REVIEWER - WORLD HISTORY 1
- The earliest part of the period is the
THE FIRST CIVILIZATIONS AND THE RISE OF
EMPIRES
Civilization
- refers to complex societies, but the specific
definition is contested.
- The advent of civilization depended on the
ability of some agricultural settlements to
consistently produce surplus food, which
allowed some people to specialize in non-
agricultural work, which in turn allowed for
increased production, trade, population,
and social stratification.
- The first civilizations appeared in locations
where the geography was favorable to
intensive agriculture.
- Governments and states emerged as rulers
gained control over larger areas and more
resources, often using writing and religion
to maintain social hierarchies and
consolidate power over larger areas and
populations.
- Writing allowed for the codification of laws,
better methods of record-keeping, and the
birth of literature, which fostered the
spread of shared cultural practices among
larger population.
A civilization is a complex society that creates
agricultural surpluses, allowing for specialized
labor, social hierarchy, and the establishment of
cities. Developments such as writing, complex
religious systems, monumental architecture, and
centralized political power have been suggested as
identifying markers of civilization, as well.
When historians or anthropologists use the term
civilization, they mean a society has many different,
interconnected parts. So, rather than thinking
about different forms of social organization as
completely separate models, it’s helpful to think in
terms of a spectrum of complexity. On one end, we
have hunter-forager societies—which have little
complexity—and on the other end, we have
civilizations—which are highly complex.
EARLY HUMANS AND FIRST CIVILIZATION (PPT)
Early Humans
- History is the story of humans in the past.
- Historians are people who study & write
about the human past
- The story of people really begins before
people developed writing.
Tools of Discovery
- Historians call the early period of human
history the Stone Age.
Paleolithic or Old Stone Age.
• Paleolithic:
-means "old stone" in the Greek language it
began roughly 25 million years ago Lasted
until around 8000 B.C.
Who Were the Hunter-Gatherers?
• The world during the Stone Age had no roadways,
farms, or villages.
• Early humans spent most of their time searching
for food.
They hunted animals, caught fish, ate insects, and
gathered nuts, berries, fruits, grains and plants.
Men & women did different jobs within the group.
Women:
- Stayed close to the campsite, which was
usually near a water source
- Looked after the children
- Searched nearby woods & meadows for
berries, nuts and grains
Because they hunted and gathered, Paleolithic
people were always on the move.
• They were called nomads.
• They traveled in bands of 30 or more people
because it was safer and easier to find food.
Men:
- Hunted animals.
- They had to learn animal habits
- Make tools for the kill
First used clubs or drove animals off a cliff
Paleolithic people invented spears, traps, and bows
& arrows
Adapting to the Environment
• The way the Paleolithic people lived depended on
where they lived.
Paleolithic people created new kinds of shelter
made of animal skins held up by wooden poles.
• They also made a life-changing discovery when
they learned to tame fire.
Fire:
- Gave warmth
- Lit the darkness
- Scared away wild animals
- Could now cook food
- Started fires by rubbing two pieces of wood
together
What Were the Ice Ages?
 - Fire was the key to survival during the Ice
Ages.
- The last Ice Age was between 100,000 B.C.
& 8000 B.C.
- Thick ice sheets covered parts of Europe,
Asia & North America.
- The Ice Age was a threat to human life.
- People risked death from the cold & also
from hunger.
- Humans had to adapt their diet and
shelters.
Language, Art & Religion
- Another advance in Paleolithic times was
the development of spoken language.
- Language made it easier to work together &
pass on knowledge.
- People also expressed themselves through
art.
- They crushed black, yellow & red rocks to
make powders for paint.
- They dabbed the paint on cave walls
creating different scenes.
Historians are not sure why the cave paintings were
created. They must have had religious meaning.
The Invention of Tools
- Paleolithic people were the first to use
technology.
- People often used a hard stone called flint
to make tools.
- People often used a hard stone called flint
to make tools.
- Over time, people grew more skilled at
making tools.
- They crafted smaller tools, such as
fishhooks & needles made from animal
bones.
Neolithic Times
After the last Ice Age, people began to domesticate
animals & plants for human use.
- Animals provided meat, milk & wool;
carried goods & pulled carts
- People also learned how to grow food
which allowed them to stay in one place.
- Gradually, farming began to replace hunting
& gathering.
This change in the way people lived marked the
beginning of the Neolithic Age, or New Stone Age.
- It lasted until about 4000 B.C.
Why Was Farming Important?
• Historians call the changes in the Neolithic Age
the farming revolution.
• Some consider the farming revolution the most
important event in human history.
• Farming did not begin in one region & spread.
- Asia: wheat, barley & rice
- Mexico: corn, squash & potatoes
The Growth of Villages
- Now, people who farmed could settle in
one place.
- Farmers had to stay close to their fields to
water the plants, keep hungry animals away
and harvest their crops.
- They began to live in villages where they
built permanent homes.
Neolithic early villages
The Growth of Villages
- During the Neolithic Age, villages were
started in Europe, India, Egypt and China.
- The earliest known communities have been
found in the Middle East.
- One of the oldest is Jericho, which is in the
West Bank, between what is now Israel &
Jordan.
- Jericho dates back to 8000 B.C.
- Another well-known community is Catal
Huyuk in present-day Turkey.
- Had 6,000 people between 6700 B.C. &
5700 B.C. - Lived in mud-brick houses
- Used other buildings as other places of
worship - They farmed, hunted, raised
sheep & goats and ate fish
The Benefits of a Settled Life
Having a settled life brought Neolithic people
greater security than they had ever known.
- Steady food supplies meant healthy,
growing populations
- With a bigger population, there were more
workers to produce a bigger crop.
- Because villagers produced more than
enough to eat, they began to trade their
extra.
- People began to practice specialization -
Pottery
- Weave mats & cloth
- In the late Neolithic times, people
continued to make advances.
- People began to work with metal
- At first used copper
After 4000 B.C. people in western Asia began to
mix copper & tin to form bronze (which lasted
longer) - It became widely used between B.C. &
1200 B.C. and this period became known as the
Bronze Age.
With a surplus of food and increased population
people began to specialize in jobs
- Some of these jobs included farmer,
artesian, priest, rulers, and warriors
- These small villages grew into the first
civilizations
Growth of Civilizations
Civilization is defined as: highly organized society
marked by advanced knowledge of trade,
government, arts, science and often time written
language
Features of Civilization
1. Cities - As farmers settled in river valleys,
the began to grow surplus or extra food;
this extra food increased the population of
the settlements; in time, the settlements
grew into cities (e.g. Ur and Babylon).
2. Organized Central Government - As cities
expanded, the food supply and irrigation
system needed to maintained governments
such as councils religious or leaders, began
to the oversee business and of the
existence cities
3. Organized Religions - Religious leaders
would conduct apps to the gods and ensure
a bountiful harvest floods and draughts
were blamed on the gods anger so rituals
were conducted in the temples.
4. Job Specialization - Artisans and were
craftsmen needed to maintain specific items
and tasks; Now, some concentrated on
teaching, scribing. stone cutting and so
forth. specialized so didrespected than an
unskilled
5. Social Classes - As jobs became the status
and needs of certain individuals; the need
for an educated religious leader was more
worker; were herders needed for the food,
while masons were needed for building; the
slave was on the lowest rank of the social
ladder; warriors and kings were on top.
6. Writing System - Records were needed to
keep accounts on trade goods and food
storage: E writing was needed because the
information became too great; in addition,
one needed to express more complex ideas
such as "belief" and "social order” where
pictures and words simply would not
suffice.
7. Art and Architecture - This expressed the
beliefs and values of a civilization; often the
art was used to impress visitors and people
about the beauty and power of a king or
community.
8. Public Works - The government would
order these, although costly, to aid and
benefit the community; such things as a
wall to protect from attack or a canal to aid
in irrigation would help insure the survival
of a people.
Ancient Mesopotamia
Ancient Egypt
Writing appeared in Mesopotamia over 5,000 years
ago. This invention I was so important that it marks
the end of the Prehistory, and the beginning of
History
As villages grew into towns, writing was a way of
storing information about taxes, trade and
population
Four early River Valley Civilizations
1. Mesopotamian Civilization - Tigris &
Euphrates Rivers
2. Egyptian Civilization - Nile River
3. Indian Civilization Indus River -
4. Ancient China - Huang He (Yellow) River
Mesopotamia
- means: land between rivers
- was a very dry area. However, irrigation
canals allowed agriculture to develop.
Cuneiform writing was essential, it
consisted of signs drawn on clay tablets.
City-States in Mesopotamia
Although all the cities shared the same culture
Each city had its own government, rulers, warriors,
it's own patron god, and functioned like an
independent country
Mesopotamian cities were Ur, Uruk, Kish, Lagesh At
center of each city was the temple: a ziggurat (a
massive, tiered, pyramid-shaped structure).
- Civilization Begins in Mesopotamia
Mesopotamian religion
- They believed in many gods- polytheism
Mesopotamian Society
1. King and nobility
2. Priests
3. Scribes
4. Craftsmen and Peasants
5. Slaves
Three social classes
a. Priests and aristocracy (kings)
b. Civil servants: scribes
c. Ordinary workers: Craftmens, Merchants
and Peasants
Slaves: were not free citizens Women had more
rights than in many later civilizations, but not
allowed to attend schools (could not read or write)
Mesopotamian culture One of the first writing
systems - Cuneiform
It's one of the most important civilizations in
History. It emerged more than 5,000 years ago,
along the River Nile in the north-east of Africa
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egyptians lived near the River Nile, because
the land was fertile there. Each year, water from
the Nile rose and flooded the area. When the water
went back, it left mud which made the fields fertile.
- Egyptians called their king a pharaoh. The
pharaoh was all powerful:
a. He passed laws,
b. He ruled the country .
c. He owned most of the land,
d. He controlled trade and led the
armies
Egyptians believed that the pharaohs were gods.
Ancient Egyptian society
A EGYPTIAN SOCIAL PYRAMID
1. Pharaoh
2. Government officials Vian Priest Noble
3. Soldiers
4. Scribes
5. Merchants
6. Craftsmen
7. Peasants
8. Staves
Egyptian religion
Egyptians were polytheistic: they worshipped
many gods
Egyptians believed there was an afterlife, as long as
the body was preserved. Consequently, a dead
body was dried to make a mummy, which was put
in a sarcophagus. A wealthy person's tomb
contained the things which were necessary in the
afterlife, such as food, jewels or statues of
servants.
The biggest tombs were the spectacular pyramids
which were built for the pharaohs
INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION
The Indus valley civilization was one of the world's
first great urban civilizations. It flourished in the
vast Indus river plains and adjacent regions, in what
are now parts of Afghanistan, Pakistan and north
western India.
Roots of Indus Valley Civilization
- Roots of Indus Valley began as early as 7000
B.C.E.
- Possibly began as herders who moved into
the river valley during colder months. - Over
time, they may have decided to farm-river
watered lands of the valley.
- They began trading by boat along the Indus
down into the Arabian Sea, into the Persian
Gulf, and up the Tigris and Euphrates into
Mesopotamia.
The Artifacts: Crafts and the Arts
- Crafts of the Indus valley included pottery
making, dye metal working in bronze, and
bead making.
Bead materials included:
1. jade from the Himalayas,
2. lapis lazuli from Afghanistan
3. turquoise from Persia,
4. amethyst from Mewar in India, • and
steatite, which was found locally.
Small sculptures in stone,
- Small sculptures in stone, terra cotta, and
bronze appear to represent priestly or
governmental officials, dancing girls, and
perhaps mother goddesses.
- Since there are no surviving texts to explain
identities, these can only be guesses.
Dice and small
- sculptures of bullock carts were probably as
toys and games.
- The first known use of cotton as a fiber for
weaving textiles occurred in the Indus
Valley.
Carefully Planned Cities
- Originating around 2500 B.C.E. the thriving
civilizations survived for around 500 years.
Both Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro, two of
the largest among 500 sites, were three
circumference with miles in around 40,000
people.
Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa
- To the north is a citadel or raised area.
- In Mohenjo-Daro, the citadel is built on an
architectural platform about 45 feet above
the plain.
- On the summit was a huge communal bath.
- Next to the large bath was a huge open
space-a granary where food was stored
from possible floods.
- Fortified walls mark the southeast corner.
- The lower city was laid out in a gridiron with
the main streets about 45 feet wide.
- Private houses, almost every one with its
own well, bathing space, and toilet
consisting of a brick seat over a drainage
area.
- Brick-lined drains flushed by water carried
liquid and solid waste to sumps, where it
was carted away, probably to fertilize
nearby fields.....
- The town plan was regular.
- Even fire-baked bricks were uniform in size
and shape
- The regularity of plan and construction
suggests a government with organization
and bureaucratic capacity.
 - No monumental architecture clearly marks
the presence of a palace or temple.
- There is little sign of social stratification in
the plan or buildings.
Indus Valley Burial Sites
- Heads pointing to the north
- Some grave goods, such as pots of food and
water, small amounts of jewelry, simple
mirrors, and some cosmetics.
- Not extravagant like royal burials of Egypt
or even of Mesopotamia.
Enter: The Aryans
- Approximately 1500 B.C.E. a nomadic and
pastoral people who spoke the Indo-
European language passed through the
Hindu Kush mountains.
- They called themselves "Aryans" or "noble
people."
- They established small herding and
agricultural communities throughout
northern India.
- Their migrations took place over several
centuries.
Aryan Influence on Harappan Society
- Aryan migrations took place over several
centuries.
- Their arrival was not an invasion or
organized military campaign.
- It is likely that Indo-European migrants
clashed with Dravidians (people settled in
the Harappan area.)
- By the time Aryans entered India, internal
problems had already brought Harappan
society to the point of collapse.
- During the centuries after 1500 B.C.E.,
Dravidian and Indo European peoples
intermarried and laid social and cultural
foundations that influenced Indian society
to present day.
Ancient China
What was the oldest civilization in China?
- The Shang Civilization happened in the
Huang Ho Valley
- Yellow River - Originates from western
China and flows through 9 provinces It is 4,640
kilometres long Loess-yellow soil that served as
fertilizer - To capture the loess, the people started
to plant vegetation that can control the waters that
rose and created dikes.
China's Rivers...
- Like rivers in other parts of the world,
China's rivers overflowed their banks each
spring.
- Flooding brought fresh, fertile topsoil to the
land.
- B/C of this, China's first farming villages
developed along these rivers.
The Huang He (Yellow River)
- Begins in the highlands of Tibet, it flows for
more than 3,000 miles and empties into the
Yellow Sea.
- Muddiest river in the world! Loess: yellow-
brown soil.
- After countless floods, the Huang He has
carpeted the N. China plain with a thick
layer of soil.
- (perfect for farming!)
China's Sorrow
- The other name the Huang He goes by is
"China's Sorrow."
- The river was unpredictable and sometimes
dangerous, but it also provided life..
- Sometimes one flood would drown
thousands of people!
- The Chinese attempted to protect
themselves with terraces and dikes..
- Despite the dangers, the early Chinese
people continued to settle along the banks
of the Huang He.
During the Neolithic Period...
1. Yangshao culture existed around 5000 to
1500 B.C.E.
2. Longshan culture existed around 3000 to
2000 B.C.E.
Yangshao Culture
- Farming and agriculture, hunting andfishing
- Nomadic
- Houses called dug-pits were arranged in a
circle
- Painted Pottery Culture
- red and black geometrical designs, human
facial and animal designs
- Pottery were coiled or molded
- Produced silk, cloth weaving
Longshan or Lungshan Culture
- Similar to Yangshao except they are not
nomadic
- Bigger dug-pit houses - Invention of the
potter's wheel led to better pottery,
thinner, goblet s with handles
- Pottery were baked in kiln
- Black Pottery Culture
Shang Civilization
- High earthen walls
- Palace and temple are at the center
surrounded by public buildings and house of
government officials-inner zone
- Artisans, farmers and other citizens lived in
the outer zone
» Ruled by priest-kings = Led armies with chariots
and bronze weaponry
Xia or Hsia Dynasty
- Known to be the first dynasty in China (2070
1600 B.C.E.)
- Known to be the first dynasty in China (2070
1600 B.C.E.)
- However, this is still under debate due to
lack of evidence
- Ruled for about 400 years
- Yangcheng-capital city
Shang or Yin Dynasty
- Succeeded the Xia dynasty (1600-1046
B.C.E.)
- Ruled for about 600 years Anyang-capital
city
- Evidence of bronze-ware and human
sacrifice were found in excavated tombs of
emperors Shang Zhou, the last Shang king,
committed suicide after his army was
defeated by the Zhou people. Legends say
that his army and his equipped slaves
betrayed him by joining the Zhou rebels.
Zhou Dynasty
- Succeeded the Shang dynasty (1046-256
B.C.E.)
