The Birth of Civilization

1. The Birth of Civilization Western Civ. I Introduction

2. Answer This Question • What are some ideas that people today have about early human life?

3. Answer This Question • What might lead people to view prehistoric humans in this way?

4. Answer This Question • What evidence might lead scientist to conclude that prehistoric peoples were just as intelligent as present-day people?

5. Historical Record • People living in the past left many clues about their lives. • These clues include both primary and secondary sources in the form of books, personal papers, government documents, letters, etc. • Historians call all of these clues together the historical record.

6. Answer This Question • Think about all the activities you were involved in during the past 24 hours. List as many of these activities as you can remember. • For each activity on your list, write down what evidence, if any, your activities might have left behind.

7. Review your list and answer the following… • Which of your daily activities were most likely to leave trace evidence behind? • What, if any, of that evidence might be preserved for the future? Why? • What might be left out of an historical record of your activities? Why? • What would a future historian be able to tell about your life and your society based on evidence of your daily activities that might be preserved for the future?

8. So, What Is Civilization? Characteristics of Civilization Cities, Money and Institutions Technology, Food and Language Specialized Occupations and Government

9. Civilization Is Comprised of Many Characteristics • Cities • Money • Institutions • Technology • Surplus Food • Written Language • Specialized Occupations • Form of Government

10. The Birth Of Civilization • Earliest civilization arose in the Middle East • Located near abundant waterways and fertile fields • Mesopotamia emerged 3500 B.C. as the first recorded civilization • Civilization is a complex way of life

11. Cities • Cities • Were comprised of people who were no longer farmers but skilled workers • Cities had a recognized form of government

12. Money • Money/Economy • Goods were traded with local and foreign markets • Money was developed as a means of exchange • Economies developed as cities trade their surplus goods or resources with others

13. Institutions • Institutions • Organizations created to pass on a people’s belief’s customs, ideas and arts • Religion provided people with a belief system • Education passed on a ideas and arts

14. Technology • Technology • Introduction of metal tools and weapons changed how people lived • Surplus Food • Large production of agriculture provided opportunity for people to specializes in a skill

15. Written Language • Specialized Occupations • Lead to the development of artisans, tradesmen, government officials and soldiers • Written Language • Emerged to record food inventories, soldier pay and communication with other kings

16. Why Do Civilizations Collapse? • Dependence on foreign resources • Overpopulation which strains a governments ability to maintain revenues, low surpluses and resources • Internal strife caused by famines, epidemics, state breakdowns, decay of society and overpressiveness

17. The First Civilizations The Mesopotamians, 3000-1000 B.C. The Sumerian and Akkadian Period, 2800-2150 B.C.

19. Mesopotamians, 3000-1000 B.C. • Mesopotamia originally not suited for human settlement • Humans must modifications to the region • Mesopotamia means between “the two rivers” • Tigris and Euphrates Rivers • 120° summers and only 10 inches of rainfall a year

20. Mesopotamians, 3000-1000 B.C. • The region that was located along the waterways in Mesopotamia was called the Fertile Crescent • Fertile Crescent had yearly deposit of fertile silt that provided rich topsoil • Rivers provided abundance of fish and attracted animals

23. Mesopotamians, 3000-1000 B.C. • Bronze Age born with smelting of copper and tin • Swamp marshes around rivers produced reeds for fuel and swamp mud made bricks • Abundance of plants provide food for domestic animals

24. Mesopotamians, 3000-1000 B.C. • Mesopotamia lacked resources like stone, lumber and minerals • Humans adapted to region by using river ways to move natural resources • The development of sailed boats and the wheel helped in movement of resources across water and land • Villages settled along river ways and lead to the development of urban areas around 3,000 B.C. • Region in constant struggle because of water waysandlocation

25. Mesopotamians, 3000-1000 B.C.E • Religion • Polytheistic any religion that recognizes more than one god • Ziggurat an ancient Mesopotamian temple which served as a temple, government offices, and a storehouse for grain • Worshipped gods for protection, help and no hope for an afterlife

26. Mesopotamians. • Social structure developed in city states • Military and religious leaders became social and political elites • Skilled workers • Slaves and peasants worked for elites • Male dominance in family

27. Mesopotamians • Economy • Trade routes developed along the water ways • Both the Tigris and the Euphrates reached different markets because of their locations • Cities along river ways became heavily involved in commerce

28. The Sumerians • Large city states develop like Ur, Uruk and Kish • They were constantly at war for water, trade routes and influence • Developed a large trade in textiles, animals, stone and bronze • Sumerians considered the earliest civilization

29. Akkadian Period, 2800-2150 B.C.E. • Sargon I (2300 B.C.) conquered Sumerians and saw an empire that stretched from Persian Gulf to Mediterranean • Used religion to unify Sumerians and Akkadians • Considered History’s first Emporer.

