1. Toward Civilization (Prehistory–3000 B.C.)
CHAPTER ONE
Toward Civilization
(Prehistory–3000 B.C.)

2. Understanding Our Past1
Understanding Our Past
How are geography and history linked?
How do anthropologists and archaeologists find out about early peoples?
How do historians try to reconstruct the past?

3. 1
Geography and History
Geography is the study of people, their environments, and the resources available to them.
History uses written evidence to tell us how people lived in the past.
By showing how people lived in different times and places, geographers have added to our knowledge
of human history.

4. The Five Themes of Geography1
The Five Themes of Geography
Place
Movement
Region
The Human Story
Human-environment
interaction
Location

5. Geography Location Place Tells where a place is on the earth.
You can locate any place on a map using latitude and longitude.
Latitude – measures distance north and south of the Equator.
Longitude – measures distance east or west of the Prime Meridian.
Relative Location – where one place is located in relation to another – is sometimes more important than exact location.
Place
Geographers describe places in terms of their physical features and human characteristics.
Physical features include landforms, bodies of water, climate, soil quality, resources, plant and animal life.
Human characteristics include where most people live and their economic activities, religious beliefs, and languages.

6. Human-Environment Interaction
Since the earliest times, people have interacted with their environment.
They have been shaped by the places in which they lived.
As technology has advanced, we have changed the environment in more complex ways.
Movement
The movement of people, goods, and ideas is another key link between geography and history.
In early times, people followed herds of animals they depended on for food.
More recently, people have moved from place to place in search of jobs.
Traders carry goods from one place to another.
Ideas also move carried by traders, settlers or missionaries.
Region
Some regions are based on physical characteristics.
Regions may also be defined by political, economic, or cultural features.

7. Anthropologists & Archaeologists1
Prehistory refers to the long period of time before people invented systems of writing.
Prehistoric people had no cities, countries, organized central governments, or complex inventions.
Anthropology is the study of the origins and development of people and their societies. Some anthropologists study the origins of human life. Others focus on the variety of human cultures.
Archaeology is a specialized branch of anthropology.
Archaeologists study artifacts, objects made by human beings. By analyzing artifacts, archaeologists learn about the beliefs, values, and activities of early people.
Technology refers to the skills and tools people use to meet their basic needs.

8. Historians Reconstruct the Past
Historians study how people lived in the past.
They study artifacts, from clothing and coins to artwork and tombstones.
They rely more on written evidence.
About 5000 years ago, people in different parts of the world began keeping written records.
Historians study written evidence such as letters, tax records, and recently used evidence such as photographs or film.
Historians must interpret the evidence and try to explain what it means.
By explaining why things happened in the past, the historian can help us understand what is going on today and what may happen tomorrow.

9. Section 2: The Dawn of History
How can we learn about the religious beliefs of early people?
Why was the Neolithic agricultural revolution a turning point in history?
What advantages did people make during the Old Stone Age?

10. Section 2: The Old Stone Age
During the Old Stone Age, people lived as nomads, in small hunting and food gathering groups.
Anthropologists believe earliest human life began in East Africa.
These people:
made simple tools and weapons out of stone, bone, or wood;
traveled, moving from place to place as they followed game animals and ripening fruit.
developed a spoken language;
invented clothing;
used caves and rocky overhangs for shelter;
learned to build fires for warmth and cooking.

11. Early people left evidence of their belief in a spiritual world.2
The Old Stone Age
Early people left evidence of their belief in a spiritual world.
Stone statues are believed to have had religious meaning. Statues of pregnant women suggest that early people worshiped earth-mother goddesses.
Animism is the belief that the world
Is full of spirits and forces that might
reside in animals, objects, or
dreams.
Cave paintings may have been
part of animist religious rituals.
Early people began burying their dead with care, suggesting a belief in life after death. They provided the dead with tools and weapons for the afterlife.

12. THE NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION2
THE NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION
The change from nomadic to farming life led to changes in the way people lived and to the emergence of civilizations.
PEOPLE BEFORE
PEOPLE AFTER
Relied on hunting and gathering.
Learned to farm and were able to produce their own food.
Nomads lived in small hunting and food-gathering groups.
Settled into permanent villages.
Learned to domesticate, or tame, animals.
Waited for migrating animals to return each year.

