Origins and beginnings

1
Origins and beginnings

• Transition to Complex societies

2
What are the ingredients that transform a society
into a civilization? What is an inherent problem
with the word civilized?

• cities that serve as administrative centers
  rather than isolated communities usually coupled
  with monument building
• a political system based on territory rather than
  kinship
• a specialization of labor in areas other than
  food production called division of labor
• advancing technological skills
• the division of the society into classes, which
  accompanies the accumulation of wealth and
  prestige
• a recordkeeping system formed from a writing
  system
• long-distance trade, as opposed to local trade
• major advances in the sciences and arts.
• The term civilization is an ambiguous concept and
  must be discussed carefully because of the
  tendency throughout time to equate civilization
  with our own way of life. People tend to define
  themselves as civilized and anyone else as
  uncivilized or barbaric.

3
Other than learned behavior what is culture?

• Culture consists of learned patterns of action
  and expression and includes art, music, clothing,
  dwellings, tools, values, beliefs, and languages.
  
• Although Stone Age music and dance remain hidden
  from investigation, early human art and tools are
  important sources for studying Stone Age culture.
  
• Cave paintings reveal much about human society
  and wildlife.
• The development of increasingly specialized tools
  is evident in the archaeological record.
• Tools for gathering and digging food as well as
  for killing and butchering animals demonstrate
  human ingenuity.
• Tool and weapon design changed along with new
  methods of hunting and agriculture, revealing the
  adaptability of the human species.
• Methods of food preparation are deduced from the
  tools made for those tasks and are important
  indicators of cultural phenomena, such as the
  gendered division of labor

4
Indus Mesopotamia - Egypt

• All three civilizations were built around fertile
  river valleys.
• The resulting surplus production of foodstuffs
  supported a government and religious
  infrastructure, a middle class of merchants and
  artisans.
• All three civilizations also developed a complex
  system of writing to accompany the growth of
  government and urban life.
• While little is known about Indus religion,
  Egyptians and Mesopotamians linked their
  religious beliefs and practices to the natural
  environment.
• Because of the size of the Indus River system,
  the civilization there was much larger than that
  in Mesopotamia.
• Whereas the Mesopotamian civilization was urban
  centered, that of the Indus Valley was more
  dispersed and rural.
• Metals were more readily available in the Indus
  Valley, both those occurring naturally and those
  acquired through trade.
• Consequently, metal objects tended to be more
  utilitarian in design and more generally
  distributed through the population.
• Metal objects in Egypt and Mesopotamia, on the
  other hand, were more likely to have a decorative
  and ceremonial function.

5
As the Harrapan script has yet to be deciphered,
how do historians make inferences about the
civilization of the Indus River Valley?

• The geography provides some clues.
• For example, the rivers, ocean access, and
  particularly the mountain ranges all shape the
  history of the region.
• The geography supports intensive cultivation
  therefore city life and civilization is possible.
  
• The excavations of the cities Mohenjo-Daro and
  Harappa are also fertile places to find
  information on this society.
• The archaeological evidence of the cities helps
  to figure out information on settlements. The
  identity of the people who lived there isnt
  certain however, the design and construction of
  the cities can be examined and suggests the
  existence of a central government. The natural
  resources, crafts, and metals can also be
  discovered. Trade contacts through the Persian
  Gulf are also evident, although we know little
  about their religious, social, economic, and
  political structures. The decline of this
  civilization is also not certain. There is
  speculation that natural disaster like earthquake
  or flooding may be responsible.

6
What are social divisions and how do they appear
within Mesopotamian society, and what are reasons
for those divisions?

• Divisions arise among groups of people because of
  differences in wealth, social or religious
  functions, and legal and political rights.
• Social classes are formed when a society grants
  or acknowledges status and privilege because of
  these imbalances.
• Wealthy and middle classes were formed in
  Mesopotamia with the establishment of a royalty,
  a religious hierarchy, large landholdings, and
  long-distance trade.
• There were three distinct classes
• the large landholders, royalty, priests, and
  merchants
• dependent farmers and most artisans and workmen
• slaves.
• Slavery was not economically crucial to
  Mesopotamian society, and it was not an inherited
  condition.

7
What was the political structure within the
Mesopotamia region and how was this main
framework of civilization created?

