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From the Origins of Agriculture to the First River-Valley Civilizations

8000-1500 B.C.E.

African Genesis

The evidence…

• 1839 – Charles Darwin – Origin of Species– Species evolve over long periods of time through

natural selection– Humans “descended from a hairy, tailed quadruped.”– Evolution started in Africa.

Charles Darwin

The evidence…

• Hominid skeletal remains found in Asia– Java (1891)– Beijing (1929)

• African origins confirmed by discovery of Australopithecus africanus in 1924.

• Confirmed by Mary Leakey’s work in 1950.

• Evolution of human beings can be traced back over 4 million years.

Human Evolution

• Australopithecines and modern humans are hominids. Hominids are also primates.

• Distinguished from other primates by three characteristics:– Bipedalism– Very large brain– Larynx located low in neck

• These three characteristics helped hominids during the Great Ice Age (Pleistocene period).

Human Evolution

• Climate changes caused the evolution of Homo habilis– Brain was 50% larger than the australopithecines.

• By 1 million years ago, Homo habilis and australopithecines we extinct.

• Replaced by Homo erectus and Homo sapiens.

Migrations from Africa• Homo erectus and Homo sapiens migrated

from Africa to parts of Europe and Asia.• Low sea levels allowed for migration to the

Americas as well as Japan and Australia.

Changes from Migration

• Minor physical changes such as change in skin pigment happened because of migration.

• Adaptation to new environments was more of a cultural evolution than a physical one.

History and Culture in the Ice Age

Food Gathering and Stone Tools

• Stone Age – – Paleolithic

• Old Stone Age – to 10,000 years ago

– Neolithic• New Stone Age – 10,000 to

4,000 years ago

Stone Tools

• Paleolithic age characterized by production of stone tools used for scavenging and hunting.

• Homo sapiens were very good hunters and may have caused the extinction of mastodons and mammoths.

Eating Habits

• Diet of Stone Age people was mostly foraged veggies, not much meat.

• Human use of fire changed cooking and tool technology– Evidence of cooking (clay pots) found

12,500 years ago.

Gender Roles• Ice Age society women responsible for:

– Gathering– Cooking– Childcare

• Ice Age society men responsible for:– Hunting

Life as a Hunter-Gatherer

• Lived in small group camps• Used natural shelter as well

as built temporary shelters when needed.

• Migrated regularly in order to:– Follow game animals– Take advantage of seasonal

variations in the ripening of foraged foods

Cultural Expressions

• Hunter-Gatherers spent no more than 3-5 hours a day on getting food, clothing, and shelter

• This allowed time for cultural activities:– Gathering– Organizing and passing on information– Art– Religion

• Cave art suggests they had complex religion• Burial sites suggest a belief in an afterlife

The Hunt for Society

The Agricultural Revolutions

Agricultural Revolutions

• Agricultural Revolution =– domestication of plants and

animals– occurred independently in

different parts of the world

• Caused by changes in global climate

A long process…

• First step in domestication of plants was semicultivation.– Scatter seeds of desirable

plants in places where they would likely grow.

• Next stage was use of fire to clear fields

• Next stage was use of specialized tools to plant and harvest grain

Making the move…

• Transition to agriculture took place first and is best documented in the Middle East.

• Used rotating agriculture– Process of changing fields periodically because soil

was no longer fertile

What to Plant?• Mediterranean area

– Wheat and Barley

• Sub-Saharan Africa– Sorghum, Millet, Teff

• Equatorial West Africa– Yams

• Eastern and Southern Asia– Rice

• America– Maize, Potatoes, Quinoa, Manioc

Domestication of Animals

• Happened at same time as plants.• First domesticated dogs.• Later sheep and goats also domesticated

for meat, milk, and wool.

First

Next

Domestication• Domestication of animals occurred independently

in many parts of the world.• In the Americas, there were no animals suitable

for domestication except llamas, guinea pigs and some fowl.

• In Central Asia and Africa, cattle was herded or taken from one place to another to graze.

Animals were used to pull plows & supplied manure for fertilizer.

Agriculture and Ecological Crisis• Humans made the transition from hunter-gather

communities to agricultural economies because of GLOBAL WARMING!– This reduced the amount of game and wild food

plants.

