CHAPTER 1: FROM HUMAN PREHISTORY

TO THE EARLY CIVILIZATIONS

Pages 6 29
1. SUMMARY
A. The Neolithic Revolution
In the Neolithic (New Stone) Age, between roughly 8000 and 3500 B.C.E., some
human societies in different areas over the globe crossed one of the watersheds in
human history. They mastered sedentary agriculture and domesticated animals that
would prove critical to human development. These innovations produced the food
surpluses and rising populations that made possible the rise of genuine towns and
the increasing specialization of occupations within human societies. At the same
time pastoral nomadism developed, but these people remained on the periphery of
civilizations and sedentary agricultural zones.
B. Civilization
The emergence of civilization occurred in many agricultural societies. It often built
on additional changes in technology including the introduction of metal tools. Most
civilizations had common features including cities, writing, formal institutions
especially government and religion, stratified classes, and trade. Early civilizations
included Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus River, and China.
A. The Heritage of the River Valley Civilizations
River valley civilizations left a number of durable innovations, but most declined
after about 1200 B.C.E. This decline was often due to nomadic migrations across
Eurasia by pastoral nomadic chariot peoples from the Central Asian steppe. A
number of small centers emerged in Southwest Asia. These civilizations introduced
further innovations including the religion of Judaism, the alphabet, iron tools, and
extensive trade connections across the Mediterranean basin.
B. Conclusion: The First Civilizations
The river valley civilizations created a basic set of tools, intellectual concepts
such as writing and mathematics, and political forms that persisted across three
continents. The rise of civilizations reduced local autonomy, as kings and priests
tried to spread trade contacts and cultural forms and warred to gain new territory.
Civilization itself was an integrating force at a larger regional level, although in
Southwest Asia, smaller identities persisted. However, these civilizations had only
sporadic contacts with each other. Consequently, they and their leading institutions
and cultural forms developed separately. Thus, four distinct centers of civilization
developed (five if the emerging Olmec culture in Mesoamerica is included), each
with widely varied patterns.

II.

CHAPTER REVIEW
A. Describe human migration across the globe.
B. How and where did agricultural societies first emerge?
C. How did sedentary agriculture lead to societal changes?
D. What are the characteristics of civilization and where did the first ones arise?
E. How did geography influence the rise of civilizations?
F. What political, social, economic, and religious institutions emerged?
G. What social hierarchies, gender relationships, and social inequalities arose?
H. How did civilized culture survive the rise and fall of regional states?
I. Describe the contributions of Judaism.
J. How were the first civilizations similar and different?

III. VOCABULARY AND IDENTIFICATIONS

A. Paleolithic (Old Stone) Age
B. Neolithic (New Stone) Age
C. Slash and Burn Agriculture
D. Neolithic Revolution(s)
E. Pastoralism
F. Domestication
G. Sedentary
H. Civilization
I. Institution
J. Patriarchal
K. Animism, Polytheism, Monotheism

IV. MAP EXERCISES

A. Map 1.1: The Spread of Human Populations, c. 10,000 B.C.E. (Page 10)
1. Why does Africa appear to be the home of humans and their near relatives?
2. What evidence verifies that man migrated to the Americas and Australia?
B. Map 1.2: The Spread of Agriculture (Page 11)
1. What region seems to be the most important core area for agriculture? Why?
2. What proof exists that agriculture originated in one area but spread to others?
3. What products seem to have had two areas of first cultivation?
4. Theorize how bananas, rice, and yams arrived in Africa?
C. Map 1.3: Egypt, Kush, and Axum (Page 19)
1. What geographic features protect Egypt from invasion?
2. How does the Nile River effect movement?
3. From what directions would Egypt experience foreign contacts?
4. How is Kush even more isolated?
5. Which civilization would have had the greatest influence on Kush? Why?
D. Visualizing the Past: Mesopotamia in Maps (Page 23)
1. Why is Mesopotamia exposed to attack?
2. What benefit was there to having larger empires?
3. Why would this region be a crossroad? With what results?
V.

PHOTO ESSAY: Early Institutions (Use photos on pages 6, 14, 17, 20, and 24)
A. How do these photographs depict:
1. Hierarchy?
2. Technology?
3. Complex institutions?
B. How has technology changed from the Stone Age through the first agricultural
civilizations?

