1. The First Civilizations
Chapter 1-3

2. Development of Human Societies & Origins of Civilization
CHAPTER 1 & 2
Development of Human Societies & Origins of Civilization

3. History is the story of humans in the past
Historians- People who study and write about the past.
Anthropologists- Focus on human society. They study how humans developed and how they related to one another.
Archaeologists- Hunt for evidence buried in the ground. They dig up artifacts and fossils.
Artifacts- Human-made objects, such as stone tools.
Fossils- Remains, such as bones and teeth, of organisms that lived long ago

4. Paleolithic or Old Stone Age 2.5 million years ago – 8000 B.C.
Hunter-Gatherers- They hunted animals, caught fish, ate insects, and gathered nuts, berries, fruits, grains and plants. Women gathered berries, grains and watched over children, men hunted animals.
Nomads- People who regularly moved from place to place.
Humans created a language to work together and pass on knowledge. They also crushed colored rock for paint to create scenes of animals inside caves and used flint to create tools and weapons

5. The Ice Ages 100,000 B.C.- 8000 B.C. (During the Paleolithic Era)
Long periods of extreme cold
The discovery of fire helped people survive. Food was easier to digest and lasted longer and the fire kept them warm.
Humans had to adapt by changing their diet, building sturdier shelters and using animal furs to make warm clothing

6. Neolithic Era or New Stone Age 8000 B.C.- 4000 B.C.
Agriculture- The practice of growing plants and rearing
animals for food.
For the first time, people could stay in one place to grow grains and vegetables.
Through migration, villages were started in Europe, India, Egypt, China and Mexico. The shift to settled life meant people had a larger food supply & could specialize in different kinds of jobs to create goods they did not have.
People were now creating pottery, farming tools, and weapons made of copper. Technology- the application of knowledge, tools and inventions to meet people’s needs.

7. Ancient Mesopotamia pt. 1
Chapter 3
Ancient Mesopotamia pt. 1

8. Civilizations- Complex societies that have cities, organized governments, art, religion, class divisions and a writing system. Two important markers of civilization are agriculture and religion, the belief in or worship of gods and goddesses.
Rivers provided:
Water for farming
Fish
Freshwater to drink
A way to travel and trade

9. Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia is known as “the land between the rivers” because it is bounded by the Tigris and Euphrates river.
Farmers used irrigation, human made systems used to water fields as well as ox-driven plows to tend crops. This led to a growth in population.
The first civilization, known as Sumer, arose in southern Mesopotamia.
The Sumerian cities became separate city-states and had their own governments. These city-states would often go to war with each other.

10. Sumerian Culture
Sumerians practiced polytheism, which meant they believed in many gods.
Each city-state built a grand temple called a ziggurat, which means “mountain of god” or “The hill of heaven”.
Artisans- Skilled workers who made metal products, cloth or pottery.
Sumerians developed a form of writing called cuneiform in order to keep track of business deals.
Sumerian’s wrote “The Epic of Gilgamesh”, the world’s oldest known story.
Sumerian technology- The plow, wagon and sailboat.
Men headed the household and were able to go to school.

11. ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA pt. 2

12. King Sargon, King Hammurabi and the Code of Hammurabi
Sargon the Great from Akkad created the first empire- A group of many different lands and people governed under one ruler.
The Akkadians, led by Sargon, eventually conquered all of Mesopotamia.
Sargon’s empire lasted for more than 200 years before falling to invaders.
In the 1800’s B.C. a new group took over Mesopotamia and built the city of Babylon. Their Babylonian King Hammurabi created his own Empire.
King Hammurabi also created the Code of Hammurabi, a collection of laws collected from all city-states that covered every area of life.
King Sargon, King Hammurabi and the Code of Hammurabi

13. The Assyrians
The Assyrian empire was created about 1,000 years after King Hammurabi. To defend their land, the Assyrians built a large army.
The Assyrian army was strong because it was well organized. It had:
Foot soldiers
Archers with bows & arrows
Chariot riders
Men on horseback
Iron weapons (Learned how to make them from the Hittites)
Assyrians cruel treatment of people led to many rebellions.
The Chaldeans rebelled against the Assyrians and captured their capital Nineveh in 612 B.C. This marked the end of the Assyrian Empire.

14. The Chaldeans & the Persians
Most of the Chaldeans were the descendants of the Babylonian people who made up Hammurabi’s empire. They rebuilt the city of Babylon after the fall of the Assyrian Empire.
King Nebuchadnezzer (King Neb) was the ruler of the Chaldeans. Under his rule, Babylon became one of the world’s largest and richest cities.
King Neb built the Hanging Gardens for his wife.
Persians, led by Cyrus the Great, later captured Babylon in 539 B.C.
Cyrus practiced tolerance or sympathy for the beliefs and practices of others and allowed kings to keep their thrones.
Cyrus’s grandson, Darius I, ruled Persia during it’s height and expanded the empire.
He divided his empire into provinces- administrative districts that were ruled by governors called satraps.

15. The Phoenicians
The Phoenicians were a group of people that lived on the Eastern Mediterranean coast. They were some of the first developers of industry and trade.
The Phoenicians processed local shellfish into a purple dye used to color fabric and this was their most popular trade good. They also traded raw materials, substances from which other things are made and other luxury goods.
To record trade transactions, the Phoenicians used their own 22-letter alphabet which was adapted from Sumerian cuneiform.
Phoenicians were seafaring people who built ships and knew how to sail. They did not have a strong military and were eventually absorbed into the New Babylonian empire.