1. TECHNOLOGICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSFORMATIONS (8000-600 B.C.E.)
Unit 1
TECHNOLOGICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSFORMATIONS
( B.C.E.)

2. What is B.C.E. and C.E.? B.C.E. and C.E. replaced B.C. and A.D.
B.C. was Before Christ and is now B.C.E or Before Common Era
A.D. was Anno Domini which is Year of Our Lord in Latin. That has now been changed to C.E. which is Common Era.

3. Paleolithic Age (2.5 million years ago until 10,000 BCE)
Humans traveled in small hunting-gathering groups
Migrated from origins in East Africa to Eurasia, Australia, and the Americas
Mobile and adaptive to various climatic and geographical settings
Use of fire: to aid in hunting, protection against predators, and adapt to cold environments
Mostly hunter-gatherers; some groups exchanged people, ideas, food, and goods
CULTURAL DIFFUSION!!!!!!!!!!

5. Hominids
Earliest Humans

6. 5 Stages of Hominids – Pre-History
Australopithecus – “southern ape”
“Lucy” (Johansen) Great Rift Valley – Ethiopia
diggers; lacked language, short, furry, omnivores
Homo Habilis – “handy man”
Louis and Mary Leakey – Kenya
Used stone tools; lacked complex language
Homo Erectus – “upright man” - bipedal
Not only in Africa but Asia and Europe
used complex tools and fire; first spoken language
Homo Sapiens – “wise man”
Neanderthal Man
Lived all over the world, religious rituals, advanced spoken language, cave painting, sculpting, identified by clans
Homo Sapiens Sapiens – “wise, wise man” – US!

7. Lascaux Caves, France

8. The Lion Panel in Chauvet Cave, France.

9. Altamira Cave, Spain

10. Cave of Hands, Argentina

12. Paleolithic
Old Stone Age

13. Hunters & Gatherers Spent 3-5 hrs/day hunting/gathering
Fruits, berries, seeds,
edible roots

14. Early Hominid Finds
Notice where the homo sapiens were found.

15. Neolithic Agricultural Revolution
9,000 B.C.E.

16. Fire 1.4 million yrs ago: deliberate fires
500,000 yrs ago: sustainment of hearths
Cooking “invented” through wildfires (probably)
Meat/veggies become easier to digest and better to the taste when cooked
Gave light for after dark hours
Provided heat in colder climates/seasons
Provided protection against animals
Helped in hunting
Scare animals into traps
Smoke out bees to get honey

17. Hunter-Gatherer Society
Community
Enough people to defend/protect the group
Enough people to hunt/gather and support the group
NOT so many as the food will not feed the entire group
Mobile (most)
Follow herds/seasonal plants
Lived under overhangs/caves
Sedentary (some)
Fishing villages that relied on the sea
Did not move according to weather
Created solid structures to live in
Gender Roles
Women: gathering, cooking, child care
Men: hunting, shelter
(patriarchy!!)

18. The Neolithic Revolution and the Birth of Civilization
Homo sapiens emerged in Africa 250,000 years ago
100,000 years ago they began to migrate

19. Neolithic Revolution
Neolithic Revolution began after the last Ice Age (10,000 BCE)
Humans began settling and adapting to their environments
Some remained hunter-gatherers
Switch to agriculture and settling in an area created a more reliable food supply (but not diverse)
Begin using domesticated animals for food and for labor
Settlements lead to population increase
Food surplus led to specialization of labor (division of labor)

20. Animals Dogs were the first to be domesticated
Used in Siberia for hunting
Sheep/goats: provided meat, milk, skins
Cattle/donkeys: beasts of burden
Llamas: only domesticated beast of burden in the Americas
Domestication of Animals.
Carved in Egypt ca B.C.E., this limestone relief sculpture shows two workers leading a prize bull. It is from the funerary chapel of Ptahhotep, a high-ranking official who lived in the period of the Old Kingdom (see Chapter 2).

21. Agriculture vs. Pastoralism
Mobile groups that followed/depended on large herds of animals
Central Asia/Africa
Arid areas where agriculture could not thrive

22. Surplus
Irrigation Food Surplus Civilization

23. City-State
Sumer B.C.

24. Ziggurat

25. Initial Civilization Centers

26. Fertile Crescent
Tigris & Euphrates Rivers

27. Nile River

28. Eight Components of Civilization: 1. Cities
Agriculture allowed for a surplus (which was difficult to move)
River valleys: agriculture required a stable source of water

29. 2. Government
Issues laws, collects taxes, organizes defense, monitors/rations food supply
Bureaucracy – managing government through departments of officials
Protecting the surplus was of the utmost importance

30. 3. Religion People believed in higher beings Polytheistic – many gods
People wanted to gain favor with the gods

31. Abraham:
Root of Judaism, Christianity and Islam

32. Wisdom Literature
Hymns and prayers to gods, proverbs, accounts of battles

33. 4. Writing Crucial skill for early civilizations
Pictograms – simple drawings to show words
Scribes – as writing became complex these trained experts learned to read and write

34. Cuneiform
First Written Language

35. Hieroglyphics

36. Rosetta Stone
Advanced the modern understanding of hieroglyphic writing

37. 5. Social Classes
People were ranked according to their jobs/occupations
Priests and nobles were at the top level of society
Next, came merchants, artisans, peasant farmers, and finally…..slaves.

38. 6. Public Works Monumental architecture – temples, palaces
Irrigation systems, roads and bridges
Defensive walls

39. 7. Job Specialization Specialization brought expertise
Artisans – skilled craft workers who made pottery or woven goods

40. Phoenician Sea Traders
Also invented the Alphabet – “phoenemes”

41. 8. Art and Architecture
Expressed the beliefs and values of people who created them
Temples and palaces reassured people of the strength and power of their government and religion

42. Defensive Walls

43. Assyria
1100 B.C.

44. Hittites
Invaders; learned to extract iron from ore
1400 B.C.