a wide expanse of hilly dirt. Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons. Homo sapiens and early human migration Homo sapiens evolved from their early hominid predecessors between 200,000 and 300,000 years ago and developed a capacity for language about 50,000 years ago. Homo sapiens, the first modern humans, evolved from their early hominid predecessors between 200,000 and 300,000 years ago. They developed a capacity for language about 50,000 years ago. The first modern humans began moving outside of Africa starting about 70,000-100,000 years ago. Humans are the only known species to have successfully populated, adapted to, and significantly altered a wide variety of land regions across the world, resulting in profound historical and environmental impacts. Where do we begin? Before we tell the stories that make up world history, it is useful to ask: where do we begin? Where did our human stories start?  Homo sapiens is part of a group called hominids, which were the earliest humanlike creatures. Based on archaeological and anthropological evidence, we think that hominids diverged from other primates somewhere between 2.5 and 4 million years ago in eastern and southern Africa. Though there was a degree of diversity among the hominid family, they all shared the trait of bipedalism, or the ability to walk upright on two legs. Evolution Scientists have several theories about why early hominids evolved. One, the aridity hypothesis, suggests that early hominids were more suited to dry climates and evolved as the Africa’s dry savannah regions expanded. According to the savannah hypothesis, early tree-dwelling hominids may have been pushed out of their homes as environmental changes caused the forest regions to shrink and the size of the savannah expand. These changes, according to the savannah hypothesis, may have caused them to adapt to living on the ground and walking upright instead of climbing. Hominids continued to evolve and develop unique characteristics. Their brain capacities increased, and approximately 2.3 million years ago, a hominid known as Homo habilis began to make and use simple tools. By a million years ago, some hominid species, particularly Homo erectus, began to migrate out of Africa and into Eurasia, where they began to make other advances like controlling fire. Picture of a Homo habilis skull on a blue background. Skull is missing two of its front teeth. Homo habilis skull. Image courtesy Wikimedia commons. Picture of a Homo erectus skull on a white background. The cranium is more shallow than that of a Homo sapiens skull. Homo erectus skull. Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons. Though there were once many kinds of hominids, only one remains: Homo sapiens. Extinction is a normal part of evolution, and scientists continue to theorize why other hominid species didn’t survive. We do have some clues as to why some species were less successful at surviving than others, such as an inability to cope with competition for food, changes in climate, and volcanic eruptions. Migration and the Peopling of the World Between 70,000 and 100,000 years ago, Homo sapiens began migrating from the African continent and populating parts of Europe and Asia. They reached the Australian continent in canoes sometime between 35,000 and 65,000 years ago. Scientists studying land masses and climate know that the Pleistocene Ice Age created a land bridge that connected Asia and North America (Alaska) over 13,000 years ago. A widely accepted migration theory is that people crossed this land bridge and eventually migrated into North and South America. How were our ancestors able to achieve this feat, and why did they make the decision to leave their homes? The development of language around 50,000 years ago allowed people to make plans, solve problems, and organize effectively. We can’t be sure of the exact reasons humans first migrated off of the African continent, but it was likely correlated with a depletion of resources (like food) in their regions and competition for those resources. Once humans were able to communicate these concerns and make plans, they could assess together whether the pressures in their current home outweighed the risk of leaving to find a new one. Map of the world showing the spread of Homo sapiens throughout the Earth over time. Homo sapiens are reflected with red arrows (shown populating the entire world over time), Homo neanderthalensis is reflected in orange in what is Europe and the Middle East today, and Homo erectus is represented in yellow in Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia.Spread of Homo sapiens. Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons. Adaptation and Effects on Nature When humans migrated from Africa to colder climates, they made clothing out of animal skins and constructed fires to keep themselves warm; often, they burned fires continuously through the winter. Sophisticated weapons, such as spears and bows and arrows, allowed them to kill large mammals efficiently. Along with changing climates, these hunting methods contributed to the extinction of giant land mammals such as mammoths, giant kangaroos, and mastodons. Fewer giant mammals, in turn, limited hunters’ available prey. In addition to hunting animals and killing them out of self-defense, humans began to use the earth’s resources in new ways when they constructed semi-permanent settlements. Humans started shifting from nomadic lifestyles to fixed homes, using the natural resources there. Semi-permanent settlements would be the building-blocks of established communities and the development of agricultural practices. ^88 Paleolithic Societies Paleolithic societies were largely dependent on foraging and hunting. While hominid species evolved through natural selection for millions of years, cultural evolution accounts for most of the significant changes in the history of Homo sapiens. Small bands of hunter-gatherers lived, worked, and migrated together before the advent of agriculture. Sociocultural Evolution Paleolithic literally means “Old Stone [Age],” but the Paleolithic era more generally refers to a time in human history when foraging, hunting, and fishing were the primary means of obtaining food. Humans had yet to experiment with domesticating animals and growing plants. Since hunter-gatherers could not rely on agricultural methods to produce food intentionally, their diets were dependent on the fluctuations of natural ecosystems. They had to worry about whether overfishing a lake would deplete a crucial food source or whether a drought would wither up important plants. In order to ensure enough food production for their communities, they worked to manipulate those systems in certain ways, such as rotational hunting and gathering. This was the case for much of human history; it was not until about 11,000 years ago that these hunter-gatherer systems began to transform. As humans began migrating and adapting to new environments, they began developing tools and methods that equipped them to make the best of their respective environmental constraints. The study of early humans often focuses on biological evolution and natural selection. However, it is also equally important to focus on sociocultural evolution, or the ways in which early human societies created culture. Paleolithic humans were not simply cavemen who were concerned only with conquering their next meal. Archaeological evidence shows that the Neanderthals in Europe and Southwest Asia had a system of religious beliefs and performed rituals such as funerals. A burial site in Shanidar Cave in modern-day northeastern Iraq suggests that a Neanderthal’s family covered his body with flowers, which indicates a belief in something beyond death and a deep sense of spirituality. They also constructed shelter and tools. An opening to a cave, surrounded by greenery and some simple roads and structures. Shanidar Cave, an archaeological site in the Zagros Mountains in Iraqi Kurdistan in northern Iraq. Cultures evolved and developed in specific environmental contexts, enabling their communities to not only survive but to flourish in unique and dynamic ways. But what exactly is culture? Culture is a broad term which encompasses the full range of learned human behavior patterns, behaviors which are often linked to survival. Homo sapiens has not changed much anatomically over the last 120,000 years, but it has undergone a massive cultural evolution. Accordingly, cultural creativity rather than physical transformation became the central way humans coped with the demands of nature. Nevertheless cultural evolution cannot be divorced from biological evolution, as the evolution of a more highly developed and advanced human brain, more highly attuned to social structures, enabled cultural growth. In fact, the very large size of a human brain itself necessitated certain cultural adaptations: many scientists have theorized that more difficult births, due to larger skulls, longer gestation periods, and longer periods of infant dependency, required more advanced social organization and communication, which played a big role in the cultural evolution of humans. Homo sapiens’ unique aptitude for creativity allowed for symbolic expression, particularly in cultural and spiritual contexts, such as artwork and burial rituals. This creative activity is the hallmark of the subspecies Homo sapiens sapiens (wise, wise human), which is what we are today, a subspecies that is distinctive for its intellectual abilities. Small Communities Eventually, with the expansion of the human population, the density of human groups also increased. This often resulted in conflict and competition over the best land and resources, but it also necessitated cooperation. Due to the constraints of available natural resources, these early communities were not very large, but they included enough members to facilitate some degree of division of labor, security, and exogamous reproduction patterns, which means marrying or reproducing outside of one’s group. Anthropologists were able to draw these conclusions about Paleolithic people by extrapolating from the experiences of modern hunter-gatherer communities, such as the Khoisan of the African Kalahari Desert. Based on the experiences of modern hunter-gatherer societies, who typically have around 500 members, and based on theoretical mathematical models of group process, Paleolithic bands of people were likely around twenty-five members each, and typically about twenty bands constituted a tribe.  A man standing and looking off into the distance. In the background, there is sandy terrain, some green shrubbery, and a wooden rod. He is wearing a kind of beaded necklace and is not wearing a shirt. A San man from Namibia. Many San still live as hunter-gatherers. Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons. How much land did these bands of people need to provide the necessary food and water to support life? Anthropologists have estimated that the technology available to Paleolithic humans who lived between 150,000 and 12,000 years ago would have required over seventy miles of relatively unproductive land, with a low density of resources, or over seven miles of fertile land to meet the basic needs of each small community. However, considering how limited these communities were, this land requirement is extremely inefficient compared to modern productivity levels. At such densities, the area of the modern-day United States could sustain no more than 600,000 people, and the entire planet only 10 million. For comparison, the current population of the United States is well over 300 million, and there are 7 billion people on the planet! Division of Labor Before the advent of agriculture, Paleolithic humans had little control of the environment, so they focused on staking out territory and negotiating relationships with nearby communities. Eventually, groups created small, temporary settlements, often near bodies of water. These settlements allowed for division of labor, and labor was often divided along gender lines, with women doing much of the gathering, cooking, and child-rearing and men doing much of the hunting, though this was certainly not the case across all Paleolithic societies. For example, some archaeological evidence suggests that Middle Paleolithic cultures in Eurasia split work fairly equally between men and women. However, it is important to note that gender dynamics in Paleolithic times were likely drastically different from our own, and as such, the division of labor between men and women does not necessarily indicate differences in equality or power. There are competing theories about whether hunting or gathering contributed more to group nutrition, but both seemed to have played an important role. Paleolithic Technology, Art and Culture Paleolithic groups developed increasingly complex tools and objects made of stone and natural fibers.Language, art, scientific inquiry, and spiritual life were some of the most important innovations of the Paleolithic era. Technological Innovation Stone tools are perhaps the first cultural artifacts which historians can use to reconstruct the worlds of Paleolithic peoples. In fact, stone tools were so important in the Paleolithic age that the names of Paleolithic periods are based on the progression of tools: Lower Paleolithic, Upper Paleolithic, Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age), and Neolithic (New Stone Age). Stone tools also give us insight into the development of culture. Anthropologists think Paleolithic people likely hunted, foraged, and employed a communal system for dividing labor and resources. Anthropologists have inferred this by drawing analogies to modern hunter-gatherer groups and by interpreting cave art which depicts group hunting. Seven tools which appear to be made of stone displayed against a grey backdrop. Four tools are in the top row and appear to be sharpened to a point. Three relatively smaller tools are in the bottom row and are not as sharp. Paleolithic tools found in Bernifal cave in Meyrals, Dordogne, France, estimated to be 12,000 - 10,000 years old. courtesy Wikimedia Commons. By approximately 40,000 years ago, narrow stone blades and tools made of bone, ivory, and antler appeared, along with simple wood instruments. Closer to 20,000 years ago, the first known needles were produced. Eventually, between 17,000 and 8,000 years ago, humans produced more complicated instruments like barbed harpoons and spear-throwers. It is likely that many tools made out of materials besides stone were prevalent but simply did not survive to the present day for scientists to observe. One exception is the Neolithic “Ice Man”, found by two hikers in the Ötztal Alps, who was preserved in ice for 5,000 years! He was found with a robust set of stone and natural-fiber tools, including a six-foot longbow, deerskin case, fourteen arrows, a stick with an antler tip for sharpening flint blades, a small flint dagger in a woven sheath, a copper axe, and a medicine bag. An image of a model of a pre-historic man. He is wearing garments made of fur and hide and carries a stick. He has significant facial hair. Naturalistic reconstruction of Ötzi the Paleolithic Ice Man in South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology. Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons. Language, Culture and Art Language was perhaps the most important innovation of the Paleolithic era. Scientists can infer the early use of language from the fact that humans traversed large swaths of land, established settlements, created tools, traded, and instituted social hierarchies and cultures. Without the aid of language, these things would likely have been impossible. Examinations of the craniums of archaic Homo sapiens suggest large brains with indentations that imply the development of brain areas associated with speech. Exactly how humans developed a capacity for language is a matter of considerable debate. However, the historical record shows that language allowed for increasingly complex social structures, with an enhanced capacity for deliberation, morality, spirituality, and meaning-making. Artwork such as cave painting and portable art demonstrates creativity and group structures as well. They show an interest in sharing knowledge, expressing feelings, and transmitting cultural information to later generations. Though artwork from over 35,000 years ago is rare, there is ample evidence of cave paintings and statuettes from later periods. A bison figure painted with red pigment on a smooth tan-colored surface with some visible cracks. The painter also utilized black strokes to add detail. Reproduction of a bison illustration nearly 14,000 years old, from the Cave of Altamira located near Santillana del Mar in Cantabria, Spain. The cave was first rediscovered in 1868 Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons. In addition to cave art, portable figurines dated to Paleolithic times have been found. Many of these include finely carved facial features, while others accentuate sexual organs and buttocks, such as the 25,000 year old figurine found at Dolni Vestonice in the modern-day Czech Republic. Such an object shows a desire to create beautiful figurines, but some also suggest that objects like this are tied to an interest in human fertility. A statue made of polished dark stone representing a female figure with exaggerated breasts and hips. There are no defined facial features and distinct arms are not visible. Venus of Dolní Věstonice, a 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 south of Brno, in the base of Děvín Mountain. Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons. The Dawn of Agriculture Agriculture likely began during the Neolithic Era before roughly 9000 BCE when polished stone tools were developed and the last ice age ended. Historians have several theories about why many societies switched from hunting and foraging to settled agriculture. One of these theories is that a surplus in production led to greater population. Not everyone needed to be focused on food production, which led to specialization of labor and complex societies. The World Before the Agriculture Based on current archeological evidence, anatomically modern humans have existed roughly 200,000-300,000 years. However, before roughly 15,000-20,000 years ago, we have no evidence that our ancestors had agriculture. Instead, we believe they strictly hunted or foraged for food. There were times when they had a big kill and had more food than they knew what to do with. There were other times when they overforaged or hunted and they didn’t know how many days it would be until their next meal. If they didn’t find food, they or their families would starve. Even when there was food, it might take miles of walking to find it. For many of these preagricultural societies, a good bit of their energy went into just getting more energy—in other words, food—to keep going and reproduce.There also couldn’t be too many humans living in one area since there was only so much food to be found or killed. Because of this, a tribe of 100 hunter-foragers would have needed to be the only humans on 50 to 500 square kilometers to survive—places lush with life, like tropical rain forests, could support a higher density. With only hunting and foraging to support human populations, it is estimated that the Earth could only support about 10 million people. Historians estimate the world population was around six to ten million 10,000 years ago. The Birth of Agriculture About 10,000 to 15,000 years ago, humans began to mold nature to their needs and agriculture emerged in multiple places around the planet. We believe that it emerged independently and spread from places as varied as Mesopotamia, China, South America and sub-Saharan Africa. As we explore more, it is likely that scientists will find more places where agriculture may have emerged even earlier. The birth of agriculture is often referred to as the Neolithic Revolution since it seems to coincide with the Neolithic period—or new stone age. The Neolithic period’s name stems from the fact that stone artifacts were more smooth and refined than those of the Paleolithic period, or old stone age. Many of these tools facilitated early agriculture. Five agricultural tools found in the Iberian settlement Bastida of Alcusses, ca. late 5th century B.C.E. to the 4th century B.C.E. Tools are textured and brown.. The first agriculture was likely cultivation of wild species of plants and basic herding of livestock. As time went on, humans became more and more sophisticated at breeding the plants and livestock that best met our needs. The corn you see in the grocery store and the pigs, cows, and sheep you see at a farm did not evolve independently in the wild. They are the product of thousands of years of human selection and breeding from original, wild forms. Why did Agriculture emerge when and where it did? The simple answer is that we’re not sure. We do, however, have several theories—can you think of more?End of a glacial period: The last glacial period ended 10,000 to 15,000 years ago. This seems to coincide with the emergence of agriculture. After the glacial period ended, there was more moisture in the air, less frozen soil, and better conditions overall for more plant and animal life. These conditions would have also been more suitable for agriculture. This theory still has several open questions: 1) Why have we not found evidence of agriculture during the