- Ruled for about 800 years
- Haojing-capital city
- King Wu-first emperor - Iron was introduced
during this period
- Bronze-ware was at its peak as well
Pyro-osteomancy
- Oracle bones
- Bones were used to communicate with
dead ancestors, fortune telling
- A question was writtenon an animal bone
and thrown into a fire
- The cracks on the bones are interpreted by
priest kings
- Ancestral worship - wisdom and guidance
Manner of Writing
- System of writing symbols, early form of
calligraphy
- System of writing symbols, early form of
calligraphy
- Written in vertical order
- Found on oracle bones
- These characters symbolized things, ideas
or sounds
- It unified China
- Certain characters were memorized by
people especially the aristocrats
THE CIVILIZATION OF GREEKS (PPT)
- GREECE occupied a 45, 000 miles territory
of a mountainous peninsula.
Peloponnesus – location of Sparta and Olympia
Attica (Attic Peninsula) – the home of Athens
Boeotia (Thebes-chief city) – located northwest of
Attica
Thessaly – contained the largest plains; great
produces of grains and horses
Macedonia – located North of Thessaly; was not
important in Greek history until…
385 B.C.E – Macedonian King Philip II conquered
the Greeks.
MINOAN CRETE
CRETE is the large island where the earliest
civilization in Aegean region emerged.
- By 2800 B.C.E, Bronze Age Civilization that
used metals in making weapons had been
established.
- 2ooo B.C.E to 1450 B.C.E, it has reached its
height.
- 1450 B.C.E – Minoan civilization suffered a
sudden catastrophic collapse.
Arthur Evans – named the island “Minoan” after
Minos, a legendary king of Crete.
Palace at Knossus – the royal seats of the kings; an
elaborate structure that included living rooms,
workshops, ivory figurines and jewelry
Mycenaeans – mainland Greeks.
MYCENAE: THE FIRST GREEK STATE
MYCENAEANS:
- part of the Indo-European family of peoples
who spread from their original location into
southern and western Europe, India and
Persia.
- were above all a warrior people who prided
themselves on their heroic deeds.
- developed an extensive commercial
network like Mycenaean pottery found
throughout Mediterranean basin.
Mycenaean – derived from Mycenae; a remarkable
fortified site excavated by the amateur German
archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann.
Mycenae – one center in a Mycenaean Greek
civilization flourished between 1600 and 1100
B.C.E.
Mycenaean Civilization – flourished between 1400
and 1200 B.C.E
- By the late 13th century, Mycenaean
Greece was showing signs of serious
trouble.
- Mycenae itself was burned around 1190
B.C.E.
 - Other Mycenaean centers show a similar
pattern of destruction.
- By 1100 B.C.E., the Mycenaean culture has
coming to an end, and the Greek world was
entering a new period of considerable
insecurity.
A Mycenaean Death Mask.
- This death mask of thin gold was one of
several found by Heinrich Schliemann in his
excavation of Grave Circle A at Mycenae.
The se masks are similar to the gold
mummy masks used in Egyptian royal
tombs.
THE GREEKS IN A DARK AGE (C. 1100 – 750 B.C.E
Large numbers of Greeks left the mainland and
migrated across the Aegean Sea to various islands
and to the southern shore of Asia Minor (a strip of
land called Ionia).
Two Major Groups of Greeks:
1. Aeolian Greeks of northern and central
Greece colonized the large island of Lesbos
and the adjacent territory of the mainland.
2. Dorians established themselves in
southwestern Greece, especially in
Peloponnesus, as well as on some of south
Aegean islands, including Crete.
Iron replaced bronze in making weapons which
were more affordable for more people.
- 8th century, the Greeks adopted Phoenician
alphabet to give themselves a new system
of writing.
Homer’s work appeared near the very end of Dark
Age.
THE GREEKS IN A DARK AGE: HOMER AND
HOMERIC GREECE
Iliad and Odysse
- the first great epic poems of early Greece;
based on stories that had been passed
down from generation to generation.
Iliad
- Homer’s epic poem of the Trojan War; a
tale of the Greek hero Achilles and how the
“wrath of Achilles” led to disaster.
Odyssey
- an epic romance that recounts the journeys
of one of the Greek heroes, Odysseus, from
the fall of Troy until his eventual return to
his wife, Penelope, twenty years later.
The Greeks regarded Iliad and Odyssey as authentic
history.
Arete
- importance of striving for the excellence
befitting a hero; is won in a struggle or
contest.
THE CIVILIZATION OF GREEKS THE GREEK CITY–
STATES
ARCHAIC AGE OF GREECE:
Two major development stand out in this era;
1. The evolution of the city – state (Polis) as a
central institution in Greek life.
2. The Greeks’ colonization of the
Mediterranean and Black Seas.
THE POLIS
- A small but autonomous political unit in
which all major political, social, and
religious activities were carried out at one
central location.
- Consisted of a city, town, or village was the
focus (a central point where the citizens of
the polis could assemble for political, social
and religious activities.
- Central meeting point: a hill (ex. Acropolis
of Athens) – a place of refuge during an
attack; religious center and others.
Agora – an open space that served both as a
market and as a place where citizens could
assemble.
Adult Males
- citizens with political rights
Women and Children
- citizens without political rights
Noncitizens
- slaves and resident aliens
All citizens
- possessed fundamental rights
A NEW MILITARY SYSTEM: THE GREEK WAY OF
WAR
- 8th century: a new military order came into
being that was based on hoplites.
HOPLITES – heavily armed infantrymen who wore
bronze or leather helmets, breastplates, and
greaves (shin guards); carried a round shield, a
short sword and thrusting spear about 9 feet long.
Phalanx – a rectangular formation hoplites made
when they advance into battle, usually eight ranks
deep.
THE GREEK WAY OF WAR
WAR: “Always existing by nature between every
Greek city-state.” -Plato
Greeks possessed excellent weapons and body
armor, making effective use of technological
improvements.
- They included a wide number of citizen-
soldiers in their armies.
- Greeks displayed a willingness to engage
the enemy head-on, thus, deciding a battle
quickly and with as few casualties as
possible.
TYRANNY IN THE GREEK POLIS
Tyrants
- rise in the 7th and 6th century B.C.E.
- Rulers who came to power in an
unconstitutional way; a tyrant was not
subject to the law.
Aristocratic Oligarchies (rule the few) opposed
tyrants and aristocrats.
- Tyranny was largely extinguished by the end
of the 6th century B.C.E.
- Greeks believed in the rule of law, and
tyranny made a mockery of that ideal.
- Yet, tyranny ended the rule of aristocratic
oligarchies.
SPARTA AND ATHENS
SPARTA
- Located in the southeastern of
Peloponnesus.
- Captured Laconians and Messenians (c. 730
BCE)
Messenia – has larger population and possessed a
large and fertile land.
Helots – derived from a Greek word for “capture” -
and made to work for the Spartans.
NEW SPARTA: Reforms were made associated with
the name Lycurgus – Spartans became rigidly
organized and rightly controlled.
Male Spartan at 7: Taken from their mothers to
live in military-style barracks, educate, train, and
discipline.
Male Spartan at 20: Enrolled in military service
Male Spartan at 30: Allowed to vote; at 60,
retirement.
Spartan Oligarchy:
Two Kings – for military affairs; leaders of the
Spartan army on its campaign.
Gerousia – a council of elders; 28 citizens over the
age of 60; elected for life.
Apella – an assembly of all male citizens.
Ephors – a group of five men who were responsible
for supervising the education of youth and the
conduct of all citizens.
Discouragements:
- Foreigners; travel abroad; studying
philosophy, literature or the arts.
500 B.C.E, Spartans had organized a powerful
military state that maintained order and stability in
the Peloponnesus.
ATHENS
- 700 BCE, they established a unified polis on
the peninsula of Attica.
- 7th century, monarchy had fallen under the
control of aristocrats.
Archons – a board of nine officials
Solon – reform-minded aristocrat, sole archon in
594 BCE.
REFORMS OF SOLON:
- cancelled all debts
- outlawed new loans based on humans as
collateral freed people who had fallen into
slavery for debts
- Opened new doors to the participation of
new people
Pisistrus – an aristocrat; siezed power in 560 B.C.E.
Cleisthenes – another aristocrat reformer; opposed
the reestablishment attempt of aristocrat
oligarchy.
REFORMS OF CLEISTHENES:
- Created Council of Five Hundred (reponsible
for the administration of both foreign and
financial affairs and prepare the business
that would be handled by the assembly.
- All male citizens had final authority in the
passing of laws after free and open debate
- The reforms created the foundations for
Athenian democracy
CHAPTER 1
EARLY HUMANS AND THE FIRST CIVILIZATIONS
(module)
Prehistory - events that occurred before the
existence of written records in a given culture or
society.
History - refers to the time period after the
invention of written records in a given culture or
society.
Archaeologists have discovered written records in
Egypt from as early as 3200 BCE, which is the
accepted date at which history "begins" there.
Written records give historians resources to deal
with that are more detailed in some ways than
other records, such as archaeological or biological
remains.
The scope of history
Think about the scope of what must have
happened during that time:
1. adventures,
2. sorrows,
3. environmental change, and
4. the rise and fall of civilizations.
Written records
Our main tool as historians is what has been
written by those who came before us. In fact, this is
what formally defines history and sometimes sets
it apart from archaeology and anthropology. For
example, the oldest written records archaeologists
have discovered in Egypt are from over 5,000 years
ago; the date when they were created is the
currently accepted date at which formal history (as
opposed to "prehistory") begins in that part of the
world. Of course, we might one day find older
records!
TOOLS
- Archaeologists can excavate ancient
structures and burial sites and begin to infer
how the people lived from fossils (like
human remains) and artifacts (human-
made items).
- Archaeologists can estimate the age of
fossils and artifacts through several
techniques.
- Carbon dating measures the amount of
radioactive carbon in fossils to place them
in time.
- Age can also be determined by identifying
the age of the layer of rock that the artifacts
are buried in. This is called stratigraphic
dating, from the Latin word stratum,
meaning "layer."Linguists can often piece
together possible human migrations and
connections based on similarities in
modern, living languages.
- Similarly, geneticists can piece together
how humanity may have spread and
intermingled based on genetic similarities
and differences in populations today.
Uncertainty remains
Photograph of skeletons at an archaeological dig in
Whithorn Priory, Scotland. The skeletal remains of
about five humans are visible in a wide expanse of
hilly dirt.
Homo sapiens and early human migration
Homo sapiens
- evolved from their early hominid
predecessors between 200,000 and 300,000
years ago and developed a capacity for
language about 50,000 years ago.
- the first modern humans, evolved from
their early hominid predecessors between
200,000 and 300,000 years ago. They
developed a capacity for language about
50,000 years ago.
- The first modern humans began moving
outside of Africa starting about 70,000-
100,000 years ago.
Humans are the only known species to have
successfully populated, adapted to, and
significantly altered a wide variety of land regions
across the world, resulting in profound historical
and environmental impacts.
Where do we begin?
Homo sapiens is part of a group called hominids,
which were the earliest humanlike creatures. Based
on archaeological and anthropological evidence,
we think that hominids diverged from other
primates somewhere between 2.5 and 4 million
years ago in eastern and southern Africa. Though
there was a degree of diversity among the hominid
family, they all shared the trait of bipedalism, or
the ability to walk upright on two legs
Evolution
One, the aridity hypothesis, suggests that early
hominids were more suited to dry climates and
evolved as Africa's dry savannah regions expanded.
According to the savannah hypothesis, early tree-
dwelling hominids may have been pushed out of
their homes as environmental changes caused the
forest regions to shrink and the size of the
savannah expand. These changes, according to the
savannah hypothesis, may have caused them to
adapt to living on the ground and walking upright
instead of climbing.
Hominids continued to evolve and develop unique
characteristics. Their brain capacities increased,
and approximately 2.3 million years ago, a
hominid known as Homo habilis began to make
and use simple tools. By a million years ago, some
hominid species, particularly Homo erectus, began
to migrate out of Africa and into Eurasia, where
they began to make other advances like controlling
fire.
Though there were once many kinds of hominids,
only one remains: Homo sapiens.
Extinction is a normal part of evolution, and
scientists continue to theorize why other hominid
species didn’t survive. We do have some clues as to
why some species were less successful at surviving
than others, such as an inability to cope with
competition for food, changes in climate, and
volcanic eruptions.
Migration and the Peopling of the World
Between 70,000 and 100,000 years ago, Homo
sapiens began migrating from the African
continent and populating parts of Europe and Asia.
They reached the Australian continent in canoes
sometime between 35,000 and 65,000 years ago.
Scientists studying land masses and climate know
that the Pleistocene Ice Age created a land bridge
that connected Asia and North America (Alaska)
over 13,000 years ago. A widely accepted
migration theory is that people crossed this land
bridge and eventually migrated into North and
South America.
The development of language around 50,000 years
ago allowed people to make plans, solve
problems, and organize effectively. We can’t be
sure of the exact reasons humans first migrated off
of the African continent, but it was likely correlated
with a depletion of resources (like food) in their
regions and competition for those resources.
Once humans were able to communicate these
concerns and make plans, they could assess
together whether the pressures in their current
home outweighed the risk of leaving to find a new
one.
Adaptation and Effects on Nature
When humans migrated from Africa to colder
climates, they made clothing out of animal skins
and constructed fires to keep themselves warm;
often, they burned fires continuously through the
winter.
Sophisticated weapons, such as spears and bows
and arrows, allowed them to kill large mammals
efficiently. Along with changing climates, these
hunting methods contributed to the extinction of
giant land mammals such as mammoths, giant
kangaroos, and mastodons. Fewer giant mammals,
in turn, limited hunters’ available prey.
In addition to hunting animals and killing them out
of self-defense, humans began to use the earth’s
resources in new ways when they constructed
semi-permanent settlements.
Humans started shifting from nomadic lifestyles to
fixed homes, using the natural resources there.
Semi-permanent settlements would be the
building-blocks of established communities and the
development of agricultural practices.
Paleolithic Societies
Paleolithic societies were largely dependent on
foraging and hunting.
While hominid species evolved through natural
selection for millions of years, cultural evolution
accounts for most of the significant changes in the
history of Homo sapiens.
Small bands of hunter-gatherers lived, worked, and
migrated together before the advent of agriculture.
Sociocultural Evolution
Paleolithic
- literally means “Old Stone [Age],”
- refers to a time in human history when
foraging, hunting, and fishing were the
primary means of obtaining food. Humans
had yet to experiment with domesticating
animals and growing plants. Since hunter-
gatherers could not rely on agricultural
methods to produce food intentionally,
their diets were dependent on the
fluctuations of natural ecosystems. They
had to worry about whether overfishing a
lake would deplete a crucial food source or
whether a drought would wither up
important plants. In order to ensure enough
food production for their communities,
- They worked to manipulate those systems
in certain ways, such as rotational hunting
and gathering.
This was the case for much of human history; it was
not until about 11,000 years ago that these hunter-
gatherer systems began to transform. As humans
began migrating and adapting to new
environments, they began developing tools and
methods that equipped them to make the best of
their respective environmental constraints.
The study of early humans often focuses on
biological evolution and natural selection.
However, it is also equally important to focus on
sociocultural evolution, or the ways in which early
human societies created culture.
Paleolithic humans were not simply cavemen who
were concerned only with conquering their next
meal. Archaeological evidence shows that the
Neanderthals in Europe and Southwest Asia had a
system of religious beliefs and performed rituals
such as funerals. A burial site in Shanidar Cave in
modern-day northeastern Iraq suggests that a
Neanderthal’s family covered his body with
flowers, which indicates a belief in something
beyond death and a deep sense of spirituality.
They also constructed shelter and tools.
Cultures evolved and developed in specific
environmental contexts, enabling their
communities to not only survive but to flourish in
unique and dynamic ways.
Culture is a broad term which encompasses the full
range of learned human behavior patterns,
behaviors which are often linked to survival.
Homo sapiens has not changed much anatomically
over the last 120,000 years, but it has undergone a
massive cultural evolution. Accordingly, cultural
creativity rather than physical transformation
became the central way humans coped with the
demands of nature.
Cultural evolution cannot be divorced from
biological evolution, as the evolution of a more
highly developed and advanced human brain, more
highly attuned to social structures, enabled cultural
growth.
In fact, the very large size of a human brain itself
necessitated certain cultural adaptations: many
scientists have theorized that more difficult births,
due to larger skulls, longer gestation periods, and
longer periods of infant dependency, required
more advanced social organization and
communication, which played a big role in the
cultural evolution of humans.
Homo sapiens’ unique aptitude for creativity
allowed for symbolic expression, particularly in
cultural and spiritual contexts, such as artwork and
burial rituals. This creative activity is the hallmark
of the subspecies Homo sapiens sapiens (wise, wise
human), which is what we are today, a subspecies
that is distinctive for its intellectual abilities.
Small Communities
The expansion of the human population, the
density of human groups also increased. This often
resulted in conflict and competition over the best
land and resources, but it also necessitated
cooperation. Due to the constraints of available
natural resources, these early communities were
not very large, but they included enough members
to facilitate some degree of division of labor,
security, and exogamous reproduction patterns,
which means marrying or reproducing outside of
one’s group.
