1. How do we know what happened in the past?
Historians
People who study and write about the past
Anthropologists
People who study society
How people interact and how they are related
How do we know what happened in the past?

2. How do we know what happened in the past?
Archaeologists
People who hunt for evidence about the past
Artifacts
Early weapons or tools
Fossils
Preserved animal or plant
How do we know what happened in the past?

3. What do we know about early humans?
Paleolithic Period
Old Stone Age
~2.5 million years ago until 8,000 BC
10,000 years ago
What do we know about early humans?

4. What do we know about early humans?
Nomads
People who move from place to place
Usually groups of about 30
Hunter-gatherers
Spent most of their time looking for food
What do we know about early humans?

5. What do we know about early humans?
Nomadic men
Men did the hunting
Early nomads chased animals off cliffs
Later nomads developed spears, traps, & bow and arrows
What do we know about early humans?

6. What do we know about early humans?
Nomadic women
Stayed at campsite
Looked after children
Foraged for berries, nuts, grains
What do we know about early humans?

7. What do we know about early humans?
Nomadic shelter
Near water
Warm climates
Didn’t need much
Cold climates
Often stayed in caves
Later: animal hides held up by poles
What do we know about early humans?

8. What advancements did humans make during the Paleolithic Period?
Fire!
Rubbing pieces of wood together
Helped fend off cold weather
Ice Age from 100,000 BC to 8,000 BC
What advancements did humans make during the Paleolithic Period?

9. What advancements did humans make during the Paleolithic Period?
Language
Developed spoken language
Work together and pass on knowledge
Art
Created paint and made cave paintings
Possibly religious?
What advancements did humans make during the Paleolithic Period?

11. What advancements did humans make during the Paleolithic Period?
Technology
Tools and methods that help people perform tasks
Flint
Could be sharpened for axes, spears
Fishing hooks
Needles to make clothes
What advancements did humans make during the Paleolithic Period?

12. What happened during the Neolithic Period?
New Stone age
~10,000 BC to between 4,000 and 2,000 BC
After the Ice Age
What happened during the Neolithic Period?

13. What happened during the Neolithic Period?
Domestication
Definition: the taming of animals or plants for human use
What happened during the Neolithic Period?

14. What happened during the Neolithic Period?
Domesticating animals
Dogs
Sheep, goats, pigs
Ox, yak, horses, llamas, alpacas, camels
What happened during the Neolithic Period?

15. What happened during the Neolithic Period?
Domesticating plants
Wheat, barley, peas, rice, beans, potatoes, maize
What happened during the Neolithic Period?

16. What happened during the Neolithic Period?
Farming
Historians called this the “farming revolution”
Allowed people to move away from hunting and gathering
Could stay in one permanent place
Fewer living the nomadic lifestyle
What happened during the Neolithic Period?

17. What did early villages look like?
Reasons to settle
Farmers needed to be near their crops
To water them
To harvest them
To protect them
What did early villages look like?

18. What did early villages look like?
Located all over the world
Europe, India, Egypt, China, Mexico
Land bridge linked Asia and North America during Ice Age
What did early villages look like?

19. What did early villages look like?
Jericho
Located in modern day Israel
8,000 BC
What did early villages look like?

20. What did early villages look like?
Çatal Hüyük
Located in modern day Turkey
6,000 BC
6,000 residents
Mud-brick houses
Decorated with wall paintings
Farmers and hunters
What did early villages look like?

21. Why did people decide to settle in one place?
Security
They had an abundance of food
Shelters were sturdier
If they grew enough food, they could trade
Why did people decide to settle in one place?

22. Why did people decide to settle in one place?
Specialization
Different kinds of jobs for those that didn’t farm
Potters used clay to store food
Weavers made baskets and clothes
Toolmakers made farming tools like sickles
Why did people decide to settle in one place?

23. Why did people decide to settle in one place?
Copper
Heated rock, melted copper
Mixed with tin created much harder material called bronze
Bronze age 3,000 BC to 1,200 BC
Why did people decide to settle in one place?

24. When did villages become civilizations?
Civilizations are complex societies
Cities
Cities grew out of villages
Organized government
Governments grew out of the need for organization
Class system
Organization of society meant division of labor
Different people had different jobs
Others depended on you for stuff
You depended on them
When did villages become civilizations?

25. When did villages become civilizations?
Civilizations are complex societies
Religion
Art
Less time working meant more leisure time to think about things
Written language
In order to pass on their ideas, they had to develop a writing system
When did villages become civilizations?

26. When did villages become civilizations?
First civilizations arose in river valleys
Good farming conditions
Soil fertile from flooding
Wetlands are abundant in wildlife
When did villages become civilizations?

27. When did villages become civilizations?
Fertile Crescent
Area of land known as Mesopotamia
When did villages become civilizations?

28. When did villages become civilizations?
Mesopotamia had a very dry climate
Farmers depended on floods to make soil fertile
Didn’t flood every year
Began to pray
Irrigation
When did villages become civilizations?

29. When did villages become civilizations?
Irrigation
Process of building walls, waterways, and ditches to bring water to fields
Allowed farmers to grow food even if the rivers didn’t flood
When did villages become civilizations?

