ANCIENT AND CLASSICAL PERIOD

IN WORLD HISTORY:FROM THE DAWN OF TIME

TO 600 C.E.

CONTENT

HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY TO KNOW

• Historic Regions• All AP Regions• Mesopotamia, Mesoamerica• Sudanic Africa (West African Sahel)

• Historic States to Know• River Valley Civilizations• Amer-Indian geographic hearths• Classical Empires

• Locations of world religions• Internal vs. External migration

• Migration, Urbanization• Immigration

• Movement in History• Original spread of humans• Indo-European• Bantu• Germanic and Viking• Spread of world religions• Polynesian

A.P. GEOGRAPHIC REGIONS

MODERN NATIONS TO KNOW

THEMES

• THEMES (P.E.R.S.I.A.N., S.C.R.I.P.T.E.D.)• Social, Gender Structures including Labor Systems• Cultural and Intellectual Structures • Religious Structures• Interactions: War, Diplomacy, Trade• Political Culture, Political Organization, State

Structures, • Technology• Economics• Demography (geography) and Environment

• OTHER• Change and Continuity over Time• Geography: Local and regional focus

THE ANCIENT AND CLASSICAL PERIOD

• PERIODIZATION• What themes set a period apart?• When did it begin, when did it end?• Nature and causes of change• Breaks and continuity within a time period

• 1,000,000 BCE TO 600 CE• Prehistoric: 1 million to 4500 BCE or Stone age• Ancient: 4500 to 1000 BCE or Bronze Age• Classical: 1000 BCE to 600 CE or Iron Age

• Breaks and Continuity within Period• Prehistoric: Rise of Humans, Hunter Gatherers• Ancient: Sedentary culture, domestications• Classical: Use of Iron

THE FIVE THEMES

• Relative Location• Know relative locations• Know locations of major states, cultures

• Place• Physical

• Know the major features of physical geography

• Human• Know the cultural characteristics of states

• Human Environment Interaction• Movement

• History is the result of movement

• Region• All history is regional until 1450 CE

HUMAN ENVIRONMENT INTERACTION

• PRE-SEDENTARY TIMES: ADAPT OR DIE• Climates diverse, man’s adaptations diverse• Man arose in Africa, spread out to other continents• Harshest climates around deserts, desert like conditions• Environment often forced man to change• As civilization advances, man begins to change surroundings• Hunter-gather nature• Slash and burn was the transition to sedentary agriculture

• AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES• Domestications

• Farming• Herding

• Sedentary civilization• PASTORAL SOCIETIES

• Nomads and their flocks• Relationship to agricultural societies

• DEMOGRAPHIC CHANGES WITH RISE OF CIVILIZATIONS• DEMOGRAPHIC STRESS

• Overfarming and overhunting, deforestation, agriculture replaces plants

LOCATION: EARLY GEOGRAPHIC SETTING

• PRE-HISTORIC• The whole world in all settings• The first towns, cities arose in marginal zones

• Some building materials• Some foods, resources, marginal water, and protection

• ANCIENT RIVER VALLEY CIVILIZATIONS (HEARTHS)• Mesopotamia

• Sumer• Assyria and Babylon

• Nile River• Egyptian Kingdoms• Kush-Meroe

• Indus River• Harrappan, Mohenjo Daro• Aryans

• Yellow River• Xia• Shang

LOCATION: LATER GEOGRAPHIC SETTING CLASSICAL

• MEDITERRANEAN• Phoenicians, Jews, Persians• Greeks: Hellenes, Hellenistic Age• Romans: Republic and Empire

• SOUTH ASIA• Persians and Greeks• Mauryans• Guptans

• EAST ASIA• Zhou, • Qin, Han

• CENTRAL ASIANS• OTHERS

• Ghana, Axum-Ethiopia• Mayans, Toltecs, Aztecs• Incas and predecessors

EARLY POLITICAL STRUCTURES

• Paleolithic Structure• Small bands, generalized social equality• Led by best hunters, male or female

• Neolithic• Sedentary villages • Village Councils, Elders, some hereditary chiefs• Much more patriarchal

• Early Cities• Often city states• Ceremonial Centers: Plazas, Temples• Centralized rule of priests, kings, elite class• Class structure usually based on land ownership• Hereditary positions become common

CHANGE OVER TIME STATE STRUCTURES

• Small city states• Sumer, Indus, Xia• Phoenicians, Greeks• Olmecs, Mixtec, Zapotecs, Mayans

• Small Regional State • Shang• Babylonia, Israel• Ghana, Kush, Axum

• Early Theocratic Empires• Egyptian Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom• Toltecs• Akkad• Shang, Zhou• Funan (SE Asia)

EARLY CULTURE• PALEOLITHIC CULTURE

• Language, Religion• Traditions and Institutions• Occupations and Past-times• Simple artifacts, art (cave paints, totems, jewelry)