• Mesopotamia was a civilization based on villages
  and cities and thus relied on the existence of a
  large agricultural sector to supply those urban
  areas with food.
• An agricultural surplus makes possible the
  existence of merchants, artisans, government
  officials, scribes, and religious specialists who
  are not directly engaged in producing food
  themselves.
• The city supplied markets for foodstuffs and
  crafted items, and military protection for the
  agriculturalists.
• As political leadership in Sumerian Mesopotamia
  grew, leaders were able to organize and coerce
  labor to build an irrigation system, dikes,
  canals, and roads, which contributed to further
  agricultural expansion.
• As cities grew, political, social, religious,
  educational, judicial, and economic institutions
  expanded as well.

8
How did the status and experience of women change
as Mesopotamian society developed into a
civilization?

• Because of their primary role in procuring much
  of the familys food, women in hunter-gatherer
  societies had relatively high status. In the
  transition to food production, womens status
  suffered as more of the heavy cultivating work
  was done by men.
• As increased food supplies encouraged larger
  family size, raising children occupied greater
  portions of womens time, further detracting from
  their social status.
• When Mesopotamia developed an urban middle class
  and private wealth, women were used to enhance
  family status and privilege through arranged
  marriages and family alliances. It is possible
  that the women also began to wear the veil at
  this time.
• New laws granted higher levels of control to male
  family members.
• Despite the fact that women had no political
  role, some women worked outside the home in such
  occupations as textile weaving, brewing,
  prostitution, tavern keepers, bakers, and
  fortunetellers in addition to carrying out the
  ever-present domestic duties, preserving
  families, and raising children throughout time.

9
The conditions leading to the transition from
food gathering to food cultivation had universal
environmental implications but resulted in
regional and irregular spread of the technology
and also led to differences in types of
agriculture.

• Changes in the global climate about ten thousand
  years ago made increased food supplies necessary,
  and humans began manipulating native plants to
  enhance their food supply.
• As hunter-gatherers returned yearly to the same
  sites, they deliberately scattered seeds from
  desirable plants to encourage their growth.
• Using fire and rudimentary tools, they cleared
  land for cultivation and discouraged the growth
  of unwanted plants.
• Selecting seeds from the highest-yielding plants
  eventually led to new types of crops.
• Climate and soil conditions heavily influenced
  the development of agriculture.
• Emmer wheat and barley were among the first
  grains grown in the Middle East but were
  unsuitable for humid or dry climates.
• In those areas, root crops or other grains such
  as sorghum and millet predominated.
• Agricultural Revolutions developed independently
  in many different places.
• Maize, for example, became the most important
  domesticated crop in the Americas but was unknown
  in other parts of the world.

10
Geography contributed to Egyptian vision of
cosmic order

• The abundance and benevolence of the environment
  of the Nile Valley gave their vision of the
  cosmos a quality that emphasized renewal and
  bounty.
• The support of the monarchy was related to the
  support of this cosmic order.
• The king was a chief priest as well as political
  leader.
• Egypt had many gods, many of whom were depicted
  with animal heads, others with human form.
• There is a correlation between the benevolent
  environment and the development of temples and
  festivals held for the gods.
• Egyptians believed that the afterlife was a
  journey beset with hazards.
• There was extensive preparation for this journey
  in the embalming process to help with the
  journey.
• Later the Book of the Dead provided a map for the
  living on how to maintain this cosmic order

11
One of the most enduring symbols of Egypt is the
pyramids. How does the role of the Pharaoh
engender the construction of the pyramids and
contribute to the strength of Egypt?

• The Egyptians viewed the pharaoh as a god on
  earth, the incarnation of Horus and the son of
  the sun god Re.
• The pharaoh had come to earth to maintain maat,
  the divine order of the universe.
• He was the link between the people and the gods,
  therefore ensuring the welfare and prosperity of
  the country.
• The death of the pharaoh was a critical moment
  because the well-being of the state depended on
  him.
• Therefore every effort was made to ensure that he
  had a safe journey back to the gods in his
  afterlife.
• Massive resources were poured into the
  construction of royal tombs, the celebration of
  funeral rites and offerings in chapels.
• The tombs started as flat-topped rectangular
  tombs made of mud brick, but this was replaced
  with a pyramid design that has become an enduring
  symbol of ancient Egypt.
• Between 2550 and 2490 B.C.E. the Egyptians
  erected huge pyramids at Giza, which were the
  largest stone structures ever built by human
  hands.
• Amazingly this construction was done without
  machinery, with only stone tools and muscle
  power.
• These construction projects connected the
  Egyptians and allowed them to share culture
  better than even the Nile that brought them
  together.

