Big Geography and the Peopling of the Earth Archeological evidence indicates that during the Paleolithic era, hunting-foraging bands of humans gradually migrated from their origin in East Africa to Eurasia, Australia, and the Americas, adapting their technology and cultures to new climate regions.

Hunters and Gatherers Humans developed increasingly diverse and sophisticated tools — including multiple uses of fire — as they adapted to new environments. People lived in small groups that structured social, economic, and political activity. These bands exchanged people, ideas, and goods.

Neolithic Revolution Beginning about 10,000 years ago, the Neolithic Revolution led to the development of more complex economic and social systems.

Civilizations Possibly as a response to climatic change, permanent agricultural villages emerged first in the lands of the eastern Mediterranean. Agriculture emerged independently in Mesopotamia, the Nile River Valley, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Indus River Valley, the Yellow River (or Huang He) Valley, Papua New Guinea, Mesoamerica, and the Andes.

Environment People in each region domesticated locally available plants and animals. Pastoralism developed in Afro–Eurasian grasslands, negatively affecting the environment when lands were overgrazed. Agricultural communities had to work cooperatively to clear land and create the water control systems needed for crop production, drastically affecting environmental diversity.

Transformation of Human Societies Pastoralism and agriculture led to more reliable and abundant food supplies, which increased the population and led to specialization of labor, including new classes of artisans and warriors, and the development of elites. Technological innovations led to improvements in agricultural production, trade, and transportation. Patriarchal forms of social organization developed in both pastoralist and agrarian societies.

Technology Innovations –Pottery –Plows –Woven textiles –Wheels and wheeled vehicles –Metallurgy

Answer Development of Agriculture –Advantages Steady food supply Greater populations Organized societies –Disadvantages Crop failures could lead to starvation Diseases from close contact with animals Hard to move

Resistance Many tribes used both hunting/gathering and agriculture. Some resisted completely (Northern Japan) Others were unable to cultivate (Central Asia – leads to tough nomadic invaders) Others used slash and burn agriculture – farm intensively for several years and then move on.

Civilization Characteristics of civilization –Division of labor –Social hierarchy –Political organizations –Large cities –Writing

Early Civilizations Mesopotamia (Between Tigris and Euphrates Rivers) Egypt (Nile River) Mohenjo-daro and Harappa (Indus River) Shang (Huanghe River) Olmec (Mesoamerica) Chavin (Andes)

Mesopotamia and the Nile States were powerful new systems of rule that mobilized surplus labor and resources over large areas. Rulers of early states often claimed divine connections to power. Rulers also often enjoyed military support.

Mesopotamia and the Nile As states grew and competed for land and resources, the more favorably situated — including the Hittites, who had access to iron — had greater access to resources, produced more surplus food, and experienced growing populations, enabling them to undertake territorial expansion and conquer surrounding states.

Mesopotamia and the Nile Pastoralists were often the developers and disseminators of new weapons and modes of transportation that transformed warfare in agrarian civilizations. –Composite bows –Iron weapons –Chariots –Horseback riding

Culture as Unification: Laws, Language, Literature, Religion, Myths, and Art Early civilizations developed monumental architecture and urban planning.

White Board Question List as many monumental architecture examples or urban planning examples that you can think of from this period.

Culture as Unification: Laws, Language, Literature, Religion, Myths, and Art Examples: –Ziggurats –Pyramids –Temples –Defensive Walls –Streets and Roads –Sewage and Water Systems

Culture as Unification: Laws, Language, Literature, Religion, Myths, and Art Systems of record keeping arose independently in all early civilizations and subsequently spread.

Culture as Unification: Laws, Language, Literature, Religion, Myths, and Art Examples: –Cuneiform –Hieroglyphs –Pictographs –Alphabets –Quipu

Culture as Unification: Laws, Language, Literature, Religion, Myths, and Art States developed legal codes that reflected existing hierarchies and facilitated the rule of governments over people. –Code of Hammurabi (Babylonia) –Code of Ur-Nammu (Sumer)

1. If a man weaves a spell and puts a ban upon another man and has not justified himself, he that wove the spell upon him shall be put to death. 6. If a man has stolen the goods of a temple or palace, that man shall be killed, and he who has received the stolen thing from his hand shall be put to death. 15. If a man has caused either a palace slave or palace maid, or a slave of a poor man or a poor man's maid, to go out of the gate, he shall be put to death. 17. If a man has captured either a manservant or a maidservant, as a fugitive in the open country, and has driven him back to his master, the owner of the slave shall pay him two shekels of silver. If a man committed a kidnapping, he is to be imprisoned and pay fifteen shekels of silver. If a man proceeded by force, and deflowered the virgin slave-woman of another man, that man must pay five shekels of silver. If a man appeared as a witness, and was shown to be a perjurer, he must pay fifteen shekels of silver. If a man knocked out the eye of another man, he shall weigh out half a mina of silver. If a man knocked out a tooth of another man, he shall pay two shekels of silver. If a man, in the course of a scuffle, smashed the limb of another man with a club, he shall pay one mina of silver.

Culture as Unification: Laws, Language, Literature, Religion, Myths, and Art New religious beliefs that developed in this period — including the Vedic religion, Hebrew monotheism, and Zoroastrianism — continued to have strong influences in later periods.

Culture as Unification: Laws, Language, Literature, Religion, Myths, and Art Trade expanded throughout this period from local to regional to interregional with civilizations exchanging goods, cultural ideas, and technology. –Mesopotamia and Egypt –Egypt and Nubia –Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley

Culture as Unification: Laws, Language, Literature, Religion, Myths, and Art Social hierarchies, including patriarchy, intensified as states expanded and cities multiplied.