The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

The First People

Main Idea
Scientific evidence suggests that
modern humans spread from Africa to
other lands and gradually developed
ways to adapt to their environment.
The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

Studying the Distant Past

Much of the human story remains a mystery because
writing has existed for only about 5,000 years.
Anthropologists Archaeologists

• Study culture:
• Dig at sites where
knowledge, art,
people have left
customs traces
• Examine artifacts: • Use a variety of
objects that people methods to date and
in the past made or analyze objects found
used
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Human Origins
Where did the first people come from? When did they
Early Hominids appear? Later Hominids
• 1959—East Africa • More advanced hominids from
– Mary Leakey finds skull about 3 million years ago
fragments • 1960s—Tanzania footprints
– Hominid: humanlike being • Louis Leakey
that walked upright
– Homo habilis (“handy man”)
• 1974—Ethiopia – More humanlike features
– Johanson finds “Lucy” – Made and used crude stone
– 4 foot-tall hominid who tools
walked upright
– lived 4 to 5 million years ago
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Other hominids
• Homo erectus (“upright man”)
• 2 to 1.5 million years ago in Africa
• Larger brain; more skillful hunter
• First hominid to control fire

Modern humans
• Homo sapiens (“wise man”)
• 200,000 years ago
• Larger brain; more sophisticated tools
• Learned to create fire
• First to develop language
The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1
The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1
The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1
The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

Question:
What four main types of hominids have
scientists identified based on fossil
evidence?

Answer:
The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

Question:
What four main types of hominids have
scientists identified based on fossil
evidence?

Answer(s): Australopithecine, Homo habilis,

Homo erectus, Homo sapiens
The Beginnings of Civilization
Spreading Around the World
Climate and Migration
• Hominids learned to adapt
• Began to move out of Africa
• Movement occurred over
hundreds of thousands of
years
Out of Africa
• Homo erectus first hominid to
migrate
• Fossils found in Asia and Europe
• Homo sapiens migrated around
100,000 years ago
• Might have used boats
Section 1
The Ice Ages
• Began 1.6 million years ago
• Long periods of freezing
weather cycled with warmer
periods
• Asia and North America joined
at Bering Strait
Adapting to New Environments
• Adapted as they migrated
• Two groups of Homo sapiens:
– Neanderthals
– Cro-Magnons
The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1
The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

Question:
How did the ice ages influence early
human migration?

Answer:
The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

Question:
How did the ice ages influence early
human migration?

Answer: The ocean level dropped, exposing land

bridges that allowed early humans to migrate
around the world.
The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1
The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

Life in the Stone Age

The first humans lived during the Stone Age, when people made
tools mainly from stone.
• Paleolithic Era
• 2.5 million to 10,000 years ago
• Stone Age people lived as nomads
• Sheltered under rock overhangs or in caves
• Hunter-gatherers

Technology Art and Religion

• First tools: crude chipped stones • Societies began to form
• Later tools: wood and bone • Common culture
• Spears for hunting – language
• Nets and traps for fish and birds – art
• Canoes from logs – religion
• Clothing from animal skins • Animism
• Shelters from skins, wood, bones • Belief in life after death?
The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

Question:
How did Stone Age people use
technology to adapt and survive?

Answer(s):
The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

Question:
How did Stone Age people use
technology to adapt and survive?

Answer(s): used fire, made tools and weapons

The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

The Beginning of Agriculture

Main Idea

The development of agriculture was a major

turning point in human history and significantly
changed the way in which many people lived.
The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

The New Stone Age

As prehistoric people developed more sophisticated tools,
the Paleolithic Era gave way to the Neolithic Era.

Paleolithic Tools Neolithic Tools

• Stones chipped to make • Polished stones to make
points points
• Wood and bone tools • More specialized tools:
• Nets from plant fibers and – chisels
animal sinew – drills
– saws
The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

Development of Agriculture
The development of agriculture (c.10,000 ya), radically
changed how people lived. This shift to farming is referred
to as the Neolithic Revolution.
Plants Animals Growth of
• End of Ice Age • Domesticating Agriculture
• New plants animals • Available plants,
• Careful selection domesticated
• New food source
and breeding animals
• People learned to • 10,000 BC – dogs • Spread to regions:
farm • Larger and more – Asia: rice
• Domestication stable supply of – Africa: cattle
meat, milk, skins, – Mexico: corn
• Larger food supply – South America:
wool
potatoes
The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

Question:
How did people benefit from farming and the
domestication of plants and animals?

