Pre-History & the Neolithic Revolution€¦ · The Natural Environment By 13,000 B.C.E., Homo sapiens in every inhabitable part of the world Archaeological finds: Sophisticated tools

Chapter 1

Pre-History & the

Neolithic Revolution

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Forming the Complex Society

■ Basic development:

❑ Hunting and foraging

❑ Agriculture

❑ Complex society

■ Key issue: surplus food surplus capital

■ Major development of first complex societies

3500 B.C.E. – 500 B.C.E.

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Global Migrations


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The Natural Environment

■ By 13,000 B.C.E., Homo sapiens in every inhabitable

part of the world

■ Archaeological finds:

❑ Sophisticated tools

■ Choppers, scrapers, axes, knives, bows, arrows

■ Cave and hut-like dwellings

■ Use of fire, animal skins

■ Hunted several mammal species to extinction

❑ Climatic change may have accelerated process


❑Economy & society of hunting & gathering peoples

■Economic life

❑Prevented individuals from accumulating

private property

❑Lived an egalitarian existence

❑Lived in small bands, about thirty to fifty

members in each group

Paleolithic Society

Paleolithic Era (“Old Stone Age”)

■ Evidence:

❑ Archaeological finds

■ Nomadic existence precludes advanced civilization

❑ Division of labor along gender lines

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Relative Social Equality

■ Nomadic culture precludes accumulation of

land-based wealth

❑ Relatively egalitarian existence

❑ More likely determinants of status: age, hunting skill,

fertility, personality

❑ Possible gender equality related to food production

❑ Men: protein from hunting

❑ Women: plant gathering


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Big-Game Hunting

■ Evidence of intelligent coordination of hunting

expeditions

❑ Development of weaponry

❑ Animal-skin disguises

❑ Stampeding tactics

■ Lighting of fires, etc., to drive game into kill zones

■ Required planning, communication


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Creativity of Homo sapiens

■ Constructed flexible languages for communication of

complex ideas

■ Increased variety of tools – stone blades, spear throwers,

sewing needles, barbed harpoons

■ Fabricated ornamental beads, necklaces and bracelets

■ The bow and arrow – a dramatic improvement in humans’

power over nature

■ Cave paintings


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Neolithic Era (“New Stone Age”)

■ Relied on cultivation for subsistence❑ Men: herding animals rather than hunting

❑ Women: nurturing vegetation rather than foraging

■ Spread of agriculture ❑ Slash-and-burn techniques

❑ Exhaustion of soil promotes migration

❑ Impact: Transport of crops from one region to another


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Origins and Early Spread of Agriculture


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Agriculture and Population Growth


Early Agricultural Society

■ Emergence of villages and towns

■ Discoveries at Çatal Hüyük – a prominent village

located in Turkey, occupied 7250-5400 B.C.E.

❑ Pots, baskets, textiles, leather, stone, metal tools, wood

carvings, carpets, beads, and jewelry

■ Development of crafts – pottery, metallurgy, and

textile production

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Social Distinctions

■ Accumulation of landed wealth initiates

development of social classes

■ Individuals could trade surplus food for valuable

items

■ Archaeological evidence in variety of household

decorations, goods buried with deceased members

of society at Çatal Hüyük


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Neolithic Culture

■ Farmers closely observed the natural world – an

early kind of applied science

■ Elements of natural environment essential for

functioning

■ Archaeological evidence of religious worship:

thousands of clay figurines, drawings on pots, tool

decorations, other ritual objects


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The Origins of Urban Life

■ Craft specialization

■ Social stratification

■ Governance

■ Development of the city – a gradual process


Chapter 2

Early Societies in Southwest

Asia and the Indo-European

Migrations

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Mesopotamia

■ “Between the Rivers”

❑ Tigris and Euphrates

■ Modern-day Iraq

■ Cultural continuum of “fertile

crescent”

■ Sumerians the dominant people


The Wealth of the Rivers

■ Nutrient-rich silt

■ Key: irrigation❑ Necessity of coordinated efforts

❑ Promoted development of local governments

❑ City-states

■ Sumer begins small-scale irrigation 6000 B.C.E.

■ By 5000 B.C.E., complex irrigation networks❑ Population reaches 100,000 by 3000 B.C.E.

■ Attracts Semitic migrants, influences culture


Sumerian City-States

■ Cities appear 4000 B.C.E.

■ Dominate region from 3200 to 2350 B.C.E. they

evolve into city-states (control of surrounding

regions)

■ Ziggurat home of the god

❑ Uruk

Attacks by others led to wall building and

military development

Kingships evolve with cooperation of noble

families


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The Ziggurat of Ur


Political Decline of Sumer

❑ Sargon of Akkad (2370-2315 B.C.E.)

■ Seizes trade routes and natural resources

■ Hammurabi of Babylon (1792-1750 B.C.E.)

