1. Unit 1: Prehistory to Ancient Civilizations

2. What is History?? What does the word “history” mean to you?
Textbook definition: The chronological record of human events emphasizing causes and effects
Key words: RECORD, CAUSES, AND EFFECTS. Why?
Perspectives can be biased. History is determined by the victors. Which is why EVERYTHING should be questioned, especially sources and we must DIG DEEP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   

3. What kind of tools can a historian use?
Artifacts: objects made by humans
Primary Source Documents: created during the time period being studied
Secondary Source Documents: created about a time period.
Examples?

4. Primary v. Secondary
Number 1-11 in your notebook. Write P for primary and S for secondary.
1. The Declaration of Independence
2. Wikipedia page about WWII
3. History Textbook about Christopher Columbus’s journey
4. The diary of Anne Frank
5. Letter from a Japanese student who survived the atomic bomb
6. Book published in 1994 about the Middle Passage.
7. A journal of a girl growing up in the 1950’s
8. Your Twitter handle
9. A student essay about religion in the United States
10. Video shot from a cell phone camera of the twin towers on 9/11
11. The picture of the US troops putting the flag up at Iwo Jima

5. Prehistory
In other words, stuff that happen before humans were capable of recording what was happening.
How do you find out about this stuff then?
Remember, before the imaginary year 0 is known as BCE, or Before Common Era.
So years before 0 are going to get smaller as they approach CE (Common Era)
750,000 years ago is OLDER than 650,000 years ago

6. Prehistory (cont’d)
Humans as we know them have existed for approx millions years
Developed SLOWLY from 2 million years ago to 14,ooo years ago in what is known as the PALEOLITHIC ERA
Simple tools (Rocks and sticks)
Developed FIRE 750,000 years ago
More upright, bigger brains
Original Humans known as Homo Erectus – or “Upright Man”
Emerged from Africa from 700k – 500k BCE
More advanced humans constantly fighting off less advanced

7. Homo Erectus (Java man) found in Indonesia

8. Homo Erectus (peking man) found in CHINA

9. Prehistory (cont’d)
Lesser evolved (less adapted for ever-changing environment) were killed off, Homo Sapiens emerged
Supported small hunting groups, nomadic people
Lived communally, shared food and resources
Worked only 7 hours every three days (hunted)
Equal society among sexes
Speech emerged 100k years ago

10. Prehistory (cont’d)
Culture emerged to explain the unexplainable world!
Art:

11. Migration out of Africa, Why?
Competition with other humans
Following the animal herds
Human curiosity

12. The Neolithic Revolution
Also known as the First Agricultural Revolution (8000 BCE)
The domestication of plants and animals
FARMING= CROP SURPLUSES, SETTLEMENTS= SPECIALIZATION= CIVILIZATION.
Societies that did not develop farming independently or through cultural diffusion remained nomadic or vulnerable to conquest

13. “Fertile Crescent” aka Mesopotamia
So guess where the first civilizations begin??

14. Rise of Civilization & Mesopotamia
Complex Institutions
Institution: a long-lasting pattern of organization in a community
Ex: Government, religion, and the economy

15. Rise of Civilization & Mesopotamia
How Civilization Develops
A Civilization is a complex culture with 5 characteristics
Advanced Cities
Size alone does not distinguish a city from a village
Must be a center for trade

16. Rise of Civilization & Mesopotamia
Record Keeping
Ex. Tax collecting, passage of laws, storage of grain
Around 3000 B.C. Sumerian scribes (professional record keepers) invented a writing system called cuneiform.
Cuneiform: wedge shaped point pressed into wet clay to make symbols. P. 21

17. Rise of Civilization & Mesopotamia
Advanced Technology
Ex: Ox drawn plows, potters wheel, using bronze
Melt copper and tin together = bronze
(more durable and malleable)

18. Rise of Civilization & Mesopotamia
Specialized Workers
Specialization: the development of skills in a specific kind of work
Artisans: skilled workers who make goods by hand

19. Mesopotamia
Also known as The Fertile Crescent

20. Rise of Civilization & Mesopotamia
Geography of Mesopotamia
Located in modern day Iraq
Rich land and curved shape led scholars to call it the Fertile Crescent
Tigris and Euphrates Rivers run through region
Rivers unpredictably flood yearly leaving thick layer of mineral rich silt
Periods of no rain could cause desert conditions. Solution: irrigation.
No natural barriers in Mesopotamia for protection. Solution: they built walls
Natural resources were scarce. Solution: trade networks were established.

21. Sumer

22. Rise of Civilization & Mesopotamia
Sumerians Create City-States
The Sumerians exemplified the 5 characteristics of a civilization
Sumerians developed city-states: city that functioned like an independent country
Early government was controlled by temple priests
Ziggurat was a place of worship and like a town hall
In some cases, military leaders became full-time rulers and passed powers to sons
Dynasty: series of rulers from same family line
Cultural Diffusion: ideas or products spread from one culture to another through conquest and trade

23. Ziggurat

24. Rise of Civilization & Mesopotamia
Sumerian Culture
Sumerians were polytheistic: belief in more than one god
When you died you went to the “land of no return,” a dismal and gloomy place
Sumerians had social classes (see pyramid to right)
Sumerian women had more rights than many later Civilizations
Ur was one of the world’s first cities
Flourished 5,000 years ago
30,000 people
City walls
Used the barter system for trade
Worshipped at the ziggurat

25. Ur

27. Rise of Civilization & Mesopotamia
Sargon of Akkad conquered Sumer in 2350 B.C.
Sargon created the world’s first empire: the bringing together of several peoples or nations under the control of one ruler.
Babylonian ruler Hammurabi came up with Hammurabi’s Code
Hammurabi’s Code: single, uniform set of laws engraved in stone to help unify diverse groups within his empire