Anthropologists were able to draw these
conclusions about Paleolithic people by
extrapolating from the experiences of modern
hunter-gatherer communities, such as the Khoisan
of the African Kalahari Desert. Based on the
experiences of modern hunter-gatherer societies,
who typically have around 500 members, and
based on theoretical mathematical models of
group process, Paleolithic bands of people were
likely around twenty-five members each, and
typically about twenty bands constituted a tribe.
Anthropologists have estimated that the
technology available to Paleolithic humans who
lived between 150,000 and 12,000 years ago would
have required over seventy miles of relatively
unproductive land, with a low density of
resources, or over seven miles of fertile land to
meet the basic needs of each small community.
However, considering how limited these
communities were, this land requirement is
extremely inefficient compared to modern
productivity levels. At such densities, the area of
the modern-day United States could sustain no
more than 600,000 people, and the entire planet
only 10 million. For comparison, the current
population of the United States is well over 300
million, and there are 7 billion people on the
planet!
Division of Labor
Before the advent of agriculture, Paleolithic
humans had little control of the environment, so
they focused on staking out territory and
negotiating relationships with nearby
communities. Eventually, groups created small,
temporary settlements, often near bodies of water.
These settlements allowed for division of labor,
and labor was often divided along gender lines,
with women doing much of the gathering, cooking,
and child-rearing and men doing much of the
hunting, though this was certainly not the case
across all Paleolithic societies. For example, some
archaeological evidence suggests that Middle
Paleolithic cultures in Eurasia split work fairly
equally between men and women.
However, it is important to note that gender
dynamics in Paleolithic times were likely drastically
different from our own, and as such, the division of
labor between men and women does not
necessarily indicate differences in equality or
power. There are competing theories about
whether hunting or gathering contributed more to
group nutrition, but both seemed to have played
an important role.
Paleolithic Technology, Art and Culture
Paleolithic groups developed increasingly complex
tools and objects made of stone and natural
fibers.Language, art, scientific inquiry, and spiritual
life were some of the most important innovations
of the Paleolithic era.

Technological Innovation
Stone tools are perhaps the first cultural artifacts
which historians can use to reconstruct the worlds
of Paleolithic peoples. In fact, stone tools were so
important in the Paleolithic age that the names of
Paleolithic periods are based on the progression of
tools: Lower Paleolithic, Upper Paleolithic,
Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age), and Neolithic (New
Stone Age).
Stone tools also give us insight into the
development of culture. Anthropologists think
Paleolithic people likely hunted, foraged, and
employed a communal system for dividing labor
and resources. Anthropologists have inferred this
by drawing analogies to modern hunter-gatherer
groups and by interpreting cave art which depicts
group hunting.
- Seven tools which appear to be made of
stone displayed against a grey backdrop.
- Four tools are in the top row and appear to
be sharpened to a point.
- Three relatively smaller tools are in the
bottom row and are not as sharp.
By approximately 40,000 years ago, narrow stone
blades and tools made of bone, ivory, and antler
appeared, along with simple wood instruments.
Closer to 20,000 years ago, the first known needles
were produced. Eventually, between 17,000 and
8,000 years ago, humans produced more
complicated instruments like barbed harpoons and
spear-throwers.
It is likely that many tools made out of materials
besides stone were prevalent but simply did not
survive to the present day for scientists to observe.
One exception is the Neolithic “Ice Man”, found by
two hikers in the Ötztal Alps, who was preserved
in ice for 5,000 years! He was found with a robust
set of stone and natural-fiber tools, including a six-
foot longbow, deerskin case, fourteen arrows, a
stick with an antler tip for sharpening flint blades,
a small flint dagger in a woven sheath, a copper
axe, and a medicine bag.
Language, Culture and Art
Language
- the most important innovation of the
Paleolithic era.
- Scientists can infer the early use of language
from the fact that humans traversed large
swaths of land, established settlements,
created tools, traded, and instituted social
hierarchies and cultures. Without the aid of
language, these things would likely have
been impossible.
Examinations of the craniums of archaic Homo
sapiens suggest large brains with indentations that
imply the development of brain areas associated
with speech. Exactly how humans developed a
capacity for language is a matter of considerable
debate.
However, the historical record shows that
language allowed for increasingly complex social
structures, with an enhanced capacity for
deliberation, morality, spirituality, and meaning-
making.
Artwork such as cave painting and portable art
demonstrates creativity and group structures as
well. They show an interest in sharing knowledge,
expressing feelings, and transmitting cultural
information to later generations. Though artwork
from over 35,000 years ago is rare, there is ample
evidence of cave paintings and statuettes from
later periods.
A bison figure painted with red pigment on a
smooth tan-colored surface with somevisible
cracks. The painter also utilized black strokes to
add detail.
Reproduction of a bison illustration nearly 14,000
years old, from the Cave of Altamira located near
Santillana del Mar in Cantabria, Spain. The cave
was first rediscovered in 1868
In addition to cave art, portable figurines dated to
Paleolithic times have been found. Many of these
include finely carved facial features, while others
accentuate sexual organs and buttocks, such as the
25,000 year old figurine found at Dolni Vestonice in
the modern-day Czech Republic. Such an object
shows a desire to create beautiful figurines, but
some also suggest that objects like this are tied to
an interest in human fertility.
A statue made of polished dark stone representing
a female figure with exaggerated breasts and hips.
There are no defined facial features and distinct
arms are not visible.
Venus of Dolní Věstonice, a Venus figurine, a
ceramic statuette of a nude female figure dated to
29,000–25,000 BCE. It was found at the Paleolithic
site Dolní Věstonice in the Moravian basin south of
Brno, in the base of Děvín Mountain. Image
courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
The Dawn of Agriculture
Agriculture
- began during the Neolithic Era before
roughly 9000 BCE when polished stone
 tools were developed and the last ice age
ended.
- Historians have several theories about why
many societies switched from hunting and
foraging to settled agriculture.
- One of these theories is that a surplus in
production led to greater population. Not
everyone needed to be focused on food
production, which led to specialization of
labor and complex societies.
The World Before the Agriculture
Based on current archeological evidence,
anatomically modern humans have existed roughly
200,000-300,000 years. However, before roughly
15,000-20,000 years ago, we have no evidence that
our ancestors had agriculture. Instead, we believe
they strictly hunted or foraged for food.
- There were times when they had a big kill
and had more food than they knew what to
do with.
- There were other times when they
overforaged or hunted and they didn’t
know how many days it would be until their
next meal.
- If they didn’t find food, they or their
families would starve. Even when there was
food, it might take miles of walking to find
it. For many of these preagricultural
societies, a good bit of their energy went
into just getting more energy—in other
words, food—to keep going and reproduce.
- There also couldn’t be too many humans
living in one area since there was only so
much food to be found or killed.
Because of this, a tribe of 100 hunter-foragers
would have needed to be the only humans on 50 to
500 square kilometers to survive—places lush with
life, like tropical rain forests, could support a higher
density. With only hunting and foraging to support
human populations, it is estimated that the Earth
could only support about 10 million people.
Historians estimate the world population was
around six to ten million 10,000 years ago.
The Birth of Agriculture
About 10,000 to 15,000 years ago, humans began
to mold nature to their needs and agriculture
emerged in multiple places around the planet. We
believe that it emerged independently and spread
from places as varied as Mesopotamia, China,
South America and sub-Saharan Africa.
As we explore more, it is likely that scientists will
find more places where agriculture may have
emerged even earlier.
The birth of agriculture is often referred to as the
Neolithic Revolution since it seems to coincide
with the Neolithic period—or new stone age. The
Neolithic period’s name stems from the fact that
stone artifacts were more smooth and refined than
those of the Paleolithic period, or old stone age.
Many of these tools facilitated early agriculture.
Five agricultural tools found in the Iberian
settlement Bastida of Alcusses, ca. late 5th century
B.C.E. to the 4th century B.C.E. Tools are textured
and brown.
The first agriculture was likely cultivation of wild
species of plants and basic herding of livestock. As
time went on, humans became more and more
sophisticated at breeding the plants and livestock
that best meet our needs.
The corn you see in the grocery store and the pigs,
cows, and sheep you see at a farm did not evolve
independently in the wild. They are the product of
thousands of years of human selection and
breeding from original, wild forms.
Why did Agriculture emerge when and where it
did?
The simple answer is that we’re not sure. We do,
however, have several theories—can you think of
more?End of a glacial period: The last glacial period
ended 10,000 to 15,000 years ago. This seems to
coincide with the emergence of agriculture. After
the glacial period ended, there was more moisture
in the air, less frozen soil, and better conditions
overall for more plant and animal life.
These conditions would have also been more
suitable for agriculture. This theory still has several
open questions:
Why have we not found evidence of
agriculture during the last
interglacial—warmer—period over 100,000 years
ago? Have we just not found it yet?
Even during the glacial period, weren’t there some
places on Earth in the tropics that would have still
been suitable for agriculture?
Continued human development: Even though
anatomically modern humans have been around
for roughly 200,000 years, our brains, language,
and culture may have continued to develop and
change—including through natural selection. It is
possible that only 10,000 to 20,000 years ago did
we first have the right mix of environmental,
mental, and cultural development to implement
agriculture. This theory is bolstered by the fact that
the dawn of agriculture seems to coincide with
humans being able to make the more sophisticated
stone objects which define the Neolithic period.
Pastoralism: A branch of Agriculture

A branch of agriculture—called pastoralism—
began around the same time as cultivation of
plants.
Pastoralism
- is the domestication and herding of animals
such as goats, sheep, and cattle. In regions
where plant cultivation proved difficult due
to rocky terrain or climates that were
inhospitable to plants, pastoralists herded
animals.
While many pastoralists were nomadic, their
lifestyle differed fundamentally from that of
hunter-foragers in that they did not rely exclusively
on naturally occurring resources. They milked
animals for dairy products and used their wool to
weave textiles, which they could trade with
agricultural societies if they lived in close enough
proximity to them.
A mix of cooperation and conflict resulted from the
relationship between pastoralists and farmers.
Pastoralists’ military-related artifacts suggest that
they may have come into conflict with farming
societies; however, in other cases, pastoralists
traded goods with farmers in a cooperative
relationship.
Impact of Agriculture
The impact of agriculture has been profound on
humanity, most clearly in terms of population. This
is because breeding plants and animals has
significantly increased the availability of human
consumable calories per square kilometer.
One way to think about it is that we replaced things
that weren’t consumable by humans with things
that were. Through techniques like irrigation, we
were also able to make things grow where they
might not have before.
To put this in perspective, before the agricultural
revolution experts estimate that there were six to
ten million people, which is about how many
hunter-foragers the Earth could sustain. By the
time of the Roman Empire, about 10,000 years
later, the world population had grown over 25-fold
to 250 million. Fast forward 2000 years to the
present, and the population has grown another 28-
fold to seven billion. In roughly 10,000 to 15,000
years, advances in agriculture have allowed the
human population to become roughly 1000 times
larger!
Agriculture also has had environmental impacts.
Farmers used complex tools to cultivate and
irrigate their fields and to build settlements. To
expand their amount of usable land, agriculturalists
cleared forests using the slash and burn technique;
they would remove a ring of bark from the trees,
drying out the trees and allowing them to burn
more quickly. The ash from the trees acted as a
fertilizer for the soil.
Pastoralism also brought challenges to the
environment and people. Herds of animals
concentrated in one area could overgraze the land,
ultimately rendering it unusable or subject to
erosion. In addition, with a closer proximity to
animals, came a higher likelihood that diseases
could be transmitted from animals to humans.
By actively managing their food supplies,
agricultural societies were able to produce more
food than hunter-foragers and support denser
populations. Having a large population nearby
made it worthwhile for farmers to grow more food
than they needed for themselves, as they could
trade this surplus for other goods.
For non-farmers, this meant that they could focus
on making other goods and trading these goods for
food and other things. People could specialize—
focus on doing one thing—which led to increased
productivity.
Increased productivity led to the creation of better
buildings, tools, weapons, and also to the rise of
governments to oversee this activity and military
forces to protect people and resources.
Many population centers evolved into the first
wave of city-states that emerged within a few
thousand years of the agricultural revolution.
Eventually those states began to have complex
bureaucracies to tax and administer their people, a
significant catalyst for the birth of writing, which
was transformational for civilization.
First civilizations
The first civilizations appeared in major river
valleys, where floodplains contained rich soil and
the rivers provided irrigation for crops and a
means of transportation.
Foundational civilizations developed urbanization
and complexity without outside influence and
without building on a pre-existing civilization,
though they did not all develop simultaneously.
Many later civilizations either borrowed elements
of, built on, or incorporated—through conquest—
other civilizations.
Because foundational civilizations arose
independently, they are particularly useful to
historians and archaeologists who want to
understand how civilization first developed.
Gray world map showing probable areas of
independent development of agriculture, in green,
in the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa, China, Peru,
Mexico, and North America. Possible routes of
diffusion across the globe are drawn in blue.
Geography alone cannot explain the rise of the first
civilizations. The process of agricultural
intensification had been going on for thousands of
years before the first civilizations appeared, and it
is important to remember that while agricultural
surpluses were necessary for civilization, their
existence in a given place did not guarantee that a
civilization would develop.As civilizations grew,
they required increased intensification of
agriculture to maintain themselves.
What do civilizations have in common?
Cities were at the center of all early civilizations.
People from surrounding areas came to cities to
live, work, and trade. This meant that large
populations of individuals who did not know each
other lived and interacted with one another. So,
shared institutions, such as government, religion,
and language helped create a sense of unity and
also led to more specialized roles, such as
bureaucrats, priests, and scribes.
Cities concentrated political, religious, and social
institutions that were previously spread across
many smaller, separate communities, which
contributed to the development of states.
State
- is an organized community that lives under
a single political structure.
- A present-day country is a state in this
sense, for example. Many civilizations either
grew alongside a state or included several
states. The political structures that states
provided were an important factor in the
rise of civilizations because they made it
possible to mobilize large amounts of
resources and labor and also tied larger
communities together by connecting them
under a common political system.
Early civilizations were often unified by religion—a
system of beliefs and behaviors that deal with the
meaning of existence. As more and more people
shared the same set of beliefs and practices,
people who did not know each other could find
common ground and build mutual trust and
respect.
It was typical for politics and religion to be
strongly connected. In some cases, political leaders
also acted as religious leaders. In other cases,
religious leaders were different from the political
rulers but still worked to justify and support the
power of the political leaders. In Ancient Egypt, for
example, the kings—later called pharaohs—
practiced divine kingship, claiming to be
representatives, or even human incarnations, of
gods.
Both political and religious organization helped to
create and reinforce social hierarchies, which are
clear distinctions in status between individual
people and between different groups. Political
leaders could make decisions that impacted entire
societies, such as whether to go to war.
Religious leaders gained special status since they
alone could communicate between a society and
its god or gods.
In addition to these leaders, there were also
artisans who provided goods and services, and
merchants who engaged in the trade of these
goods. There were also lower classes of laborers
who performed less specialized work, and in some
cases there were slaves. All of these classes added
to the complexity and economic production of a
city.
Writing emerged in many early civilizations as a
way to keep records and better manage complex
institutions. Cuneiform writing in early
Mesopotamia was first used to keep track of
economic exchanges. Oracle bone inscriptions in
Ancient China seem to have been tied to efforts to
predict the future and may have had spiritual
associations. Quipu—knotted strings used to keep
records and perform calculations—appeared in
South America. In all the places where writing
developed—no matter its form or purpose—
literacy, or the ability to read and write, was
limited to small groups of highly educated elites,
such as scribes and priests.
Black-and-white drawing of quipu. Fifteen vertical
pieces of string are attached to one horizontal rope
of string. Each string has one or more knots placed
at different junctures along its length.
Is it writing? A quipu was a system of knotted
strings that could be used to perform calculations
and to record transactions. Evidence for the use of
quipu has been found in many Andean cultures
over the past several millenia. Image courtesy
Wikimedia Commons.
Writing offered new methods for maintaining law
and order, as well. The first legal codes, or written
collections of laws, were the Code of Ur-Nammu
from Sumer, written around 2100 to 2050 BCE and
the Code of Hammurabi from Babylon, written
around 1760 BCE. The benefit of written laws was
that they created consistency in the legal system.
Law Code of Hammurabi inscribed on a black stone
slab, rounded at the top and rectangular at the
bottom. At the rounded top of the slab, taking up
about a quarter of the space on the front, is a relief
sculpture of two people, one sitting in a throne and
wearing an elaborate gown, the other standing
with their arms crossed. The lower portion of the
slab has law codes written on it in cuneiform.
Law Code of Hammurabi inscribed on basalt stele.
This shift toward writing down more information
might not seem like a significant development,
especially since most people were unable to read
or write. However, having consistent, shared
records, laws, and literature helped to strengthen
ties between increasingly large groups.
Another notable feature of many civilizations was
monumental architecture. This type of
architecture was often created for political reasons,
religious purposes, or for the public good. The
pyramids of Egypt, for example, were monuments
to deceased rulers. The ziggurats of Mesopotamia
and the pyramids of early American societies were
platforms for temples. Defensive walls and sewer
systems provided defense and sanitation,
respectively. Although a few examples of
monumental architecture from pre-agricultural
societies exist, the greater organization and
resources that came with civilization made it much
easier to build large structures.
