CHAPTER 1 Foundations of Civilization Prehistory 300 B

CHAPTER 1 Foundations of Civilization Prehistory – 300 B. C. p. 4

Prehistory -The time before humans knew how to write -Historians must learn about these times by studying artifacts -Must figure out how the se were used or what they mean -Historians don’t always agree

Anthropology the study of how people have developed and societies have grown over time culture – ways of life (religion, values, family life, etc. ) - every group of people has their own

Archaeology Study of the remains of past human cultures Absolute dating – determining the exact age of something Can be fossils (bones) or artifacts (buildings, tools, clothes, etc. ) Relative dating – determining how old something is compared to something else

Hominids -Scientific classification of those who walk standing up (upright) on two feet, includes humans -Earliest hominids found in Africa -“Lucy” discovered by Donald Johanson in Ethiopia -3 million years old -Mary and Louis Leakey discover tools and bones at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania -approximately 2 million yrs. old

Types of Hominids

The Neolithic Revolution Section 2 p. 11

Two Time Periods Paleolithic Period (Old Stone Age) – 2 million B. C. to 10, 000 B. C. the earliest humans were nomads – people who travelled from place to place in search of food. survived by hunting/gathering food adapted to environment for food/shelter developed spoken language made tools Neolithic Period (New Stone Age) – 10, 000 B. C. – 3000 B. C. people learned to farm, no longer nomadic developed permanent villages plants and animals were domesticated (raised in a controlled way that is best for humans) calendars, weaving of cloth and pottery all invented

Section 3 Beginnings of Civilization p. 17 -The first civilizations (organized social orders) were near rivers

Water GOOD FOR: Farming Drinking Cleaning Fishing Transportation Hunting (animals came to drink) RESULTS: Created surpluses - more food than necessary, stored for the future populations could grow and first cities appeared

Other Changes Not everyone had to produce food now Artisans (skilled workers ) created Ex. Bricklayers, metal workers, merchants, entertainers, soldiers Governments created to organize large groups of people Used to build things and produce more food Religion also created – usually polytheistic (belief in more than 1 god) 1 st written set of laws by Mesopotamians (Hammurabi’s Code)

Technology -roads/bridges, irrigation systems (carrying water), defensive walls, temples, palaces all built -writing begins with pictograms – drawing of objects that look like what they represent (hieroglyphics) -scribes – people trained to read/write, upper class usually -1 st true writing called cuneiform (by Mesopotamians) -Cultural diffusion – spreading of ideas/customs from one group to other parts of the world -occurred due to trade, migration and/or war -eventually city-states and empires would be created