❑ Centralizes bureaucracy and regulates taxation

❑ Capital is Babylon

❑ Law Code: law of retribution and importance of social

status

❑ Used local governors to maintain control of city-states

■ Babylonian empire later destroyed by Hittites from Anatolia,

ca. 1595 B.C.E.


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Legal System

■ Code of Hammurabi

■ Established high standards of behavior and stern

punishment for violators

❑ Lex talionis – “law of retaliation”

❑ Social status and punishment


Later Mesopotamian Empires

■ Assyrians use new iron weaponry

■ Powerful army; professional officers (merit), chariots, archers, iron weapons

■ Unpopular rule leads to rebellions; ends 612 BCE


Mesopotamian Empires, 1800-600 B.C.E.


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Technological Development in

Mesopotamia

■ Bronze (made from copper and tin), ca. 4000

B.C.E.

❑ Used in weapons and later agricultural tools

■ Iron, ca. 1000 B.C.E.

❑ Cheaper than bronze

■ Wheel helps trade, carts can carry more goods

further 3500 B.C.E.

■ Shipbuilding: maritime trade increases in all

directions

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Social Classes

■ Ruling classes based often on military prowess❑ Perceived as offspring of gods

■ Priests and priestesses rule temple communities with large incomes and staff

■ Free commoners❑ Peasant cultivators

❑ Some urban professionals

■ Slaves❑ Prisoners of war, convicted criminals, debtors


Patriarchal Society

■ Patriarchy: “rule of the father”

■ Men as landowners, relationship to status

■ Hammurabi’s code: men are head of household

❑ Right to sell wives, children

■ Double standard of sexual morality

❑ Women drowned for adultery

❑ Relaxed sexual mores for men

■ Social mobility for women: Court advisers, temple priestesses,

economic activity

■ Introduction of the veil at least ca. 1500 B.C.E.


Development of Writing

■ 2900 B.C.E. Sumerians create writing system

■ Cuneiform: “wedge-shaped”

❑ Preservation of documents on clay

❑ Declines from 400 B.C.E. with spread of Greek

alphabetic script


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Uses for Writing

■ Trade

■ Astronomy

■ Mathematics

❑ Agricultural applications

■ Calculation of time: 12-month year, 24-hour day, 60-

minute hour


Mesopotamian Literature

■ Epic of Gilgamesh, compiled after 2000 B.C.E.

■ Heroic saga

■ Search for meaning, especially the afterlife

■ This-worldly emphasis


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The Early Hebrews

■ Early Hebrews are pastoral nomads between

Mesopotamia and Egypt

■ According to Hebrew scripture, Abraham

migrated to northern Mesopotamia ca. 1850 B.C.E.

■ Parallels between early biblical texts, code of

Hammurabi: law of retribution and flood story

■ King David (1000-970 B.C.E.) and Solomon

(970-930 B.C.E.)


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Moses and Monotheism

■ Twelve tribes become Israelites

■ Moses introduced monotheism, belief in single

god

❑ Denied existence of competing parallel deities

❑ Personal god: reward and punishment for conformity

with revealed law

❑ The Torah (“doctrine or teaching”)

❑ The Ten Commandments: moral and ethical standards

for followers


Foreign Conquests of Israel

■ Assyrian conquest, 722 B.C.E.

❑ Conquer Israel in north and Judah in south

❑ Deported many inhabitants to other regions

❑ Impact of Diaspora: Jewish race will be blamed for

negative events throughout history

■ Babylonian conquest, 586 B.C.E.

❑ Destroyed Jerusalem

❑ Forced many into exile

❑ Israelites maintained their religious identity and many

returned to Judea


Israel and Phoenicia, 1500-600 B.C.E.


The Phoenicians

■ City-states along Mediterranean coast after 3000

B.C.E.

■ Little agriculture; live on trade and

communications networks

■ Sea trade most important; get raw materials, trade

for manufactured goods

■ Extensive maritime trade

❑ Dominated Mediterranean trade, 1200-800 B.C.E.

■ Development of alphabet symbols: Simpler

alternative to cuneiform/foundation for English language


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Indo-European Migrations

■ Common roots of many languages of Europe,

southwest Asia, India

■ Implies influence of a single Indo-European

people

❑ Probable original homeland: modern-day Ukraine and

Russia, 4500-2500 B.C.E.

■ Domestication of horses, use of Sumerian

weaponry allowed them to spread widely


Indo-European Migrations 3000-1000 B.C.E.


Implications of Indo-European

Migration Hittites migrate to central Anatolia, ca. 1900 B.C.E., conquer Babylonian empire 1595 BCE

Technology

Horses, chariots with spoked wheels

Iron

Migrations to western China, Greece, Italy also significant

Other migrations: Greece, Italy, central Europe, western Europe, Britain

All pastoral agriculturalists

All speak related languages and worship similar deities

Later wave of migrations to Iran and India (Aryan)

Documents

Pre-History & the Neolithic Revolution€¦ · The Natural Environment By 13,000 B.C.E., Homo sapiens in every inhabitable part of the world Archaeological finds: Sophisticated tools