The Ancient World

to 1700 BC

Review for Unit Test 1

 The Prehistoric World
• History is a written record of the past
• Everything before writing is prehistoric
• Anthropologists study human societies
• Archaeologists study artifact
• Scientists believe man first appeared in Africa
• Hunter gatherer societies: hunt animals and gather fruits,
nuts and vegetables
• Old stone age, flint knives and spear heads
• During Ice Age: Big game hunters. Big animals ate grass
and moss
• Warming climate caused thick forests, old food sources
cut off
• Hunted smaller animals and learned to fish (bows, nets,
fish hooks)
 Agriculture Revolution
(7000- 6500 BC)
• Probably began in hills of north and east of Iraq
• Learned to grow wheat and barley (bread and
beer)
• Domesticated animals (goats and sheep)
• Slash and burn farmers in woods: needed ax,
hoe, sickle
• New Stone Age: polished granite or basalt ax
heads
• Villages: clay pots and bricks
• Number of people grew, division of labor
A Neolithic man
and woman glean
wheat and barley
on a spring morning in
Mesopotamia around
5000 B.C.
In the background
stand the mud houses
of their permanent
village.
 Simple Societies
• Forager Bands: hunter gatherers. Up to 40
people. Men related to each other. Classless:
everyone equal. Leaders rise based on ability
and skill.

• Farmer Tribes: farming increases land’s

carrying capacity. More people than in bands.
Still classless: everyone equal. Leaders still rise
based on ability and skill.
• By about 5000 BC farming villages had replaced
hunter gather bands as the basic unit of human
society.
• Farming villages spread across Eurasia, Africa
and the Americas and had become the way of
life for most people in the world.
• Most people in the world have continued to live
in such villages until very recently.
• Once adjustments to local conditions worked out
customary routines were passed down from
generation to generation with small changes for
thousands of years.
 Priest led tribal Societies
• Local leaders claiming special contacts to spirit world
organized large scale agricultural and artisan efforts to
prevent anger of gods.
• Farmers had to learn when to plant and how to save
enough seed for next planting. Careful observation of
sun, moon, planets and stars allowed priests to
determine proper planting seasons.
• Gifts of food to gods created reserve under priestly
control available to feed people if a famine came.
• Farming communities led by priests were and regulated
by religious rituals were better able to withstand
disasters from weather, weeds, and pests.
Chiefdoms: Warrior led Societies
• Priests eventually lost power to warriors.
• When priestly management created large surpluses
organized robbery became a possible way of life.
• Caused need for professional fighting men to protect
communities from plunder.
• Chief took control of organized violence in exchange for
protection payments. Used specialized weapons,
discipline and training to give his warriors superiority
over most raiders and robbers.
• Both farmers and warriors benefited from predictable
rents and taxes instead of the cost of ruinous plunder.
• The professional warriors could and did force the priestly
elites to accept subordination or some type of alliance.
 Complex Societies
• Chiefdoms: complex society with hereditary
leader. Leader collects tribute and can force
people to work. Large projects like dams,
irrigation canals etc.
• States: build civilizations; writing, law codes,
social classes bureaucracy. Bureaucrats: in
between nobles and peasants; enforce and
deliver will of the leader. Bigger projects:
Pyramids of Egypt, Great Wall of China.
• Both have less war: in time of need upper class
can starve the peasants instead of attacking
neighbors.
 The Birth of Civilization
• Rivers provided fresh water that could irrigate fields and
allow crops to grow.
• Irrigation & flood control ; growth of villages, towns,
(need for leaders, organizers)
• Cities: Some Villages grew to become cities.
• Economic specialization (different jobs such as
artisans and farmers). Increased long-distance trade.
• Technological innovations (metal working, wheel, plow,
shipbuilding)
• Writing (keep track of trade items & taxes!)
• Stratification: dividing of society into different classes.
• Government & Religion became more complex (built
temples & palaces). Polytheism (many Gods)
 First Civilization: Sumer
• Occurred in Mesopotamia between Tigris and
Euphrates in Iraq
• Leadership needed to direct work in irrigation canals
• Led to city states ruled by: kings and priests
• Society centered around god’s house: Ziggurat
• Surplus of food enabled people to specialize in other
trades
• Technology: Used potters wheel, wheeled vehicles, sail
boats, and the plow.
• Developed Metallurgy, first copper then Bronze
(copper+tin)
• Developed writing, (cuneiform) history begins
 First Empires
• By 3000 BC kings were military leaders
• Rivalry over water led to wars and conquest,
• Led to social classes: masters and servants
• Power moved upstream to Akkad
• Sargon of Akkad (c2250 BC) created empire (ruled
over other city states)
• Sargon’s Troops used composite bow
• Semitic languages (like Akkadian) replaced Sumerian
• Power shifted north (up stream) to Babylon
• Hammurabi developed written law code (about 1750
BC)
Empire of Sargon
2350-2820 B.C.
 Egyptian Civilization
• Depended on regular annual flooding of Nile River.
Deserts protected against outside attacks
• Unification of Upper (south) and Lower Egypt 3100 BC
under King Menes. Control of transportation and
communication on river gave pharaoh his power.
• Beginning of old kingdom (3100-2200 BC) capital
Memphis near point of delta
• Led by God King or Pharaoh who give immortality to
faithful servants. Pyramids were tombs for Pharaohs
• Rebellious local officials disrupted government for almost
200 years
• Middle Kingdom (2000-1800 BC) conqueror from south
reunited Egypt. Capital moved upstream (south) at
Thebes. Local landlords more important than in Old
Kingdom, spread culture
Other River Civilizations

