1. Prehistory &Agricultural Revolutions
Unit 1
8000 BCE – 600 CE

2. Stone Age 2 million years ago until 2000 BCE
Stone tool-making (Stone, Bone & Wood)
Categories
Paleolithic
Neolithic

3. Hunting and Gathering Foragers Matrilineal kinship Comparable status
Men hunted
Goddess worship; animism
Group size limited

4. Neolithic Revolution Changeover from food gathering to food producing
Not very accurate term; Neolithic means “new stone”
Occurred at different times in different parts of the world over a millennia
Therefore, agricultural revolutions is more accurate
Middle East

5. Animal husbandry Domestication of animals
Also a part of the agricultural revolutions
Dog probably first closely followed by cat
Some adopted animal husbandry while maintaining a H/G lifestyle – called pastoral nomads

6. Why the transition? Climate changes Minor reason - population growth
After Ice Age - melting glaciers
Flood accounts in religions (would have happened in areas of first humans)
Minor reason - population growth
H/G could no longer sustain the population

7. How? Accidental Women probably played the major role
Began to select best wild crops for domestication

8. Effects Permanent settlements Food storage Population growth
Loss of comparable status
Vulnerability to disease
Vulnerability to drought & natural disaster
Exploitation of land & natural resources
Harder & longer days work

9. Genesis 3:17
“Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.”

10. Effects cont. Stratification of Society
Political organization, standing army,
Villages to cities to trading to writing to conquest to civilizations to empires
New religious beliefs

11. Characteristics of Agricultural Settlements
Megaliths
Round, mud-bricked cities
Houses
Irrigation networks
Public markets
Government buildings
Taxation
Specialization of labor

12. Catal Huyuk
One of oldest and most prosperous towns from 6700 to 5700 BCE
Modern day Turkey
Trade
Goddess worship
Volcanic obsidian
Evidence of art
Metal-working

14. Interaction of Pastoral Nomads & Settled Farmers
Major theme
Trade
Did Nomads learn to farm or did farmers replace nomads?

15. Indo-European Nomads Most influence
Name from initial common language that spawned related languages of today from that region
Spread throughout Europe
Spread language & imposed military power
Eventually abandoned nomadic pastoralism for farming

17. Refamiliarize Yourselves with the Following From Guns, Germs, & Steel:
How the earth was peopled
Linguistic patterns
Indo-European
Bantu
Semitic
How ag shaped the environment and society
Earliest places with independent food production, why, and where
Why some groups would remain H/G when shown how to farm
Specific domesticated animals per region
Globalization of ag (climate, axis, etc.)