There were many features that early civilizations
had in common. Most civilizations developed from
agrarian communities that provided enough food
to support cities.
Cities intensified social hierarchies based on
gender, wealth, and division of labor.
Some developed powerful states and armies, which
could only be maintained through taxes.
Civilization is a tricky concept for many reasons.
For one thing, it can be difficult to define what
counts as a civilization and what does not, since
experts don’t all agree which conditions make up
a civilization. For example, people living in the
Niger River Valley in West Africa achieved
agricultural surplus, urbanization, and some
specialization of labor, but they never developed
strong social hierarchies, political structures, or
written language—so scholars disagree on whether
to classify it as a civilization. Also, due to extensive
cultural exchange and diffusion of technology, it
can be difficult to draw a line where one civilization
ends and another begins.
The Great Bath at Mohenjo-daro: Amid the brick
ruins of a 3rd-millennium BCE city, stairs descend
on two sides into a large, rectangular brick-lined
pit. Wooden stakes and wire encircle the perimeter,
preventing entry by modern-day tourists.
Characteristics of Early Civilizations
The growth of agriculture resulted in
intensification, which had important consequences
for social organization.Larger groups gave rise to
new challenges and required more sophisticated
systems of social administration.
Complex societies took the forms of larger
agricultural villages, cities, city-states, and states,
which shared many features.
- Specialized labor gave rise to distinct social
classes and enabled creative and innovative
developments.
- Systems of record-keeping and symbolic
expression grew more complex, and many
societies had systems of writing.
Larger Social Group Formation
- In various parts of the world, including the
valleys of the Tigris-Euphrates, Nile, Indus,
and Huang rivers, larger and denser
settlements began to emerge.
- These large concentrations of people are
referred to as complex societies or
civilizations, which share many features,
including having a dense population, an
agriculture-based economy, a social
hierarchy, a division of labor and
specialization, a centralized government,
monuments, record-keeping and writing,
and complex systems of belief.
These complex societies most often took the shape
of cities or city-states like Uruk and Ur. These first
cities were nexuses of power, production, culture,
and innovation. Sustaining these cities was not
easy, however. It required extensive and often
irreversible manipulation of the surrounding
environment in order to extract energy in the form
of firewood, materials for building like stone, and
resources like food and water. Because of this,
these cities were very sensitive to fluctuations in
weather and climate.
- A flood could destroy the entire supply of
barley, for example, and a drought could
make water supplies worryingly scarce.
- Because these societies were densely
populated, disease, conflict, and shortages
were felt even more dramatically. An
outbreak of a disease could quickly become
an epidemic. In response to these
vulnerabilities, these communities
developed ways to anticipate the changes in
 their natural environments, such as storing
food and water.
Formation of Governments and Social Classes
Civilizations evoke images of stone walls,
monuments, and roads, but they are more than
robust physical infrastructure.
To facilitate the organization and administration of
these large, dense communities, people began to
create social infrastructures: economic, political,
and religious institutions that created new social
hierarchies.
These hierarchies were populated with people
playing specialized roles, such as professional
administrators, farmers, artisans, traders,
merchants, and spiritual leaders. Additionally, due
to increased trade and conflict with external
civilizations, cities required diplomats, armies, and
centralized rulers.
In the foreground, low walls built with tan-colored
brick and stone, forming the perimeter of
rectangular rooms. In the background, a tall
copper-colored stone structure, with a wide base
and a tapering top.
Most cities grew out of villages, and some
ultimately became city-states, which are self-
governing urban centers and the agricultural
territories under their control. The surplus food
production generated by villages in the vicinity
allowed for some residents not to participate in
food production, which led to the development of
distinct specialized roles and associated classes.
In order to facilitate cooperation between these
many different classes and to organize large
numbers of people to work together for the large-
scale construction of irrigation systems,
monuments, and other projects, leaders were
required, comprising a new social class.
Political leadership would take many different
forms in the first civilizations, though powerful
states, centralized systems of government and
command, were the norm.
Ancient Mesopotamian Civilization
Overview.Mesopotamian civilizations formed on
the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in what
is today Iraq and Kuwait. Early civilizations began to
form around the time of the Neolithic Revolution—
12000 BCE. Some of the major Mesopotamian
civilizations include the Sumerian, Assyrian,
Akkadian, and Babylonian civilizations.Evidence
shows extensive use of technology, literature,
legal codes, philosophy, religion, and architecture
in these societies.
Civilization Born Along Rivers
By roughly 6000 to 8000 years ago, agriculture was
well under way in several regions including Ancient
Egypt, around the Nile River; the Indus Valley
civilization; Mesopotamia, between the Tigris and
Euphrates rivers; and Ancient China, along the
Yellow and Yangtze rivers. This is because the
regular river floods made for fertile soil around the
banks and the rivers could also supply fresh water
to irrigate crops. It’s no coincidence that as
agriculture allowed for denser and denser
populations along with more specialized societies,
some of the world’s first civilizations developed in
these areas as well.
Ancient Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia—mainly modern-day Iraq and
Kuwait—in particular is often referred to as the
cradle of civilization because some of the most
influential early city-states and empires first
emerged there—although it’s not the only place!
Its modern name comes from the Greek for middle
—mesos—and river—potamos—and literally
means a “country between two rivers.” Those two
rivers are the Tigris and Euphrates. Not only was
Mesopotamia one of the first places to develop
agriculture, it was also at the crossroads of the
Egyptian and the Indus Valley civilizations. This
made it a melting pot of languages and cultures
that stimulated a lasting impact on writing,
technology, language, trade, religion, and law.
Associated with Mesopotamia are ancient cultures
like the
1. Sumerians,
2. Assyrians,
3. Akkadians, and
4. Babylonians.
Learning about this time period can be a little
confusing because these cultures interacted with
and ruled over each other over the course of
several thousand years. These terms can also be
associated with city-states, languages, religions, or
empires—depending on the time and context we
are looking at.
1. Sumerians
- first took form in southern Mesopotamia
around 4000 BCE—or 6000 years ago—
which would make it the first urban
civilization in the region.

Mesopotamians are noted for developing one of
the first written scripts around 3000 BCE: wedge-
shaped marks pressed into clay tablets. This
cuneiform—another way to say wedge-shaped—
script was also adapted by surrounding peoples to
write their own languages for roughly 2000 years,
until Phoenician, which the letters you are reading
now are based on, began to become the dominant
script in the first millennium BCE.
Cuneiform is also the script that one of the world’s
first great works of literature, The Epic of
Gilgamesh, was written in. Mesopotamians used
writing to record sales and purchases, to write
letters to one another, and to tell stories.
The incredibly important invention of the wheel is
also credited to the Sumerians; the earliest
discovered wheel dates to 3500 BCE in
Mesopotamia.
Sumerians built ships that allowed them to travel
into the Persian Gulf and trade with other early
civilizations, such as the Harappans in northern
India. They traded textiles, leather goods, and
jewelry for Harappan semi-precious stones, copper,
pearls, and ivory.
Sumerian religion was polytheistic—or worshipped
multiple gods—many of which were
anthropomorphic—they took human-like form.
Temples to these gods were constructed atop
massive ziggurats which were in the centers of
most cities. These structures would have taken
thousands of people many years to construct.
2. Akkadian Empire
AkkadianS
- named after the city-state of Akkad. The
Akkadian language is related to the modern
languages of Hebrew and Arabic. These
languages are known as Semitic languages.
- The term Semitic comes from the biblical
character Shem, a son of Noah, the
purported progenitor of Abraham and,
accordingly, the Jewish and Arab people.
Around 2334 BCE, Sargon of Akkad came to power
and established what might have been the world’s
first dynastic empire.
The Akkadian Empire ruled over both the Akkadian
and Sumerian speakers in Mesopotamia and the
Levant—modern day Syria and Lebanon.
The Empire of Akkad collapsed in 2154 BCE, within
180 years of its founding.
3. Assyrian Empire
Assyria
- named for its original capital, the ancient
city of Ašur—also known as Ashur—in
northern Mesopotamia. Ashur was
originally one of a number of Akkadian-
speaking city states ruled by Sargon and his
descendents during the Akkadian Empire.
Within several hundred years of the
collapse of the Akkadian Empire, Assyria
had become a major empire.
Akkadian-speaking Assyrians were the dominant
power in Mesopotamia, especially in the north.
The empire reached its peak near the end of this
period in the seventh century. At that time, the
Assyrian Empire stretched from Egypt and Cyprus
in the west to the borders of Persia—modern-day
Iran—in the east.
The major exceptions to Assyrian dominance were
the Babylonian Empire established by Hammurabi
and some more chaotic dark ages where there
wasn’t a dominant power.
4. Babylon
Babylon
- minor city-state in central Mesopotamia for
a century after it was founded in 1894 BCE.
Things changed with the reign of
Hammurabi, from 1792 to 1750 BCE.
- He was an efficient ruler, establishing a
centralized bureaucracy with taxation.
Hammurabi freed Babylon from foreign rule
and then conquered the whole of southern
Mesopotamia, bringing stability and the
name of Babylonia to the region.
One of the most important works of this First
Dynasty of Babylon was the compilation in about
1754 BCE of a code of laws, called the Code of
Hammurabi, which echoed and improved upon the
earlier written laws of Sumer, Akkad, and Assyria.
It’s similar to the Sumerian king Ur-Nammu of Ur’s
code, written from 2100 to 2050 BCE.
Hammurabi’s code is one of the oldest deciphered
writings of significant length in the world. Written
in about 1754 BCE by the sixth king of Babylon,
Hammurabi, the Code was written on stone stele—
slabs—and clay tablets.
The Code consists of 282 laws with scaled
punishments depending on social status, adjusting
"an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth".
For example, if a person from a noble class broke
an enslaved person’s arm, they would have to pay
a fine, whereas if a noble person broke another
noble person's arm, the offending noble would
have their arm broken. Some have seen the Code
as an early form of constitutional government, the
presumption of innocence, and the ability to
present evidence in one's case.
The Babylonian Empire established by Hammurabi
lasted for 260 years until Babylon got sacked by
invaders in 1531 BCE. In the period between 626
BCE and 539 BCE,
Babylon asserted itself again over the region with
the Neo-Babylonian Empire. This new empire was
overthrown in 539 BCE by the Persians who then
ruled over the region until the time of Alexander
the Great, 335 BCE.
Ancient Egyptian Civilization
Early Egypt
- Egypt is divided into three “kingdom”
periods—Old, Middle, and New—with
shorter intermediate periods separating the
kingdoms.
- The term "intermediate" here refers to the
fact that during these times Egypt was not a
unified political power, and thus was in
between powerful kingdoms.
- Even before the Old Kingdom period, the
foundations of Egyptian civilization were
being laid for thousands of years, as people
living near the Nile increasingly focused on
sedentary agriculture, which led to
urbanization and specialized, non-
agricultural economic activity.
Around this time, the Sahara Desert expanded.
Some scientists think this expansion was caused by
a slight shift in the tilt of the Earth. Others have
explored changing rainfall patterns, but the specific
causes are not entirely clear. The most important
result of this expansion of the Sahara for human
civilization was that it pushed humans closer to the
Nile River in search of reliable water sources.
Apart from the delta region, where the river
spreads out as it flows into the sea, most
settlements in the Nile Valley were confined to
within a few miles of the river itself. The Nile River
flooded annually; this flooding was so regular that
the ancient Egyptians set their three seasons—
Inundation, or flooding, Growth, and Harvest—
around it.
This annual flooding was vital to agriculture
because it deposited a new layer of nutrient-rich
soil each year.
In years when the Nile did not flood, the nutrient
level in the soil was seriously depleted, and the
chance of food shortages increased greatly. Food
supplies had political effects, as well, and periods
of drought probably contributed to the decline of
Egyptian political unity at the ends of both the Old
and Middle Kingdoms.
A leader named either Narmer or Menes—sources
are unclear on whether these were the same
person!—united Egypt politically when he gained
control of both Upper and Lower Egypt.
Map of Ancient Egypt and the Mediterranean and
Red seas. Land is beige and the habitable regions of
Egypt are highlighted in Green (all along the Nile
River and the delta that opens out to the
Mediterranean Sea in the north).
Lower Egypt is the northern region and Upper
Egypt is the southern region of this map.
Lower Egypt is the delta region in the north, and
Upper Egypt refers to the southern portion of the
country, which is upriver from the delta. You may
encounter this terminology when reading about
rivers in history, so a good trick is to remember
that rivers flow downhill, so the river is lower
toward its end at the sea and higher closer to its
source!
After political unification, divine kingship, or the
idea that a political ruler held his power by favor of
a god or gods—or that he was a living incarnation
of a god—became firmly established in Egypt.
- For example, in the mythology that
developed around unification, Narmer was
portrayed as Horus, a god of Lower Egypt,
where Narmer originally ruled. He
conquered Set, a god of Upper Egypt. This
mythologized version of actual political
events added legitimacy to the king’s rule.
The use of hieroglyphics—a form of writing that
used images to express sounds and meanings—
likely began in this period.
As the Egyptian state grew in power and influence,
it was better able to mobilize resources for large-
scale projects and required better methods of
record-keeping to organize and manage an
increasingly large state.
During the Middle Kingdom, Egyptians began to
write literature, as well. Some writing was
preserved on stone or clay, and some was
preserved on papyrus, a paper-like product made
from reed fiber. Papyrus is very fragile, but due to
the hot and dry climate of Egypt, a few papyrus
documents have survived. Hieroglyphic writing also
became an important tool for historians studying
ancient Egypt once it was translated in the early
1800s.
An example of New Kingdom hieroglyphics from
the thirteenth century BCE. Four vertical columns
of colorfully painted hieroglyphics on a white
background depict birds, eyes, a crab, and pottery,
among other images.
As rulers became more powerful, they were better
able to coordinate labor and resources to construct
major projects, and more people required larger
supplies of food. Projects to improve agricultural
production, such as levees and canals became
more important. Irrigation practices consisted of
building mud levees—which were walls of
compacted dirt that directed the annual flooding
onto farmland and kept it away from living areas—
and of digging canals to direct water to fields as
crops were growing.
Elites, those individuals who were wealthy and
powerful, began building larger tombs which were
precursors to the pyramids. These tombs
represented a growing divide between the elite and
common people in Egyptian society. Only the
wealthy and important could afford and be
considered as deserving of such elaborate burials.
A mastaba, which was the typical grave marker for
early Egyptian elites. Looks like a pyramid except
lower to the ground and with a flat top instead of a
pointed one.
Old Kingdom Egypt
During the Old Kingdom period, Egypt was largely
unified as a single state; it gained in complexity and
expanded militarily.
- Old Kingdom rulers built the first pyramids,
which were both tombs and monuments for
the kings who had them built. Building
monumental architecture—such as the
Great Pyramid and the Sphinx in Giza, and
temples for different gods—required a
centralized government that could
command vast resources.
Great Sphinx of Giza (mythical creature with a
human head and a lion's body) and the pyramid of
Khafre. The tourists in the photo look like specks
compared to these structures.
The builders of the pyramids were not enslaved
people but peasants, working on the pyramids
during the farming off-season. These peasants
worked alongside specialists like stone cutters,
mathematicians, and priests. As a form of taxation,
each household was required to provide a worker
for these projects, although the wealthy could pay
for a substitute. This demonstrates both the power
of the state to force people to provide labor and
also the advantages enjoyed by elites, who could
buy their way out of providing labor.
Egyptians also began to build ships, constructed of
wooden planks tied together with rope and stuffed
with reeds, to trade goods such as ebony, incense,
gold, copper, and Lebanese cedar—which was
particularly important for construction projects—
along maritime routes.
New Kingdom Around 1550 BCE
- New Kingdom period of Egyptian history
began with the expulsion of the Hyksos
from Egypt and the restoration of
centralized political control.
- This period was Egypt's most prosperous
time and marked the peak of its power.
Hatshepsut- Egypt’s most famous female ruler.
- established trade networks that helped
build the wealth of Egypt and
commissioned hundreds of construction
projects and pieces of statuary, as well as
an impressive mortuary temple at Deir el-
Bahri.
- Ordered the repairs to temples that had
been neglected or damaged during the
period of Hyksos rule.
Hatshepsut's Temple- is a rectangular with three
tiers and a wide ramp in the center. At the top tier,
set furthest back into the rock formation, there are
statues placed in front of columns. All the columns
and doorways are long and rectangular.
Pharaoh- A term originally referred to the king's
palace and became a form of address for the king
during this period. It further emphasizing the idea
of divine kingship.
- Pharaohs is associated with the god Amun-
Ra.
mid-1300s BCE- one pharaoh attempted to alter
this tradition when he chose to worship Aten
exclusively and even changed his name to
Akhenaten in honor of that god. Some scholars
interpret this as the first instance of monotheism,
or the belief in a single god.
Pharaohs Seti I and Ramesses- New Kingdom Egypt
reached the height of its power under their role.