last interglacial—warmer—period over 100,000 years ago? Have we just not found it yet? 2) Even during the glacial period, weren’t there some places on Earth in the tropics that would have still been suitable for agriculture? Continued human development: Even though anatomically modern humans have been around for roughly 200,000 years, our brains, language, and culture may have continued to develop and change—including through natural selection. It is possible that only 10,000 to 20,000 years ago did we first have the right mix of environmental, mental, and cultural development to implement agriculture. This theory is bolstered by the fact that the dawn of agriculture seems to coincide with humans being able to make the more sophisticated stone objects which define the Neolithic period. Pastoralism: A branch of Agriculture A branch of agriculture—called pastoralism—began around the same time as cultivation of plants. Pastoralism is the domestication and herding of animals such as goats, sheep, and cattle. In regions where plant cultivation proved difficult due to rocky terrain or climates that were inhospitable to plants, pastoralists herded animals. While many pastoralists were nomadic, their lifestyle differed fundamentally from that of hunter-foragers in that they did not rely exclusively on naturally occurring resources. They milked animals for dairy products and used their wool to weave textiles, which they could trade with agricultural societies if they lived in close enough proximity to them. A mix of cooperation and conflict resulted from the relationship between pastoralists and farmers. Pastoralists’ military-related artifacts suggest that they may have come into conflict with farming societies; however, in other cases, pastoralists traded goods with farmers in a cooperative relationship. Impact of Agriculture The impact of agriculture has been profound on humanity, most clearly in terms of population. This is because breeding plants and animals has significantly increased the availability of human consumable calories per square kilometer. One way to think about it is that we replaced things that weren’t consumable by humans with things that were. Through techniques like irrigation, we were also able to make things grow where they might not have before. To put this in perspective, before the agricultural revolution experts estimate that there were six to ten million people, which is about how many hunter-foragers the Earth could sustain. By the time of the Roman Empire, about 10,000 years later, the world population had grown over 25-fold to 250 million. Fast forward 2000 years to the present, and the population has grown another 28-fold to seven billion. In roughly 10,000 to 15,000 years, advances in agriculture have allowed the human population to become roughly 1000 times larger! Agriculture also has had environmental impacts. Farmers used complex tools to cultivate and irrigate their fields and to build settlements. To expand their amount of usable land, agriculturalists cleared forests using the slash and burn technique; they would remove a ring of bark from the trees, drying out the trees and allowing them to burn more quickly. The ash from the trees acted as a fertilizer for the soil. Pastoralism also brought challenges to the environment and people. Herds of animals concentrated in one area could overgraze the land, ultimately rendering it unusable or subject to erosion. In addition, with a closer proximity to animals, came a higher likelihood that diseases could be transmitted from animals to humans. By actively managing their food supplies, agricultural societies were able to produce more food than hunter-foragers and support denser populations. Having a large population nearby made it worthwhile for farmers to grow more food than they needed for themselves, as they could trade this surplus for other goods. For non-farmers, this meant that they could focus on making other goods and trading these goods for food and other things. People could specialize—focus on doing one thing—which led to increased productivity. Increased productivity led to the creation of better buildings, tools, weapons, and also to the rise of governments to oversee this activity and military forces to protect people and resources. Many population centers evolved into the first wave of city-states that emerged within a few thousand years of the agricultural revolution. Eventually those states began to have complex bureaucracies to tax and administer their people, a significant catalyst for the birth of writing, which was transformational for civilization. First civilizations The first civilizations appeared in major river valleys, where floodplains contained rich soil and the rivers provided irrigation for crops and a means of transportation. Foundational civilizations developed urbanization and complexity without outside influence and without building on a pre-existing civilization, though they did not all develop simultaneously. Many later civilizations either borrowed elements of, built on, or incorporated—through conquest—other civilizations. Because foundational civilizations arose independently, they are particularly useful to historians and archaeologists who want to understand how civilization first developed. Gray world map showing probable areas of independent development of agriculture, in green, in the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa, China, Peru, Mexico, and North America. Possible routes of diffusion across the globe are drawn in blue. Map showing probable areas of independent development of agriculture, in green, and possible routes of diffusion. Note that while there is much overlap between these regions and the locations of first civilizations, some areas—like the Indus Valley in northwest India—appear to have developed agriculture after the practice spread to the region. Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons. Geography alone cannot explain the rise of the first civilizations. The process of agricultural intensification had been going on for thousands of years before the first civilizations appeared, and it is important to remember that while agricultural surpluses were necessary for civilization, their existence in a given place did not guarantee that a civilization would develop.As civilizations grew, they required increased intensification of agriculture to maintain themselves. What do civilizations have in common? Cities were at the center of all early civilizations. People from surrounding areas came to cities to live, work, and trade. This meant that large populations of individuals who did not know each other lived and interacted with one another. So, shared institutions, such as government, religion, and language helped create a sense of unity and also led to more specialized roles, such as bureaucrats, priests, and scribes. Cities concentrated political, religious, and social institutions that were previously spread across many smaller, separate communities, which contributed to the development of states. A state is an organized community that lives under a single political structure. A present-day country is a state in this sense, for example. Many civilizations either grew alongside a state or included several states. The political structures that states provided were an important factor in the rise of civilizations because they made it possible to mobilize large amounts of resources and labor and also tied larger communities together by connecting them under a common political system. Early civilizations were often unified by religion—a system of beliefs and behaviors that deal with the meaning of existence. As more and more people shared the same set of beliefs and practices, people who did not know each other could find common ground and build mutual trust and respect. It was typical for politics and religion to be strongly connected. In some cases, political leaders also acted as religious leaders. In other cases, religious leaders were different from the political rulers but still worked to justify and support the power of the political leaders. In Ancient Egypt, for example, the kings—later called pharaohs—practiced divine kingship, claiming to be representatives, or even human incarnations, of gods. Both political and religious organization helped to create and reinforce social hierarchies, which are clear distinctions in status between individual people and between different groups. Political leaders could make decisions that impacted entire societies, such as whether to go to war. Religious leaders gained special status since they alone could communicate between a society and its god or gods. In addition to these leaders, there were also artisans who provided goods and services, and merchants who engaged in the trade of these goods. There were also lower classes of laborers who performed less specialized work, and in some cases there were slaves. All of these classes added to the complexity and economic production of a city. Writing emerged in many early civilizations as a way to keep records and better manage complex institutions. Cuneiform writing in early Mesopotamia was first used to keep track of economic exchanges. Oracle bone inscriptions in Ancient China seem to have been tied to efforts to predict the future and may have had spiritual associations. Quipu—knotted strings used to keep records and perform calculations—appeared in South America. In all the places where writing developed—no matter its form or purpose—literacy, or the ability to read and write, was limited to small groups of highly educated elites, such as scribes and priests. Black-and-white drawing of quipu. Fifteen vertical pieces of string are attached to one horizontal rope of string. Each string has one or more knots placed at different junctures along its length. Is it writing? A quipu was a system of knotted strings that could be used to perform calculations and to record transactions. Evidence for the use of quipu has been found in many Andean cultures over the past several millenia. Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons. Writing offered new methods for maintaining law and order, as well. The first legal codes, or written collections of laws, were the Code of Ur-Nammu from Sumer, written around 2100 to 2050 BCE and the Code of Hammurabi from Babylon, written around 1760 BCE. The benefit of written laws was that they created consistency in the legal system. Law Code of Hammurabi inscribed on a black stone slab, rounded at the top and rectangular at the bottom. At the rounded top of the slab, taking up about a quarter of the space on the front, is a relief sculpture of two people, one sitting in a throne and wearing an elaborate gown, the other standing with their arms crossed. The lower portion of the slab has law codes written on it in cuneiform. Law Code of Hammurabi inscribed on basalt stele. If you look closely, you can make out the cuneiform writing in the center. Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons. This shift toward writing down more information might not seem like a significant development, especially since most people were unable to read or write. However, having consistent, shared records, laws, and literature helped to strengthen ties between increasingly large groups. Another notable feature of many civilizations was monumental architecture. This type of architecture was often created for political reasons, religious purposes, or for the public good. The pyramids of Egypt, for example, were monuments to deceased rulers. The ziggurats of Mesopotamia and the pyramids of early American societies were platforms for temples. Defensive walls and sewer systems provided defense and sanitation, respectively. Although a few examples of monumental architecture from pre-agricultural societies exist, the greater organization and resources that came with civilization made it much easier to build large structures. There were many features that early civilizations had in common. Most civilizations developed from agrarian communities that provided enough food to support cities. Cities intensified social hierarchies based on gender, wealth, and division of labor. Some developed powerful states and armies, which could only be maintained through taxes. Civilization is a tricky concept for many reasons. For one thing, it can be difficult to define what counts as a civilization and what does not, since experts don’t all agree which conditions make up a civilization. For example, people living in the Niger River Valley in West Africa achieved agricultural surplus, urbanization, and some specialization of labor, but they never developed strong social hierarchies, political structures, or written language—so scholars disagree on whether to classify it as a civilization. Also, due to extensive cultural exchange and diffusion of technology, it can be difficult to draw a line where one civilization ends and another begins. The Great Bath at Mohenjo-daro: Amid the brick ruins of a 3rd-millennium BCE city, stairs descend on two sides into a large, rectangular brick-lined pit. Wooden stakes and wire encircle the perimeter, preventing entry by modern-day tourists. Excavated ruins of Mohenjo-daro, with the Great Bath in the foreground and the Buddhist Stupa in the background. Image courtesy Wikipedia. Characteristics of Early Civilizations The growth of agriculture resulted in intensification, which had important consequences for social organization.Larger groups gave rise to new challenges and required more sophisticated systems of social administration. Complex societies took the forms of larger agricultural villages, cities, city-states, and states, which shared many features. Specialized labor gave rise to distinct social classes and enabled creative and innovative developments. Systems of record-keeping and symbolic expression grew more complex, and many societies had systems of writing. Larger Social Group Formation In various parts of the world, including the valleys of the Tigris-Euphrates, Nile, Indus, and Huang rivers, larger and denser settlements began to emerge. These large concentrations of people are referred to as complex societies or civilizations, which share many features, including having a dense population, an agriculture-based economy, a social hierarchy, a division of labor and specialization, a centralized government, monuments, record-keeping and writing, and complex systems of belief. These complex societies most often took the shape of cities or city-states like Uruk and Ur. These first cities were nexuses of power, production, culture, and innovation. Sustaining these cities was not easy, however. It required extensive and often irreversible manipulation of the surrounding environment in order to extract energy in the form of firewood, materials for building like stone, and resources like food and water. Because of this, these cities were very sensitive to fluctuations in weather and climate. A flood could destroy the entire supply of barley, for example, and a drought could make water supplies worryingly scarce. Because these societies were densely populated, disease, conflict, and shortages were felt even more dramatically. An outbreak of a disease could quickly become an epidemic. In response to these vulnerabilities, these communities developed ways to anticipate the changes in their natural environments, such as storing food and water. As these small communities developed from small villages to city-states with thousands of residents, they were met with greater challenges and needed to develop mechanisms of social organization to address these obstacles more effectively. Formation of Governments and Social Classes Civilizations evoke images of stone walls, monuments, and roads, but they are more than robust physical infrastructure. To facilitate the organization and administration of these large, dense communities, people began to create social infrastructures: economic, political, and religious institutions that created new social hierarchies. These hierarchies were populated with people playing specialized roles, such as professional administrators, farmers, artisans, traders, merchants, and spiritual leaders. Additionally, due to increased trade and conflict with external civilizations, cities required diplomats, armies, and centralized rulers. In the foreground, low walls built with tan-colored brick and stone, forming the perimeter of rectangular rooms. In the background, a tall copper-colored stone structure, with a wide base and a tapering top. The ruins of Ancient Ur of Sumer, one of the world's earliest cities, with the Ziggurat of Ur visible in the background. Located in present-day Tell el-Mukayyar in Iraq. Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons. Most cities grew out of villages, and some ultimately became city-states, which are self-governing urban centers and the agricultural territories under their control. The surplus food production generated by villages in the vicinity allowed for some residents not to participate in food production, which led to the development of distinct specialized roles and associated classes. In order to facilitate cooperation between these many different classes and to organize large numbers of people to work together for the large-scale construction of irrigation systems, monuments, and other projects, leaders were required, comprising a new social class. Political leadership would take many different forms in the first civilizations, though powerful states, centralized systems of government and command, were the norm. Ancient Mesopotamian Civilization Overview.Mesopotamian civilizations formed on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in what is today Iraq and Kuwait. Early civilizations began to form around the time of the Neolithic Revolution—12000 BCE. Some of the major Mesopotamian civilizations include the Sumerian, Assyrian, Akkadian, and Babylonian civilizations.Evidence shows extensive use of technology, literature, legal codes, philosophy, religion, and architecture in these societies. Civilization Born Along Rivers By roughly 6000 to 8000 years ago, agriculture was well under way in several regions including Ancient Egypt, around the Nile River; the Indus Valley civilization; Mesopotamia, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers; and Ancient China, along the Yellow and Yangtze rivers. This is because the regular river floods made for fertile soil around the banks and the rivers could also supply fresh water to irrigate crops. It’s no coincidence that as agriculture allowed for denser and denser populations along with more specialized societies, some of the world’s first civilizations developed in these areas as well. Ancient Mesopotamia Mesopotamia—mainly modern-day Iraq and Kuwait—in particular is often referred to as the cradle of civilization because some of the most influential early city-states and empires first emerged there—although it’s not the only place! Its modern name comes from the Greek for middle—mesos—and river—potamos—and literally means a “country between two rivers.” Those two rivers are the Tigris and Euphrates. Not only was Mesopotamia one of the first places to develop agriculture, it was also at the crossroads of the Egyptian and the Indus Valley civilizations. This made it a melting pot of languages and cultures that stimulated a lasting impact on writing, technology, language, trade, religion, and law. Associated with Mesopotamia are ancient cultures like the Sumerians, Assyrians, Akkadians, and Babylonians. Learning about this time period can be a little confusing because these cultures interacted with and ruled over each other over the course of several thousand years. These terms can also be associated with city-states, languages, religions, or empires—depending on the time and context we are looking at. Sumerians Let’s start with Sumer. We believe Sumerian civilization first took form in southern Mesopotamia around 4000 BCE—or 6000 years ago—which would make it the first urban civilization in the region. Mesopotamians are noted for developing one of the first written scripts around 3000 BCE: wedge-shaped marks pressed into clay tablets. This cuneiform—another way to say wedge-shaped—script was also adapted by surrounding peoples to write their own languages for roughly 2000 years, until Phoenician, which the letters you are reading now are based on, began to become the dominant script in the first millennium BCE. Cuneiform is also the script that one of the world’s first great works of literature, The Epic of Gilgamesh, was written in. Mesopotamians used writing to record sales and purchases, to write letters to one another, and to tell stories. The incredibly important invention of the wheel is also credited to the Sumerians; the earliest discovered wheel dates to 3500 BCE in Mesopotamia. Sumerians built ships that allowed them to travel into the Persian Gulf and trade with other early civilizations, such as the Harappans in northern India. They traded textiles, leather goods, and jewelry for Harappan semi-precious stones, copper, pearls, and ivory. Sumerian religion was polytheistic—or worshipped multiple gods—many of which were anthropomorphic—they took human-like form. Temples to these gods were constructed atop massive ziggurats which were in the centers of most cities. These structures would have taken thousands of people many years to construct. A black-and-white image of an Epic of Gilgamesh tablet on a black background with