Early Civilizations

Early Civilizations

East Africa– Anthropologists started discovering tools

Dated from 1.7-2.1 million years ago– More searching in Africa

Led to discovery of skeletal remains– Started studying early hominids

Homo erectus- upright walkers

Early Civilizations

Homo sapiens– Started to emerge around 250,000-100,000 years

ago Modern humans

“Out of Africa” Theory– Homo sapiens developed in Africa and migrated– Modern humans spread all over the world

Early Civilizations

After discovering many different types of remains, anthropologists broke prehistory into two eras– Paleolithic period

2 million B.C.-10,000 B.C.– Neolithic period

10,000 B.C.- end of prehistory

Early Civilizations

Neolithic Revolution– Starts with farming

Learned to create their own resources– No longer have to migrate

– Creates villages– Domesticate plants and animals

Different in all areas– Start to see evidence of cities

Early Civilizations

River Valley Civilizations– Sumer

Middle East, Tigris and Euphrates– Egypt

Nile River– Indus

India, Indus River– Shang

China, Huang (Yellow) River

Early Civilizations

Civilizations– Organized governments– Complex religions– Job specialization– Social classes– Arts and architecture– Public works– Writing

Early Civilizations

As cities grew, so did their civilizations– Had to adapt

Environment Population growth Governments

– Become larger Empires