1. Chapter One From Human Prehistory to the Early Civilizations
World Civilizations: The Global Experience
Stearns, Adas, Schwartz, Gilbert
Maps slide 4-11 taken from

2. Hunters and Gatherers
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3. Hunters and Gatherers
Homo sapiens sapiens developed about 240,000 years ago.
Hunted and gathered food
Small hunting groups
Population growth small
Began to spread over the continent
Developed speech and culture
12,000 years ago – stone tools, domestication of animals

12. The Neolithic Revolution
Development of Agriculture
Advantages
Steady food supply
Greater populations
Organized societies
Disadvantages
Crop failures could lead to starvation
Diseases from close contact with animals
Hard to move

13. Spread of Agriculture

14. Question
Where are three places that agriculture started?

15. Resistance Many tribes used both hunting/gathering and agriculture.
Some resisted completely (Northern Japan)
Others were unable to cultivate (Central Asia – leads to tough nomadic invaders)
Others used slash and burn agriculture – farm intensively for several years and then move on.

16. Civilization Characteristics of civilization Division of labor
Social hierarchy
Political organizations
Large cities
Writing

17. Early Civilizations Mesopotamia (Between Tigris and Euphrates Rivers)
Egypt (Nile River)
India (Indus River)
China (Huanghe River)
Central America

18. A/B Find a partner. Someone is A and someone is B.
Partner A: List as many of the early civilizations to partner B as possible.
Partner B: Listen and if partner A misses one – help them out.

21. Tigris-Euphrates Civilization
First Civilization - Mesopotamia
4000bce – bronze, copper, wheel, pottery, art
3500bce – Sumerians develop cuneiform alphabet, astronomy
Religion
Cities have patron Gods
Professional priests
Polytheistic (many Gods)

22. Tigris-Euphrates Civilization
Politics
Organized into city-states
Ruled by a king – divine right
Slavery
Geography
Hard to defend
Invaded and conquered by the Akkadians
Akkadians invaded and conquered by the Babylonians

23. Babylon About 55 miles south of Baghdad
Regarded as one of the first civilizations
King Hammurabi
Hammurabi’s Code

24. Egyptian Civilization
Formed by 3000bce
Less open to invasion
Pharaoh has immense power
God like status
Built pyramids as tombs
Kingdom of Kush invaded
Developed idea of a day divided into 24 hours

26. Indian River Valley Civilization
Civilization emerged around the Indus River by 2500bce.
Two major cities
Harappa and Mohenjo Daro
Invasions by Indo-Europeans and natural disasters make studying ancient India near impossible
Some trade with Mesopotamia

27. Chinese River Valley Civilization
Developed in isolation along the Huanghe (Yellow River)
Some trade with India and the Middle East
Developed writing, astronomy
Shang Dynasty developed by 1500bce