• Significant increase in human population– 10 million in 5000 B.C.E.– 50 to 100 million in 1000 B.C.E.

Life in Neolithic Communities

Neolithic Cultural Expressions

• Early food producers worshiped ancestral and nature spirits.

• Religion centered on sacred groves, springs, and wild animals.

• Had deities such as Earth Mother and Sky God.

• Used megaliths to construct burial chambers, calendar circles, and to aid astronomical observations.

Early Towns & Specialties

• Most early food-producing societies were towns, but some places there were resources to support growth.

• Featured elaborate dwellings, surplus food storage, specialized craftsmen.

• Two examples: Jericho and Çatal Hϋyϋk.

Jericho

• Located on West Bank of Jordan River.

• Walled town with mud-brick structures

• Dates back to 8000 B.C.E.

Çatal Hϋyϋk

• Located in central Anatolia

• Dates to 7000-5000 B.C.E.

• Center for trade in obsidian, produced pottery, baskets, woolen cloth, beads, leather, and wood products

Çatal Hϋyϋk

• No evidence of a dominant class or centralized political leadership.

• Fascinated with hunting• Agriculture was mainstay of economy• Religion appears to center on worship of

goddess – administered by priestesses.– Offered food to their goddess

• Many decorative/ceremonial objects made of copper, lead, silver, and gold.

What does this mean?

• Jericho and Çatal Hϋyϋk tell us that there were the social organizations necessary to support non-producing specialists such as:– Priests– Craftspeople– Had labor to build defensive walls, megalithic

structures, and tombs.• Unknown if labor to build was free or coerced.

The First River-Valley Civilizations

Mesopotamia

Agriculture

• Mesopotamia – alluvial plain between Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.

• Difficult environment for agriculture because:– Little rainfall– Flood at wrong time for grain production– Rivers change course unpredictably

How did they live there?

• Mesopotamia has a warm climate and good soil.

• 4000 B.C.E. – using cattle-pulled plows and planter for barley

• 3000 B.C.E. – constructing irrigation canals to bring water to fields

Crops and Natural Resources

• Date Palms• Vegetables• Reeds• Fish• Land for grazing

goats and sheep

• No significant wood, stone, or metal resources

• Draft Animals:– Cattle– Donkeys– Camels– Horses

Sumerians

• Initial creators of Mesopotamian culture.

• Present as early as 5000 B.C.E.

• By 2000 B.C.E. supplanted by Semitic-speaking peoples who dominated the Sumerians.– Preserved many elements of Sumerian

culture.

Cities, Kings, and Trade

• Early Mesopotamian society = villages and cities linked in system of mutual interdependence.

• Cities depended on surplus food from villages to feed urban elite and craftsmen.

• Cities gave villages military protection, markets, and specialist-produced goods.

What’s a City-State?

• CITY-STATE = city and its agricultural hinterland.

• Sometimes fought over resources like water and land.

• Cooperated in sharing other resources.

• Traded with one another.

Centers of Power in City-States

• Temples and Palaces were very important.• Temples were landholders and priests

controlled their wealth.• Religious power predates the secular

power of palaces.• Secular leadership developed in third

millennium B.C.E. when the lugal ruled from palaces and took power from temples.

POWER!!!• Some city-states became powerful enough

to absorb others and create territorial states.

• Three Examples:– Akkadian state, founded by Sargon of Akkad

around 2350 B.C.E.– Third Dynasty of Ur from 2112 - 2004 B.C.E.– Hammurabi and the “Old Babylonian” state.

• Established a Law Code which gives us information about law, punishments, and society in his day.

Trading

• Mesopotamia needed resources and obtained them through long-distance trade.

• Merchants were first employed by palaces or temples.

• In the second millennium B.C.E., private merchants emerged.

• Trade was carried out through barter.

Mesopotamian Society

Three Classes

• Mesopotamia had a stratified society.• Three classes were:

1. Free landowning class2. Dependent farmers and artisans3. Slaves

• Most slaves were prisoners of war• Not a fundamental part of the economy

• Development of agriculture brought a decline in the status of women because men did the plowing and irrigation.