cuneiform (wedge-shaped) writing. A tablet from the Epic of Gilgamesh. Image(Opens in a new window) courtesy Boundless. Akkadian Empire Around 3000 BCE, the Sumerians had significant cultural interchange with a group in northern Mesopotamia known as the Akkadians—named after the city-state of Akkad. The Akkadian language is related to the modern languages of Hebrew and Arabic. These languages are known as Semitic languages. The term Semitic comes from the biblical character Shem, a son of Noah, the purported progenitor of Abraham and, accordingly, the Jewish and Arab people. Around 2334 BCE, Sargon of Akkad came to power and established what might have been the world’s first dynastic empire. The Akkadian Empire ruled over both the Akkadian and Sumerian speakers in Mesopotamia and the Levant—modern day Syria and Lebanon. The Empire of Akkad collapsed in 2154 BCE, within 180 years of its founding. The Akkadian Empire is pictured in brown. The directions of the military campaigns are shown as yellow arrows. Map of the Akkadian Empire. Image courtesy Boundless. Assyrian Empire Assyria is named for its original capital, the ancient city of Ašur—also known as Ashur—in northern Mesopotamia. Ashur was originally one of a number of Akkadian-speaking city states ruled by Sargon and his descendents during the Akkadian Empire. Within several hundred years of the collapse of the Akkadian Empire, Assyria had become a major empire. For much of the 1400 years from the late twenty-first century BCE until the late seventh century BCE, the Akkadian-speaking Assyrians were the dominant power in Mesopotamia, especially in the north. The empire reached its peak near the end of this period in the seventh century. At that time, the Assyrian Empire stretched from Egypt and Cyprus in the west to the borders of Persia—modern-day Iran—in the east. The major exceptions to Assyrian dominance were the Babylonian Empire established by Hammurabi and some more chaotic dark ages where there wasn’t a dominant power. Babylon Babylon was a minor city-state in central Mesopotamia for a century after it was founded in 1894 BCE. Things changed with the reign of Hammurabi, from 1792 to 1750 BCE. He was an efficient ruler, establishing a centralized bureaucracy with taxation. Hammurabi freed Babylon from foreign rule and then conquered the whole of southern Mesopotamia, bringing stability and the name of Babylonia to the region. One of the most important works of this First Dynasty of Babylon was the compilation in about 1754 BCE of a code of laws, called the Code of Hammurabi, which echoed and improved upon the earlier written laws of Sumer, Akkad, and Assyria. It’s similar to the Sumerian king Ur-Nammu of Ur’s code, written from 2100 to 2050 BCE. Hammurabi’s code is one of the oldest deciphered writings of significant length in the world. Written in about 1754 BCE by the sixth king of Babylon, Hammurabi, the Code was written on stone stele—slabs—and clay tablets. The Code consists of 282 laws with scaled punishments depending on social status, adjusting "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth". For example, if a person from a noble class broke an enslaved person’s arm, they would have to pay a fine, whereas if a noble person broke another noble person's arm, the offending noble would have their arm broken. Some have seen the Code as an early form of constitutional government, the presumption of innocence, and the ability to present evidence in one's case. The Babylonian Empire established by Hammurabi lasted for 260 years until Babylon got sacked by invaders in 1531 BCE. In the period between 626 BCE and 539 BCE, Babylon asserted itself again over the region with the Neo-Babylonian Empire. This new empire was overthrown in 539 BCE by the Persians who then ruled over the region until the time of Alexander the Great, 335 BCE. Map of Babylonia at the time of Hamurabi. Map is of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and the surrounding areas. Empire highlighted in brown and, near Babylon, red. The extent of the Babylonian Empire at the start and end of Hammurabi's reign. Image courtesy Boundless. Ancient Egyptian Civilization Early Egypt Much of the history of Egypt is divided into three “kingdom” periods—Old, Middle, and New—with shorter intermediate periods separating the kingdoms. The term "intermediate" here refers to the fact that during these times Egypt was not a unified political power, and thus was in between powerful kingdoms. Even before the Old Kingdom period, the foundations of Egyptian civilization were being laid for thousands of years, as people living near the Nile increasingly focused on sedentary agriculture, which led to urbanization and specialized, non-agricultural economic activity. Evidence of human habitation in Egypt stretches back tens of thousands of years. It was only in about 6000 BCE, however, that widespread settlement began in the region. Around this time, the Sahara Desert expanded. Some scientists think this expansion was caused by a slight shift in the tilt of the Earth. Others have explored changing rainfall patterns, but the specific causes are not entirely clear. The most important result of this expansion of the Sahara for human civilization was that it pushed humans closer to the Nile River in search of reliable water sources. Apart from the delta region, where the river spreads out as it flows into the sea, most settlement in the Nile Valley was confined to within a few miles of the river itself (see map above). The Nile River flooded annually; this flooding was so regular that the ancient Egyptians set their three seasons—Inundation, or flooding, Growth, and Harvest—around it. This annual flooding was vital to agriculture because it deposited a new layer of nutrient-rich soil each year. In years when the Nile did not flood, the nutrient level in the soil was seriously depleted, and the chance of food shortages increased greatly. Food supplies had political effects, as well, and periods of drought probably contributed to the decline of Egyptian political unity at the ends of both the Old and Middle Kingdoms. Although we do not know the specific dates and events, most scholars who study this period believe that sometime around the year 3100 BCE, a leader named either Narmer or Menes—sources are unclear on whether these were the same person!—united Egypt politically when he gained control of both Upper and Lower Egypt. Map of Ancient Egypt and the Mediterranean and Red seas. Land is beige and the habitable regions of Egypt are highlighted in Green (all along the Nile River and the delta that opens out to the Mediterranean Sea in the north). Lower Egypt is the northern region and Upper Egypt is the southern region of this map. The areas in green show the habitable regions of Egypt. Note the locations of the Nile Delta, Upper and Lower Egypt, the Sinai Peninsula, and Kush (Nubia). Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons. Somewhat confusingly, when you look at a map of this area, Lower Egypt is the delta region in the north, and Upper Egypt refers to the southern portion of the country, which is upriver from the delta. You may encounter this terminology when reading about rivers in history, so a good trick is to remember that rivers flow downhill, so the river is lower toward its end at the sea and higher closer to its source! After political unification, divine kingship, or the idea that a political ruler held his power by favor of a god or gods—or that he was a living incarnation of a god—became firmly established in Egypt. For example, in the mythology that developed around unification, Narmer was portrayed as Horus, a god of Lower Egypt, where Narmer originally ruled. He conquered Set, a god of Upper Egypt. This mythologized version of actual political events added legitimacy to the king’s rule. The use of hieroglyphics—a form of writing that used images to express sounds and meanings—likely began in this period. As the Egyptian state grew in power and influence, it was better able to mobilize resources for large-scale projects and required better methods of record-keeping to organize and manage an increasingly large state. During the Middle Kingdom, Egyptians began to write literature, as well. Some writing was preserved on stone or clay, and some was preserved on papyrus, a paper-like product made from reed fiber. Papyrus is very fragile, but due to the hot and dry climate of Egypt, a few papyrus documents have survived. Hieroglyphic writing also became an important tool for historians studying ancient Egypt once it was translated in the early 1800s. An example of New Kingdom hieroglyphics from the thirteenth century BCE. Four vertical columns of colorfully painted hieroglyphics on a white background depict birds, eyes, a crab, and pottery, among other images. An example of New Kingdom hieroglyphics from the thirteenth century BCE. Image courtesy British Museum As rulers became more powerful, they were better able to coordinate labor and resources to construct major projects, and more people required larger supplies of food. Projects to improve agricultural production, such as levees and canals became more important. Irrigation practices consisted of building mud levees—which were walls of compacted dirt that directed the annual flooding onto farmland and kept it away from living areas—and of digging canals to direct water to fields as crops were growing. Elites, those individuals who were wealthy and powerful, began building larger tombs which were precursors to the pyramids. These tombs represented a growing divide between the elite and common people in Egyptian society. Only the wealthy and important could afford and be considered as deserving of such elaborate burials. A mastaba, which was the typical grave marker for early Egyptian elites. Looks like a pyramid except lower to the ground and with a flat top instead of a pointed one. A mastaba, which was the typical grave marker for early Egyptian elites. These were precursors to the pyramids. Image courtesy British Museum. Old Kingdom Egypt During the Old Kingdom period, Egypt was largely unified as a single state; it gained in complexity and expanded militarily. Old Kingdom rulers built the first pyramids, which were both tombs and monuments for the kings who had them built. Building monumental architecture—such as the Great Pyramid and the Sphinx in Giza, and temples for different gods—required a centralized government that could command vast resources. Great Sphinx of Giza (mythical creature with a human head and a lion's body) and the pyramid of Khafre. The tourists in the photo look like specks compared to these structures. Great Sphinx of Giza and the pyramid of Khafre. The people in the photo give you a sense of how large