- They fought to expand Egyptian power
against the Libyans to the west and the
Hittites to the north.
City of Kadesh- located on the border between the
two empires was a source of conflict between the
Egyptians and the Hittites, after several battles,
they ultimately agreeing to the world’s first known
peace treaty.
Third Intermediate Period: 1069-664 BCE
The costs of war, increased droughts, famine,
civil unrest, and official corruption ultimately
fragmented Egypt into a collection of locally
governed city-states. Taking advantage of this
political division, a military force from the Nubian
kingdom of Kushin the south conquered and united
Lower Egypt, Upper Egypt, and Kush. The Kushites
were then driven out of Egypt in 670 BCE by the
Assyrians, who established client state (a political
entity that is self-governing but pays tribute to a
more powerful state) in Egypt.
In 656 BCE- Egypt was again reunited and broke
away from Assyrian control. The country
experienced a period of peace and prosperity until
525 BCE.
Persian king Cambyses- defeated the Egyptian
rulers and took the title of Pharaoh for himself,
along with his title as king of Persia.
The Hittites and Ancient Anatolia
The Hittites were an ancient group of Indo-
Europeans who moved into Asian Minor and
formed an empire at Hattusa in Anatolia (modern
Turkey) around 1600 BCE.
mid-1300s BCE- The Hittite Empire reached great
heights when it spread across Asia Minor, into the
northern Levant and Upper Mesopotamia.
about 1180 BCE- the empire ended and splintered
into several independent Neo-Hittite—new Hittite
—city-states, some of which survived until the
eighth century BCE.
Domestication of horses- Like many Indo-
Europeans, the Hittites were able to travel long
distances and migrate to other lands. The spread of
technologies like the wheel and wagon, which were
also used in ancient Mesopotamia and other early
civilizations in the region, also assisted pastoralists
and agrarian civilizations.
Culture
Language of Hittite- was a member of Indo-
European, a family of related languages that today
are widely spoken in the Americas, Europe, and
Western and Southern Asia.
Hittites- named because of their initial
identification with the Biblical Hittites, according to
nineteenth-century archaeology. Hittites are
usually referred to as a people living among the
Israelites.
3000BCE- the Hittites were pioneers of the Iron Age
and began manufacturing iron artifacts around
1400 BCE. The use of iron and steel created tools
and weapons that were more efficient than those
made of bronze.
- Some scholars believe the Hittites had been
experimenting with metalworking for years,
eventually leading them to discover a
smelting process that would melt iron,
which melts at a higher temperature than
other metals like copper or tin.
- It’s also possible that the Hittites learned
some of this technology from peoples in the
Zagros Mountains in western Iran. The
Hittites’ trading partners in Assyria and
parts of the Egyptian empire had a high
demand for iron products.
After 1180 BCE- amid general turmoil in the Levant
with the sudden arrival of the Sea Peoples—people
of unknown nationality who used ships to raid
Mediterranean and Egyptian cities—the kingdom
scattered into several independent Neo-Hittite city-
states.
Cuneiform texts- The history of the Hittite
civilization is known mostly from cuneiform texts
found in their former kingdom and from diplomatic
and commercial mail found in archives in Egypt and
the Middle East. Mesopotamians’ writing
technology was transferred to the Hittites
Government
King- The head of the Hittite state, followed by the
heir-apparent—one of the king’s offspring born
into the position of succeeding him.
- Some officials, however, exercised
independent authority over various
branches of the government, so the king did
not control all aspects of the kingdom.
 - Hittites wrote using Akkadian script but in
their own Indo-European language and
used cylinder seals to sign documents and
mark property as people did throughout
Mesopotamia, suggesting a link between
the two cultures.
Religion
Storm gods- were prominent in the Hittite
pantheon—the set of all the gods in a polytheistic
religion. Tarhunt- was referred to as The
Conqueror. The King of Kummiya, King of Heaven,
and Lord of the land of Hatti. He was the god of
battle and victory, especially against foreign
powers. This might indicate that the Hittites placed
value on military might.
The Battle of Kadesh
- One military engagement the Hittites are
famous for against the Egyptian pharaoh
Ramesses II’s army in 1274 BCE.
- Ramesses claimed a great victory for Egypt:
he had defeated his enemy in battle.
Muwatalli also claimed victory because he
didn’t lose Kadesh.
- This battle led to the first known peace
treaty in the history of the world, in 1258
BCE.
Conflict between Hittites and Egyptians
The Hittites had been making headway into
the Egyptian empire and had caused trouble for the
Pharaoh Tutmoses III.
Pharaoh Ramesses II- resolved to drive the Hittites
from his borders. He hoped to gain an advantage
by capturing of the city of Kadesh, a center of
commerce which the Hittites held. Ramesses
marched from Egypt at the head of over 20,000
soldiers in four divisions to fight against the troops
of Hittites.
Muwatalli- the king of the Hittites.
Battle
- The Egyptian and Hittite both claimed
victory because their armies were evenly
matched.
- The Egyptian chariots were faster because
they only had two people aboard them,
while the Hittite chariots accommodated an
extra person, allowing more spears to be
thrown from each chariot.
- The combination of chariots and iron tools,
which were stronger than bronze ones,
meant that the Egyptian and Hittite military
technology was some of the most
sophisticated of its time.
Indus Valley Civilization
- The Indus River Valley Civilization, 3300-
1300 BCE, also known as the Harappan
Civilization, extended from modern-day
northeast Afghanistan to Pakistan and
northwest India.
- The civilization likely ended due to climate
change and migration
- population of over five million people
- The Indus cities are noted for their urban
planning, a technical and political process
concerned with the use of land and design
of the urban environment. They are also
noted for their baked brick houses,
elaborate drainage systems, water supply
systems, and clusters of large,
nonresidential buildings.
Important innovations/Contributions
- standardized weights and measures
- seal carving, and metallurgy with copper,
bronze, lead, and tin.
In 1856, British colonial officials in India were
busy monitoring the construction of railway
connecting the cities of Lahore and Karachi in
modern-day Pakistan along the Indus River valley.
some of the laborers discovered many fire-baked
bricks lodged in the dry terrain and used some of
them to construct the roadbed. Among the bricks
stone artifacts made of soapstone, featuring
intricate artistic markings.
1920s- First major excavation takes place on the
upon the remnants of the Indus Valley Civilization,
also known as the Harappan Civilization where
archeologist thought that it was Maurya Empire.
- Before the excavation of these Harappan
cities, scholars thought that Indian
civilization had begun in the Ganges valley
as Aryan immigrants from Persia and
central Asia populated the region around
1250 BCE.
Mehrgarh- origin of settlements in the foothills of a
mountain pass in modern-day Balochistan in
western Pakistan. There is evidence of settlement
in this area as early as 7000 BCE.
The Indus Valley Civilization is often separated
into three phases:
1. Early Harappa Phase from 3300 to 2600 BCE
 2. Mature Harappan Phase from 2600 to
1900BCE
3. Late Harappan Phase from 1900 to 1300
BCE.
around 1800 BCE- Indus Valley Civilization began to
decline.
- trade with Mesopotamia, located largely in
modern Iraq, seemed to have ended.
- advanced drainage systems and baths of
the great cities were built over or blocked.
- Writing began to disappear, and
- the standardized weights and measures
used for trade and taxation fell out of use.
The Han Dynasty of China: A Chinese Golden Age
(206 BCE-220 CE)
Historical Setting of the Han
• Followed the Qin dynasty
221-206 BCE- Qin ended in rebellion and civil war
due to weak ruler and unrest (206-202 BCE)
• Han dynasty was China’s second Imperial dynasty
- 206 (or 202) BCE-220 CE • Over 400 years
• Followed by the Three Kingdoms -220-265 CE
Liu Bang – Emperor Gaozu of Han
- Capital cities
• Chang’an- 206 BCE-9 CE (all of the Former or
Western Han) and 190-195 CE (Later or Eastern
Han)
Luoyang -25-190 CE and 196 CE (most of the Later
or Eastern Han)
• Xuchang- 196-220 CE (very end of the Later or
Eastern Han)
• Lowered taxes
• Less harsh punishments
Empress Lu
- One of Liu Bang’s widows
- Retained power by naming various
- Children as emperor in turn
- Example of power gained through the
manipulation of court politics
- Families vied for power
- Alliances among powerful and influential
people
Wudi – The Martial Emperor (lived 141-87 BCE).
- Used warfare to expand the Chinese empire
Northern steppes
• Xiongnu-steppe nomads from the north and
west.

Civil war - Commonly raided Chinese villages

- Two strong leaders
• Xiang Yu (aristocratic general)
• Liu Bang (peasant-class general under Xiang Yu)
202 BCE- Liu Bang beat Xiang Yu for good
- Liu Bang declared start of Han dynasty
Liu Bang reigned 202 BCE-195 BCE.
- Traditionally kept at bay through bribery
- Wudi made allies of the Xiongnu’s enemies
and sent in 100,000 soldiers
- Pushed the Xiongnu back
- Settled soldiers on former Xiongnu lands
- But the nomads of the steppes provided
ongoing conflict
Modern-day Korea, Manchuria, Vietnam, etc.

Two Periods of the Han Dynasty - Conquered and colonized

- Borders under Wudi nearly what they are
• Former Han
today
- Also called the Western Han Social Classes under the Han
- 206 BCE-9 CE
Emperor
Interrupted by the Xin dynasty
Governors and Kings
- Under Wang Mang
-9-23 CE Nobles, Scholars, And State Officials

Later Han Peasants (Farmers)

- Also called the Eastern Han Artisans and Merchants

-25-220 CE
Soldiers
Government under the Han
Slaves
• Centralized government
Bureaucracy under the Han
 • Taxes supported the government and Military
• Merchants- Paid taxes
• Peasants- Gave the government a portion of
their annual crops and each year gave a month
of labor (for public works projects) or of
military service
Civil Service under the Han
- Over 130,000 employees
- 18 ranks of employees Civil service exams
- Confucian principles described the qualities
that emperors wanted in civil servants
- Wudi set up a Confucian-themed school
- Formal examinations in Confucianism,
history, law, and literature for civil service
positions
- Theoretically a merit-based system but poor
could not afford to educate their children
- In effect until the downfall of China’s last
dynasty in 1912
Technology under the Han
Paper
- Invented in 105 CE
- Books became inexpensive to produce;
expanded education
- Bureaucracy grew and became more
efficient
Collar harness
- Horses could carry heavier loads
- Best harness available at the time
worldwide
Plow
• The Chinese made one with two blades
• Much more efficient
Wheelbarrow
- Invented independently (Greeks had
invented as well)
- Central wheel and axle let Chinese
wheelbarrows carry very heavy weights
Waterwheel
- Used to power things such as the bellows
for smelting iron
Agriculture under the Han
- Population of 60,000,000 to be fed
- Farming thought to be a pivotal and
honored occupation
But in reality, small farmers were burdened by
government taxes and became heavily indebted to
the rich.
Shang Dynasty Civilization
Religious practices of Shang Dynasty.
- veneration of dead ancestors.
- Shang people made sacrifices to and asked
questions of their ancestors.
- Ancient Chinese nobles sought to tell the
future by writing on bone fragments or
pieces of turtle shell and throwing those
bones into a fire; the fortune seekers saw
messages about the future in the cracks
that formed (Pyro-osteomancy)
Shang dynasty craftspeople mastered bronze,
an alloy of copper and tin; bronze weapons gave
Shang foot soldiers and charioteers a tactical
advantage in combat.
The very earliest period in traditional Chinese
history is called the Mythical Period, when—
according to legend—the Xia dynasty ruled China.
The Shang dynasty, the first historically confirmed
dynasty, supposedly began when the Shang
overthrew the Xia sometime around 1760 BCE.
The Shang dynasty- is the oldest Chinese dynasty
whose existence is supported by archaeological
finds. It’s estimated that the Shang ruled the Yellow
River Valley of China for most of the second
millennium BCE—so about 1766 to 1046 BCE.
dragon bones—bones and shells with mysterious
inscriptions—in many parts of China. These
artifacts contained records dating back to the
Shang dynasty, allowing scholars to learn much
about Shang life, such as their agricultural
methods, medical treatments, legal system, and
craft making styles.
The Shang built cities
- strong social class divisions
- expanded earlier irrigation systems
- excelled in the use of bronze
- developed a writing system.
- Shang kings fulfilled a sacred, not political,
role, while a council of chosen advisers and
bureaucrats—official administrators—
organized and ran the government.
Loess- a fertile sediment that allowed Shang-era
farmers to grow large surplus of food, found in
massive amount in the banks of Yellow River. This
supported specialization and allowed a class of
Shang artisans and crafts people to develop
sophisticated technology and culture.
Zhou- overthrown Shang dynasty in 1046 BCE, a
subject people—a people who lived under imperial
rule—living in the western part of the kingdom, but - functioned as a sacred capital, where the
their cultural contributions carried on through most sacred temples and religious objects
future dynasties. were housed. This city also had palaces,
workshops, and city walls.
Writing and Culture
Shang, along with other ancient Chinese cities, had
Oracle bones- The oldest surviving form of Chinese
two city walls—one inner and one outer wall. It is
writing is found as inscriptions of divination records
designed to separate different social classes.
on the bones or shells of animals.
Inner wall- which enclosed a temple area,
- Oracle bones are pieces of bone or turtle
cemetery sites, bronze foundries, bronze casting
shell that were used by the ancient Chinese,
areas, and bone workshops. The inner walls thus
especially Chinese kings, in attempts to
encircled an area of political elite and craft
predict the future.
specialists, who together were the engineers of the
- The ancient kings would inscribe their name
important ritual performances.
and the date on the bone along with a
question. They would then heat the bone Outer wall- where the common residents live.
until it cracked and then interpret the shape
KING- where the power of Shan dynasty was
of the crack, which was believed to provide
concentrated, whose political authority was
an answer to their question
reinforced by the Shang religion. To consolidate
Technological Innovation and Exchange their authority further, kings often went on
excursions and military expeditions to walled towns
Bronze- an alloy of copper and tin, was a hugely
outside the capitals where aristocrats had a lot of
important metal during the Shang period.
influence.
- Shang metal workers developed a highly
- Consolidating power in these areas was
sophisticated method for casting bronze
crucial, as control of peasant-farmed
and used it to make ceremonial objects and
agricultural territories ensured sufficient
weapons.
resources for the inhabitants of the walled
- Bronze swords and spearheads were
towns.
stronger than other available metals, giving
Shang soldiers an advantage in battle. CHAPTER 2: The Civilization of the Greeks
- A Shang dynasty bronze vessel, often
The ancient Greeks lived in many lands
ceremonial objects, used to make offerings
around the Mediterranean Sea, from Turkey to the
to ancestors.
south of France. They had close contacts with other
Chariot- a two-wheeled war cart pulled by horses, people such as the Egyptians, Syrians, and Persians.
allowed Shang soldiers to move vast distances at The Greeks lived in separate city-states but shared
great speeds and acted as a mobile archery the same language and religious beliefs.
platform.
Bronze Age Greece
- Members of the royal household were often
During the Bronze Age (around 3200 – 1100
buried with a chariot, horses, and a
B.C.E.)- a number of cultures flourished on the
charioteer.
islands of the Cyclades, in Crete and on the Greek
- Shang archers also had composite bow
mainland. They were mainly farmers, but trade
made by combining animal sinew and horn
across the sea, particularly in raw materials such as
or bone with wood.
obsidian (volcanic glass) and metals, was growing.
"barbarians"- were a constant threat to the safety
about 1600 to 1100 B.C.E- Mycenaean culture
and stability of the kingdom as shown by the oracle
flourished on the Greek mainland in the Late
bone, thus the military need to constantly fight
Bronze Age.
them.
- The name comes from the site of Mycenae,
Power and Social Hierarchy
where the culture was first recognized after
Shang- near modern-day Zhengzhou, it is where the excavations in 1876 of Heinrich
the first Shang ruler supposedly founded a new Schliemann.
capital for his dynasty.
 - Pottery stemmed bowl decorated with a
procession of riders in chariots, Mycenaean,
about 1400-1300 B.C.E.
"Age of heroes"- what Greeks view the Mycenaean
period of the later Greek Bronze Age.
- provides the historical background to many
of the stories told in later Greek mythology,
including Homer's epics.
- Objects and artworks from this time are
found throughout mainland Greece and the
Greek islands.
- These show the beginnings of Greek
mythology being used to decorate works of
art. They come from about the same time
that the epics of Homer were reaching the
form in which we inherit them, as the
earliest Greek literature.
around 1100 B.C.E- The collapse of Mycenaean
civilization brought about a period of isolation
known as the Dark Age.
around 800 B.C.E- the revival had begun as trade
with the wider world increased, arts, crafts and
writing re-emerged and city-states (poleis)
developed.
Archaic period
Two of the most distinctive forms of free-
standing sculpture to emerge during the Archaic
period of Greek art (about 600-480 B.C.E.) were
statues of youths (kouroi) and maidens (korai).
- Kouros (the singular form) is a term used to
describe a type of statue of a male figure
produced in marble during the Archaic
period of Greek art.
