• Homo sapiens sapiens by 10,000 B.C.E.–Larger brain, tools, weapons

• Paleolithic– Hunter Gatherers

Family groups nomadic

– Gender division of labor Men: hunting, fishing, defense Women: gathering, making medicine

– Spread from Africa

Human Life in the Era of Hunters and Gatherers

The Spread of Human Populations, c. 10,000 B.C.E.

• Plants and animals domesticated• Towns/cities• Social Differentiation

– Specialized jobs– Regional trade– Women lose political/economic roles

• Causes? Maybe climatic shifts• Alternatives

– Hunting-and-gathering persists– Pastoralism – nomadic herding people

The Neolithic Revolution –8000 to 3500 B.C.E.

The Spread of Agriculture

A. Jericho– Jordan River

Cultivation of wheat, barley Brick houses

B. Çatal Hüyük – Southern Turkey

Large complex Shrines

The First Towns: Seedbeds of Civilization

• All civilizations–Cities, food surplus, social structure, religion,

government, writing*

• First civilization develops in Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia

• Sumerians c 4000 B.C.E.–Between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers– Irrigation for farming

• Political and Social Organization–City-States – state religion & god–Kings–Priests–Slaves

Mesopotamia

•Culture and Religion–Writing

Cuneiform: stylus on clay tablets

–Gilgamesh – first epic story–Astronomy–Numeric system–Ziggurats – central monumental buildings–Wheel, plow

Mesopotamia

• The Akkadian Empire (1st empire)–Sargon I

• The Babylonian Empire–Hammurabi

Law Code – “eye for an eye”

Mesopotamia

–Civilization emerges by 3200 B.C.E.

No city‑states! Egypt is centralized

–Government Pharaoh – theocracy (religious government) Bureaucracy – nonelected government officials

–Hieroglyphic alphabet Pictograms Papyrus

–Religion polytheistic Belief in afterlife

Egypt

•Differences–City-states v. centralized–Greater trade/contact in Mesopotamia–Greater technology Mesopotamia–Women had higher status in Egypt

• Similarities–Stratified society–Astronomy and mathematics–Patriarchal societies - Men dominate

Egypt and Mesopotamia Compared

India

• Indus River valley - modern-day Pakistan• Two major cities

– Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro– Indoor plumbing– Grid system– Writing (still a mystery)

• Collapsed under invasion and natural disasters

China

• Huanghe (Yellow) River valley• Most isolated river valley civilization• Pottery, iron, writing• Shang dynasty• Oracle bones• Mythic history

The Eastern Mediterranean,c. 1100 B.C.E.

•Hebrews–Modern Israel area–Semitic –Yahweh - monotheistic

Torah – holy book The first Abrahamic faith

The Mediterranean Region

• Phoenicians–Middle Eastern coast–City-states–Alphabet–Colonization along the Mediterranean

To Atlantic, Iberia, Britain

The Mediterranean Region