Gobi Desert

Yellow
Indus River
Himalayan Mt.
River
 India
• Indus Valley Civilization (2500-1500 BC)
• Had contact with Sumer
• Built large cities along Indus River
• Had contact with Sumer
• Built large cities along Indus River
 China
• Civilization began along Yellow River
Valley ( 2500 to 1400 BC) in north east
China
• High level farming culture developed
• China isolated by: Gobi Desert, Pacific
Ocean, and Himalayas
 Civilization spreads to Rain
watered lands
• Ideas spread by conquest and trade
• Plow enabled farming away from rivers
• Hittites in Asia Minor (Turkey) Canaanites in
modern Israel, Jordan and Lebanon
• High culture spread across Europe (megalith
religion- built Stonehenge in England)
• Minoan Civilization (3000- 1400 BC) on Crete
and other Mediterranean Islands.
• Location of Minoan civilization allowed them to
develop economies based on trade.
 Spread of Civilization

Hittites

Minoans Mesopotamia
Iran

Egypt

Persian Gulf
 Northern Europe
• First settlers were hunter-gatherers migrating out
of Africa.
• Knowledge of farming spread from Fertile
Crescent to Europe.
• Complex civilizations slower to develop in
Europe than in Fertile Crescent because plentiful
rainfall made large-scale irrigation projects
unnecessary.
• European farming communities remained small
for a long time before complex urban civilizations
developed.
• Megalith stones set up during Neolithic period in
Europe beginning about 4500 BC.
 “Megaliths”

Two views of Stonehenge

Salisbury Plain
England
Built about 1650 B.C.
 The Pastoralists
• Some peoples only adopted some aspects of
civilization.
• Some cared for domesticated animals but did
not settle down and plant crops. They were often
nomads.
• Pastoralists: like hunters lived off plant eating
animals could be shepherds or cattle herders.
• Pastoralists required larger “Carrying Capacity”
than farmers. Needed more land to feed
themselves. Usually very war like. Fought over
best pasture land.
 Out on the Steppes
• Horse herders of steppe learned to use wheel and
developed light chariot.
• Combined chariot with composite bow and bronze
weapons and became deadly fighters.
• Rivalry between farmers and herdsmen: nomads
superior fighters but many more farmers.
• Chariot barbarians swarmed out of steppes (1700- 1400
BC) and over ran the civilized lands.
• Conquered civilizations in Mesopotamia (Kassites) ,
Egypt (Hyksos), Indus Valley (Aryans) and Yellow River
(Shang)
• Many invaders spoke Indo European Languages the
same as we do.
 A Deadly Combination
Large Horse breeds not yet developed
Most horses like large ponies, to small to
carry a large man especially if he was wearing
bronze armor.

Light Chariot and Composite Bow.

Chariots carried a driver and a shooter.
The Aegean Sea Region
• New crops, olives and
grapes introduced by
farmer tribes about
5000 BC.
• Minoan civilization
centered in Crete
controlled islands of
Aegean from 2100-
arround 1500 BC.
 The Minoans
• Minoans named for their ruler, King Minos.
• Lived mainly on island of Crete (south of Greece in
eastern Mediterranean Sea) many think the Minoans
represent the legend of Atlantis
• Because of their island location, they had easy access
to trade by sea. Became traders with networks around
the Aegean Sea.
• Seem to have been more peaceful than most. Few
fortifications in their ruins. No images of war in their art.
May have relied on a strong navy for protection.
• Civilization influenced most by geographical position &
trade with Egyptian empire & Mesopotamian lands.
• Decline of Minoan civilization: Earthquakes & tidal
waves, followed by attacks from Greece.
 Early Civilization Summary
• With development of Cities and Civilizations in river
valleys, traders, professional fighting men, and skilled
artisans began to operate across wider and wider areas.
• Civilizations next spread to rain watered lands and ideas
from civilized lands reached barbarian warriors of
northern steppe and dwellers on shores of
Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean.
• Cities remained exceptional and unstable. But instability,
tensions and challenges forced city people to develop
technological, religious, political, and economic changes
of history.
• Development of horse chariot warfare about 1700 BC led
to a wave of barbarian attacks on civilized regions that
was never equaled again.