3 – 2.5 million bce first human ancestor 600,000 years people spread to europe, asia from africa ...

3 – 2.5 Million BCE First Human Ancestor 600,000 Years people spread to Europe, Asia from Africa 250, 000 Years Neanderthals from the Neanderthal Valley Germany 120,000 BCE Home Sapiens (Late Paleolithic Age) 60,000 BCE Australia is populated 14,000 BCE End of Ice Age 12,000 BCE Mesolithic Age (Transition) 9,000, BCE domestication of sheep, pigs etc. 8,000 BCE People spread to Siberia, South America 8,000 BCE Neolithic Age (New Stone Age) Farming takes hold in the

Middle East 6, 000 BCE first putters wheel invented 4000 -3500 BCE Writing Develops in Sumer Mesopotamia Beginning of

HISTORY and civilization Bronze Age 3,100 BCE Pyramids Civilization Egypt 2,500 BCE Indus Valley Civilization India 2500 – 1500 BCE Shang Valley Civilization China 2050 BCE Babylon 1500 BCE Iron Age Mesopotamia

Lucy: The First Hominid Skeleton Australopithecus

Discovered by Donald C. Johansson in 1974 Ethiopia

The First Hominid Skeleton 1974 Ethiopia"hominid" generally meaning erect-walking 'Lucy', one of the first hominid skeleton dated to be more than 3 million years old, was the oldest hominid to be discovered.

This confirmed the transition of ape men to human like form.

Lucy was a tiny-brained individual, approximately 3.5 feet (a little more than 1 meter) tall.

The sex of the skeleton was confirmed by the pelvic bones, which must be larger in females in order to permit the birth of large-skulled babies.

Lucy walked erect, which confirmed theories that hominids walked erect three million years ago.

We are here…. Most of us

Family Unit Extended families clustered together,

forming clans bound by ties of kinship. Larger groups such as bands and tribes. Social groups sustained themselves by

hunting and gathering (foraging). Most hunter-gatherer societies were

mobile or nomadic. Coordination and teamwork were needed

to hunt large creatures and wage war.

Gender Division of Labor Men hunted, made war, and performed

heavy labor. Women gathered nuts, berries, and

plants; prepared food; maintained home; and tended children.

Some historians believe women and men were basically equal different roles equal respected.

Worshipped mostly animism - spirits, nature, rivers etc. Also, polytheistic gods or deities, fertility .

Practiced a variety of religious rituals. Buried their dead. Made sacrifices to gods and spirits Performed various ceremonies

How do we know?

Oldest cave paintings discovered to date are 32,000 years old.

Humans expressed themselves in art and music.

The first known musical instruments are flutes from 30,000 years ago.

Major accomplishment to survive and spread world wide

Most evidence suggests that hunters-gatherers resisted agriculture as long as they could.

Why?

Causes: Shifting Weather patterns i.e.Ending of Ice Age =New Migrations =Cultural Diffusion

The Neolithic Revolution

(8000BCE-3500BCE)

•Sometimes termed the Agricultural Revolution.•Humans begin to slowly domesticate plant and animal stocks in Southwest Asia.•Agriculture requires nomadic peoples to become sedentary.•Populations begin to rise in areas where plant and animal domestication occurred.

Agriculture was not a sudden transformation.

•The term, “revolution,” is often used because of the magnitude of change involved.

Farming developed first in the Middle East, in an arc of territory running from present-day Turkey to Iraq and Israel (Fertile Crescent) Tigress and Euphrates Rivers

Barley and wild wheat were abundant

Farming then spread to parts of India, north Africa, and Europe.

Agriculture spread much later to Africa.

Agriculture was invented separately in the Americas much later (around 5000 B.C.E.)

Followed by Southeast Asia and Japan

And then Central Asia

Independent Development vs. Cultural Diffusion

• Areas of Independent Development:

• Agriculture, art, Invention

• Areas of Agriculture Through Diffusion:Religion, Agriculture, animals, architecture

The need for storage facilities for grains and seeds prompted the development of basket-making and pottery. 6000 BC Potters Wheel.

Agricultural needs also encouraged certain kinds of science, supporting the human desire to learn more about weather or flooding.

Discovery of metal tools (4000 B.C.E.) in the Middle East

•Copper was the first metal, followed by bronze – a more resilient metal.

•High starch diets slowly allowSedentary populations to grow.

• crop yields grow First plow invented 6000BCE;exponentially by 4000BCE.Pop. grows from 5-8 million to 60-70 million. •Eventually agricultural populations begin to spread out, displacing or assimilating nomadic groups; farming groups grow large enough for advanced social organization.

Sedentary Agriculturalists Dominate

First Towns Develop

Catal HuyukModern Turkey

First settled:

c. 7000BCE

JerichoModern Israel

First settled:

c. 7000BCE

Leading to Civilization: Based on Agriculture: First Towns Develop

Leading to food surplus •Towns require social differentiation: metal workers, pottery workers, farmers, soldiers, religious and political leaders.

•Served as trade centers for the area; specialized in the production of certain unique crafts, artisans, architecture

•Beginnings of social stratification (class)

Towns Present Evidence of:

•Religious structures (burial rites, art)

•Political & Religious leaders were the same

•Still relied on limited hunting & gathering for food

Roles of Women

•Women generally lost status under male-dominated, patriarchal systems.

•Women were limited in vocation,worked in food production, etc.

•Women may have lacked thesame social rights as men.

Rule: The more complex a society the less equality for women!!!

Metal Working: From Copper to Bronze

•Early settlements gradually shifted from copper 3500 BCEto the stronger alloy bronze by 3,000BCE—ushers in the Bronze Age! Later Iron

•Metal working spread throughout human communities slowly as agriculture had.

Further Technological Advancements

Wheeled Vehicles•Saves labor, allows transport of large loads and enhances trade

Potters Wheel (c.6000BCE)•Allows the construction of more durable clay vessels and artwork

Irrigation & Driven Plows•Allows further increase of food production, encourages pop. growth

Early Human Impact on the Environment•Deforestation in places where copper,

bronze, and salt were produced.

•Erosion and flooding where agriculture disturbed soil and natural vegetation.

•Slash and Burn rotation farming

•Selective extinction of large land animals and weed plants due to hunting & agriculture.

Slash and Burn Technology

In many areas, tribes would burn off trees, farm the area until the soil was depleted and then move on (slash and burn agriculture)

•on 32 acres

•Houses made of mud bricks set in timber frameworks crowded together with few windows

•People spent time on rooftops to experience daylight and make social contact (broken bones)

•Houses were lavishly decorated with hunting scenes

•Religious images of powerful male hunters and mother goddesses representing agricultural fertility

•Some trade with hunting people who lived in surrounding hills

•Large villages like Catal Huyuk ruled over smaller communities, bringing about specialization in politics and organization of military.

•Accumulation of wealth initiated social classes.

•By 3000 B.C.E., Catal Huyuk had become part of a civilization.

Developed writing, starting with cuneiform (writing based on wedge-like characters) in the Middle East around 3500 B.C.E. One of the earliest

written records from the Middle East is a recipe for making beer.

People in civilizations looked down on any society lacking in civilization.

The ancient Greeks coined the word “barbarian” to describe such cases.

As a result of labels like this, it is easy to think of much human history as divided between civilizations and primitive nomads.