The Dawn of Civilization
• Prehistory to AD 300
•1. The Beginnings of Civilization – Prehistory to 1000 BC
•2. The Ancient Near East – 4000 BC – 550 BC
•3. The Nile Civilizations – 5000 BC – AD 300
•4. Ancient India and China 2500 BC – 250 BC
A. The Beginning of Civilizations
•Prehistory – 1000 BC
•1. The First People
•2. The Beginning of Agriculture
•3. Foundations of Civilizations
•For millions of years people used stone technology to satisfy their basic
needs -food and shelter
•Then, after the Ice Age ended, people began to farm
•This breakthrough gave rise to the first civilizations
Prehistory – 1000 BC
1. The First People
•The Laetoli footprints
•Honey, what
did you find?
•It looks like
some kind of
footprint?
•History-the study of the distant
past
•Archaeologists-study artifacts objects that people made in the past
•Anthropologists-study people and
their culture - a society’s knowledge,
art, beliefs, customs, and values
•Mary and Louis Leakey - anthropologists who
made several key contributions to Early Human
Origins
Prehistory – 1000 BC
Human Origins
•“Theories on prehistory and early man
constantly change as new evidence comes to
light.”
•Louis Leakey, British anthropologist
Prehistory – 1000 BC
The Stages of Human Development
• Paleolithic Age:
•(Old Stone Age )
•2,500,000 BCE to 8,000 BCE
1. 4,000,000 BCE – 1,000,000 BCE
2. 1,500,000 BCE -- 250,000 BCE
3. 250,000 BCE – 30,000 BCE
4. 30,000 BCE -- 10,000 BCE
Prehistory – 1000 BC
Stage One
•4,000,000 BCE – 1,000,000
BCE
Australopithecines appeared in Africa
 Hominids --> any human like
beings that walked upright
Nutcracker Man discovered by Mary Leakey
 An Apposable Thumb
Prehistory – 1000 BC
Stage One
 HOMO HABILIS
( “Man of Skills” )
 found in East Africa
 created stone tools Handy man
Prehistory – 1000 BC
Stage Two
 1,6000,000 BCE – 30,000BCE
HOMO ERECTUS
( “Upright Human Being” )
 BIPEDALISM
Larger and more varied
tools --> primitive technology- axes
 First hominid to migrate and
leave Africa for Europe and
Asia.
 First to control fire ( 500,000 BCE )
Prehistory – 1000 BC
Stage Three
•200,000 BCE – 10,000 BCE
•Africa and migrated throughout the
world
•HOMO SAPIENS
•“Wise Human Being” Spoken language
•First to create fire
•Neanderthals
•Cro-Magnons
•200,000 BCE – 30,000 BCE
•40,000 BCE – 10,000
BCE
Possible Human Migration Theories
Prehistory – 1000 BC
•Radiation theory suggests that the first people came from mid east Africa and
migrated throughout the world
•Parallel Evolution theory suggests that civilization started around the same time in
certain areas of the world
Prehistory – 1000 BC
Neanderthals
Neander Valley,
Germany (1856)
First humans to bury their
dead
Made clothes from animal
skins
It’s so easy a
caveman could do
it!
Prehistory – 1000 BC
Neanderthal Sites
•Early Hut/Tent
Lived in caves and tents
NEANDERTHALS
Prehistory – 1000 BC
Cro - Magnons
 Homo sapiens sapiens- “Wise, wise human”
 By 30,000 BCE they replaced Neanderthals.
Prehistory – 1000 BC
Homo Sapiens in Europe
Homo Sapiens migrated from Africa and spread throughout Europe
•Cro Magnons sites – most were located in modern day Spain and France.
Prehistory – 1000 BC
Life during the Old Stone Age
2,500,000 BCE – 10,000 BCE
Paleolithic Age
Made tools
 hunting (men) & gathering (women)
 small bands of 20-30 humans
 NOMADIC (moving from place to
place)
Prehistory – 1000 BC
Stone Age Art and Religion

Early humans produced a variety of art in cave walls
Scholars are not certain what purpose early art served
Maybe to teach hunting skills, or chronicle hunts
Religion - animism - belief that all things in nature have
spirits
Cave paintings honor
the animal spirits
Purpose??
Prehistory – 1000 BC
Early Hominid Findings
•What three continents did historians find early hominids?
Prehistory – 1000 BC
The Last Ice Age
•70,000 BCE – 10,000 BCE
•Long periods of freezing weather
•Land bridges such as Beringia helped Early Hominids spread
throughout the world
Prehistory – 1000 BC
2. The Beginnings of Agriculture
Early Settlement Communities –
Jarma and Catal Huyuk
Prehistory – 1000 BC
The Neolithic Age
 “New Stone” Age
10,000 BCE – 4,000 BCE
 Gradual shift from:
Nomadic lifestyle  settled, stationery
lifestyle.
Hunting/Gathering  agricultural
production and domestication of animals.
Prehistory – 1000 BC
The Agricultural Revolution
 8,000 BCE – 5,000 BCE
 Agriculture developed independently
in different parts of the world.
 SLASH-AND-BURN Farming
Middle East
8,000 BCE
India
Central America
7,000 BCE
6,500 BCE
China
6,000 BCE
Southeast Asia
5,000 BCE
Jarmo
Prehistory – 1000 BC
 Early Settlement Community
Growing crops on a regular basis made possible the
support of larger populations
 More permanent, settled communities emerged.
 9,000 BCE  Earliest Agricultural Settlement at
JARMO ( northern Iraq )  wheat
Prehistory – 1000 BC
Catal Huyuk
 8,000 BCE  Largest Early
Settlement at Çatal Hüyük
( Modern Turkey )  6,000
inhabitants
12 cultivated crops
Division of labor
Engaged in trade
Organized religion
 Small military
•An obsidian dagger
Prehistory – 1000 BC
Otzi the Iceman
• Discovered in 1991 by hikers
in Italy’s Otztal Alps
• 5,300 year old body from
the New Stone Age
• nickname -Otzi the Iceman
• His belongings were well
preserved
• Evidence suggests that he
was murdered?
•His remains give historians many clues to
Neolithic societies
Prehistory – 1000 BC
3. Foundations of Civilization
•The next step in the development in
human settlements
Prehistory – 1000 BC
A Complex Society is known
as
a
Advanced
Cities
Civilization
Advanced
Technology
Specialized
Record-
Workers
Keeping
Complex
Institutions
Prehistory – 1000 BC
What does a civilization need?
• Cities
• Well organized
governments
• Complex religions
• Job specialization
• Social classes
• Art and architecture
• Public works
• Record Keeping Writing
Prehistory – 1000 BC
Where did the first civilizations
develop?
• The earliest civilizations
developed in the fertile
lands around rivers.
• They were in Asia and
Africa.
• The rich soil and abundant
water allowed people to
grow excess crops.
• This allowed people to take
on jobs other than farming.
Prehistory – 1000 BC
What caused governments to
develop?
• People had to work together to control flood water,
create irrigation, and build canals.
• Some of these projects required leadership and from
this leadership, government developed.
• Social classes were also created.
Prehistory – 1000 BC
Social Classes Develop
• Social classes developed based
on people’s jobs.
• Priests and nobles were at the
top.
• Artisans were below them.
• Then came peasant farmers.
• Slaves were at the bottom.
• Writing develops, probably so
that priest could write. Early
writing was made up of
pictographs.
• Pictographs use pictures to
express ideas.