Unit 1: Foundations 8000 B.C.E. – 600 C.E.Development of Agriculture and Early Agricultural Communities

FoundationsUnderstanding these things will make your life easier

Vocabulary You Need• Cultural diffusion• Demography• Intervening obstacles• “Marker events”• Migrations• Periodization• Perspective• Push and pull factors

B.C.E, C.E.? What?

• B.C.E. = Before Common Era, replaced B.C.• C.E. = Common Era, replaced A.D.• In B.C.E, the bigger the numbers, the longer ago is

happened• In CE, the bigger the numbers, the sooner it happened

• Example: 8000 B.C.E. happened before 100 C.E.• 2000 C.E. happened AFTER 100 C.E.

8000 7000 100 1000 2000B.C.E B.C.E. B.C.E C.E. C.E.

Centuries• When is the 17th century?• 1601-1699

• To figure out what years a century is talking about:• 1. Take the century subtract 1

• Ex: 17th century• 17-1 = 16 • So 17th century = 1600’s

• 2. Take the year and add 100 (ignore anything past the first two numbers)• Ex: 1810• 1810+100 = 1910• So, 1800s = 19th century

Primary Sources vs. Secondary Sources• Primary sources – original evidence from a time period• ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS (excerpts or translations acceptable):

Diaries, speeches, manuscripts, letters, interviews, news film footage, autobiographies, official records

• CREATIVE WORKS: Poetry, drama, novels, music, art • RELICS OR ARTIFACTS: Pottery, furniture, clothing, buildings• Ex: Diary of Anne Frank, Constitution of the US, weavings and

pottery, journal article reporting NEW research and findings

Primary Sources vs. Secondary Sources

• A secondary source interprets and analyzes primary sources. • Secondary sources may have pictures, quotes or graphics of

primary sources in them. • Some types of secondary sources include: PUBLICATIONS:

Textbooks, magazine articles, histories, criticisms, commentaries, encyclopedias

• Ex: • A journal/magazine article which interprets or reviews previous

findings • A history textbook • A book about the effects of WWI

Geography, The Physical Environment, and You• Change in borers and civilizations are constant• Physically, world of 4000 B.C.E. looks similar to our world

today• Geographical history moves slower than political

• Before we began transforming landscapes, physical geography shaped and limited activities

Geography, The Physical Environment, and You• Perspective or point of view• We all see our surroundings through the lens of our own time

period and culture• People have been making cultural distinctions for years, we have

to adjust our cultural perspectives as we go through time, realizing cultural meanings from one era impact those of later eras and that change has been continual

Demography • Demography = study of population• Changes in population are important part of how the human

story has shape• Population increases and decreases have caused people to

move, bringing other ways of life and causing political, social, and economic changes

Migrations• Permanent moves to new locations

• Occur on local, regional, and global levels• Push factor = encourages people to move from the region they live in

• Ex: persecution• Pull factor = attracts people to a new region

• Ex: better jobs, more democratic govt• Environmental factors:

• Intervening obstacles or physical features that halt or slow migration• Over time, they may have different meanings

• Ex: Ocean no longer prevents migration once new technology to cross is develops

Cultural Diffusion• When people move, bring culture with them• Cultural diffusion

• Includes innovations, technology, religion, language food, clothing styles, disease

• Diseases have spread as human interactions have increased• 14th century plague, contagious diseases with the Native Americans

• Cannot pin historical migrations to a single “marker event” because they took place gradually over long period of times

• Without them, humans might not have survived the early years

Agricultural Development and Early Agricultural Communities

Vocabulary You Need• Agriculture• Bipedalism• Catal Hayuk• Cultural diffusion• Division of labor• Horticulture• Independent

invention• Jericho

• Lucy• “Marker events” of pre-

history• Neolithic craft industries• Neolithic Revolution• Paleolithic Age• Pastoralism• Polytheism• Specialization• Surplus

When is history?• History usually defined as study of past beginning with first

systematic written records in the 4th millennium (4000-3000 B.C.E.)

• Important developments before this that influenced course of world history

• “Marker Event” – development of agriculture and agricultural communities

Human Life Before 8000 B.C.E.• Humans existed for millions of years by 8000 B.C.E.• Archaeologists (scientists who study prehistoric and ancient

peoples) believe the decisive differentiation between humans and apes occurred between 6-8 million yeas ago

• Bipedalism (preference for walking erect on two limbs other than four) make us distinct from other mammals

Human Life Before 8000 B.C.E.• Earliest bipedal

creature – Ardepithecus ramidus found in Ethiopia in 2001• All other human

species died out except homo sapiens• Surviving human species

between 50,000-10,000 years ago

Human Life Before 8000 B.C.E.• Primary sources during

this period are objects, artifacts, and skeletal remains• Hominids used refined

tools 70,000 years ago during the Paleolithic Age (Old Stone Age)• Lasted until about 8000

B.C.E.• Humans inhabited all

continents except Antarctica

Human Life Before 8000 B.C.E.• Homo sapiens had

many advantages• Forelimbs free from

walking• Opposable thumbs• A large brain• Not as strong as other

species but figured out how to survive

Hunting and Gathering• During Paleolithic Age, humans survived by foraging for food