- The mouth is invariably fixed in a smile,
which is probably a symbolic expression of
the arete ("excellence") of the person
represented. It used to be thought that all
kouroi were intended as representations of
the god Apollo but some use to represent
God or heroes and at times grave markers.
- The kouros was not intended as a realistic
portrait of the deceased, but an idealized
representation of values and virtues to
which the dead laid claim: youthful beauty,
athleticism, and aristocratic bearing, among
others.
Classical period
around 500 B.C.E- "rule by the people," or
democracy, had emerged in the city of Athens.
Following the defeat of a Persian invasion in 480-
479 B.C.E., mainland Greece and Athens entered a
golden age.
- In drama and philosophy, literature, art and
architecture, Athens was second to none.
The city’s empire stretched from the
western Mediterranean to the Black Sea,
creating enormous wealth.
Parthenon- included in one of the biggest public
building projects ever seen in Greece.
History of coinage- Ancient Greece also played a
vital role in the early history of coinage. They made
some of the world’s earliest coins, the ancient
Greeks were the first to use them extensively in
trade.
Hellenistic period
Following the death of Alexander and the
division of his empire, the Hellenistic period (323-
31 B.C.E.) saw Greek power and culture extended
across the Middle East and as far as the Indus
Valley. When Rome absorbed the Greek world into
its vast empire, Greek ideas, art, and culture greatly
influenced the Romans.
Alexander- was always shown clean-shaven, which
was an innovation: all previous portraits of Greek
statesmen or rulers had beards.
- This royal fashion lasted for almost five
hundred years and almost all the Hellenistic
kings and Roman emperors until Hadrian
were portrayed beardless.
THE CIVILIZATION OF GREEKS EARLY GREECE
EARLY GREECE
- GREECE occupied a 45,000 miles territory of
a mountainous Peninsula.
- -location of Sparta and Olympia
- Attica (Attic Peninsula)-the home of Athens
- Boeotia (Thebes-chief city) – located
northwest of Attica
- Thessaly-contained the largest plains; great
produces of grains and horses
- Macedonia-located North of Thessaly, was
not important in Greek history until…
385 B.C.E-Macedonian King Philip Il conquered the
Greeks.
MINOAN CRETE
CRETE is the large island where the earliest
civilization in Aegean region emerged.
By 28oo B.C.E. Bronze Age Civilization that used
metals in making weapons had been established.
2000 B.C.E to 1450 B.C.E, it has reached its height.
1450 B.C.E-Minoan civilization collapse.
Arthur Evans-named the island "Mincan" after
Minos, a legendary king of Crete.
Palace at Knossus-the royal seats of the kings; an
elaborate structure that included living rooms,
workshops, ivory figurines and suffered a sudden
catastrophic jewelry
Mycenaeans-mainland Greeks.
MYCENAE: THE FIRST GREEK STATE
- Part of the Indo-European family of peoples
who spread from their original location into
southern and western Europe, India and
Persia.
- were above all a warrior people who prided
themselves on their heroic deeds.
- -developed an extensive commercial
network like Mycenaean pottery found
throughout Mediterranean basin.
Mycenaean-derived from Mycenae; a remarkable
fortified site excavated by the amateur German
archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann.
Mycenae-one center in a Mycenaean Greek
civilization. Flourished between 1600 and 1100
B.C.E. Mycenaean Civilization-flourished between
1400 and 1200 B.C.E
A Mycenaean Death Mask. This death mask of thin
gold was one of several found by Heinrich
Schliemann in his excavation of Grave Circle A at
Mycenae. The se masks are similar to the gold
mummy masks used in Egyptian royal tombs.
MYCENAE: THE FIRST GREEK STATE
- By the late 13 century, Mycenaean Greece
was showing signs of serious trouble.
Mycenae itself was burned around 1190
B.C.E.
- Other Mycenaean centers show a similar
pattern of destruction.
- By 1100 B.C.E., the Mycenaean culture has
coming to an end, and the Greek world was
entering a new period of considerable
insecurity.
THE GREEKS IN A DARK AGE (C. 1100-750 B.C.E)
- Large numbers of Greeks left the mainland
and migrated across the Aegean Sea to
various islands and to the southern shore of
Asia Minor (a strip of
- Two Major Groups of Greeks: Aeolian
Greeks of northern and central Greece
Land called lonia) Dorians established
themselves in southwestern Greece,
especially in Peloponnesus, as well as on
some of south Aegean islands, including
Crete colonized the large island of Lesbos
and the adjacent territory of the mainland.
- Iron replaced bronze in making weapons
which were more affordable for more
people.
- The century, the Greeks adopted
Phoenician alphabet to give themselves a
new system of Writing.
- Homer’s work appeared near the very end
of Dark Age.
THE GREEKS IN A DARK AGE: HOMER AND
HOMERIC GREECE
Iliad and Odyssey- the first great epic poems of
early Greece, based on stories that had been
passed down from generation to generation.
Iliad. Homer's epic poem of the Trojan War, a tale
of the Greek hero Achilles and how the "wrath of
Achilles" led to disaster.
Odyssey- an epic romance that recounts the
journeys of one of the Greek heroes, Odysseus,
from the fall of Troy until his eventual return, to his
wife, Penelope, twenty years later.
The Greeks regarded liad and Odyssey as
authentic history.
Arete-importance of striving for the excellence
befitting a hero, is won in a struggle or contest.
THE CIVILIZATION OF GREEKS THE GREEK CITY-
STATES
THE GREEK CITY-STATES (C. 750-500 BCE)
ARCHAIC AGE OF GREECE:
Two maior development stand out in this era,
- The evolution of the city-state (Polis) as a
central institution in Greek life.
- The Greeks’ colonization of the
Mediterranean and Black Seas.
Adult Males: citizens with political rights
Women and Children: citizens without political
rights.
THE POLIS- A small but autonomous political unit in
which all major Political, social, and religious
activities were carried out at one central location,
 - Consisted of a city, town, or village was the
focus point where the citizens of the polis
could assemble for political, social and
religious activities.
- Central meeting point a hill (ex. Acropolis of
Athens) A place of refuge during an attack,
religious center and others.
Agora- an open space that served both as a market
and as a place where citizens could assemble.
Noncitizens- slaves and resident aliens
All citizens- possessed fundamental rights
A NEW MILITARY SYSTEM: THE GREEK WAY OF
WAR
- 8th century: a new military order came into
being that was based on hoplites.
HOPLITES- heavily armed infantrymen who wore
bronze or leather helmets, breastplates, and
greaves (shin guards); carried a round shield, a
short sword and thrusting spear about 9 feet long.
Phalanx- rectangular formation hoplites made
when they advance into battle, usually eight ranks
deep.
TYRANNY IN THE GREEK POLIS
Tyrants rise in the 7th and 6th century B.C.E.
Tyrants: Rulers who came to power in an
unconstitutional way; a tyrant was not subject to
the law.
- Aristocratic Oligarchies (rule the few)
opposed tyrants and aristocrats.
- Tyranny was largely extinguished by the end
of the 6th century B.C.E.
- Greeks believed in the rule of law, and
tyranny made a mockery of that ideal.
SPARTA AND ATHENS
SPARTA- Located in the southeastern of
Peloponnesus.
- Captured Laconians and Messenians (c. 730
BCE)
Messenia-has larger population and possessed
large and ferile land.
Helots-derived from a Greek word for “capture” -
and made to work for the Spartans.
NEW SPARTA: Reforms were made associated with
the name Lycurgus-Spartans became rigidly
organized and rightly controlled.
Male Spartan at 2: Taken from their mothers to
live in military-style barracks, educate, train, and
discipline. Male Spartan at 20: Enrolled in military
service.
Male Spartan at 30 Allowed to vote; at 60,
retirement.
Spartan Oligarchy:
- Two Kings-for military affairs; leaders of the
Spartan army on its campaign.
- Gerousia- a council of elders; 28 citizens
over the age of 60; elected for life.
- Apella – an assembly of all male citizens.
- Ephors- a group of five men who were
responsible for supervising the education of
youth and the conduct of all citizens.
Discouragements:
- Foreigners, travel abroad, studying
philosophy, literature or the arts.
- 500 B.C.E, Spartans had organized a
powerful military state that maintained
order and stability in the Peloponnesus.
ATHENS
- 700 BCE, they established a unified polis on
the peninsula of Attica.
- 7th century, monarchy had fallen under the
control of aristocrats.
Archons – a board of nine officials
Solon-reform-minded aristocrat, sole archon in 594
BCE.
REFORMS OF SOLON:
- cancelled all debts
- outlawed new loans based on humans as
collateral
- Freed people who had fallen into slavery for
debts
- Opened new doors to the participation of
new people
Pisistrus-an aristocrat, siezed power in 560 B.C.E.
Cleisthenes-another aristocrat reformer opposed
the reestablishment attempt of aristocrat
oligarchy.
REFORMS OF CLEISTHENES:
- Created Council of Five Hundred
(responsible for the administration of both
foreign and financial affairs and prepare the
business that would be handled by the
assembly.
- All male citizens had final authority in the
passing of laws after free and open debate
- The reforms created the foundations for
Athenian democracy.

THE HIGHPOINT OF GREEK CIVILIZATION:
CLASSICAL GREECE
- Classical Greece is the name given to the
period of Greek history from around 500
B.C.E. to the conquest of Greece by the
Macedonian king Philip II in 338 B.C.E.
THE CHALLENGE IN PERSIA
- In his play The Persians, Aeschylus reflected
what some Greeks perceived to be the
difference between themselves and the
Persians.
- Persian queen: “Who commands them?
Who is the shepherd of their host?”
- “They are slaves to none, nor are they
subject.”
The lonian Greek cities in Western Asia Minor
had aready fallen subject to the Persian Empire by
the mid-sixth century B.C.E.
THE CHALLENGE IN PERSIA
- An unsuccessful revolt by the Ionian cities
led the Persian ruler Darius to seek revenge
by attacking the mainland Greeks.
- The Persians landed an army on the plain of
Marathon, 26 miles from Athens.
Xerxes- the new Persian monarch after the death
of Darius in 486 B.C.E., vowed revenge and planned
to invade.
- They formed a defensive league under
Spartan leadership.
- The Athenians, in the meantime, had
acquired a new leader, Themistocles who
persuaded his fellow citizens to pursue a
new military policy namely, the
development of a navy.
- led a massive invasion force into Greece
close to 150,000 troops, almost seven
hundred naval ships and hundreds of supply
ships to keep the large army fed.
THE CHALLENGE IN PERSIA
A Greek force numbering close to nine
thousand, under the leadership of the Spartan king,
and his contingent of three hundred Spartans, held
off the Persian army for 2 days. Unfortunately, a
traitor told the Persians how to use a mountain
path to outflank the Greek force.
The Athenians, now threatened by the
onslaught of the Persian forces, abandoned their
city.
THE CHALLENGE IN PERSIA
- The Greek fleet remained offshore near the
island of Salamis.
- A few months later, early in 479 B.C.E., the
Greeks formed the largest army seen up to
that time and decisively defeated the
Persian army at Plataea, northwest of
Attica.
- The Greeks had won the war and now free
to pursue their own destiny.
THE GROWTH OF AN ATHENIAN EMPIRE IN THE
AGE OF PERICLES
- After the defeat of the Persians, Athens
took over the leadership of the Greek world
by forming a defensive alliance against the
Persians called Delian League.
Island of Delos: Main headquarters
- Pursued the attack against the Persian
Empire.
- By controlling the Delian League, Athens
had created an empire.
 At home, Athenians favored the new
imperial policy, when politics came to be
dominated led by Pericles.
 Athens embarked on a policy of expanding
democracy at home and its new empire
abroad.
 Age of Pericles: witnessed the height of
Athenian power and the culmination of its
brilliant civilization.
 Became deeply attached to their
democratic system.
 The sovereignty of the people was
embodied in the assembly.
THE GROWTH OF AN ATHENIAN EMPIRE IN THE
AGE OF PERICLES
- Routine administration of public affairs was
handled by a large body of city magistrate.
- Male citizens held public office at some
time in their lives.
- A board of 10 officials known as generals
was elected by public vote.
- Pericles expanded the Athenians
involvement in democracy.
- Power was in the hands of the people.
- Under Pericles, Athens became the leading
center of Greek culture.
THE GROWTH OF AN ATHENIAN EMPIRE IN THE
AGE OF PERICLES
 - Persians had destroyed much o of the city
during the Persian wars, but Pericles used
the treasury money of the Delian League to
set in motion a massive program.
THE GREAT PELOPONNESIAN WAR AND THE
DECLINE OF THE GREEK STATES
- During the 40 years after the defeat of the
Persians, the Greek world came to be
divided into 2 major camps: Sparta and its
supporters and the Athenian maritime
empire.
- The Athenians planned to remain behind
the protective walls of Athens while the
oversears empire and the navy would keep
them supplied.
- In the second year of the war, however,
plague devastated the crowded city of
Athens and wiped out possibly 1/3 of the
population Pericles himself the following
year.
- Athens was besieged and surrendered in
404. Its walls were torn down, the navy was
disbanded, and the Athenian empire was no
more. The great war was finally over.
CULTURE OF CLASSICAL GREECE
THE WRITING OF HISTORY
Herodotus- wrote History of the Persian wars
which was commonly regarded as the first real
history in Western Civilization.
Thucydides- was considered the greatest historian
of the ancient world.
- an Athenian and a participant of Peloponnesian
War
- not concerned with underlying divine forces or
gods
GREEK DRAMA
- The first Greek dramas were tragedies,
plays based on the suffering of a hero and
usually ending in disaster.
Aeschylus- is the first tragedian whose plays are
known to us.
Oresteia :only complete trilogy
Sophocles- whose famous work was Oedipus the
King.
Euripides- moved beyond his predecessors by
creating more realistic characters.
Greek tragedies dealt with universal themes still
relevant to our day.
- nature of good and evil
- rights of individual
- nature of divine forces
- nature of human beings
The plays of Aristophanes who used both
grotesque masks and obscene jokes to entertain
the Athenian audience are examples of Old
Comedy.
THE ARTS: THE CLASSICAL IDEAL
Greek art was concerned with expressing:
- Eternally true ideals
- Human being
- Classical style: meant to civilize the emotion
architecture, the most important form was the
temple dedicated to a god or goddess.
Parthenon: most famous building.
Greek - developed a Classical style that differed
significantly from the artificial stiffness of the
figures of earlier times.
Polyclitus- wrote a treatise on a canon of
proportions that he illustrated in a work known as
the Doryphoros.
THE GREEK LOVE OFWISDOM
PHILOSOPHY: “ love of wisdom”
Thales- postulated the unity of universe.
Pythagoras - taught that the essence of the
universe could be found in music and numbers.
Sophists- were a group of philosophical teachers in
the 15th century B. C. E. who rejected such
speculation as foolish.
- They stressed the importance of rhetoric in
winning debates and swaying an audience
Socrates- left no writings, but we know about him
from his pupils. His approach,
Socratic method, employs a question-and-answer
technique to lead pupils to see things for
themselves using their own reason.
- questioned authority and criticized some
traditional Athenian values.
Plato - considered by many as the greatest
philosopher of Western civilization. His ideas of
government were set out in his dialogue entitled
The Republic.
The population was divided into 3 basic groups:
 a. Ruling elite
b. Warriors
c. Made up the masses
Plato established a school at Athens known as
Academy. One of his pupils, Aristotle did not accept
Plato’s theory of ideal forms.
- He examined the constitutions of 158 states
and identified 3 good forms of government:
monarchy, aristocracy, and constitutional
government.
GREEK RELIGION
- Served specific functions Citizens had to
have a proper attitude toward the gods.
- Temples dedicated to a God or goddess
The poetry of Homer gave an account of the gods
that provided Greek religion with a definite
structure.
- They came to accept a basic polytheistic
religion with 12 chief gods who supposedly
lived on Mount Olympus, the highest
mountain in Greece.
Ritual
- Assumed enormous proportions
- Meant sacrifices
Festivals
- To honor gods
- All Greeks were invited
Games
- first held at the Olympic Games Festival
- Came to end when Christian Roma
emperor banned them as pagan exercises
In 1896, the first modern Olympic games were held
in Athens, Greece.
Made use of oracle, a scared shrine dedicated to a
god or goddess who revealed the future. The most
famous was the oracle of Apollo at Delphi.
LIFE IN CLASSICAL ATHENS
The polis was above all a male community:
only adult male citizens took part on public life. In
Athens, this meant the exclusion of women, slaves,
and foreign residents.
CHAPTER 3: The First World Civilizations: Rome,
China, Silk Road
Ancient Rome -In the Beginning Ancient Rome
begin as a group of villages along the Tiber River in
what is now Italy.
Around 750 B.C. these villages united to form the
city of Rome.
Formation of Roman Republic
- For more than 200 years, kings ruled Rome.
In 509 B.C. Rome became a republic.
- The Roman Senate was an assembly of
elected representatives. It was the single
most powerful ruling body of the Roman
Republic.