13. Changing Ways of Life
The Neolithic agricultural revolution allowed people to become food producers for the first time.
This led to:
Growth in population.
More interaction among human communities.
Farmers divided work by gender and age.
Status of women declined as men dominated family, economic, and political life.
When food was scarce:
warfare increased,
some men gained prestige as warriors, who asserted power over others in the group.
Settled people also had more personal property than their nomad ancestors.

14. New Technologies
To farm successfully people developed new technologies.
Find new ways to protect crops.
Measure out seed for next year’s crop.
Measure time accurately, so they knew when to plant and harvest.
Domesticate animals to help with farm work.
Technology led to creation of separate workshops for the
creation of:
Tools
Weapons
Cloth weaving

16. Language

17. Section 3: Beginnings of Civilization
How did the first cities emerge?
What are the basic features of civilizations?
How do cultures spread and change?

18. The Rise of Cities
A civilization is a complex, highly organized social order.
The rise of cities was the main feature of civilization.
1st cities emerged after farmers began cultivating lands along river valleys and producing surplus food.
As populations grew, some villages swelled into cities.
River Valley Civilizations
River valleys favored farming.
Flood waters spread silt, which renewed soil.
Provided a regular water supply.
Were a means of transportation.
Rivers also posed challenges to control flooding and channel water to fields.
Cities also required leadership and well-organized governments.

19. What Are the Basic Features of Civilizations?3
What Are the Basic Features of Civilizations?
A civilization is a complex, highly organized social order.
Historians distinguish eight basic features found in most
early civilizations:
1. Cities
2. Well-organized central governments
3. Complex religions
4. Job specialization
5. Social classes
6. Arts and architecture
7. Public works
8. Writing

20. Features of Civilization
Organized Governments
Growth of cities required a steady food supply and a more powerful form of government than that of previous councils of elders.
In early governments, priests often had the most power.
Warrior kings emerged, they claimed that right to rule came from god.
Rulers issued laws, collected taxes, & organized systems of defense.
Over time separate government departments developed.
Complex Religions
Most ancient people were polytheistic.
Gods were believed to control natural and human activities.
Full-time priests, with special training and knowledge required to attend to gods.
Job Specialization
As new crafts were developed no one person could master all.
Individuals specialized in certain jobs.

21. Features of Civilization
Skilled craft workers, or artisans, workers who created pottery, carved or woven goods.
Specialization made people dependant on others for various needs.
Social Classes
In cities, people were ranked according to their jobs.
Priests and nobles usually ranked at the top.
Next, were the wealthy merchants.
Then the artisan class.
The vast majority were peasant farmers.
At the bottom, were the slaves.
Arts and Architecture
Arts and architecture expressed the beliefs and values of the people.
Temples and palaces dominated most cities.

22. Features of Civilization
Public Works
Strong rulers ordered projects to benefit the city, such as:
Irrigation systems
Roads
Bridges
Defensive walls
Writing
Earliest writing was made up of pictograms, represented objects they looked like.
With time, symbols were added, they might represent sounds or ideas.
Specially trained people called scribes were taught to read and write.
Women were excluded from becoming scribes because it could lead to political power.

23. Civilizations Spread and Change3
Civilizations Spread and Change
Civilizations spread when ancient rulers gained more power and conquered territories beyond the boundaries of their cities.
Civilizations change when the
physical environment changes.
Example: A tremendous volcano may have wiped out Minoan civilization.
Powerful rulers created city-states and empires.
Interactions among people also
cause cultures to change.
A city-state included a city and
its surrounding lands and
villages.
Cultural diffusion is the spread
of ideas, customs, and technologies from one people to another. Cultural diffusion occurred through migration, trade, and warfare.
An empire is a group of states or
territories controlled by one
ruler.

24. What Are the Basic Features of Civilizations?3
What Are the Basic Features of Civilizations?
Farmers began cultivating lands along river valleys
and producing surplus, or extra, food.
Surpluses helped populations expand.
As populations grew, some villages swelled into cities.

25. Ancient Civilizations