1. The First Civilizations
Chapter 2
- with Chapter 1 Review -
From the beginning of the human experience to 600 B.C.E.
Mr. Wyka’s AP World History

2. The Shift from Paleolithic to Neolithic
The longest stage of human experience
Hunter-forager (hunter-gatherer)
Nomadic
Chasing herds and vegetation cycles
Women and men had specific roles
Neolithic
Roughly 10,000 years ago, coinciding with the retreat of the last glaciers.
Change to systematic agriculture
Change to settled lifestyles
Food was more reliable, but not necessarily more nutritious

3. Pastoralists
Pastoralists were herders (think Moses or David the shepherd).
Pastoralists had to move their herds to food and water sources and as such lived nomadic lives.
Because of their wandering, they often play a role as diffusers (spreaders) of technology.
They were mobile like the hunter-gatherers.
They did not gather a lot of possessions like the hunter-gatherers.
But their societies were highly stratified like the agriculturalists.
Like both groups, however, the pastoralists used a wide variety of tools in their daily lives.

4. River Valley Civilizations
The first civilizations developed in river valleys beginning about 5000 years ago in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq).
Mesopotamia – Tigris and Euphrates
Egypt – Nile River
Indus River Valley / Harappan – Indus River
Early Chinese – Yellow River (Huang He)

5. Why Rivers ???

6. The First Civilizations
All early civilizations share several common characteristics:
Agricultural surpluses permitted significant specialization of labor.
Cities (urban centers) with growing populations
Systems of record keeping (writing)
Complex institutions (bureaucracies, armies, religious hierarchies).
Clearly stratified social hierarchies.
Long distance trade.
And some historians (myself included) add; monumental architecture.

7. The Rulers of the Early States
Most of the rulers of these early states claimed the support of the gods.
Babylonian king Hammurabi receiving his law code from the sun god, Shamash.

8. Record Keeping (writing)
Complex societies and institutions required a method of keeping track of stuff (record keeping).
This led to the first systems of writing.
The Sumerians of Mesopotamia developed the first system (TWKO) of record keeping. It was later called cuneiform.
Amazingly, all of the foundational civilizations seem to have developed systems of record keeping independently.
Later, these systems would become diffused to other cultures.

9. Clay, cuneiform tablet from ancient Babylon.

10. Religion
Three belief systems grew out of this early period that would have a lasting effect on the human experience.
The Vedic Religion
The ancestor of Hinduism.
Influenced Indian civilization for thousands of years.
Hebrew monotheism
The religion of the Hebrews / Israel.
Directly linked to the world’s largest religion.
Zoroastrianism
The early monotheistic religion of the great empire of Persia (centered in modern day Iran).

11. The Persian Empire at its Height
Zoroastrianism!!!!!!
5th century B.C.E.