–• Hunting for animals• Gathering edible plants

• Traveled in small groups (30-50)• Nomadic – constantly moving to follow animals and find new

edible plants• Kept people from accumulating possessions or claiming

property ownership

Hunting and Gathering• Division of labor based on sex• Men hunt• Women gather

• No evidence one was considered more important than the other

• Survival depended on understanding of environment• Older women had extensive knowledge of plants and passed

skills to younger women• Hunters had to make clever traps and figure out ways to hunt

animals larger than them

Importance Of Tools• Early tools made of:• Wood• Bone• Stone

• Few survive today

• Tools used to help build huts and eventually to weave cloth.• Allowed them to invent

and sustain agriculture

Paleolithic Culture• Little is known because of

few surviving artifacts• Cave paintings in North

Africa, oldest from 32,000 years ago

• Some paintings indicate they had well-developed religion• Careful, ritualistic burials

• In areas with abundant resources, humans probably only spent 3-5 hours tending to their survival• Rest of time used to make

tools, create art, and socialize

Neolithic Revolution• Marker event – 8000 B.C.E.

(roughly)• Neolithic (New Stone Age)

Revolution• Agricultural Revolution• Not a single event, occurred at

different times in different parts of the world

• Took several generations to truly take hold

• Agriculture• Deliberate tending of crops and

livestock in order to produce food and fiber

• Adopted originally to supplement needs

Early Horticulture and Pastoralism• Horticulture used only hand tools such as hoes and digging sticks• Pastoralists first domestication of animals but remained semi-nomadic• Horticulturists first to settle in one place and eventually integrated

domestication of animals• Agriculturalists could cultivate larger fields and plows turned soil to

increase fertility• Communities grew larger as surpluses grew

Domestication of Grains• Middle East has earliest evidence of agriculture• Development of agriculture dependent on availability of

grains and animals that could be domesticated in the area• Availability of food may have sped up the process• Food scarce, develop agriculture as an alternative

• Plants in Middle East spread through cultural diffusion• People learned from those already farming

• Agriculture developed as an independent invention• (No cultural diffusion)• Domesticated rice in China, maize in Mesoamerica, potatoes,

squash, tomatoes, and peppers in Peru

Domestication of Animals• As people settled down, trained animals to stay put, too• Some more easily domesticated than others• Dogs were probably first

• More directly related to development of agriculture:• Domestication of sheep and goats in SW Asia• Cows in Eurasia and N. Africa• Water buffalo and chickens in China• Camels in Arabia and central Asia• Horses and pigs in Eurasa• Llamas in the Andes• Mesoamerica, Sub-Saharan Africa, New Guinea, and Andes had

few good animal candidates

Neolithic Revolution as a Marker Event• Changes to the way human beings lived:• People settled down• Division of labor• Social inequality• Gender inequality• Importance of surplus• Religious changes

People Settled Down• To be near crops, humans settled into villages• Didn’t have to worry about carrying possessions, so started to

accumulate goods• Began to claim land as their own• Private property began to define human society

Division of Labor• Basic division in hunter/gatherer:• Men hunt• Women gather

• People started to see advantages of “specialization”• All work could be done more efficiently

Social Inequality• Hunter/gatherer groups usually had relative social equality• Agricultural societies had social distinctions, eventually

evolving into social classes• People with more land than others passed it to their children• Some families more “distinguished” than others

• Some specializations awarded more respect or material awards• Social inequality increased

Gender Inequality• Neolithic Revolution beginning of status distinctions between

men and women• Women lost economic power in agricultural societies• Men took over animals and crops, women sent to domestic

chores no longer needed for survival

Importance of Surplus• Not everyone a farmer anymore• Farmer had to produce a surplus to support him and his

family and others in village• Food could be put away for bad periods• Health improved, population increased, more specialization

occurred, villages grew• Eventually grew to cities that needed specialized jobs in

government

Religious Changes• Most agricultural societies developed polytheism• Belief in many gods

• “gods” with human characteristics presided over areas important to farmers• Sun gods, rain gods, gods of the harvest, female fertility gods

Three Craft Industries • Three craft industries developed as result of Neolithic

Revolution:• Pottery

• Containers for sharing foods, waterproof• Made by fire-hardening clay

• Metallurgy• Copper probably first metal humans shaped into tools and jewelry• By 6000 B.C.E. discovered they could heat to high temperatures and

fashioned knives, farm tools, and weapons• Textiles

• People wove fibers as early as 6000 B.C.E.• Eventually spun spread and wove into cloth

Growth of Towns and Cities• By 4000 B.C.E., villages had grown into towns, and towns into

small cities• Jericho on the Jordan River• Catal Huyuk in southern Turkey• Both heavily fortified for protection

• Jericho’s houses were surrounded by a ditch and wall almost 12 ft high

• Catal Huyuk’s houses were joined together so outside entrances were barricaded and houses could not be invaded

• Both relied on trade• Foreshadowing of great civilizations and cities of 4th

millennium B.C.E.