the structure is! Image credit: Boundless The builders of the pyramids were not enslaved people but peasants, working on the pyramids during the farming off-season. These peasants worked alongside specialists like stone cutters, mathematicians, and priests. As a form of taxation, each household was required to provide a worker for these projects, although the wealthy could pay for a substitute. This demonstrates both the power of the state to force people to provide labor and also the advantages enjoyed by elites, who could buy their way out of providing labor. Egyptians also began to build ships, constructed of wooden planks tied together with rope and stuffed with reeds, to trade goods such as ebony, incense, gold, copper, and Lebanese cedar—which was particularly important for construction projects—along maritime routes. Egyptian painting of a ship with passengers and crew. Egyptian ship, circa 1420 BCE. Ships like this would have been used on typical trading voyages. Image credit: Boundless New Kingdom Around 1550 BCE, the New Kingdom period of Egyptian history began with the expulsion of the Hyksos from Egypt and the restoration of centralized political control. This period was Egypt's most prosperous time and marked the peak of its power. Also in this period, Hatshepsut, Egypt’s most famous female ruler, established trade networks that helped build the wealth of Egypt and commissioned hundreds of construction projects and pieces of statuary, as well as an impressive mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahri. She also ordered repairs to temples that had been neglected or damaged during the period of Hyksos rule. Photo of Hatshepsut's Temple at the base of a large rock formation. The temple is rectangular with three tiers and a wide ramp in the center. At the top tier, set furthest back into the rock formation, there are statues placed in front of columns. All of the columns and doorways are long and rectangular. Hatshepsut's Temple. Image credit: Boundless The term pharaoh, which originally referred to the king's palace, became a form of address for the king himself during this period, further emphasizing the idea of divine kingship. Religiously, the pharaohs associated themselves with the god Amun-Ra, while still recognizing other deities. In the mid-1300s BCE, one pharaoh attempted to alter this tradition when he chose to worship Aten exclusively and even changed his name to Akhenaten in honor of that god. Some scholars interpret this as the first instance of monotheism, or the belief in a single god. This change did not survive beyond Akhenaten’s rule, however. New Kingdom Egypt reached the height of its power under the pharaohs Seti I and Ramesses II, who fought to expand Egyptian power against the Libyans to the west and the Hittites to the north. The city of Kadesh on the border between the two empires was a source of conflict between the Egyptians and the Hittites, and they fought several battles over it, ultimately agreeing to the world’s first known peace treaty. Map of Hittite (modern-day Turkey) and Egyptian empires in about 1274 BCE. Hittite empire is colored in red and Egyptian empire is colored in green. Egyptian and Hittite Empires in about 1274 BCE. Kadesh is the city right on the boundary between the two. Image credit: Boundless Third Intermediate Period: 1069-664 BCE The costs of war, increased droughts, famine, civil unrest, and official corruption ultimately fragmented Egypt into a collection of locally-governed city-states. Taking advantage of this political division, a military force from the Nubian kingdom of Kush in the south conquered and united Lower Egypt, Upper Egypt, and Kush. The Kushites were then driven out of Egypt in 670 BCE by the Assyrians, who established a client state (a political entity that is self-governing but pays tribute to a more powerful state) in Egypt. In 656 BCE, Egypt was again reunited and broke away from Assyrian control. The country experienced a period of peace and prosperity until 525 BCE, when the Persian king Cambyses defeated the Egyptian rulers and took the title of Pharaoh for himself, along with his title as king of Persia. The Hittites and Ancient Anatolia The Hittites were an ancient group of Indo-Europeans who moved into Asian Minor and formed an empire at Hattusa in Anatolia (modern Turkey) around 1600 BCE. The Hittite Empire reached great heights during the mid-1300s BCE, when it spread across Asia Minor, into the northern Levant and Upper Mesopotamia. Like many Indo-Europeans, the Hittites were able to travel long distances and migrate to other lands due to the domestication of horses. The spread of technologies like the wheel and wagon, which were also used in ancient Mesopotamia and other early civilizations in the region, also assisted pastoralists and agrarian civilizations. After about 1180 BCE, the empire ended and splintered into several independent Neo-Hittite—new Hittite—city-states, some of which survived until the eighth century BCE. A map of the Hittite empire at its greatest extent in the mid-1300s. The Hittite empire is colored in green and is bordered by the Black Sea and the Mediterranean sea. The Hittite empire at its greatest extent in the mid-1300s BCE. Image courtesy Boundless. Culture The Hittite language was a member of Indo-European, a family of related languages that today are widely spoken in the Americas, Europe, and Western and Southern Asia. Hittites are so named because of their initial identification with the Biblical Hittites, according to nineteenth-century archaeology. The Hittites are usually referred to as a people living among the Israelites. Although their civilization thrived during the Bronze Age, starting around 3000 BCE, the Hittites were pioneers of the Iron Age and began manufacturing iron artifacts around 1400 BCE. This is significant because the Hittites’ use of iron and steel created tools and weapons that were more efficient than those made of bronze. A couple of theories exist about how the Hittites developed this technology. Some scholars believe the Hittites had been experimenting with metalworking for years, eventually leading them to discover a smelting process that would melt iron, which melts at a higher temperature than other metals like copper or tin. It’s also possible that the Hittites learned some of this technology from peoples in the Zagros Mountains in western Iran. The Hittites’ trading partners in Assyria and parts of the Egyptian empire had a high demand for iron products. After 1180 BCE, amid general turmoil in the Levant with the sudden arrival of the Sea Peoples—people of unknown nationality who used ships to raid Mediterranean and Egyptian cities—the kingdom scattered into several independent Neo-Hittite city-states.^33cubed The history of the Hittite civilization is known mostly from cuneiform texts found in the area of their former kingdom and from diplomatic and commercial mail found in archives in Egypt and the Middle East. The cuneiform writing suggests that the Hittites had some connection with Mesopotamian empires, either through direct communication or through the Hittites’ conquest of another central-Anatolian group, the Hatti, who had connections to the Sumerians—a Mesopotamian empire. Either way, Mesopotamians’ writing technology was transferred to the Hittites. Government The head of the Hittite state was the king, followed by the heir-apparent—one of the king’s offspring born into the position of succeeding him. Some officials, however, exercised independent authority over various branches of the government, so the king did not control all aspects of the kingdom. For example, the Chief of the Royal Bodyguards, the Chief of the Scribes—who was in charge of bureaucracy—and even the Chief of the Wine Stewards! The actual day-to-day life and culture of the Hittites is mysterious because the written documents from this culture deal mainly with the kings and their campaigns. It is known that the Hittites wrote using Akkadian script but in their own Indo-European language and used cylinder seals to sign documents and mark property as people did throughout Mesopotamia, suggesting a link between the two cultures. However, Hittites may have learned about Mesopotamian customs through the Hatti, an Anatolian people the Hittites conquered, who had prior connections to Sumer in Mesopotamia. The details of Hittite life and culture we’ve learned seem to be slight variations on those of the Hatti. But we don’t know the exact nature of the relationship between these two groups given the small number of primary sources that have been found. Religion Storm gods were prominent in the Hittite pantheon—the set of all the gods in a polytheistic religion. Tarhunt was referred to as The Conqueror, The King of Kummiya, King of Heaven, and Lord of the land of Hatti. He was the god of battle and victory, especially against foreign powers. This might indicate that the Hittites placed value on military might. The Battle of Kadesh One military engagement the Hittites are famous for is the Battle of Kadesh against the Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II’s army in 1274 BCE. This battle is especially important because both sides claimed victory, which led to the first known peace treaty in the history of the world, in 1258 BCE. Conflict between Hittites and Egyptians The Hittites had been making headway into the Egyptian empire and had caused trouble for the Pharaoh Tutmoses III. Pharaoh Ramesses II resolved to drive the Hittites from his borders. He hoped to gain an advantage by capturing of the city of Kadesh, a center of commerce which the Hittites held. Ramesses marched from Egypt at the head of over 20,000 soldiers in four divisions to fight against the troops of Muwatalli, the king of the Hittites. Battle The Egyptian and Hittite armies were pretty evenly matched, which is probably why both were able to claim victory. The Egyptian chariots were faster because they only had two people aboard them, while the Hittite chariots accommodated an extra person, allowing more spears to be thrown from each chariot. The combination of chariots and iron tools, which were stronger than bronze ones, meant that the Egyptian and Hittite military technology was some of the most sophisticated of its time. Both civilizations boasted strong state power and the ability to send troops to war in order to fight for control over their empires. Aftermath Ramesses claimed a great victory for Egypt: he had defeated his enemy in battle. Muwatalli also claimed victory because he didn’t lose Kadesh. The Treaty of Kadesh—the first peace treaty—was an important document because it showed the ability of large civilizations to determine whether or not they were at war with each other. Indus Valley Civilization The Indus River Valley Civilization, 3300-1300 BCE, also known as the Harappan Civilization, extended from modern-day northeast Afghanistan to Pakistan and northwest India. Important innovations of this civilization include standardized weights and measures, seal carving, and metallurgy with copper, bronze, lead, and tin. Little is understood about the Indus script, and as a result, little is known about the Indus River Valley Civilization’s institutions and systems of governance. The civilization likely ended due to climate change and migration. In 1856, British colonial officials in India were busy monitoring the construction of a railway connecting the cities of Lahore and Karachi in modern-day Pakistan along the Indus River valley. As they continued to work, some of the laborers discovered many fire-baked bricks lodged in the dry terrain. There were hundreds of thousands of fairly uniform bricks, which seemed to be quite old. Nonetheless, the workers used some of them to construct the road bed, unaware that they were using ancient artifacts. They soon found among the bricks stone artifacts made of soapstone, featuring intricate artistic markings. 