1. The 4 great early civilizations were all founded with a great river to support them. Egypt / Nile, Mesopotamian / Tigris/Euphrates, Indus Valley / Indus, and China / Yellow. Its all about Location!

2. Stone toolmaking 1st appeared about 2 million years ago – this is called the Stone Age
This includes tools from bone, skin, wood
The majority of this time period is called Paleolithic (Old Stone Age). Around 12,000 years ago the Neolithic (or New Stone Age) followed. This is when the origins of agriculture began.

3. Some not only hunted, but gathered their food. They are called foragers
Ice Age (ended around 10,000 years ago) camp sites reveal people lived in groups for defense, but not too big to exhaust the food sources

4. The foundations of science, art, and religion date to the Stone Age.
Learning what plants were edible, which ones could help an aliment, the habits/migration of animals, to explain the things they couldn’t comprehend

5. Without a written language, archeologists can only make an education deduction in regards to art, languages, music, and religion.

6. The change from hunter/gatherer to raising domesticated animals & plants is called the Agricultural Revolution
This allowed people to stay in one location and populations grew.
Preferred tastes, higher yield were some factors in domesticating plants as was climate & soil

7. But there was one thing each of them could not get by without

9. Of the oldest cities discovered, the best example (and probably the most successful) was Catal Huyuk (cha-tahl hoo-Yook) in Turkey.
Archeologists have discovered many religious shrines, signs of different metal workings and domesticated plants, and art

10. Mesopotamia
The 1st of the great ancient civilizations was Mesopotamia (which means “land between the rivers” in Greek. It lies roughly between the Tigris & Euphrates rivers. These rivers flood the plains once a year depositing rich silt over the land making it ideal for growing food.

11. The most important city was Babylon (today it is just ruins)

12. Domestication of plants & animals began in the Fertile Crescent around 10,000 years ago

14. Sometime between 5,000-8,000 years ago, farmers began to use forms of irrigation.
1st they would dam rivers or channel floodwaters – later they constructed canals or constructed structures to bring the water to their fields (the average yearly rainfall was 8 inches a year [Nevada gets 4])

15. The first dominant group in Mesopotamia were the Sumerians
The first dominant group in Mesopotamia were the Sumerians. They created the oldest written language known called cuneiform. It began as pictures and evolved to a simpler series of lines