30. Akkadian Period • From the Arabian peninsula who spoke the semitic language (related to Hebrew and Arabic. • Abandoned most of their culture and absorbed a majority of the Sumerian culture.

31. Sumerian influences • Head of government • Lead to writing from pictographic to scrawling picture words on wet clay (known as cuneiform.) • Monarch-like Priest King was created that headed the military, judged disputes, and engaged in religious ceremonies. • Ruled through bureaucrats, namely priests who bore the responsibility of redistributing crops and record-keeping.

32. Sumerian influences • Law • Administered by centralized authority- the accuser brings the accused to court, and court determines retribution. • The Code of Hammurabi, a Babylonia Monarch will become the basis of law of all Semitic people for centuries. • earliest legal code known in its entirety

33. CODE OF HAMMURABI • The code is set down in horizontal columns of cuneiform writing: 16 columns of text on the obverse side and 28 on the reverse. • The text begins with a prologue that explains the extensive restoration of the temples and religious cults of Babylonia and Assyria. • The divine origin of the written law is emphasized by a bas-relief in which the king is depicted receiving the code from the sun god, Shamash. • The quality most usually associated with this god is justice.

35. CODE OF HAMMURABI • The basis of criminal law is that of equal retaliation, comparable to the Semitic law of “an eye for an eye.” • The law offers protection to all classes of Babylonian society; it seeks to protect the weak and the poor, including women, children, and slaves, against injustice at the hands of the rich and powerful.

36. Sumerian Influences • Science and Math • To measure and count produce, calendars were created, consisting of 12 lunar months, (leap month every three years.) • As well, peoples of this region dabbled in Astronomy and the first human invention of the zodiac

37. The Sumerians • Sumerian Religion • Worshipped at a ziggurat, a large temple complex where daily government business was addressed • Government and religious beliefs replace loyalty to one’s tribe or clan • Ziggurat size was attempt to reach gods • Statue of god was worshipped there and it served a symbolic purpose

39. Sumerian influences • Polytheistic, powerful, and anthropomorphic (human characteristics) • Invented astrology to predict behavior of the Gods. • Oriented in this world, no rewards or punishments after death. “wisps within a house of dust.” • Wars we seen as fighting amongst the Gods • Myths were created to discuss the origin of man. • Ex. Man came from a earth-like plant, or clay and was given life from the goddess Nammu. • Peasants would surrender their crops to appease the gods.

40. A system of writing develops • The earliest form of writing dates back to 3300 B.C. People back then would draw "word-pictures" on clay tablets using a pointed instrument called a stylus. • These "word-pictures" then developed into wedge-shaped signs. • This type of script was called cuneiform (from the Latin word cuneus which means wedge).

41. Cuneiform, earliest written language, developed by accountants which was created by using a reed on a clay tablet • Scribes were the only people that knew how to read and write cuneiform • Used for inventory, payroll of soldiers, property ownership and correspondence between monarchs

42. Writing • Scribes wrote on clay tablets and used a triangular shaped reed called a stylus to make marks in the clay. • Marks represented the tens of thousands of words in their language. • Who used cuneiform?*Not everyone learned to read and write. • *The ones that were picked by the gods were called scribes. • Boys chosen to become scribes (professional writers) began study at age of 8. • They finished when they were 20 years old.

43. Writing… • Tokens are small geometric clay objects (cylinders, cones, spheres, etc.) found all over the Near East from about 8000 B.C. until the development of writing. • The earliest tokens were simple shapes and were comparatively unadorned; they stood for basic agricultural commodities such as grain and sheep.

44. Origins of writing… • Two jars of oil would be represented by two ovoids, three jars by three ovoids, and so on. • Thus, the tokens presented an abstraction of the things being counted, but also a system of great specificity and precision. • A specific shape of token always represented a specific quantity of a particular item. • For example, "the cone ... stood for a small measure of grain, the sphere represented a large measure of grain, the ovoid stood for a jar of oil." (Before Writing 161).

46. Cuneiform

47. Cuneiform

48. The first settlements in the Nile Valley began around 7,000 years ago The first peoples to inhabit this region called their land Kemet, which means “ black lands.” This name comes from the rich black soil that was found there. Egyptian Civilization

49. Nile is the Longest River (4184 miles) Without the Nile Egypt would be a Desert River floods regularly and brings in fertile soil Ancient Egyptians built reservoirs and used canals to carry water to fields. Invented new technology and carefully planned and organized large irrigation projects. Devised a calendar to predict floods Excellent for transportation Geography and People of Egypt

50. The farming villages along the Nile gradually were united into two Kingdoms Upper and Lower Egypt. About 3100 B.C.E. the ruler Narmer (Menes) conquered lower Egypt and brought all of Egypt under his rule. Built the capital city of Memphis Narmer’s rule began the first dynasty and thus, the “Pyramid Age,” or “Old Kingdom” Uniting Egypt