BEGINNINGS OF

CIVILIZATION
Chapter 1- prehistory-3000BC

G E O G R A P H Y A N D H I S T O RY
1. Geography is the study of people, their
environments, and the resources available to them.
2. Latitude- measures distance north and south
3. Longitude- measures distance east and west
4. People followed the food

HOW DO WE KNOW
1.Prehistory refers to the long period of time before
people invented writing
2.Anthropology- studies the origins and development
of people and their societies
3.Culture is the way of __life of a society that is
handed down from one generation to another.
4.Archeology is the study of past people and culture.
5.Archeologist study artifacts , objects left by
humans.
6.Technology refers to the skills and people use to
tools meet their basic needs.

A R T I FA C T S & C AV E D R AW I N G S

HISTORIANS
R E C O N S T R U C T T H E PA S T
1.Historians study how people lived in the past.
2.5,000 years ago people began to keep written
records.

T H E D AW N O F H I S T O RY:
OLD STONE AGE
1. The earliest time period= Old Stone Age or the
Paleolithic Age. (2 million- 10,000B.C.E)
2. Hominids are humanlike primates
3. Lucy is the oldest hominid to date found (1974,
East Africa)

T H E D A W N O F H I S T O R Y: O L D S T O N E
AGE
4. Paleolithic people were known as nomads, moved
from place to place.
5. Several ice ages came during the Paleolithic
Age :thick glaciers or sheets of ice covered Asia,
Europe and North America; invented clothing

E A R L Y

R E L I G I O U S

B E L I E F S

1.Early people believed in _animism_ or spirits in

animals, objects or dreams.
2.Toward the end of the Paleolithic Age, people
began to _bury_the dead.

N E O L I T H I C A G R I C U LT U R A L R E V O L U T I O N

1.11,000 years ago, nomads learned to farm.

2.Women noticed effects of scattered seeds.
3.The change from nomads to settlers became the
__New Stone Age or Neolithic Age (10,000BCE3,000BCE)
4. People began to domesticate_or tame animals.

N E O L I T H I C A G R I C U LT U R A L
R E V O LU T I O N
5. Farming=mass food production=population
increased
6. Men hunted, women gathered, when food was
scarce _war increased___.
7. Formed councils of elders
8. Created calendars, began using animals to farm
and work

B EG IN N IN G S

O F

C IV ILIZ AT IO N:

C IT IE S

1.A __civilization__is a complex highly organized

social order.
2.Cities began to emerge after farmers had
__surplus_( extra food) around river valleys.
3.Cities rose separately in the valleys of the Tigris
and Euphrates Rivers (Middle East), Nile River
(Egypt), Indus River (Indi) and Yellow River also
called Huang He River (China)
4.Flood waters left silt, rivers brought animals

B E G I N N I N G S O F C I V I L I Z AT I O N:
CITIES
1.Early farmers built dikes (temporary embankments
meant to hole back water), canals and irrigation
ditches
2.Ancient cities were surrounded by high walls
3.Early cities in the Americas were developed by
Incas and Aztecs

F E AT U R E S O F C I V I L I Z AT I O N S
There are 8 basic features found in early
civilizations:
1. cities
2. organized government
3. complex religions- polytheistic belief in
many gods
4. job specialization- artisans or skilled workers

5. social classes
a. priest/nobles
b. wealthy merchants
c. humbler artisans (apprentice etc.)
d. peasant farmers
e. slaves
6. arts and architecture
7. public works
8. writing pictograms which are simple drawings that
look like the object
Scribes- people trained to read and write

S P R E A D O F C I V I L I Z AT I O N
1.environmental changes called people to move or
die
2.migration, trade and warfare caused __cultural
diffusion or spread of ideas, customs, and
technologies