Course Overview

• Prehistory: Beginning of time – 3500 BC• Ancient Period: 3500 BC – 476 AD• Medieval Period: 476 – 1400

1. Prehistory2. Art & Culture3. Science & Technology4. Government & Law5. Religion6. Conflict

Historical Thinking

• Evidence

• Significance

• Cause & Consequence

• Continuity & Change

• Perspective

• Ethical Dimensions

Evidence

• Primary Source Evidence – Traces that historians use to learn about the past

• Secondary Source Evidence – Accounts of the past compiled by historians based on primary sources

• Historians interpret primary source evidence by 1. Asking questions2. Positing reasonable answers3. Arguing4. Drawing a conclusion

What is History

Significance determines what stories we tell and celebrate

Think of your life. What are the most significant events you have experienced?

Timelines

• Chronological order refers to putting events in the order in which they occurred

• B.C. and A.D.

• B.C. = Before Christ

• A.D. = Anno Domini (Latin for Year of our Lord)

• 18th Century?

How do we map out the world?

How did human life begin?

A Selection of Views

• Greek Mythology

• Judeo-Christian Creation Theory

• Big Bang Theory

Australopithecus

• Named “Lucy”

• Discovered in Ethiopia in 1974

• 3.2 million years old

• Early human ancestor?

Evolution?

Evolution in the Stone Age

• Australopithecus• 4,000,000 BC

• Homo Habilis• 2,700,000 BC

• Homo Erectus• 1,300,000 BC

• Homo Sapiens• 200,000 BC

How do species evolve?

• Natural Selection

• Survival of the Fittest

• Organisms with characteristics that help them survive are

1. Less likely to die young

2. More likely to reproduce

3. Most likely to pass on their traits to offspring

Charles Darwin1809 - 1882

• Published a book called “On the Origin of Species”

• Developed the Theory of Evolution.

• Evolution is constantly happening based on Survival of the Fittest and Natural Selection

Olduvai Handaxefound in the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania in 1931. Estimated to be 1.5 million years old.

Cultural Evolution in the Stone Age: The Great Leap

1. Speech• Skeletal remains and fossils suggests that Neanderthals were equipped for speech

2. Social Organization• Living in small groups, working together

3. Hunting• The first specialized skill

4. Tool Making• Choppers, hand axes, blades made of stone or obsidian, later of bone, horn, ivory

5. Use of Fire• At first, fire was gathered from embers of natural fires (started by lightening) Homo

Erectus learned how to create fire with heat from friction

Evaluating Significance – February 7th

• Which aspect of the Great Leap was most important and why?

• Another Great Leap

The Neolithic Revolution

At the end of the Stone Age people moved from being hunter/gatherers and became producers of food.• Farming crops• Herding

livestock

Cause and Effect

Cause Effect

People developed agriculture

A steady supply of food was available

A steady supply of food was available

Development of permanent housing

Development of permanent housing

Beginnings of civilization

Understanding Cause and Consequence

• Long Term Consequences

• Short Term Consequences

• Event: People developed permanent settlements

• Immediate Causes

• Underlying Causes

Mesopotamia

• Meso = between• Potamos = rivers

• Tigris & Euphrates• Present day Iraq

MESOPOTAMIA

• The Fertile Crescent

• The Cradle of Civilization

London

Paris

Rome

Fredericton

Egypt

Advantages of settling near a river

• Source for drinking

• Flow can be diverted to irrigate crops

• Very fertile soil for farming

• Useful for transportation

• Enables trade

What are the Criteria of Civilization?

• Farming/herding (food production)

• Permanent Settlement

• Government (Law & Order)

• Trade (business/economics)

• Science & Technology

• Arts & Culture

• Religion

17,000 year old painting from Lascaux Cave in France

Major Periods

• The Sumerians

• The Babylonians

• The Assyrians

• The Chaldeans

• Government (Law & Order)• Hammurabi’s Code

• Trade (business/economics)• Currency

• Science & Technology• Transportation, Agriculture, Warfare

• Arts & Culture• Cuneiform Writing

• Religion• Polytheism

SUMER

BABYLONIA

ASSYRIA

CHALDEA

Sir Leonard Woolley• British archaeologist

• uncovered ancient ruins in Southern Iraq

• “Royal Cemetery of Ur”

• The Standard of Ur

Lapis Lazuli

• Inside the tomb, along with the body of the Queen, Woolley found:• 60 female skeletons

• Skeletons of armed soldiers

• Remains of oxen chained to carts

• Skeletons with instruments (lyres of Ur)

• Clay cups scattered over the floor

• What happened and how can this be explained?

The Tomb of Queen Puabi

Mesopotamian Religion

• Sumerians, like other Mesopotamian civilizations, were Polytheistic• Polytheism – Belief in many gods

• Monotheism – Belief in one god

• Different gods were in charge of different things• An - god of heaven; Enlil - god of air; Enki – god of water and fertility

• People tried to please the gods by making offerings in Ziggurats

• Believed in an afterlife which consisted of spending eternity as a ghost in a gloomy underworld.

Ziggurat of Ur• Made of mud brick

• Shrine at the very top

• Place for sacrifices and offerings

• Priests would perform rites and rituals

• Ziggurats were often the center of a city

US soldiers climb the Ziggurat of Ur in 2010

Cuneiform A reed stylus was used to scrapeCharacters into a clay tablet

Tablets could then be baked toHarden

Produced the world’s first known work of literature The Epic of Gilgamesh

Sumerian Achievements

• Invented the wheel

• Developed irrigation canals for farming

• Developed cuneiform writing

• Established trade and trading routes

• Produced the world’s earliest known work of literature, The Epic of Gilgamesh

The Babylonians•Conquered Sumer and

surrounding areas, established a huge empire.

• Expanded trade, introduced currency• Shekel, Mina & Talent

•Most significant ruler was King Hammurabi who codified law

The Code of Hammurabi

• 282 laws carved in stone

• Also included punishments

• Placed in the public for everyone to see

• People were could not claim to be ignorant of the law

• People knew their rights

• Now stands in the Louvre Museum in Paris

How do Laws Protect?

1. Deterrence2. Incarceration3. Retribution4. Rehabilitation

Themes in Hammurabi’s Code

1. Restitution2. Retribution• Corporal Punishment•Capital Punishment

1. What should be done to the carpenter who builds a house that falls and kills the owner?

2. What should happen to a boy who slaps his father?

3. What should be done to the man who can not pay his debts?

4. What should happen if a nobleman dies during surgery?

5. What should the punishment be for robbery?

1. Hammurabi’s Code # 229: If a builder builds a house for someone, and does not construct it properly, and the house which he built falls in and kills its owner, then that builder shall be put to death

2. Hammurabi’s Code # 195: If a son strikes his father, his hands shall be hewn (cut) off.

3. Hammurabi’s Code # 117: If a man be in debt and is unable to pay his creditors, he shall sell his wife, son, or daughter, or bind them over to service. For three years they shall work in the houses of their purchaser or master; in the fourth year they shall be given their freedom.

4. Hammurabi’s Code # 218: If a doctor makes a large incision with an operating knife and kills a nobleman or commoner, or opens a tumor with the operating knife and cuts out the eye of a nobleman or commoner, the doctor’s hands shall be cut off.

5. Hammurabi’s Code # 22: If any one is committing a robbery and is caught, then he shall be put to death.