Patricians & Plebeians
- In the beginning most of the people elected
to the Senate were patricians.
- Patricians controlled the law since they
were the only citizens allowed to be judges.
- Plebeians had the right to vote, but could
not hold public office until 287 B.C, when
they gained equality with patricians.
Roman Expansion
- Under the leadership of ambitious generals,
Rome’s highly trained soldiers took over
most of the land surrounding the
Mediterranean.
- The ancient Romans called the
Mediterranean mare nostrum, meaning
“our sea”.
Rome 117 A.D.
The End of the Roman Republic
- A successful Roman general and famous
speaker, Julius Caesar, was a governor of
the territory of Gaul and managed to take
control of many nearby territories. Fearing
him the Roman Senate ordered him to
resign but he had other ideas.
- Caesar fought for control and won,
becoming the dictator of the Roman world,
ending the Roman Republic.
The Roman Empire- Less than a year after gaining
power a group of angered Senators stabbed Caesar
to death on the floor of the Roman Senate. (March
15, 44 B.C.)
- This caused a civil war that lasted several
years.
- In 27 B.C., Caesar’s adopted son, Octavian
was named the first emperor of Rome.
The Roman Empire- An empire is a nation or group
of territories ruled by a single powerful leader, or
emperor.
- As emperor Octavian took the name
Augustus.
 - Augustus ruled the Roman Empire for more
than 40 years, known as the Augustan Age.
The Augustan Age
- During the rule of Augustus the Roman
empire continued to expand.
- Augustus kept soldiers along all the borders
to keep peace in the Roman world.
- During this time architects and engineers
built many new public buildings.
- During this time trade increased with olive
oil, wine, pottery, marble, and grain being
shipped all across the Mediterranean.
- Lighthouses were constructed to guide
ships into port.
- This was also a time of great Roman
literature.
The Rise of Christianity
- After the death of Augustus in 14 A.D. a
new religion begins to spread: Christianity.
- At first it took hold in the eastern half of the
Roman Empire.
- By 200 A.D. this religion had spread
throughout the empire.
- Christians were viewed with suspicion and
suffered persecution, and many were
punished or killed for their beliefs.
- Things changed when Constantine became
emperor of Rome in 306 A.D. During his
reign Christianity became the official
religion of the Roman Empire.
The Fall of the Roman Empire
- Rome had quite a run-First a monarchy,
then a republic, then an empire – all roads
led to Rome for over 1200 years.
In the Mediterranean, Rome was in charge.
- Rome had some wonderful emperors. Rome
also suffered from a series of bad, corrupt
and just plain crazy emperors.  
The Fall of the Roman Empire
- The empire was too large to govern
effectively.
- The army was not what it used to be. There
was corruption in the military - dishonest
generals and non-Roman soldiers.
- Civil wars broke out between different
political groups.
- Emperors were often selected by violence,
or by birth, so the head of government was
not always a capable leader.
- The increased use of slaves put many
Romans out of work
- The rich became lazy and showed little
interest in trying to solve Rome problems.
- The poor were overtaxed and overworked.
They were very unhappy.
- Prices increased; trade decreased.
- the population was shrinking due to
starvation and disease. That made it
difficult to manage farms and government
effectively.
The Empire started shrinking. The Huns,
Visigoths, Franks, Vandals, Saxons and other
barbarian tribes overran the empire.
The Fall of the Roman Empire
- The ancient Romans tried to solve some of
their problems by splitting the Roman
Empire in half, hoping that would make the
empire easier to manage.
- - Each side had an emperor, but the
emperor in charge was the emperor of the
western half, the half that included the city
of Rome. 
- The Western Roman Empire did not do well.
Instead of getting stronger, they became
weaker. By 400 AD, it was pretty much over.
The Huns, Franks, Vandals, Saxons,
Visigoths – any of these barbarian tribes
might have been the group that finally
brought Rome down.
- They were all attacking various pieces of the
Western Roman Empire. In 476 AD, the
Visigoths sacked Rome. Europe entered the
Dark Ages. The eastern half of the Roman
Empire received a new name – the
Byzantine Empire. The Byzantine Empire did
fine. It lasted for another 1000 years!
State power and the Silk Road
What's so special about silk?
- Silk is a strong material, but is also light,
warm and soft.
- Only the Chinese at this time knew how to
make it, which made the value of it
skyrocket. Kept the process a secret so no
one else could get in on the market.
- Revealing the process was a crime
punishable by death.
Roman Glassware for Silk
- The Romans prized silk and traded eagerly
for it.
 - First encountered silk in Mesopotamia in a
battle.
- Even the richest of Romans could only
afford to wear a strip or a patch of silk
stitched to their togas (a toga isa loose robe
worn by Roman men)
- In return, the Romans traded glassware,
which the Chinese were unfamiliar with.
- Romans were able to blow the glass into
wonderful, delicate shapes.
The Silk Road is not just one road
• A network of shorter trade routes between 40-
41/49
• The Eastern Silk Road connected Luoyang to
Kashgar (a city in the western part of the
Taklimakan Desert)
• The Western Silk Road connected Kashgar to
Antioch and other ports in the Mediterranean.
Eastern Silk Road
- This route led west along the Gobi Desert to
Dunhuang, in northwestern China.
- Protected by the desert and the Great Wall
to the north. From Dunhuang, traders could
go by a northerly or southerly route to
Kashgar.
- Most chose the northern route because the
distances between the oases were much
shorter.
Eastern Silk Road continued
- Dangers include bandits, sandstorms, and
mirages (an image of something that isn’t
really there, like water) pulling them off the
path.
- Before entering the desert, many traders
chose to form caravans (a group of people
travelling together) for protection.
- Used bactrian camels (have double eyelids
and nostrils that they can close to keep the
blowing sand out. This let them carry
enough food and water for a traveler to
make it to the next oasis.
- Very expensive to carry goods over the Silk
Road. In order to make a profit, the items
would need to be of good quality, valuable,
and easy to carry.
- Silk was great because it was light, valuable
and didn’t take up much room.
Western Silk Road continued
- A major stop along the route was
Ctesiphon, located on the eastern bank of
the Tigris River, a new miles north of
Ancient Babylon.
- Traders from Egypt, Arabia and Persian
brought perfumes, cosmetics and carpets,
as well as metal items and dies.
- Sometimes even slaves.
- Romans brought glass trays, cases,
necklaces and small bottles, as well as coral
and asbestos (used for making fireproof
cloth).
- Chinese doctors used coral to help them
locate illness (it was said that coral lost it’s
color when placed on the skin of someone
who was sick).
- Romans sent so much gold in exchange for
silk that in the first century C.E., a Roman
emperor named Tiberius outlawed silk
because he thought it made Romans soft
and weak because of all the expensive
fabric they wore.
Cultural Exchanges
- , gardening techniques and agriculture
changed as new plants were introduced to
other areas. • China imported many new
foods and spices, such as grapes,
cucumbers, figs, pomegranates, walnuts,
chives, sesame, and coriander.
- Meanwhile, the West imported many
decorative plants like roses, peonies,
azaleas, chrysanthemums, and camellias, as
well as oranges, peaches and pears.
- Also eventually learned to make the major
products, they traded for, around 500 C.E.
Cultural Exchanges continued
- The Silk Road also helped spread Buddhism,
which began in India.
- the Silk Road passed through many
different nations; religious travelers use the
route to spread their beliefs.
- Buddhism was introduced to China around
the middle of the first century C.E.
- Some Chinese Buddhists journeyed through
Central Asia to learn more about their new
religion and brought back sacred Buddhist
texts.
Buddhism would soon become a major religion
- One cause of expanded trade was the
growth of imperial power.
Emperor Wu of Han- Near the end of the second
century BCE, he mounted many campaigns against
the nomadic Xiongnu people.
Xiongnu horsemen- raided Chinese settlements
along the northern border for many years. Emperor
Wu looked for a new source of horses for his
cavalry to deal with the threat of the Xiongnu.
Zhang Qian- ordered by Emperor Wu as emissary
to find allies in the fight against the Xiongnu. Zhang
returned to China, eager to discuss the wonders he
had seen in Ferghana—modern-day Uzbekistan.
Along with rice, wheat, and grapes, the region
produced hardy, "heavenly" horses.
Ferghana horses- became a highly desired trade
item in China. China imported so many horses that
the Dayuan people who controlled the Ferghana
valley refused to sell any more of the horses! This
led to a three-year conflict known as the War of the
Heavenly Horses.
By 101 BCE- the Ferghana valley belonged to Han
China. Control of the Ferghana valley also opened a
route to the West. With a new supply of horses,
Han China projected its new military strength
throughout Asia. The expansion of Han control led
to the first Pax Sinica—or Chinese Peace. During
this time, the standard of living in China rose and
cities grew. Economic growth and political stability
led to increased demand for luxury goods from far-
off places
Victory in the Punic Wars gave Rome control
over the western Mediterranean Sea. Over the next
few centuries, Rome expanded to control all the
Mediterranean shoreline. The first century CE saw
the beginning of the Pax Romana—Roman Peace.
The Pax Romana lasted about 200 years and was a
period of relatively few wars. As with Han China,
political stability brought more trade. Rome gained
access to overseas trade routes to India via Egypt
and began to trade regularly. Although Rome and
Han China expanded greatly, there was still a lot of
distance between them. Central Asia is covered
with mountains, deserts, and vast grasslands.
Traders provided an essential link between the
Roman and Han empires.
The Silk Road
The Silk Road- was a vast trade network connecting
Eurasia and North Africa via land and sea routes.
The Silk Road earned its name from Chinese silk, a
highly valued commodity that merchants
transported along these trade networks.
- Advances in technology and increased
political stability caused an increase in
trade. The opening of more trade routes
caused travelers to exchange many things:
animals, spices, ideas, and diseases.
- In the first century CE, during the reign of
Emperor Tiberius, silk had become a big
problem. The luxury fabric, imported at
great cost from China, had become a
symbol of decadence and excess among
Romans. To make their supply of silk last
longer, merchants unraveled and re-wove
their fabric into thinner, sheer garments.
This practice had a side-effect of making the
garments nearly transparent.
Seneca the Younger- a writer and imperial advisor,
complained of people wearing silk:
In the year 14 CE- the Roman historian Tacitus
reported that the Imperial Senate made it illegal for
men to wear silk, resolving that "Oriental [Eastern]
silks should no longer degrade the male sex. "
This prohibition on silk did not last. The demand for
silk continued to drive trade between the Roman
Empire, China, India, and many places in between.
Travel on the Silk Road
Traders had to find ways to move their goods
efficiently. To travel overland, the camel was
favored mode of transportation. Nomadic peoples
in central Asia started domesticating camels as
early as the second millennium BCE. For example,
the Han Chinese used camels captured from the
Xiongnu to carry military supplies. Camels could
withstand the harsh desert conditions through
central Asia and were also able to carry up to 500
pounds at a time! Pack animals—especially camels
—made the transportation of goods over land on
the Silk Road viable
Merchants and sailors made use of the ocean to
transport goods, too. Sailors needed a strong
understanding of wind patterns and storm systems
to successfully navigate the oceans. For example, in
the Indian Ocean, monsoon winds blow from the
northeast in the winter and from the southwest in
the summer. With a southwestern wind pushing
them east, merchants were able to travel from the
Red Sea between Egypt and Arabia to India in the
summer and then back to the Red Sea in the
winter. This information was exchanged among
sailors and made its way beyond the Indian Ocean.
A map of the monsoon pattern, made by Khan
Academy. Map shows the Red sea and the land
surrounding it (east Africa, Saudi Arabia, India,
southeast Asia). Blue arrows point south and west,
showing the winter winds from the northeast. Red
arrows point north and east across the Red Sea, territories and kept them relatively peaceful. The
showing the summer winds coming from the Han conquered their way into central Asia. From
southwest. there, nomadic traders carried goods farther west
or south. Trade brought new faiths, new ideas, and
The Effects of Exchange
new goods to places they had not previously been.
One obvious effect of trade along the Silk Road was
MESOAMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS
more goods were available in more places. Silk,
owing to its soft texture and appealing shimmer, - Avocado, tomato, and chocolate originally
became so hotly desired that it was used as came from Mexico.
currency in central Asia. However, the process of - Nahuatl is the language spoken by the
raising silkworms and creating fabric from their Nahua ethnic group that is found today in
cocoons remained a Chinese secret through the 6th Mexico, but with deep historical roots.
century C.E. The fact that China remained the only
Maya (MY-uh)- Were only the latest in a series of
source of silk meant that trade goods continued to
sophisticated societies that had sprung up at
travel across Asia. This involved many people and
various locations in North and South America
locations in the Silk Road trade networks.
Amerindians- Lived by hunting and fishing or by
Spices from the East Indies, glass beads from Rome,
food gathering.
silk, ginger, and lacquer ware from China, furs from
animals of the Caucasian steppe and slaves from Aztecs- one of Nahua group more accurately called
many locations all travelled along the Silk Road. the Mexica. The Mexica were one of many
Some effects were cultural. During the rule of the Mesoamericans cultural groups that flourished in
Tang dynasty of China, for example, sculptures of Mexico prior to the arrival of Europeans in the
camels from the caravans that frequently traded in sixteenth century.
China were placed in graves. Clearly the animals
The AZTECS
made an impression
- The Aztecs were American people of central
Part of a 7th-century purchase contract,
Mexico in the 14th, 15th and 16th eary.
exchanging a fifteen-year-old enslaved person for
- They were a civilization with a rich
six bolts of silk and five Chinese coins. This contract
mythology and cultural heritage.
is from the city of Turfan, an oasis city along the
- Their capital was Tenochtitlan on the shore
Silk Road. Ideas and diseases were also exchanged
of Lake Texcoco-the site of modern-day
along the sea lanes and camel-routes—and both
Mexico City.
would have profound effects on the locations they
- The Aztecs were famous for their
traveled to. Toward the end of the second century,
agriculture, cultivating all available land,
a plague tore through the Roman Empire, killing
introducing irrigation, draining swamps, and
10%of the population. Historians think that this
creating artificial islands in the lakes.
plague first appeared in China before making its
- They developed a form of hieroglyphic
way through trade routes to the Near East, where
writing, a complex calendar system, and
Roman soldiers were campaigning. As for the
built famous pyramids and temples.
exchange of ideas, Buddhism came to China
- Folk legend held that their original
through trade with India. The Sogdians of central
homeland was an island in a lake called
Asia often acted as traders between India and
Aztlan, from the homeland comes the name
China. Sogdians also translated Sanskrit sutras into
Aztec by which known to the modern world.
Chinese and spread the Buddhist faith as they
- During early 12th century Aztecs left their
traded. Other faiths, like Zoroastrianism,
original habitat and carrying an image of
Manichaeism, and Christianity also traveled along
their patron deity named:
the sea and land routes. These religions developed
Huitzilopotchli (WEET-see-loh-POSHSHT-
and changed to fit the new regions they travelled
lee)- guiding deity of the entire population.
to.
- The Aztecs were at first forced to seek
Chinese Silk in Rome alliances with stronger states. •They were
excellent warriors and become the
So now we have a sense of the economic and
dominant city state in the lake.
political conditions that enabled Chinese silk to
POLITICS OF THE AZTECS
make its way to Roman markets. Both the Han
Chinese and Roman Empires controlled vast
 - They are authoritarian. Power was vested
on the Monarch whose authority was both
divine and a secular character.
- The Aztec ruler claimed descent from the
Gods and served as an intermediary
between the material and the metaphysical
worlds.
- The Aztecs were allowed considerable
autonomy in return for paying tribute in the
form of goods or captives to the central
government.
- The collectors of tribute are the most
important officials in the provinces
BERNAL DIAZ DEL CASTILLO- His True History of
the Conquest of New Spain detailed Hernán Cortés'
1519-1521. military expedition against the
powerful Aztec Empire from the perspective of
Díaz's fellow foot soldiers.
SOCIAL STRUCTURES OF AZTECS
- Male children in noble families were sent to
temple school to work and memorization of
information about the Aztec society and
religion while women were expected to
work in home.
- On reaching adulthood they would select a
career in the military service, the
government bureaucracy, or the
priesthood.
- Most indentured workers were landless
labourers and slaves. served in the
household of wealthy family.
CALPULIS- vast majority of the popular consisted of
commoners and all of them were members of large
kinship groups.
• Each group composed of thousand members was
headed by an elected chief who its day-to-day
affairs and served as intermediary with the central
government.
• Each group was responsible for providing taxes
and conscript labour to the state.
• Each calpuli maintained its own temples and
schools in the cities each calpuli occupied a
separate neighborhood.
LAND OF THE FEATHERED SERPENT: THE AZTEC
RELIGION AND CULTURE
- Some scholar identified that Aztecs have
more than a hundred deities and
- Some of them were nature spirits like the
rain God, Tlaloc and some were patron
deities.
- A supreme deity called Ometeofl
represented the all powerful and
omnipresent forces of the heaven.
- other God, notably the feathered serpent
Quetzalcoatl had a more impact on the lives
of the people that bears a distinct similarity
to Shiva in Hindu belief.
