Text Book Summary

From Prehistory to Civilization (3000-1200BC)
LO1

• "Language, religion, art, technology, farming, family life, and village communities- all these basic features of human existence originated in prehistoric times."
• Learning Objectives:
• LO1- Trace the key developments of prehistory, from the emergence of our human ancestors to the beginnings of village life.
• LO2- Explain why the society that grew up in Sumer is considered one of the first civilizations, and describe later developments in Mesopotamia
• LO3- Contrast the ancient civilization of the Nile with that of the Tigris-Euphrates, and discuss the defining features of Egyptian life
• The Temple of Amon
• Prehistory: the period before history was recorded through written documents
• LO1- Before Civilization: The Prehistoric Era
• "If we reduce the time since the first humanlike species appeared to the period of the twenty-four-hour day, the five-thousand-year era of civilization takes up less than the last three minutes!"
• Paleolithic Age: this ear began with the earliest human types
• Neolithic Age: By the 8000Bc they had advanced so far in southwestern Asia and northeastern Africa, as well as in neighboring region including Europe
• The Hunting and Gathering Way of Life: throughout the Paleolithic Age, all human beings lived as migratory hunters, fishers, and gatherers
• Cave Paintings
• Agricultural Revolution : The shirt from hunting and gathering food to a more settled way of life based on farming and herding that occurred gradually between 8000 and 4000 BC in much of western Asia, northern Africa, and Europe and separately in other parts of the world
• The first of Agricultural Revolution took place in southwestern Asia
• Villages and Families:
• The first agricultural villages appeared in southwestern Asia
• Each house had its living storage space, which would have belonged to a family
• Neolithic Storage Jar: made to store plant and animal products
• Polytheism: the belief in many gods and goddesses
• "Over many generations, the life of village communities and families came to be regulated by complex systems of tradition, custom, and authority, out of which the law and government of civilized societies would ultimately."
• Study of traditional farming societies also suggests that the accompanied by a lasting shift in the pattern of relations between men and women.
• Agricultural Revolution made men, for the first time, the main suppliers of food
• Over many centuries, the Agricultural Revolution spread outward from its region of origin
• "Nurtured by a favorable environment and then toughened by harsher conditions, there grew up in southern Mesopotamia a new kind of society, so much more complex than the older one that today  it counts as one of the world's first true civilizations."