Role of Women

• Women had no political role• Women could:

– Own property– Control their dowry– Engage in trade

• Rise of urban merchant class in second millennium B.C.E. accompanied by greater emphasis on male privilege and decline in women’s status.

Gods

• Mesopotamia was an amalgam of Sumerian and Semitic beliefs and deities.

• Mesopotamian deities were anthropomorphic.

• Each city had its own tutelary gods.

• Evidence indicates a popular belief in magic and in the use of magic to influence the gods.

Priests and Temples

• Humans were regarded as servants of the gods.

• Specialized hereditary priesthood served the gods.

• Temples were walled compounds containing religious and functional buildings.

• Most visible part of temple was the ziggurat.

Ziggurats

Technology and Science

• Technology = any specialized knowledge that is used to transform the natural environment and human society.

• This concept of technology includes:– Irrigation systems– Religious lore and ceremony– Writing systems

Cuneiform

• Mesopotamian writing system• Evolved from use of pictures to represent the

sounds of words or parts of words• Writing system very complex and required the

use of hundreds of signs• Only scribes knew it• Developed to write Sumerian, but later used to

write Akkadian and other languages.• Used to write economic, political, legal, literary,

religious, and scientific texts.

Cuneiform Samples

Other Technologies

• Other technologies developed by the Mesopotamians included:– Irrigation– Transportation technologies like boats,

barges, and use of donkeys– Bronze metallurgy– Brickmaking– Engineering– Pottery including the use of the potter’s wheel

Military

• Military advances included:– Paid, full-time soldiers– Horses– Horse-drawn chariot– Bow and Arrow– Siege Machinery

The First River-Valley Civilizations

Egypt

Gift of the Nile

• Egypt is defined by the Nile River, the arable land on its banks and the fertile Nile delta. (Black Land)– This is home to the vast majority of Egyptians.

• The rest of the country is barren desert. (Red Land)

• Egypt is divided into two parts:– Upper Egypt – southern part of Nile to first cataract– Lower Egypt – northern delta area

• Climate good for agriculture, but must depend on river for irrigation.

Flood• Nile floods regularly and at the right time

of year.– This leaves a rich deposit of silt in which to

plant.

• Egyptian agriculture depended on floods.– Crops could be affected if the floods were too

high or not enough.

• Because floods were regular, Egyptians viewed the universe as a regular and orderly place.

Egypt’s Natural Resources

• Reeds• Wild animals• Birds• Fish• Building stone

• Clay• Copper• Turquoise• Gold

Divine Kingship• Political organization evolved from a pattern of

small states ruled by local kings to the emergence of a large, unified Egyptian state around 3100 B.C.E.

• Egyptian history organized into thirty dynasties within three periods:– Old Kingdom– Middle Kingdom– New Kingdom

• These three periods were divided by periods of political fragmentation and chaos.

Pharaohs

• Pharaohs regarded as gods come to Earth to ensure the welfare and prosperity of the people.

• Death of a pharaoh was considered to be his journey back to the land of the gods.

• Funeral rites and proper preservation of the body were very important.

Burial of Pharaohs

• Early pharaohs were buried in flat-topped rectangular tombs.

• Stepped pyramid tombs appeared around 2630B.C.E.

• Great pyramid tombs at Giza were constructed between 2550 and 2490 B.C.E.– Constructed with stone tools and simple lever, pulley,

and roller technology.

• Pyramids required substantial inputs of resources and labor.

Administration

• Governed by a central administration in the capital city through a system of provincial and village bureaucracies.

• Kept track of land, labor, taxes, and people

• Collected resources from throughout the country and used them to support central government institutions, maintain temples, and construct monuments.

Writing

• Developed two writing systems:– Hieroglyphics– Cursive script

• Egyptians wrote on papyrus and used writing for religious and secular literature as well as for record keeping.

Rosetta Stone

Politics

• Tensions between central and local government were a constant feature of Egyptian political history.

• When central power was predominant, provincial officials were appointed and promoted by the central government on the basis of merit.

• When central power was weak, provincial officials tended to become more autonomous, made positions hereditary, and were buried in their own districts instead of with the king.

