This document provides an overview of early human history and civilization. It discusses the differences between prehistory and history, and defines key terms like culture, civilization, archaeology, and artifacts. The Paleolithic and Neolithic Ages are summarized. During the Paleolithic, humans were hunter-gatherers who developed tools and fire. The Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons inhabited Europe and developed art. In the Neolithic, humans transitioned to farming and settled into early villages which led to specialization of skills and development of governance and religion.

1. Chapters 1 & 2:
Intro & The Ancient World
History Of HumanHistory Of Human
CivilizationCivilization
ESS0054ESS0054

2. HISTORYHISTORY
 Is the systematic record of what people
have done in the past.
 The past can mean 10,000 years ago or
yesterday.
 History depends on memory; it is
remembered activities.
 What has happened but been forgotten,
which is, of course, the vast majority of
what has happened, is technically not
history.

3. PREHISTORYPREHISTORY
Is what
happened to
people in
period beforebefore
writingwriting

4. HISTORIOGRAPHYHISTORIOGRAPHY
Is the writtenwritten
formform of history,
as processed
through an
author’s brain
and bias
working on the
raw materials he
or she has found

5. CULTURECULTURE
Is the human-created part of
the environment, the “way of
life” of a group of humans
interacting with one another.
In prehistory, culture is often
associated with and identified
by particular tools.

6. Is a complex,
developed culture
usually associated with
specific achievements
such as agriculture,
urban life, specialized
labor, and a system of
writing.
CIVILIZATIONCIVILIZATION

7. CIVILIZATION
Definition
 Edward L Farmer: a human being wide culture
emerged from the action of social norms, tradition
and institutions that last from one generation to
another.
 Arnold J. Toynbee: the way of thinking and culture
that allow the emerging of such institutions: politics,
law, art, literature, religion, and moral aspect.

8. ARCHAEOLOGY
Is the study of prehistoric
and/or historical cultures
through examination of
their artifacts (anything
made by human).
The name means “the
study of origin” and like
almost every other
scientific name in the
English language, it is
derived from Greek.

9. CLUES TO THE PASTCLUES TO THE PAST
 Archeologists: scientists who study the remains
of past human life
 They believe people have been around for 2
million years
 5,000 yrs ago – prehistory
 After writing developed - history
 This was the beginning of civilization
5,000 yrs ago (before writing was
developed) PREHISTORY
after writing was developed 
HISTORY
Now5,000 yrs ago

10. Archaeology
 How did archaeology begin?
 About 500 years ago, people found
they could dig up old marble statues
and ornaments made by ancient
Greeks and Romans.
 They sold the ornaments and made
a lot of money. Scientists began to
study these artifacts.
 What are artifacts?
Anything made by people, not nature.
The earliest artifacts were pieces of
hard rock chipped into tools and
weapons.

11. Archaeology
 About 1,700, some Italian farmers discovered
they were living on top of a Roman city named
Herculaneum that had been buried for more
then 1,000 yrs.
 Then they also discovered Pompeii – another
Roman city.
 They also found that these cities had houses, streets,
temples and theaters. They learned how the Romans
lived.
 The greatest archeological discovery The Rosetta
Stone was found in Egypt in 1799.

12. Herculaneum

13. Herculaneum

14. Pompeii

15. Pompeii

16. Rosetta Stone
Found in Egypt in 1799
It is a slab of stone on which
is carved Egyptian picture-
writing and its Greek
translation.
The Greek translation gave
archaeologists meaning to
the Egyptian picture-writing.
With this find, archaeologists
could learn much more
about the history of Egypt
and its people.

17. Legends
 Every group of people on earth has
legends (folktales)
 They began as spoken stories. Passed
down from generation to generation
 Example: The Chinese Legend
 Local example: Mahsuri, Puteri Gunung
Ledang, anymore?

18.  What interesting details do you see in this image?
 What roles do men and women play in this society?
 Because of their different capabilities, what might be some of this group’s
advantages? Disadvantages?