6. DOCUMENT ANALYSIS: Hammurabis Law Code (Page 18)

A. Analysis
1. Who wrote it? (Attribution includes biographical references)
2. What was the authors point of view?
3. How reliable is the document? Why?
4. What was the intent or purpose behind the document?
5. Who was the intended audience?
6. What is the documents tone?
B. Drawing Conclusions
1. What social and familial structures are discussed in the documents?
2. How does the document reveal information about religious and magical beliefs?
VII. MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS
1. The first truly revolutionary transformation of human society was the
A. use of fire.
B. smelting of metals such as copper.
C. growth of towns and cities.
D. rise of farming.
E. rise of specialized classes.
2. Women were probably the first farmers because
A. men exclusively hunted.
B. as gatherers they generally knew which seeds to eat and where they grew.
C. women had ample free time to develop newer techniques and technologies.
D. in subsequent eras, women and not men in most world societies were farmers.
E. records from the period indicate women originated farming.
3. The strongest competitor to sedentary agriculture during the Neolithic Age was
A. pastoralism or a nomadic herding way of life.
B. continued hunting societies.
C. slash and burn agriculture.
D. increased gathering.
E. fishing and aquatic agriculture.
4. Agricultural surpluses seem to have led most directly to
A. the rise of cities.
B. the outbreak of warfare.
C. monotheistic faiths.
D. the extinction of Paleolithic peoples and cultures.
E. specialized services and socially differentiated hierarchies.

5. The start of sedentary agriculture

A. occurred simultaneously in various places and spread around the world.
B. began only in the savannas of west Africa.
C. started in southwest Asia first but developed independently in other places.
D. arose in the river valleys of the Huang-he and Yangtze.
E. began after the abandonment of hunting and gathering.
6. Cities in the ancient agrarian civilizations were
A. exclusively religious in nature and the center of local worship.
B. centers of trade, specialized manufacture, and the exchange of ideas.
C. independent of the local regional economies.
D. largely military in nature.
E. rare and scattered.
7. In river valley societies priests developed considerable social power because they
A. controlled agriculture.
B. dominated government.
C. owned the land.
D. interpreted the gods wishes and placated the deities.
E. regulated trade between cities and regional centers.
8. Which of these is an example of patriarchal society in the ancient world?
A. Young men went to live with their wives families.
B. Family descent and property inheritance were traced through the female line.
C. A woman could have had more than one husband.
D. Women and men had equal legal rights as written into the first law codes.
E. After marriage, a woman moved to the residence of her husbands family.
9. Periodic nomadic invasions in the early history of the Middle East
A. caused disruptions but facilitated innovations and prompted synthesis.
B. led to the collapse of civilization.
C. were easily beaten back by the technologically advanced sedentary peoples.
D. caused mass popular migrations throughout the Middle East.
E. failed to upset the established political and social patterns of the region.
10. The Fertile Crescent has been called the crossroads of the world because it was
A. the first center of advanced civilization.
B. often flooded by the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.
C. protected from invasion by the deserts and mountains.
D. on the routes connecting Europe, Asia, and Africa.
E. civilization spread outward from the Fertile Crescent to other regions.
11. Unlike Sumer and Egypt, the Indus Valley or Harappan civilization
A. became a geographic center for a unified, continuous culture lasting millennia.
B. writing has never been translated.
C. was secure from nomadic incursions and invasions.
D. never developed a military social class.
E. developed a monotheistic religion.

12. Compared to river valley cultures in Egypt and Mesopotamia, Chinese civilization
A. probably developed after civilizations in the Nile Valley and Southwest Asia.
B. predates the rise of civilization in both Egypt and Mesopotamia.
C. developed simultaneously with Egypt and Mesopotamia.
D. did not rely on heavy irrigation as year-round water was plentiful.
E. has no verifiable historic origins and left no written records.
13. The Aryan invaders of the Indus Valley
A. were quick to assimilate Harappan culture and abandon their warrior culture.
B. settled in Indus cities and took over the Harappan farms.
C. are related to Indo-Europeans and Iranians.
D. had little use for horses and cattle, as they were vegetarians.
E. quickly overran the Indian peninsula, eradicating the original inhabitants.
14. In early China, unity and cultural identity were provided by
A. divine monarchs.
B. shared religious ceremonies.
C. a uniform language.
D. Buddhism.
E. a common system of writing.
15. Unlike the Harappan civilization, Hindu, Chinese, and Mesopotamian cultures
A. had little use for writing and written records.
B. granted women extensive rights and influence.
C. developed systems and technologies to resist or to assimilate nomadic invaders.
D. had no contacts with nomadic groups or different cultures.
E. remained largely pastoral.
VIII. ESSAY QUESTIONS
A. How did gender roles change from the Paleolithic and Neolithic Ages through the
rise of the first sedentary civilizations?
B. Compare and contrast any two of the river valley civilizations.
C. Compare and contrast gender roles, social classes, and inequalities in the first river
valley civilizations.
D. Compare and contrast the influences of geography and environment on the rise of
civilizations and cultures in Mesopotamia and Egypt.
E. How did lifestyles, culture, and technologies change from the Paleolithic societies to
the first river valley civilizations?