1. Foundations of Civilization Prehistory – 300 B.C. p. 4
Chapter 1
Foundations of Civilization
Prehistory – 300 B.C.
p. 4

2. Prehistory -The time before humans knew how to write
-Historians must learn about these times by studying artifacts
-Must figure out how the se were used or what they mean
-Historians don’t always agree

3. Anthropology
the study of how people have developed and societies have grown over time
culture – ways of life (religion, values, family life, etc.)
- every group of people has their own

4. Archaeology Absolute dating – determining the exact age of something
Study of the remains of past human cultures
Relative dating – determining how old something is compared to something else
Can be fossils (bones) or artifacts (buildings, tools, clothes, etc.)

5. Hominids
-“Lucy” discovered by Donald Johanson in Ethiopia -3 million years old
-Scientific classification of those who walk standing up (upright) on two feet, includes humans
-Mary and Louis Leakey discover tools and bones at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania
-approximately 2 million yrs. old
-Earliest hominids found in Africa

6. Types of Hominids

8. The Neolithic Revolution
Section 2 p. 11

9. Two Time Periods Paleolithic Period
(Old Stone Age) – 2 million B.C. to 10,000 B.C.
the earliest humans were nomads – people who travelled from place to place in search of food.
survived by hunting/gathering food
adapted to environment for food/shelter
developed spoken language
made tools
Neolithic Period
(New Stone Age) – 10,000 B.C. – 3000 B.C.
people learned to farm, no longer nomadic
developed permanent villages
plants and animals were domesticated (raised in a
controlled way that is best for humans)
calendars, weaving of cloth and pottery all invented

10. Section 3 Beginnings of Civilization p. 17
-The first civilizations (organized social orders) were near rivers

11. Water Good for: Farming Drinking Cleaning Fishing Transportation
Hunting (animals came to drink)
Results:
Created surpluses - more food than necessary, stored for the future
populations could grow and first cities appeared

12. Other Changes Not everyone had to produce food now
Artisans (skilled workers ) created
Ex. Bricklayers, metal workers, merchants, entertainers, soldiers
Governments created to organize large groups of people
Used to build things and produce more food
Religion also created – usually polytheistic (belief in more than 1 god)
1st written set of laws by Mesopotamians (Hammurabi’s Code)

13. Technology
-Cultural diffusion – spreading of ideas/customs from one group to other parts of the world
-occurred due to trade, migration and/or war
-eventually city-states and empires would be created
-roads/bridges, irrigation systems (carrying water), defensive walls, temples, palaces all built
-writing begins with pictograms – drawing of objects that look like
what they represent (hieroglyphics)
-scribes – people trained to read/write, upper class usually
-1st true writing called cuneiform (by Mesopotamians)