What are the earliest historical events you can think of?

Chapter 1 FOUNDATIONS OF A CIVILIZATION PREHISTORY – 300 B.C.

Section 1: Understanding Our Past  Prior to any writing methods, humans and their ancestors lived on Earth for thousands of years. This time period is known as prehistory.  The people who study and write about the historical past are known as historians. They use artifacts to learn about the past.  Artifacts are, but not limited to, clothing, coins, artwork, tombstones, and written evidence like letters or tax records.

Investigating Prehistory Anthropology  Is the study of origins and development of people and their societies. Some focus their study on how our physical traits have changed over time. While others focus their study on the characteristics of human cultures from both the past and present. Culture includes beliefs, values, and practices of a people and is handed down from one generation to the next. Archaeology  Within the field of anthropology, a specialized study known as archaeology exists. This is the study of past people and cultures through their material remains ; such as, tools, weapons, pottery, clothing, and jewelry.  150 years ago

Mary and Louis Leakey Anthropologists that discovered ancient tools in Tanzania. These tools were simple with jagged edges and rough surfaces. However, they showed that whoever had made them had learned to develop technologies to help them survive. Technology refers to the skills and tools people use to meet their basic needs and wants. 1930’s Bottom layers 1.7 to 2.1 million years old 1959, skull Early hominid

Donald Johanson Hominid All walk upright Humans and closest relatives 1974 Lucy Ethiopia 40%

Africa 7 million y.a. 2.6 million “handy man” Stone tools 2 million y.a. Fully upright Fire Asia and Europe 250,000 – 100,000 y.a. Lived mostly in Europe & W. Asia Hominids 50,000 – 30,000 y.a. Out of Africa

Section 2: Turning Point: The Neolithic Revolution  Anthropologists have divided prehistory into different eras.  Old Stone Age or Paleolithic Period refers to at least 2 million B.C. to about 10,000 B.C.  New Stone Age or Neolithic Period refers to the time period from about 10,000 B.C. until the end of prehistory.

Old Stone Age (Paleolithic Period)  People were NOMADS (people who move from place to place to find food)  Survived by hunting and gathering food (men=hunt; women=gather)  people  Made tools and weapons out of the materials available: stone, bone, or wood  Built fires for cooking and used animal skins for clothing  Developed spoken language  Learned to travel across water (using rafts or canoes)

Old Stone Age (Paleolithic Period)  ~100,000 y.a.  Evidence has been found that towards the end of the Old Stone Age a belief in a spiritual world existed  Burial of the dead  Tools, weapons, goods Animism (spirits and forces that might reside in animals, objects, or dreams) and the creation of cave paintings Neanderthals

New Stone Age (Neolithic Period)  ~12,000 y.a.  People learned to farm  Creating the first permanent villages  Domesticated plants and animals  Different all over Neolithic Revolution

New Stone Age (Neolithic Period)  Great advances in technology and culture  Dominance of family, economic, and political life by men  Councils  Warriors: gained prestige  Creation of societal classes ( wealth )  Calendars  Knowledge spread slowly  Technology invented separately Gender Age

New Stone Age (Neolithic Period) First Villages Çatalhöyük ~7000 b.c. 6,500 people Jericho 10, b.c. Size of a few soccer fields A few thousand people (Chah tahl hyoo yook) Modern day Turkey Modern day Israel

Section 3: Beginnings of Civilization  The earliest civilizations to develop were all situated near major rivers  Water supply  Travel  Animals  Fertile land Sumer, bc Indus, bc Egypt, bc Shang, bc

Section 3: Beginnings of Civilization  The earliest civilizations to develop were all situated near major rivers  Water supply  Travel  Animals  Fertile land Sumer, Shang, Egypt, & Indus

7 Major Factors of Early Civilizations  Organized governments  Complex religions  Job specialization  Social classes  Arts and architecture  Public works  Writing

Civilizations Led To:  Surpluses of food which led to the expansion of populations  Development of cities, civilizations, and governments (governments oversight of large-scale projects. Public Works Ex: digging canals and carving out irrigation ditches)  Polytheistic religions (sun gods, river goddesses, controlled nature) people built temples and offered sacrifices (animals, crops, and people)  Job specialization (artisans: skilled craftspeople)  Development of social classes (ranked according to job)  Development of arts and architecture (showed the talents, beliefs, and values of the people who create them)  Invention of writing systems (pictographs=simple drawings that look like objects they represent) (more complex=scribes)  Expansion of some cities into city-states and empires (conquering other lands)  Cultural diffusion: spread of ideas, customs, and technologies from one people to another (migration, trade, & warfare) Civilization : Complex, highly organized social order

Connections to Today Cities  Just as the first cities were built in river valleys, many of today’s major cities were also built around water. St. Louis, Missouri; London, England; and Delhi, India lie along rivers. Other cities like New York, New York; Cape Town, South Africa; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and Lisbon, Portugal all sit alongside the open ocean. They were fantastic places to settle due to the ability to travel, ship goods, and as a natural resource. Technology  The introduction of farming during the New Stone Age is considered the world’s first technological revolution. During the twentieth century, the computer changed our lives forever. In the early 1970’s they were huge machines today…all most every home has a computer in it! Even more amazing is what our cell phones can do!

What is Prehistory?