Answer(s):
The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

Question:
How did people benefit from farming and the
domestication of plants and animals?

Answer(s): more reliable food supply; people

could pool labor and resources
The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

Agriculture Changes Society

• Agriculture dramatically changed Stone Age – more food
• Some people began to live as nomadic pastoralists.
• Others gave up the nomadic lifestyle and formed settlements.
Early Farming Societies New Technologies
• Small settlements • New tools and methods
• Villages and towns • Animals working in fields
• Increase in trade
• Grindstones, pestles,
• Societies became more complex
pottery
• Social status, authority
• Religion, megaliths
• Wool from sheep for yarn
• Warfare, disease increased • Spinning and weaving
• Copper, bronze, tin
• As people began to make items from bronze, the Stone Age gave way
to the Bronze Age, which began as early as 3000 BC in some areas.
The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

Çatal Hüyuk
A Neolithic settlement in what is now Turkey
• Largest Neolithic site found
– Home to 5,000–6,000 people in 6000 BC
– Covered more than 30 acres
– People raised barley, wheat, sheep, goats
• Houses
– One main room with areas for sleeping and
domestic tasks like cooking
– Religious shrines
The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

Foundations of Civilization
Main Idea
From farming villages arose cities, and with
them, the first civilizations, marking the
beginnings of recorded history.
The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

From Villages to Cities

Advances in farming and changing economies caused the first
cities to appear.

Advances in Farming Changing Economies

• New methods to increase
production: irrigation systems
– Networks of canals, ditches
– Link fields to water supply
– Farm more land in drier
conditions
– Plant more crops and
produce more food
– Surplus, or excess of food
• Fewer people needed to farm
• Began to specialize in other jobs
• Division of labor
• Traditional economy
– Economic decisions based on
custom, ritual
– Began to change with
development of irrigation
– Trade increases
The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

Characteristics of Cities
Generally larger than villages
• First known city was Uruk, in what is now Iraq
• Home to 40,000–50,000 people
• Covered more than 1,000 acres

Populations more diverse than in villages

• Early villages consisted of extended families
• Early cities included many unrelated people

More formal organization than in villages

• Had defined centers, with temples and marketplaces
• Had defined boundaries separating the cities from surrounding villages
• Served as centers of trade for surrounding villages
The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

Question:
How did early cities differ from early
farming villages?

Answer(s): Cities were larger, more diverse, more

dense, and served as trade centers.
The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

The First Civilizations

• The development of cities gave rise
to the first civilizations.
• A civilization is a complex and
organized society.
• Although early civilizations differed,
they had several characteristics in
common.
Characteristics of Early
Civilizations
• Developed cities
• Organized government
• Formalized religion

• Specialization of labor: The first civilizations grew

farmers, engineers, soldiers, up independently along
artisans
fertile river valleys where
• Social classes
enough food could be
• Record keeping and writing produced to support a
• Art and architecture growing population.
The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

Question:
What was the relationship between job
specialization and the development of social
classes in early civilizations?
Answer(s): The increased wealth of urban
societies brought about job specialization. As
people specialized, social classes developed. 1)
Rulers, nobles, warriors, and priests, 2) Traders
and merchants, 3) Artisans and farmers, and
(maybe) 4) slaves.
The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1

Change in Civilizations
Once early civilizations developed, they continued to change over
time. Some changes weakened civilizations, while others
strengthened them and led to growth and expansion.
Environmental Spread of People Expansion and
Influences and Ideas Warfare
• Dependence on • Movement of people • Conflicts over land
farming • New languages, and resources
• Forces of nature customs • Civilizations
• Need for resources, • Cultural diffusion expanded
such as metals, • Advances spread • Some civilizations
stone, and timber developed into
from one civilization
• Expanded trade for to another states and kingdoms
scarce resources
The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1
The Beginnings of Civilization Section 1