30. When did villages become civilizations?
Sumer
First civilization
About how many years ago?
Formed by many cities in Southern Mesopotamia
When did villages become civilizations?

31. What was life like in Ancient Sumer?

32. What was life like in ancient Sumer?
Between Tigris and Euphrates River
Mesopotamia
“Land between the rivers”
What was life like in ancient Sumer?

33. What was life like in ancient Sumer?
Government
Cities separated by desert
City-states
Independent
Often went to war with each other
Glory and land
What was life like in ancient Sumer?

34. What was life like in ancient Sumer?
Religion
Polytheism
Belief in many gods
Ziggurat
Grant temples for worship
Centers of the cities
Priests and priestesses
Very powerful
What was life like in ancient Sumer?

35. What was life like in ancient Sumer?
Citizens
Mostly farmers
Artisans
Made things out of metal, cloth, or clay
What was life like in ancient Sumer?

36. What was life like in ancient Sumer?
Class system
Upper class
Kings, priests, and government officials
Middle class
Workers and artisans
Lower class
Slaves
What was life like in ancient Sumer?

37. What was life like in ancient Sumer?
Class system
Upper class
Kings, priests, and government officials
Middle class
Workers and artisans
Lower class
Slaves
What was life like in ancient Sumer?

38. What was life like in ancient Sumer?
Writing
Invented writing
Cuneiform
100s of symbols
Cut into clay
Scribes
Record keepers
Important and powerful
What was life like in ancient Sumer?

39. What was life like in ancient Sumer?
Literature
Epic of Gilgamesh
Oldest known story
King who travels the world and does great things
Tries to live forever, but not a god 
What was life like in ancient Sumer?

40. What was life like in ancient Sumer?
Science & math
Irrigation
Water crops even if the climate was dry
Wheel
Made traveling between city-states easier
What was life like in ancient Sumer?

41. What was life like in ancient Sumer?
Science & math (cont)
Plow
Turned up the land and made farming easier
Sailboat
Relied on wind, rather than manpower, to sail
What was life like in ancient Sumer?

42. What was life like in ancient Sumer?
Science & math (cont)
Geometry
Used to make buildings and plot land
Numbers
Based on 60—hours, minutes
Calendar
Based on moon
12-month calendar
What was life like in ancient Sumer?

43. How did the Assyrians rise to power in Mesopotamia?
Assyrian Empire
Empire: group of different people under one ruler
Assyria: largest empire to date
Arose about 1,000 years after Hammurabi
Fertile Valleys
How did the Assyrians rise to power in Mesopotamia?

44. How did the Assyrians rise to power in Mesopotamia?
Assyrian Empire
Similar lifestyle to Babylonians
Capital at Nineveh
On Tigris River
Collected taxes
Divided into provinces
Political districts
How did the Assyrians rise to power in Mesopotamia?

45. How did the Assyrians rise to power in Mesopotamia?
Assyrian Empire
Similar lifestyle to Babylonians
Similar religion
Polytheistic
Same writing system
Cuneiform
Similar laws, but with harsher punishments
How did the Assyrians rise to power in Mesopotamia?

46. How did the Assyrians rise to power in Mesopotamia?
Assyrian Empire
Libraries
Largest library in the world with 25,000 stories and scripts
How did the Assyrians rise to power in Mesopotamia?

47. How did the Assyrians rise to power in Mesopotamia?
Assyrian Empire
Large army
Other groups jealous of fertile land
Needed army to defend land
Used army to take over Mesopotamia in 900 BC
How did the Assyrians rise to power in Mesopotamia?

48. How did the Assyrians rise to power in Mesopotamia?
Assyrian Army
Spears and daggers
Bows and arrows
Chariot riders
Men on wheeled carts pulled by horses
Cavalry
Soldiers on horses
How did the Assyrians rise to power in Mesopotamia?

49. How did the Assyrians rise to power in Mesopotamia?
Assyrian Army
Better weapons
Hittites produced stronger iron
Battering rams
For walled cities
Burned buildings, kidnapped people
Harsh punishments for people who disobeyed
How did the Assyrians rise to power in Mesopotamia?

50. What caused the fall of the Assyrian Empire?
Harsh treatment left people unhappy
Led to uprisings
Fighting after king died
Chaldeans rose to power
What caused the fall of the Assyrian Empire?

51. How did the Chaldeans rule Mesopotamia?
King Nebuchadnezzar
Controlled all of Mesopotamia after fall of Assyrian Empire
Made Babylon a great city again
Largest and richest in the world
Hanging Gardens
Irrigation techniques to pump water to ziggurat
How did the Chaldeans rule Mesopotamia?

52. How did the Chaldeans rule Mesopotamia?
Babylon
“In magnificence, there is no other city that approaches it.”
Artisans made pottery, cloth, baskets, and jewelry
Sold it to caravans
Traveling merchants
How did the Chaldeans rule Mesopotamia?

53. How did the Chaldeans rule Mesopotamia?
Babylon
Scientific discoveries
Astronomers
People who study heavenly bodies
Mapped stars, planets, phases of moon and created the sundial
Captured by Persian Empire
How did the Chaldeans rule Mesopotamia?