1. From Human Prehistory to the Early Civilizations
APCIV Chapter 1 | Technological and Environmental Transformations BCE

2. Human Development The development of our species was a long process
C. 2.5 million BCE: bipedal hominids emerge
C. 750,000 BCE: Homo erectus species
C. 600,000 BCE: human species spread across Eurasia; fire used
C. 100,000 BCE: Homo sapiens develop and spread out of Africa
Other species would be displaced, mix, or die out
C. 25,000 BCE: human migrations from Siberia into North America
C. 14,000 BCE: the great ice age ends
C. 12,000 BCE: the Paleolithic Age and tools
C. 10-8,000 BCE: agriculture emerges in Middle East and China
C. 9,000 BCE: domestication of animals
Neolithic Age
C BCE: Catal Huyuk is at its peak
Human Development

3. Life Before Agriculture
Paleolithic Age: c. 2.5 million – c. 12,000 BCE
Simple tools, hunting and foraging
Erect and brain development was rapid: meat diets expanded
C. 240,000 BCE: homo sapiens sapiens originate
Killed off other human species or interbred
Explains why there not various species of humans as with apes
Population growth was slow: dependent upon space
The “speech gene” developed c. 70,000 BCE
Transmission of knowledge, fears, and primitive religions
Development of first cultures (belief systems for behavior)
The spread of humans, probably because of climate change and food
Life Before Agriculture

4. The Neolithic Revolution
The ice age ended the era of big game: food became scarce
Domestication of animals to maintain stock
Gatherers noticed some plants can be grown: seeds
Development of sedentary, more complex societies based on this
Earliest in Middle East and parts of Asia (herding v. farming societies)
Turkey, Iraq, and Israel: wheat and fertility c. 9,000 BCE
This notion spread and many societies adopted it; this was revolutionary
Asia and rice; the Americas and corn: the three modern staples
Bronze Age societies c. 3,000 BCE: tools for farming/warfare
Agricultural, pastoral, and nomadic societies
Varying degrees of settled nature: slash and burn agriculture
Facilitated interactions between distant settled societies via trade
The Neolithic Revolution

5. Catal Huyuk in Turkey as one of the first cities c. 7000 BCE
Mud brick and timber houses, time spent on roof (falling)
Houses decorated with hunting and religious scenes
Civilization comes from the Latin word for city
Cities as social, political, and economic unit for organizing people
Foundations of civilization, while elements can be seen outside of cities
Culture, traditions, and writing (transmission of this) is crucial
Catal Huyuk would join the first civilization to emerge based on this criteria
Some peoples and regions have lacked this kind of civilization
Nomadic peoples despite acquisition of wealth and trade
Parts of West African lacked written language, large cities, and regional political systems despite having played integral parts in human development
“Civilized” people have often looked down upon nomads/pastoralists (“barbarian”)
Civilization

6. Day 2
The Epic of Gilgamesh

7. Tigris-Euphrates Civilization
One of 3 examples of civilization forming from scratch
Agriculture (bronze and copper for tools); invention of the wheel
C BCE the Sumerians invade/settle Mesopotamia
Developed cuneiform for record-keeping (first written system)
Shifted to phonetic shapes for speaking cuneiform (only a few could master)
Studied the stars to predict agricultural seasons: developed calendar
From this, they developed a system for telling time (minutes and hours)
Developed complex religious rituals and gods (polytheism)
Ziggurats: massive religious buildings for their fickle gods
Gods’ destruction of man through floods: writings influenced Jewish, Christian, and Muslim writers to come (Epic of Gilgamesh and Genesis)
City-states organized around religious/political/social/economic structure
Difficulties of defending low Mesopotamian lands
Akkadians conquered and continued Sumerian traditions
Babylonians eclipsed them, expanded and brought this tradition further
Law and justice: The Code of Hammurabi
Eventually overran by Assyrians and later the Persians
Tigris-Euphrates Civilization

8. Egyptian Civilization
The 2nd civilization contrasted with the 1st
Predictable river floods and protection from all sides
Allowed for a single, unified state to exist for most of its history
The Pharaoh possessed immense political and spiritual power
The Egyptian economy was more state-regulated as opposed to M-E
The complexity of regulating the Nile river favored a powerful state
This power had a personal effect: the pyramids
Not built by slave labor but contracted and paid labor
No evidence outside of Torah for Jewish captivity (historically unlikely)
Weak rulers and outside invasions eventually led to demise
In its history, Egyptian science/alphabet never matched that of M-E
Mathematics were superior and art was exceptional (24-hour day)
Architecture would be influential in the Mediterranean
Egyptian Civilization

9. Indian and Chinese Civilization
Indus River Valley: Harappa and Mohenjo Daro
Cities that would enjoy running water
Extensive trade with Mesopotamia but unique alphabet and art
Indo-European invasions and natural disasters limits our knowledge
Early Indian civilization would be replaced by Indo-European traditions
Huanghe (Yellow River) Valley: considerable isolation
Trade did develop with India and M-E
Origins are part-fact, part-fiction but what we know is that
Early rulers carefully regulated irrigation and flooding
By 2000 BCE, Chinese intellect and technology had advanced rapidly
Science, writing, astronomy, and music all developed
C BCE, the Shang began building massive palaces/tombs
Indian and Chinese Civilization

10. Legacy of First Civilizations
What these early civilizations did would be emulated by those that followed
Intellectually (Sumerians to later Greeks), politically (dynastic system in China), etc.
Influence would spread through conquest and trade
C BCE the Phoenician simplified alphabet (22 letters) would spread across the Mediterranean: Greek and later Latin alphabets adopted this
Lydia would invent coined money, which would be adopted throughout the region
The Jews would introduce Monotheism to other cultures (foundation of all modern religions)
A personal, devoted god as opposed to gods with their own agenda
Differences of civilizations impacted their development
Chinese civilization was mostly isolated and has remained “Chinese” to this day
Mesopotamian civilization was comprised of various smaller cultures and peoples
These have molded, evolved, and disappeared through time and is a result of constant change
This models human progression: homo sapiens sapiens spread throughout the world, settled in isolation, developed and began to interact, fought/changed/reformed
5 major civilizations emerged (Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Indian, Chinese, Olmec [Americas])
Legacy of First Civilizations