12
How was the first Egyptian civilization shaped by
its natural environment?

• Imposing natural barriers of desert and
  harborless seacoast surrounding Egypt protected
  it from outside influences and threats.
• Egypt was also well endowed with the natural
  resources necessary for forming a civilization.
• Those barriers and resources allowed Egypt to
  develop a unique culture in isolation and
  security.
• Except for a narrow stretch of fertile land along
  the Nile River, Egypt is almost entirely desert.
  Without adequate rainfall, agriculture was made
  possible only by the yearly flooding of the Nile,
  which carried rich deposits of silt along with
  it.
• The Nile was also the primary means of
  communication and transportation. Reeds growing
  in marshy areas along the river were used for
  making papyrus (paper), as well as items such as
  sails and ropes.
• Egyptians had plenty of stone and clay for
  building materials they also had access to
  metals, from which they could fashion tools and
  decorative objects.
• Because of the need to predict the Nile floods
  and survey taxable agricultural land, mathematics
  and astronomy became advanced sciences in Egypt.
• Egyptian religion was rooted in the physical
  landscape of the Nile Valley and the recurrent
  cycles and periodic renewal caused by the
  environment.

13
Discuss the importance of technology and the
various Mesopotamian technological advances.
Would you describe the Mesopotamians as
advanced? Why?

• In general, technology refers to the tools and
  machinery that humans use to manipulate the
  physical world.
• Technology is what is used to overcome your
  environment
• Scholars now use the term technology more broadly
  to describe any specialized knowledge that is
  used to transform the natural environment and
  society.
• The Mesopotamians developed many different
  technological advances to control their
  environment such as irrigation, which is
  essential for agriculture, and the building and
  maintenance of canals, dams, and dikes.
• They also developed transportation such as carts,
  sledges, and boats for maneuvering in the varied
  terrain.
• They also became skilled in metallurgy,
  developing bronze.
• The advantage of bronze was its malleability over
  stone as well as its strength and durability.
• Mesopotamians also developed brick building
  materials, which were used for the construction
  of monumental architecture.
• Therefore they developed the knowledge of
  engineering and architecture.
• The Mesopotamians also developed the potters
  wheel, weapons and machinery of warfare, and a
  number system.
• Perhaps one of the most important technological
  contributions of the Mesopotamians was their
  system of writing.
• Originally developed to keep economic records,
  this system of cuneiform was also used for
  political, literary, religious, and scientific
  purposes.

14
Why did Neolithic peoples form permanent settled
communities? What were the advantages and
disadvantages of those communities?

• Humans formed permanent settled communities to
  ensure a more dependable food supply.
• There were numerous cultural and societal
  benefits to community life as well.
• The religious practices of food producers
  reflected their lifestyles and differed greatly
  from those of hunter-gatherers.
• Neolithic communities helped develop and spread
  the large language families across the globe.
  Architecture evolved as towns grew.
• Objects too large and cumbersome for hunting and
  gathering peoples became practical and necessary
  for settled life, creating a demand for such
  items as pottery.
• Consequently, trade and craftwork became
  important.
• Early metalworking emerged, but mostly for
  decorative and ceremonial uses.
• Still, there were drawbacks for agriculturalists
  and pastoralists.
• Their diets were not as varied or nutritious as
  the diets of hunter-gatherers, and farmers had to
  work longer and harder than foragers.

15
The Egyptian hieroglyphic and Mesopotamian
cuneiform writing systems had similar purpose but
the Egyptian system developed well beyond its
original purpose. How were the systems similar in
development, purpose and results?

• The earliest form of Egyptian writing, a system
  of hieroglyphics, developed at the beginning of
  the Old Kingdom.
• Hieroglyphics were picture symbols, made with a
  brush, standing for words, syllables, or sounds.
• The writing system was developed for government
  administration, but Egyptians used it for
  purposes beyond recordkeeping.
• Tales of adventure, magic, and love, as well as
  religious hymns and instruction manuals, were
  recorded in hieroglyphics and the simplified
  systems descending from them.
• The Egyptians also developed writing material
  called papyrus, which was made from the stems of
  the papyrus reed.
• This is a difference because the plant grew only
  in Egypt but was in high demand throughout the
  ancient world.
• The Mesopotamians wrote instead on a moist clay
  tablet with a pointed stylus, producing
  wedge-shaped symbols.
• Both systems of writing were highly specialized
  activities requiring long training and practice.
• Literacy afforded individuals prestige and
  status, as well as administrative qualifications.
  
• Scribes held an elevated social position in both
  societies