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, also known as the Harappan Civilization, after Harappa, the first of its sites to be excavated, in what was then the Punjab province of British India and is now in Pakistan. Initially, many archaeologists thought they had found ruins of the ancient Maurya Empire, a large empire which dominated ancient India between c. 322 and 185 BCE. Before the excavation of these Harappan cities, scholars thought that Indian civilization had begun in the Ganges valley as Aryan immigrants from Persia and central Asia populated the region around 1250 BCE. The discovery of ancient Harappan cities unsettled that conception and moved the timeline back another 1500 years,situating the Indus Valley Civilization in an entirely different environmental context. This map shows the extent of the Indus Valley Civilization during the Mature Harappan Phase. Civilization is highlighted in brown in the area of modern-day Pakistan and northern India. The rest of the map is green and is a partial map of India and the area northwest of Pakistan. Indus Valley Civilization in the Mature Harappan Phase (2600-1900 BCE). Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons.  Scholars are still piecing together information about this mysterious civilization, but they have learned a great deal about it since its rediscovery. Its origins seem to lie in a settlement named Mehrgarh in the foothills of a mountain pass in modern-day Balochistan in western Pakistan. There is evidence of settlement in this area as early as 7000 BCE. The Indus Valley Civilization is often separated into three phases: the Early Harappan Phase from 3300 to 2600 BCE, the Mature Harappan Phase from 2600 to 1900 BCE, and the Late Harappan Phase from 1900 to 1300 BCE. At its peak, the Indus Valley Civilization may have had a population of over five million people. The Indus cities are noted for their urban planning, a technical and political process concerned with the use of land and design of the urban environment. They are also noted for their baked brick houses, elaborate drainage systems, water supply systems, and clusters of large, nonresidential buildings. The Indus Valley Civilization began to decline around 1800 BCE. Archaeological evidence indicates that trade with Mesopotamia, located largely in modern Iraq, seemed to have ended. The advanced drainage systems and baths of the great cities were built over or blocked. Writing began to disappear, and the standardized weights and measures used for trade and taxation fell out of use. Shang Dynasty Civilization The Shang had a number of religious practices, one of which was veneration of dead ancestors; Shang people made sacrifices to and asked questions of their ancestors. Ancient Chinese nobles sought to tell the future by writing on bone fragments or pieces of turtle shell and throwing those bones into a fire; the fortune seekers saw messages about the future in the cracks that formed. Shang dynasty craftspeople mastered bronze, an alloy of copper and tin; bronze weapons gave Shang foot soldiers and charioteers a tactical advantage in combat. The very earliest period in traditional Chinese history is called the Mythical Period, when—according to legend—the Xia dynasty ruled China. The Shang dynasty, the first historically confirmed dynasty, supposedly began when the Shang overthrew the Xia sometime around 1760 BCE. Did this overthrow actually happen? We’re not sure. The Shang dynasty is the oldest Chinese dynasty whose existence is supported by archaeological finds, but more evidence for the existence of the Xia dynasty may yet emerge. It’s estimated that the Shang ruled the Yellow River Valley of China for most of the second millennium BCE—so about 1766 to 1046 BCE. For centuries, people found what they called dragon bones—bones and shells with mysterious inscriptions—in many parts of China. Excavations of the ancient city of Anyang in the early twentieth century revealed tens of thousands of these bone fragments and bronze vessels, many of which had inscriptions in proto-Chinese characters.These artifacts contained records dating back to the Shang dynasty, allowing scholars to learn much about Shang life, such as their agricultural methods, medical treatments, legal system, and craft making styles. The Shang built huge cities with strong social class divisions, expanded earlier irrigation systems, excelled in the use of bronze, and developed a writing system. Shang kings fulfilled a sacred, not political, role, while a council of chosen advisers and bureaucrats—official administrators—organized and ran the government. Both banks of the Yellow River had massive amounts of loess‚ pronounced like the English word less—a fertile sediment that allowed Shang-era farmers to grow a large surplus of food. This supported specialization and allowed a class of Shang artisans and craftspeople to develop sophisticated technology and culture. Ultimately, the Shang dynasty was overthrown in 1046 BCE by the Zhou, a subject people—a people who lived under imperial rule—living in the western part of the kingdom, but their cultural contributions carried on through future dynasties. Writing and Culture The oldest surviving form of Chinese writing is found as inscriptions of divination records on the bones or shells of animals, called oracle bones; oracle, from a similar Latin root as the English word orator, means holy messenger or speaker. The writing found on oracle bones shows complexity, indicating that this language had existed for a long time. In fact, modern scholars are able to read it because the language is very similar to the modern Chinese writing system.  Piece of ox bone with Shang-era writing. Writing is written vertically, like modern-day Chinese writing, in a red color.Ox scapula with a divination inscription from the Shang dynasty. Image courtesy Wikipedia. Oracle bones are pieces of bone or turtle shell that were used by the ancient Chinese, especially Chinese kings, in attempts to predict the future. The ancient kings would inscribe their name and the date on the bone along with a question. They would then heat the bone until it cracked and then interpret the shape of the crack, which was believed to provide an answer to their question. Technological Innovation and Exchange Bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, was a hugely important metal during the Shang period. Shang metal workers developed a highly sophisticated method for casting bronze and used it to make ceremonial objects and weapons. Bronze swords and spearheads were stronger than other available metals, giving Shang soldiers an advantage in battle. Bronze vessel with three legs, two handles, and intricate carvings of symbols. A Shang dynasty bronze vessel, often ceremonial objects, used to make offerings to ancestors. Image courtesy Wikipedia.Mastery of bronze was an important advancement for the Shang militarily, but the combination of horse, chariot, and composite bow were also integral to its success. The chariot, a two-wheeled war cart pulled by horses, allowed Shang soldiers to move vast distances at great speeds and also acted as a mobile archery platform. Shang archers also had composite bows made by combining animal sinew and horn or bone with wood. These materials gave the bow more power than a wooden bow of the same size. Archers were able to keep their bows small enough to shoot easily while standing in a chariot without losing power.These military technologies were important because the Shang were constantly at war. A significant number of oracle bone inscriptions show that the Shang used chariots as mobile command vehicles and in royal hunts. Members of the royal household were often buried with a chariot, horses, and a charioteer. Shang armies expanded the borders of the kingdom and captured precious resources and prisoners of war, who could be enslaved or used as human sacrifices. The oracle bones also show deep concern over the "barbarians" living outside the empire, who were a constant threat to the safety and stability of the kingdom; the military had to be constantly ready to fight them. Power and Social Hierarchy The Shang dynasty’s power was concentrated in many ancient cities, some of which have been unearthed by archaeologists. The first Shang ruler supposedly founded a new capital for his dynasty at a town called Shang, near modern-day Zhengzhou, a city of 2.6 million people in eastern China’s Henan Province. Archaeological remains of this town may have been found, and it seems to have functioned as a sacred capital, where the most sacred temples and religious objects were housed. This city also had palaces, workshops, and city walls. Shang, along with other ancient Chinese cities, had two city walls—one inner and one outer wall. The common residents could live within the outer wall, but could not go past the inner wall, which enclosed a temple area, cemetery sites, bronze foundries, bronze casting areas, and bone workshops. The inner walls thus encircled an area of political elite and craft specialists, who together were the engineers of the important ritual performances. In this way, the architecture of these cities was designed to separate different social classes. However, it seems that there were many capitals aside from this one, and rulers may have moved from one to the other because of religious rituals, military strategy, or food requirements. That suggests that the power of the dynasty was concentrated in the king, whose political authority was reinforced by the Shang religion. To consolidate their authority further, kings often went on excursions and military expeditions to walled towns outside the capitals where aristocrats had a lot of influence. Consolidating power in these areas was crucial, as control of peasant-farmed agricultural territories ensured sufficient resources for the inhabitants of the walled towns.  