Prehistory to Early Modern Times

How did the First Civilizations Evolve?  The first humans were wanderers. Wearing animal skins and equipped with crude spears and digging sticks, they followed game animals and searched for ripening fruit, roots, and wild grain from season to season. Over thousands of generations, they learned to chip stone tools, to make fire, and to decorate cave walls with pictures of animals.

Farming Villages  Then, about 10,000 years ago, some human beings abandoned the wandering life of hunter-gatherers. Settling into tiny villages of stone or mud huts, they raised crops and herded or penned up animals. Thanks to these dependable food sources, agricultural villages grew in number. Some of them began to specialize in arts and crafts, trade, and war.

The next step, from scattered farming villages to city- based civilizations, came a little more than 5,000 years ago. Here and there around the world, cities and city- states emerged. Kings, priests, and traders rose to wealth and power. And the invention of writing symbolized the emergence of a new way of life. We call it civilization.

Ancient Societies Early civilizations took shape in North Africa, the Middle East, India, and China. Although they emerged in isolation across a widely scattered area, these first civilized societies had much in common.

Ancient Societies Politically, the first civilizations turned increasingly to hereditary monarchs for leadership. These rulers depended on priests, officials, aristocrats, or merchants for support.

Ancient Societies  Priests provided divine sanction for royal rule, asserting that the kings of Sumerian city-states were “stewards of the gods” or that Egypt’s pharaohs were gods themselves.

Ancient Societies  Royal officials carried out the ruler’s decrees, collected taxes, and supervised large-scale public works, including city walls and irrigation projects. Landowning aristocrats dominated agriculture and often served as military officers in royal armies.

Ancient Societies  The merchants of Mesopotamia, India, and elsewhere grew wealthy from trade, paid taxes, and strengthened the state economically.

Ancient Societies  Cities like Mohenjo-Daro or Babylon became the centers of political power and economic development. Most people, however, continued to live in small villages and cultivate the soil. These peasant majorities provided a foundation for the more elaborate lifestyles of their social superiors.

Ancient Cultures  These early civilizations built on the cultural achievements of the simpler societies from which they grew. Architects constructed elaborate royal palaces, temples such as the ziggurats of Mesopotamia, and royal tombs such as the pyramids of Egypt.

Ancient Cultures  Sculptors carved beautiful statues of gods, goddesses, and rulers. Painters depicted scenes of everyday life or military victories.

Ancient Cultures  The development of writing preserved some of the world’s oldest literature, from the Egyptian Tale of Sinuhe and Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh to India’s Mahabharata and ancient China’s Book of Songs.

Ancient Cultures  Major advances in science and technology may also be traced to ancient times. From metalworking and textiles to mathematics and astronomy, early civilizations contributed greatly to humanity’s store of skills. Religions also grew more complex, producing early scriptures like the Vedas of India. While most ancient societies were polytheistic, the Hebrew people of Mesopotamia introduced monotheism, the worship of one single, all-powerful God.

Looking Ahead A thousand years before the time of Jesus, civilization was still a rare phenomenon. Most people on all continents still lived in food-gathering bands, in farming villages, or as nomadic herders. But the future belonged to the islands of civilizations that were emerging here and there around the world.