1. ANCIENT AND CLASSICAL PERIOD IN WORLD HISTORY: FROM THE DAWN OF TIME TO 600 C.E.

2. CONTENT

3. 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

4. A.P. GEOGRAPHIC REGIONS

5. MODERN NATIONS TO KNOW

6. THEMES THEMES (P.E.R.S.I.A.N., S.C.R.I.P.T.E.D.) OTHER
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
Cause and Effect (Causes and Processes)
Geography: Local and regional focus

7. 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
Ancient: 4500 to 1000 BCE
Classical: 1000 BCE to 600 CE
Breaks and Continuity within Period
Prehistoric: Rise of Humans, Hunter Gatherers
Ancient: Sedentary culture, domestications
Classical: Use of Iron

8. ENVIRONMENT HUMAN ENVIRONMENT INTERACTION AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES
Man had to adapt to environment or live
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

9. 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
Mesopotamia
Sumer
Assyria and Babylon
Nile River
Egyptian Kingdoms
Kush-Meroe
Indus River
Harrappan, Mohenjo Daro
Aryans
Yellow River
Xia
Shang

10. 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

11. CHANGE OVER TIME CULTURE
Language, Religion
Traditions and Institutions
Occupations
Past-times
ARTS, SCIENCES
TOOL MAKING CULTURE
Hunter Gathers had tools, only primitive
Neolithic technology become complex, varies
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

12. CHANGE OVER TIME SOCIETY
PRE-HISTORIC
Gender equality, work equality
Short life, Limited survival, foods
Small groups, bands led by elders
Religion: animist, afterlife
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
Villages and a few cities
CLASSICAL
Continuation of Ancient although trends heightened
Classes often become rigid, rise of warriors, war leaders

13. CHANGE OVER TIME SOCIAL STRUCTURE
PALEOLITHIC
Egalitarian = Survival of the fittest
Men, women hunted, gathered so all would survive
NEOLITHIC
Gender differences set in with farming
Rise of elites to run government
Role specialization developed especially artisans
ANCIENT
Formal classes begin to arise
Rise of formal religious, governing, commercial classes
Introduction of slavery, serfdom, unfree labor especially farmers
CLASSICAL
Rigid class structures tending towards castes
Rise of aristocracy, permanent warrior class; intellectuals
Gender differences became pronounced but not as rigid yet

14. TECHNOLOGY OVER TIME The ability to make and use tools Materials
Man has always been a toolmaker
Tools increasingly designed to meet specific needs
Simple to complex
Materials
Bone, Stone, Wood
Mixture of Media
Metalurgy: Copper, Bronze, Iron
Include domestications as technology if necessary
In many ways writing is a technology
Technology really can only expand if group supports artisans who do not hunt, gather, farm
Know how inventions improved life

15. CHANGE OVER TIME STATE STRUCTURES
REGIONAL STATE STRUCTURES
Small city states
Sumer, Indus, Xia
Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Mayans
Regional states
Shang
Babylonia, Israel
First Empire
Tribute empires
Egyptian Old Kingdom
Toltecs, Akkad
MULTIREGIONAL STATE STRUCTURES
Empires
Land empires
Sea-based empires
Assyrians, Egyptian New Kingdom
Persians, Greeks, Romans
Mauryans, Qin, Han, Inca, Aztec, Toltec
SPECIALIZED GROUPS TO RUN STATE, BUREAUCRACY

16. CHANGE OVER TIME RELIGIONS
UNIVERSALIZING vs ETHNIC RELIGIONS
MAJOR FEATURES OF EACH, WHERE ARE RELIGIONS LOCATED
EARLY RELIGIONS
ANIMISM
POLYTHEISM
HINDUISM
SHINTO
PHILOSOPHIES AND RELIGIONS BLEND
TAOISM, CONFUCIANISM, LEGALISM
BUDDHISM
HELLENIC PHILOSOPHY
MONOTHEISM
JUDAISM
CHRISTIANITY
ISLAM
RISE OF PERMANENT RELIGIOUS CASTE, MORAL CODES

17. 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

18. CLASSICAL ENDS Reasons for Decline Decline in Given Areas
Geographic, Demographic, Environment
Military, Political
Economic, Social
Decline in Given Areas
Mediterranean
South Asia
East Asia
That which remains
Classical cultures
Classical religions
Classical traditions
Interregional Networks: Trade, Spread of Religions
Movements of Bantu, Huns, Germans, Polynesian

19. ESSAYS

20. COMPARISONS AND SNAPSHOTS
Compare major religions and philosophical systems including similarities in cementing a social hierarchy, e.g. Hinduism contrasted with Confucianism.
Compare the role of women in different belief - Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, and Hinduism

21. COMPARISONS AND SNAPSHOTS
Understand how and why the collapse of empire was more severe in Western Europe than it was in the Eastern Mediterranean, China, or South India
Compare the caste system to other systems of social inequality devised by ancient and Classical civilizations, including slavery

22. COMPARISONS AND SNAPSHOTS
Compare societies and cultures that include cities with pastoral and nomadic societies.
Compare the development of traditions and institutions in major civilizations, e.g. Indian, Chinese, Greek
Describe interregional trading systems e.g. the Indian Ocean trade system and the Silk Road

23. COMPARISONS AND SNAPSHOTS
Compare the political and social structures of two early civilizations using any two of the following:
Mesopotamia (Sumer through Persia)
Egypt (Old Kingdom through New Empire)
Indus Valley (Harappan to Aryan)
Shang Dynasty
Mesoamerica (Olmecs, Mayans, Toltecs)
Andean South America (Moche, Chan Chan)