Key Terms - Early Civilizations

Nomads Old Stone Age Neanderthals Homo Sapiens Ice Age Cro-Magnon Man Homo Sapien Sapien New Stone

Age/Neolithic Revolution

Domestication Pastoral Societies

The Old Stone Age

Old Stone Age → occurred roughly between 500,000 and 10,000 years ago.

Period of time where language was simple and no written histories were kept

Most of our knowledge of the time comes from artifactal evidence

Nomads

Old Stone Age societies were nomadic in nature.

Nomads → people who move from place to place in search of food.

Would rarely maintain large populations.

Would hunt in circular patterns.

The Ice Age and Middle Stone Age

With the advent of the Ice Age, a new form of man came into being known as the homo sapien (wise man).

Ice Age → occurred during the Middle Stone Age (10,000-8,000 years ago); was a period of time where the world was covered in ice

Neanderthals → people who lived in Europe and the Middle East and adapted to survive the Stone Age.

Ice Age and Middle Stone Age (cont.)

Many changes occurred during the Ice Age and Middle Stone Age.

Societies needed to cooperate to be able to survive the larger animals and colder temperatures of the time period.

There would be rapid advances in technology. New weapons would be created (harpoons). Culture would advance as well with evidence of burial rituals being prevalent during the time.

Cro-Magnon Man

With the end of the Ice Age, came the extinction of many of the animals that had lived during it.

These larger animals were replaced with smaller animals that could not be hunted by Neanderthals.

Cro-Magnon Man → known as homo sapien sapien (wise wise man), closest relative to modern man

The New Stone Age – Neolithic Revolution

Cro-Magnon Man would usher in a new time period known as the New Stone Age or Neolithic Revolution → period of time where man shifted from nomadic herding to settled farming.

Changes in the Neolithic Revolution

People during the Neolithic Revolution underwent many changes to culture and society.

First, man learned how to domesticate (tame) plants, fire and animals. This allowed man to plant crops and raise animals

which allowed for the beginning of settled societies. Second, language developed and man was able to

communicate with others through more than just utterances. Written language slowly develops

Lastly, towns and communities would begin leading slowly to a higher form of life evident in civilizations

The First Economies and Social Classes

Economies grew out of people who had certain items lending them or trading them to others.

Those individuals who borrowed were immediately now in a position of less power than those who lent.

Debt would be created from this relationship and also would lead to those who did not have resorting to theft.

Those who had the ability to lend would then separate themselves from those who borrowed to protect themselves leading to social classes.

Pastoral Societies

Some individuals chose to remain on the move and take their animals with them and establish their own communities without social classes or hierarchies (systems of rank)

These societies were pastoral societies → societies in which herders and farmers would travel with their kin from area to area living without the conventions of the new societies (economies and social classes)