Foreigners

• Egypt regarded all foreigners as enemies.– Desert nomad neighbors posed no serious military

threat

• More interested in acquiring resources than acquiring territory– Resources could often be obtained through trade

• Traded with Levant, Nubia, and Punt.– Exported papyrus, grain, and gold– Imported incense, Nubian gold, Lebanese cedar,

African ivory, ebony, and animals.

People of Egypt

• Population of about 1 to 1.5 million physically heterogeneous people, some dark-skinned, and some lighter-skinned.

• Several social strata:1. Kings and high ranking officials

2. Lower-level officials, local leaders and priests, professionals, artisans, well-off farmers

3. Peasants

• Majority of people were peasants

The Working Class

• Peasants:– lived in villages– Cultivated the soil– Responsible for paying taxes– Providing labor service

• Slavery existed on a limited scale– Treatment of slaves was generally humane

Egyptian Women

• Women were subordinate to men and engaged in domestic actvities.

• Right to hold, inherit, and will property

• Retained rights over dowry after divorce

• Probably had more rights than Mesopotamian women.

Belief and Knowledge• Egyptian religious beliefs were based on a

cyclical view of nature.• Two most significant gods:

– Re – sun-god– Osiris – god of the Underworld

• Kings identified with Re and Horus served as chief priests.

• Supreme god of the Egyptian pantheon was generally the god of the city that was serving as the capital.

Religion

• The Egyptians spent a large amount of their wealth in constructing fabulous temples.

• Temple activities included regular offerings to the gods and great festivals.

• Egyptians generally believed in magic and in an afterlife.

• The afterlife inspired Egyptians to mummify the bodies of the dead before burial.

Tombs

• Tombs were built at the edge of desert to not waste arable land.

• Tombs contained:– Samples of food– Pictures– Other necessities

• These tombs provide a wealth of information about daily life in Egypt.

• Amount and quality of tomb goods as well as form of tombs reflect the social status of deceased.

Scientific Knowledge• Egyptians acquired much advanced knowledge

and technology.• Chemistry and anatomy knowledge was gained

through process of mummification.• Other areas of advancement included:

– Mathematics– Astronomy– Calendar Making– Irrigation– Engineering and Architecture– Transportation Technology

The First River-Valley Civilizations

The Indus Valley Civilization

Natural Environment• The central part of the Indus Valley area is the

Sind region of modern Pakistan,– Also includes the Hakra River (now dried up), the

Punjab, and the Indus delta region.

• Indus carries a lot of silt and floods regularly twice a year.

• Access to river water for irrigation allowed farmers in the Indus Valley and related areas to produce two crops a year despite the region’s sparse rainfall.

Material Culture

• Civilization flourished from 2600 to 1900 B.C.E.

• Two largest and best-known sites are Harappa and Mohenjo-daro.

• We know little of the identity, origins, or fate of the people of the Indus Valley.

• Had a writing system, but we are unable to decipher it.

Harappa and Mohenjo-daro

• Harappa was 3.5 miles in circumference and had a population of 35,000.

• Mohenjo-daro was several times larger than Harappa.

• Both were surrounded by brick walls, had streets laid out in a grid pattern and were supplied with covered drainage systems to carry away waste.

Harappa and Mohenjo-daro

• Remains of something like a citadel that may have been a center of authority, possible storehouses for grain, and barracks for artisans.

• Both urban centers may have controlled the surrounding farmland.

• Harappa may have been a major trade center for copper, tin, and precious stones.

Harrappa

Mohenjo-daro

City Planning

• Had a high degree of standardization in city planning, architecture, and even the size of the bricks.

• Scholars explain this uniformity with the idea of a central, authoritarian government.

Technology

• Had very good access to metal.• Indus Valley artisans used metal to create

utilitarian goods as well a luxury items.• Technological achievements included

extensive irrigation systems, potter’s wheels, kiln-baked bricks, bronze metallurgy, and a system of writing.

• Carried out extensive trade with peoples in Iran, Afghanistan, and Mesopotamia.

Transformation of Indus Valley

• The Indus Valley civilization declined because of natural disasters and ecological change.

• These changes included:– Drying up of the Hakra River– Stalinization– Erosion

• When urban centers collapsed, so did the way of life for the elite, but peasants probably adapted and survived.