•Aztec cosmology were based on a belief in the
existence of two worlds the material ( earth) and
the divine heaven and hell).
•Aztec society may have been undergoing a
process of secularization.
•Aztec religion contained a distinct element of
fatalism that was inherent in the creation of myth.
•They also believed that by appeasing the sun God
Huitzilopochtli, with sacrifices, they could delay the
final destruction of their world.
ART AND CULTURE
Architecture and sculpture had a religious
significance.
•Aztec painting survives, it was evidently of high
quality and in a form of writing they based on
hieroglyphs represented an object or a concept
• This is the STONE OF THE FIFTH SUN that weighs
26 tons
• It portrays the perpetual struggle between forces
of good and evil in the universe.
• In the center is an intimidating image of the sun
God clutching human hearts with his talons.
THE FIRST CIVILIZATION IN SOUTH AMERICA
- South America is a vast continent
characterized by extremes in climate and
geography and has been inhabited by
human beings for more than 12,000 years.
- Farther to the south, the forests are
replaced by prairies and steppes stretching
westward to the Andes mountains.
CARAL- A HIGHLY PUBLICIZED SITE LOCATED 14
MILES INLAND FROM THE COAST -LAND WAS
DIVIDED IN A MANNER SIMILAR TO THE WELL FIELD
SYSTEM IN ANCIENT CHINA.
- This culture reached its height during for
the first millennium B.C.E with the
emergence of the Chavin Style named for a
site near the modern city of Chavin de
Huantar.
MOCHE
• Artifacts found at Moche especially the metal important to remember that modern-day
work and stone and ceramic figures exhibit a high geographic terms—like Mesoamerica or the
quality of artisanship. Southwestern U.S.—are recent
designations.
• It symbolizes that the people at the Moche were
preoccupied with warfare. The history of Mesoamerica is usually divided
into specific periods which, taken together, reveal
• It also fascinated by the heavens and much of
the development of culture in the region and, for
their art consisted of celestial and astronomical
the purposes of this definition, the emergence and
constellation.
cultivation of the Maya Civilization.
Mesoamerica- refers to the diverse civilizations
 The Archaic Period: 7000-2000 BCE –
that shared similar cultural characteristics in the
During this time a hunter-gatherer culture
geographic areas comprising the modern-day
began to cultivate crops such as maize,
countries of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Belize,
beans and other vegetables and the
El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. Some of the
domestication of animals (most notably
shared cultural traits among Mesoamerican
dogs and turkeys) and plants became widely
peoples included a complex pantheon of deities,
practiced. The first villages of the region
architectural features, a ballgame, the 260-day
were established during this period which
calendar, trade, food (especially a reliance on
included sacred spots and temples
maize, beans, and squash), dress, and
dedicated to various gods. The villages
accoutrements (additional items that are worn or
excavated thus far are dated from 2000-
used by a person, such as earspools).
1500 BCE.
Well-known Mesoamerican culture are Olmec,  The Olmec Period: 1500-200 BCE – This era
Maya, Zapotec, Teotihuacan, Mixtec, and Mexica is also known as the Pre-Classic or
(or Aztec). Formative Period when the Olmecs, the
oldest culture in Mesoamerica, thrived. The
- The geography of Mesoamerica is
Olmecs settled along the Gulf of Mexico and
incredibly diverse—it includes humid
began building great cities of stone and
tropical areas, dry deserts, high
brick. The famous Olmec heads strongly
mountainous terrain, and low coastal
suggest highly sophisticated skill in
plains. An anthropologist named Paul
sculpture and the first indications of
Kirchkoff first used the term
Shamanic religious practices date from this
“Mesoamerica” (meso is Greek for “middle”
period. The enormous size and scope of
or “intermediate”) in 1943todesignate
Olmec ruins gave birth to the idea that the
these geographical areas as having shared
land was once populated by giants. Though
cultural traits prior to the invasion of
no one knows where the Olmecs came
Europeans, and the term has remained.
from, nor what happened to them, they lay
- Mesoamerican art we are referring to art
the foundation for all the future civilizations
made by people in Mexico and much of
in Mesoamerica.
Central America.
- The Olmecs: In the Land of Rubber
- Native North American art, they are usually
- Characterized by intensive agriculture along
referring to indigenous peoples in the U.S.
the muddy riverbanks
and Canada, even though these countries
- Carving of stone ornaments, tools, and
are technically all part of North America,
monuments such as San Lorenzo and
Greater Southwest or Greater Mesoamerica- an Lavinta.
area where archaeologists and art historians have THE OLMECS
considered connections between the Southwestern The Olmecs: In the Land of Rubber
and Southeastern U.S. and Mesoamerica. - Characterized by intensive agriculture along
the muddy riverbanks
- Focusing on these connections
- Carving of stone ornaments, tools, and
demonstrates how people were in contact
monuments as sites such as San Lorenzo
with one another through trade, shared
and Laventa.
beliefs, migration, or conflict. Ball courts,
1. Laventa
for instance, are found in Arizona sites such
2. Massive stone heads
as the Pueblo Grande of the Hohokam. It is
3. Stone pyramids
 4. Rubber tree
 The Zapotec Period: 600 BCE-800 CE – In
the region surrounding modern-day Oaxaca,
the cultural center now known as Monte
Alban was founded which became the
capital of the Zapotec kingdom. The
Zapotecs were clearly influenced by (or,
perhaps, related to) the Olmecs and,
through them, some of the most important
cultural elements of the region were
disseminated such as writing, mathematics,
astronomy, and the development of the
calendar; all of which the Maya would
refine.
- Parallel developments were occurring at
Monte Alban, on a hillside overlooking the
modern city of Oaxaca.
Monte Alban contains a number of temples
and pyramids, but they are located in much
more awesome surroundings on a massive
stone terrace atop.
- Government of Monte Alban was
apparently theocratic, with an elite class of
nobles and priests ruling over a population
composed of primarily farmers and artisans
- The building style of Monte Alban
influenced future urban centers
- Become the seed to Mesoamerican
civilizations
The Zapotec
- Parallel developments were occurring at
Monte Alban, on a hillside overlooking the
modern city of Oaxaca.
- Monte Alban contains a number of temples
and pyramids, but they are located in much
more awesome surroundings on a massive
stone terrace atop
Monte Alban
- Government of Monte Alban was
apparently theocratic, with an elite class of
nobles and priests ruling over a population
composed of primarily farmers and artisans.
- The building style of Monte Alban
influenced Future urban centers Become
the seed to Mesoamerican civilizations
Downfall
- For more than thousand years the Zapotec
controlled the Oaxaca Valley but around
A.D 600. They began to collapse. Some
believed that this was caused by lack of
trade or economic difficulties.
 The Teotihuacan Period: 200-900 CE –
During this era the great city of Teotihuacan
grew from a small village to a metropolis of
enormous size and influence. Early on,
Teotihuacan was a rival of another city
called Cuicuilco but, when that community
was destroyed by a volcano c. 100 CE,
Teotihuacan became dominant in the
region. Archaeological evidence suggests
that Teotihuacan was an important religious
center which was devoted to the worship of
a Great Mother Goddess and her consort
the Plumed Serpent. The Plumed Serpent
god Kukulkan (also known as Gucamatz)
was the most popular deity among the
Maya. Like many of the cities which now lie
in ruin throughout the southern Americas,
Teotihuacan was abandoned sometime
around900 CE.
Teotihuacan
- Americas First Metropolis
- Name means “where man met the gods”
- First major metropolis in Mesoamerica was
in the City of Teotihuacan
Pyramid of the Sun
- Archaeologist have discovered the remains
sacrificial victims, probably put to death
during the dedication of the structure
- in the vicinity are the remains of a large
market where goods from distant regions as
well as agricultural produce grown by
farmers in the vicinity were exchanged.
1. PULQUE
2. OBSIDIAN
Teotihuacan- Most of the City consisted of one-
story stucco apartment compounds; some were as
large as 35,000 square foot, sufficient to house
more than a hundred of people.
- Fertile Valley of Mexico surrounded by
snowcapped mountains that made the
wealth obtained the agriculture.
Chinampas- A swampy islands crisscrossed by
canals.
 The El Tajin Period: 250-900 CE – This
period is also known as the Classic Period in
Mesoamerican and Mayan history. The
name `El Tajin’ refers to the great city
complex on the Gulf of Mexico which has
been recognized as one of the most
important sites in Mesoamerica. During this
time the great urban centers rose across
 the land and the Maya numbered in the
millions. The very important ball game
which came to be known as Poc-a-Toc was
developed and more ball courts have been
found in and around the city of El Tajin than
anywhere else in the region. Who, precisely,
the people were who inhabited El Tajin
remains unknown as there were over fifty
different ethnic groups represented in the
city and dominance has been ascribed to
both the Maya and the Totonac.
 The Classic Maya Period: 250-950 CE – This
is the era which saw the consolidation of
power in the great cities of the Yucatec
Maya such as Chichen Itza and Uxmal.
Direct cultural influences may be seen, in
some sites, from the Olmecs and the
Zapotecs and the cultural values of
Teotihuacan and El Tajin but, in others, a
wholly new culture seems to have emerged
(such as at Chichen Itza where, though
there is ample evidence of cultural
borrowing, there is a significantly different
style to the art and architecture). This
period was the height of the Maya
civilization in which they perfected
mathematics, astronomy, architecture, and
the visual arts and refined and perfected
the calendar. The oldest date recorded in
this era is on Stele 29 in the city of Tikal
(292 CE) and the latest is from an inscription
on the Stele at the site of Tonina (909 CE).
The city-states of the Mayan civilization
stretched from Piste in the north all the way
down to modern-day Honduras.
THE MAYA
- Arisen in the state of Guatemala and the
Yucatan Peninsula
- Older and just as sophisticated as the
society at Teotihuaca.
ORIGINS
- People are already cultivating such as corn, yams
and manioc in the area during the first millennium
As the population increase, an early civilization
began to emerge along the Pacific coast directly to
the south of the peninsula and in the highlands of
modern Guatemala.
Kakaw- from cacao trees
- Gave rise to the developed relations with
other early civilizations in the region. It is
also the source of chocolate where was
drunk as a beverage of the upper class.
Mole (moh-LAY)- the chocolate consumed in
Mesoamerican culture was roasted and had a bitter
taste
- Overcrowding forced farmers in the lowland
areas to shift from slash-and-burn
cultivation to swamp agriculture.
Tikal (tee-KAHL)- Had 100, 000 inhabitants at their
height and displayed a level of technological and
cultural achievement that was unsurpassed in the
region.
Mayan Temple at Tikal
- This 18th century temple, peering over the
treetops of a jungle at Tikal represents the
zenith of the engineering and artistry of the
Mayan people.
- It dominates a great plaza that is
surrounded by a royal place and various
religious structures,
Political Structure
- One of the monarchs of Copan,
Waxadajuun Ub aah Kawill, also known as
18 rabbit ordered the construction of grand
palace requiring more than 30,000 person-
days of labor.
- Around the ruler was a class of aristocrats
whose wealth was probably based on the
ownership of land farmed by their poorer
relatives.
- Majority of the population on the peninsula,
however were farmers. They lived in
chinampa plots or on terraced hills in
highlands
Pakal (pa-KAL)- Became the King of Palenque one
of the most powerful of the Mayan city-states,
through the royal line of his mother and
grandmother, thereby breaking the patrilineal
twice.
Mayan Religion
- Like some of the early religious belief in Asia
and the Mediterranean, Mayan Religion
was Polytheistic.
Itzamna (eet-SAHM-nuh)- Viewed as the creator of
all things, he was credited with bringing the
knowledge of maize, cacao, medicine, and writing
of the Mayan people.
- Deities were ranked in order of importance
and had human characteristics.
- Some like jaguar god of night, were evil
rather than good.
 - Mayan cities were built around a
ceremonial care dominated by a central
pyramid surmounted by a shrine to the
gods.
A dangerous game was played on ball courts such
as this one.A large ball of solid rubber was
propelled from the hip at such tremendous speed
that players had to wear extensive padding
The Creation of the World: A Mayan View
A Sample of Mayan Writing
- Were the only Mesoamerican people to
devise a complete written language.
- Many specialists believed that it may have
emerged from scripts invented earlier by
the neighboring Zapotecs or Olmecs.
Composed of a mixture of ideographs and
phonetic system which were written in
double columns to be read from left to right
and from top to bottom
A Sample of Mayan Writing
- Numbering system included zero using dots
and bars.
- 365 day solar calendar
- 260 day calendar based on the orbit of
Venus
Mayan Writing
- Arrival of planet Venus in the evening sky,
for example was to prepare for war.
- devised the Long Count Tradition
A Sample of Mayan Writing
class of scribes- responsible for compiling official
records in the Mayan city-states, who wrote an
deerskin or strips of tree bark.
- Almost the only surviving written records
dating from the Classical Mayan Era are
those that were carved in stone.
Palenque- An archaeological site deep in the jungle
in Mexican peninsula under the table of
inscriptions, Archaeologists discovered a royal
tomb and a massive limestone slab covered.
Pascal- where historical figures of Mayan was
discovered.
- Scholars believed that Maya were peaceful
people who rarely engaged in violence. But,
scene from paintings and rock carvings
depict a society preoccupied with war.
Misery in Mayan Decline
- Classical mayan civilization begin to decline
in the 8th to 9th century.
- Worked on various stone sculptures of the
ruler suddenly ceased.
- End of Palenque
- City of Tikal was abandoned.
- Over cultivation of land
Uxmal and Chichen Itza
- This latter area was taken over by people
known as the Toltecs led by a man known
as Kukulcan but eventually they declined
too.
THE INKA- SMALL COMMUNITY OF CUZCO
Pachakuti- “He who transforms the world” and
launched a campaign of Conquest.
The Four Quarters: Inka Politics and Society
Jahuantinsuyu- The world of four quarters
CUZCO- CITY OF MUD TO METROPOLIS STONE
“All four walls of the temple were covered from
the top to bottom with plates and slabs of gold.”
- Nachu Picchu
MAJOR CONSTRUCTION
- A system of 24,800 miles of highways and
roads from Colombia to Santiago Chile.
TWO MAJOR ROADWAYS
1. Through Andes
2. Aling the Coast
RURAL AREAS
- Lived by farming
- Terraced agriculture
- Irrigation systems
MARRIAGE WERE STRICTLY REGULATED
WOMEN SERVE AS “CHOSEN VIRGINS”
INCA CULTURE
- SOLDIERS WERE RAISED BY UNIVERSAL
MALE CONSCRIPTION
- INKA HAD NO WHEELED VEHICLES,
SUPPLIES WERE CARRIED ON THE BACKS OF
ILAMAS
QUECHUA- Lingua franca of the state
QUIPO- A system of knotted strings because they
have no writing system.
STATELESS SOCIETIES IN THE AMERICA
The Eastern Woodlands
 - Cultivate indigenous plants for food in a the region. The widely popular conception
systematic way that the Maya were driven from their cities
- URBAN CENTERS BEGAN TO APPEAR by the Spanish Conquest is erroneous as the
- TRADE INCREASED cities were already vacant by the time of
COHAKIA the Spanish invasion (in fact, the Spanish
conquerors had no idea the natives they
- Near the modern city. Of east of Saint Louis
found in the region were responsible for the
Illinois
enormous complexes of the cities). The
- Administrative capital until 1200s
Quiche Maya were defeated at the Battle of
- Carried on extensive trade throughout
Utatlan in 1524 CE and this date
League of Iroquois
traditionally marks the end of the Maya
The Ancient Puebloans- Also called Anasazi or Civilization.
“alien ancient ones. They created a system of road
-GOODLUCK AND GODBLESS-
for extensive exchange of technology, products and
ideas. - Shiela Mae Dela Cruz
CHACO CANYON- Walled city with dozens of three- - Klent Kaye Arre Sandoval
story adobe communal houses called PUEBLOS
KIVAS- Two large circular chambers of community
religious functions.
THE ANCIENT PUEBLOANS
- PUEBLO BONITO- Contained several
hundred compounds housing several
thousand residents
- MOVED NORTH TO MESA VERDE
- ZUNI AND HOPI- Occupy pueblos in Central
Arizona and New Mexico
South America: The ARAWAK- PEOPLE LIVING
ALONG ORINOCO RIVER IN MODERN VENEZUELA
MANIOC- Tuber also known as cassava or yuco, the
source of tapioca.
CHIEFTAINS- They have the control over the
economy.
PRACTICES- Human Sacrifice
MEN AND WOMEN WERE CONSIDERED OF EQUAL
STATUS
MEN- Hunting, warfare, and dealing with outsiders
WOMAN- Distribution of food, maintaining
household and bearing and raising child.

 The Post-Classic Period: 950-1524 CE – At

this time the great cities of the Maya were
abandoned. Thus far, no explanation for the
mass exodus from the cities to outlying
rural areas has been determined but
climate change and over population have
been strongly suggested among other
possibilities. The Toltecs, a new tribe in the
region, took over the vacant urban centers
and re-populated them. At this time, Tula
and Chichen-Itza became dominant cities in