Test your knowledge Application No. 1 Answer the following questions. 1. Why must we study our past? _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ 2. Discuss the two interpretations on the origin of man: A) The Bible story and B) Darwin’s theory. _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ 3. Describe the development and importance of writing. _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ 4. What are the stages in the evolution of man? Give examples of men in each stage. _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ 5. Do you think that social hierarchies are necessary for civilization? _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ 6. Why do you think some societies adopted agriculture while others did not? _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ 7. Why did Mesopotamian rulers decide to build ziggurats if they required such massive amounts of human labor? _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ 8. What were some of the distinctive features of the class system introduced by the Aryan people? _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ CHAPTER 2 The Civilization of the Greeks What are the objectives of this lesson? Discuss how the geography of Greece affect Greek history? Identify the chief features of a city-state Explain in what ways the Athenian political system a democracy; and Differentiate the political, economic and social institutions of the Hellenistic world from those of Classical Greece. Overview of the topic Black-figured amphora (wine-jar) signed by Exekias as potter and attributed to him as painter 540-530 B.C.E. (The British Museum) Achilles killing the Amazon Queen Penthesilea, 540-530 B.C.E., black-figured amphora (wine-jar), signed by Exekias as potter and attributed to him as painter, 46 cm tall, Athens, Greece © Trustees of the British Museum. Penthesilea brought her Amazon warriors to help the Trojans defend their city, but was killed in combat with Achilles, the greatest of the Greek warriors. The ancient Greeks lived in many lands around the Mediterranean Sea, from Turkey to the south of France. They had close contacts with other peoples such as the Egyptians, Syrians and Persians. The Greeks lived in separate city-states, but shared the same language and religious beliefs. Bronze Age Greece Map of Greece showing Mycenae During the Bronze Age (around 3200 – 1100 B.C.E.), a number of cultures flourished on the islands of the Cyclades, in Crete and on the Greek mainland. They were mainly farmers, but trade across the sea, particularly in raw materials such as obsidian (volcanic glass) and metals, was growing. Mycenaean culture flourished on the Greek mainland in the Late Bronze Age, from about 1600 to 1100 B.C.E. The name comes from the site of Mycenae, where the culture was first recognized after the excavations in 1876 of Heinrich Schliemann. Pottery stemmed bowl decorated with a procession of riders in chariots, Mycenaean, about 1400-1300 B.C.E., 42 cm high, Cyprus © Trustees of the British Museum Pottery stemmed bowl decorated with a procession of riders in chariots, Mycenaean, about 1400-1300 B.C.E., 42 cm high, Cyprus, Greece © Trustees of the British Museum. The upper zone of the vase is painted with a frieze of chariots, pulled by elongated horses, in which ride a charioteer and a passenger. Such chariot processions on vases may well have been inspired by contemporary fresco-paintings which decorated the walls of Mycenaean palaces. The Mycenaean period of the later Greek Bronze Age was viewed by the Greeks as the "age of heroes" and perhaps provides the historical background to many of the stories told in later Greek mythology, including Homer's epics. Objects and artworks from this time are found throughout mainland Greece and the Greek islands. Distinctive Mycenaean pottery was distributed widely across the eastern Mediterranean. These show the beginnings of Greek mythology being used to decorate works of art. They come from about the same time that the epics of Homer were reaching the form in which we inherit them, as the earliest Greek literature. The collapse of Mycenaean civilization around 1100 B.C.E. brought about a period of isolation known as the Dark Age. But by around 800 B.C.E. the revival had begun as trade with the wider world increased, arts, crafts and writing re-emerged and city-states (poleis) developed. The Strangford Apollo, c. 500-490 B.C.E., 101 cm high, perhaps from Cyclades, Aegean Sea © Trustees of the British Museum Archaic period Two of the most distinctive forms of free-standing sculpture to emerge during the Archaic period of Greek art (about 600-480 B.C.E.) were statues of youths (kouroi) and maidens (korai). Kouros (the singular form) is a term used to describe a type of statue of a male figure produced in marble during the Archaic period of Greek art. Such statues can be colossal (that is larger than life) or less than life size. They all have a conventional pose, where the head and body can be divided equally by a central line, and the legs are parted with the weight placed equally front and back. The male figures, usually in the form of naked young men, acted both as grave markers and as votive offerings, the latter perhaps intended to be representations of the dedicator. The female figures served similar functions, but differed from their male counterparts in that they were elaborately draped. The mouth is invariably fixed in a smile, which is probably a symbolic expression of the arete ("excellence") of the person represented. It used to be thought that all kouroi were intended as representations of the god Apollo. However, although some may be intended as representations of gods or heroes, many were simply grave markers. The kouros was not intended as a realistic portrait of the deceased, but an idealized representation of values and virtues to which the dead laid claim: youthful beauty, athleticism and aristocratic bearing, among others. Classical period By around 500 B.C.E. "rule by the people," or democracy, had emerged in the city of Athens. Following the defeat of a Persian invasion in 480-479 B.C.E., mainland Greece and Athens in particular entered into a golden age. In drama and philosophy, literature, art and architecture, Athens was second to none. The city’s empire stretched from the western Mediterranean to the Black Sea, creating enormous wealth. This paid for one of the biggest public building projects ever seen in Greece, which included the Parthenon. Ancient Greece also played a vital role in the early history of coinage. As well as making some of the world’s earliest coins, the ancient Greeks were the first to use them extensively in trade. Marble portrait of Alexander the Great, Hellenistic Greek, 2nd-1st century B.C.E.,37cm high, Alexandria, Egypt © Trustees of the British Musem Hellenistic period Following the death of Alexander and the division of his empire, the Hellenistic period (323-31 B.C.E.) saw Greek power and culture extended across the Middle East and as far as the Indus Valley. When Rome absorbed the Greek world into its vast empire, Greek ideas, art and culture greatly influenced the Romans. Alexander was always shown clean-shaven, which was an innovation: all previous portraits of Greek statesmen or rulers had beards. This royal fashion lasted for almost five hundred years and almost all of the Hellenistic kings and Roman emperors until Hadrian were portrayed beardless. The British Museum collection includes objects from across the entire Greek world, ranging in date from the beginning of pre-history to early Christianity in the Byzantine era. Test your knowledge Application No. 2 1. Write a short essay about each of the different Olympic Games held in honor of the God Zeus, the supreme God of the Greek Mythology that attracted people from acrossed Greece. A. Equestrian Events B. Combat Sports C. Running D. Jumping E. Pentathlon CHAPTER 3 The First World Civilizations: Rome, China, Silk Road What are the objectives of this lesson? At the end of this lesson, you are expected to be able to: identify the similarities between the Roman Empire and Han Empire describe the emergence of the Silk Road Discuss the trade process of the Chinese Silk in Rome Overview of the topic State power and the Silk Road One cause of expanded trade was the growth of imperial power. Near the end of the second century BCE, Emperor Wu of Han mounted many campaigns against the nomadic Xiongnu people. Xiongnu horsemen had raided Chinese settlements along the northern border for many years. Emperor Wu looked for a new source of horses for his cavalry in order to deal with the threat of the Xiongnu. Emperor Wu sent an emissary named Zhang Qian to find allies in the fight against the Xiongnu. Zhang returned to China, eager to discuss the wonders he had seen in Ferghana—modern-day Uzbekistan. Along with rice, wheat, and grapes, the region produced hardy, "heavenly" horses. Ferghana horses became a highly-desired trade item in China. China imported so many horses that the Dayuan people who controlled the Ferghana valley refused to sell any more of the horses! This led to a three-year conflict known as the War of the Heavenly Horses. By 101 BCE, the Ferghana valley belonged to Han China. Control of the Ferghana valley also opened a route to the West. With a new supply of horses, Han China projected its new military strength throughout Asia. The expansion of Han control led to the first Pax Sinica—or Chinese Peace. During this time, the standard of living in China rose and cities grew in size. Economic growth and political stability led to increased demand for luxury goods from far-off places. A "Heavenly Horse" of Ferghana, depicted in a 2nd century CE bronze sculpture from Han China. The Roman empire was expanding during this time, too. Victory in the Punic Wars gave Rome control over the western Mediterranean Sea. Over the next few centuries, Rome expanded to control all of the Mediterranean shoreline. The first century CE saw the beginning of the Pax Romana—Roman Peace. The Pax Romana lasted about 200 years and was a period of relatively few wars. As with Han China, political stability brought more trade. Rome gained access to overseas trade routes to India via Egypt and began to trade regularly. Although Rome and Han China expanded greatly, there was still a lot of distance between them. Central Asia is covered with mountains, deserts, and vast grasslands. Traders provided an