1. Human Life in the Era of Hunters and
Gatherers
• Homo sapiens sapiens by 10,000 B.C.E.
–Larger brain, tools, weapons
• Paleolithic
– Hunter Gatherers
 Family groups
 nomadic
– Gender division of labor
 Men: hunting, fishing, defense
 Women: gathering, making medicine
– Spread from Africa

2. The Spread of Human Populations,
c. 10,000 B.C.E.

3. The Neolithic Revolution –
8000 to 3500 B.C.E.
• Plants and animals domesticated
• Towns/cities
• Social Differentiation
– Specialized jobs
– Regional trade
– Women lose political/economic roles
• Causes? Maybe climatic shifts
• Alternatives
– Hunting-and-gathering persists
– Pastoralism – nomadic herding people

4. The Spread of Agriculture

5. The First Towns: Seedbeds of
Civilization
A. Jericho
– Jordan River
 Cultivation of wheat, barley
 Brick houses
B. Çatal Hüyük
– Southern Turkey
 Large complex
 Shrines

6. Mesopotamia
• All civilizations
–Cities, food surplus, social structure, religion,
government, writing*
• First civilization develops in Mesopotamia

7. Mesopotamia
• Sumerians c 4000 B.C.E.
–Between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers
–Irrigation for farming
• Political and Social Organization
–City-States – state religion & god
–Kings
–Priests
–Slaves

8. Mesopotamia
• Culture and Religion
–Writing
 Cuneiform: stylus on clay tablets
–Gilgamesh – first epic story
–Astronomy
–Numeric system
–Ziggurats – central monumental buildings
–Wheel, plow

9. Mesopotamia
• The Akkadian Empire (1st empire)
–Sargon I
• The Babylonian Empire
–Hammurabi
 Law Code – “eye for an eye”

10. Egypt
–Civilization emerges by 3200 B.C.E.
 No city-states! Egypt is centralized
–Government
 Pharaoh – theocracy (religious government)
 Bureaucracy – nonelected government officials
–Hieroglyphic alphabet
 Pictograms
 Papyrus
–Religion
 polytheistic
 Belief in afterlife

11. Egypt and Mesopotamia Compared
• Differences
–City-states v. centralized
–Greater trade/contact in Mesopotamia
–Greater technology Mesopotamia
–Women had higher status in Egypt
• Similarities
–Stratified society
–Astronomy and mathematics
–Patriarchal societies - Men dominate

12. India
• Indus River valley - modern-day Pakistan
• Two major cities
– Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro
– Indoor plumbing
– Grid system
– Writing (still a mystery)
• Collapsed under invasion and natural
disasters

13. China
• Huanghe (Yellow) River valley
• Most isolated river valley civilization
• Pottery, iron, writing
• Shang dynasty
• Oracle bones
• Mythic history

14. The Eastern Mediterranean,
c. 1100 B.C.E.

15. The Mediterranean Region
• Hebrews
–Modern Israel area
–Semitic
–Yahweh - monotheistic
 Torah – holy book
 The first Abrahamic faith

16. The Mediterranean Region
• Phoenicians
–Middle Eastern coast
–City-states
–Alphabet
–Colonization along the Mediterranean
 To Atlantic, Iberia, Britain