• TOOL MAKING CULTURE• Hunter Gathers had tools, only primitive• Neolithic technology become complex, varies

• NEOLITHIC CULTURE• Social Revolution: hierarchy, gender relations• Technological Revolution: pottery, advanced tools,

irrigation• NATURE OF CIVILIZATION

• Writing is at the center of a cultural change• Complex culture based on living in a city• People packed more closely together• Social mores reflect this change• Artisans, toolmakers have great influence

• SOPHISTICATION: Increased over time

SOCIAL HIERARCHY

• Patriarchal• Increasingly so over time

• Social Class Differentiation• Superior vs. Inferior• Increasingly classes defined over time

• Caste Systems• If classes become rigid, it is a caste system

• Slavery• Common since dawn of history in all

cultures• Rigidity depended on culture

• Serfdom

CHANGE OVER TIME EARLY SOCIAL• PALEOLITHIC: HUNTER GATHERER

• Gender equality, work equality• Short life, Limited survival, foods• Small groups, bands led by elders• Religion: animist, afterlife• Extended family

• NEOLITHIC: SETTLED AGRICULTURE, DOMESTICATIONS• Domestication of plants and animals• Shifting Agriculture and Migratory Farmers• Nomadic Pastoralism • Patriarchal society, patrilineal descent ; gender differences in work, farming

• ANCIENT: VILLAGE TO CIVILIZATION• Sedentary life led to rise of social classes• Social differences, gender differences, Specialized occupations• Rise of inequalities; rise of aristocrats, kings, priests; unfree labor inc.

slavery, serfs• Villages and a few cities• Nuclear Family

• CLASSICAL• Continuation of Ancient although trends heightened• Classes often become rigid, rise of warriors, war leaders; castes• Aristocracy, artisan, intellectual classes• Gender differences pronounced and often codified in law

CHANGE OVER TIME RELIGIONS• UNIVERSALIZING vs. ETHNIC RELIGIONS

• MAJOR FEATURES OF EACH, WHERE ARE RELIGIONS LOCATED

• OVERTIME: • RISE OF PERMANENT RELIGIOUS CASTE, MORAL CODES INCLUDING SOME

CASTING• ANIMISM/SHAMANISM TO GENERALIZED ANTRHOPOMORPHISM T0 POLYHEISM• PHILOSOPHIES AND MONOTHEISMS DEVELOP AT END OF PERIOD

• EARLY RELIGIONS• ANIMISM, SHAMANISM• ANTHROPOMORPHIC POLYTHEISM• ELABORATED POLYTHEISM WITH PRIESTS, RITUAL, DOGMA• HINDUISM• SHINTO

• ETHICAL PHILOSOPHIES AND RELIGIONS BLEND• CHINESE RELIGIOUS COMPLEX: TAOISM, CONFUCIANISM, LEGALISM• JAINISM, BUDDHISM• HELLENIC PHILOSOPHY

• MONOTHEISM: EXCLUSIVITY• JUDAISM• CHRISTIANITY• ISLAM

TECHNOLOGY OVER TIME

• The ability to make and use tools• Man has always been a toolmaker• Tools increasingly designed to meet specific needs• Simple to complex

• Materials• Bone, Stone, Wood; Mixture of Media• Metallurgy, Metalworking: Copper, Bronze, Iron• Include domestications as technology if necessary• In many ways writing is a technology

• Technology is specialization• Expands if group supports artisans who do not hunt,

gather, farm• Irrigation systems requires team work leading to

political structure

• Know how inventions improved life

CHANGE OVER TIME INTERACTIONS

• War• Not a new invention but rare in Pre-history• History introduces scarcity, contest for it• War becomes increasingly complex; warrior classes• Technology effected war; empires are core of

classical• Diplomacy

• Similar to War• Contact between states led to diplomacy• First treaty was between Hittites, Egyptians

• Trade• The simplest way for cities to overcome failings• Trade for what you do not have• Most international trade was for luxury• Commodities traded locally, internally

• Exchanges: ideas, diseases• Migration of nomads, Bantus, Indo-

Europeans• Interactions between nomads, sedentary

MOVEMENT

• Themes• Indigenous or Independent Development• Cultural Diffusion

• Spread of Agriculture• Spread of Technology• Popular Movements

• Early Humans spread across globe• Indo-European Migrations or “Chariot

Peoples”• Bantu Migrations• Polynesian Migrations• Xiong Nu or steppe peoples• Germanic Peoples

CLASSICAL ENDS• Reasons for Decline

• External and Internal• Internal Decay vs. External popular forces

• Aspects• Geographic, Demographic, Environment• Military, Political• Economic, Social

• Decline in Given Areas• Mediterranean, South Asia, East Asia• Mesoamerica

• That which remains• Classical cultures• Classical religions• Classical traditions

• Interregional Networks: Trade, Spread of Religions

• Movements of Bantu, Huns, Germans, Polynesian