19. Prehistoric People
The Paleolithic Age
Hunting and Food Gathering
 People lived in small groups with 2 or 3 leaders.
Leaders were always the strongest.
 More than half of the children died - illness/killed by
animals.
 Lived in open camps until food supply diminishes.
Then they move on (nomads).
 Hunted for food - women gathered nuts, berries.
Men killed animals.
The Paleolithic Age The Neolithic Age

20. The Paleolithic Timeline
• Paleolithic period or Old Stone Age,
• the earliest period of human development and
• the longest phase of mankind's history.
• beginning about 2 million years ago and ending in
various places between 40,000 and 10,000 years ago,

21. The Paleolithic Age
 This development (human development)
was exceedingly slow and continued
through the three successive divisions of
the period, the Lower, Middle, and Upper
Paleolithic.
 The most abundant remains of Paleolithic
cultures are a variety of stone tools whose
distinct characteristics provide the basis for
a system of classification containing
several tool making traditions or industries.

22. The Paleolithic Age
Making Tools
 Tools made hunting easier. The first-hatchet (hand-
axe) was the first tool.
 Was shaped to fit a person’s hand. All purpose tool
- to scrape animal skin, cut down trees + chop
plants.

23. Developing Language
 Before language there were only sounds.
Example: a yell meant a person is angry.
Hand signals were used for important things
like water or food.
 Language was developed when they began
hunting for large animals. When hunting in a
group, they had to give each other clear
instructions.

24. Paleolithic Arts/Writings

25. Making Clothing
 People discovered
that large animals
provided skin. This
can be used to cover
their bodies.
 First they wrapped
skin around them.
They invented
needles using bones
to sew the skin
together.
 People with clothes
could live in cooler
areas.

26. Discovering Fire
Started when lightning struck a tree.
Then they began making fire by rubbing sticks
together.
They learned to cook their food.
Cooked food is easier to chew and digest.
Used fire to keep warm, as weapons and to
harden points of weapons.

27. Discovering Fire

28. The Paleolithic Age
The People
 First people:
1. Homo habilis (man with ability), 2.
Homo erectus (man who walks
upright),
3. Homo sapiens (man who thinks)
Homo sapiens:
2 kinds –
 Neanderthal and
 Cro-magnons

30. Neanderthal
 First remains found near
Neander River, West
Germany.
 More: Europe, Asia,
Africa
 Neanderthals were
good hunters.
 Used the pitfall technique.
 They fished and hunted
large animals ie. Bisons,
elephants.

31. Neanderthal

32. Cro-magnons
 named after a rock shelter in France
where remains were first discovered.
 Cro-magnons appeared 40,000 yrs
ago in N. Africa, Asia + Europe.
 The Cro-magnons were good tool
makers.
 They made flake tools, and materials
more workable than stones.
 They were artists - did cave paintings.
Paintings were bright and they showed
them hunting.
 Anthropologists think that the cave
paintings had religious significance to
the Cro-magnons.

33. The Neolithic Age
 Neolithic Revolution: the beginning of farming for early
men.
 Food gathering replaced hunting as a way of life.

34. Food Producing
 People discovered to grow food. A woman spilled grain on the
ground and in time it grew. They were barley and wheat.
 People learned to breed animals. When hunters built fences to
protect herds from wild animals, the herd became domesticated.
From then, the people learnt they could breed animals for food.
 They discovered too that domesticated animals could be bred
with more qualities, ie. Fatter.

35. Early Villages
 Once people began producing food,
 they began to settle in one place.
 They built permanent shelters that had good water supply
and soil.
 Villages were formed.

36.  Earliest known village in the world -
found in the Middle East.
 The oldest - Jerico in Israel.
Another early village is Catal
Huyuk in Southern Turkey.
 People began building houses to
live in.
 Houses were built using mud-brick.
They had no doors and people
went in and out by a ladder through
a hole in the roof.
 The houses had ovens for baking
breads.
 Outside were vegetable gardens
and grain fields.
 Increased in population.

37. Specialization
 People began developing specialized skills like becoming
potters, weavers and metal workers.
 This was the result of increased food supplies.
 The things they made, ie pots were exchanged for food. This
was the beginning of trade.
 When they learnt to make pots from clay, the were able to
prepare, serve and store food better.
 They also learnt to weave cloth. They took wool from sheep
and spun into thread. Thread then was turned into cloth on a
loom.
 People also learnt to work on metals. They hammered metals
to make jewelry and weapons.

38. The Neolithic Age
Government
 Neolithic people developed government for themselves to
manage land ownership. This is because their lives
depended on the use of a given piece of land.
 They took steps to set boundaries and pass land their
children.
Religion
 At first, Neolithic people prayed to the forces of nature -
thunder, sun, moon and sea.
 Then they created gods and goddesses. Earth Mother was
important of all. She was god of fertility. Every house had a
statue of her in it.