Name ______
Ancient Civilizations - Cornell Notes
What are the characteristics of the Paleolithic Era?How did people obtain food during the Neolithic Era?
Why was the Neolithic Era considered a revolution?
Why were rivers valleys important to early civilizations?
How did the Nile allow Egypt to centralize its government?
What Egyptian contribution would you consider the most important to today’s society?
Why were irrigation systems important to the development of civilizations?
What are the characteristics of Hammurabi’s Code?
Why are written records important to understanding history?
What are the positive impacts of natural barriers?
What are the negative impacts of natural barriers?
The belief that your culture is superior to others is known as?
What European theory is similar to the Mandate of Heaven?
What was a positive impact that Confucianism had on Chinese society?
What are the similarities between the Qin’s Legalism and Hammurabi’s Code?
Why is it important to have an educated government?
How is the Silk Road similar to the internet?
Even though Civil Service Exams helped provide China with a stable government, how did they also promote in unequal society?
What were the differences between Spartan society and Athenian society?
What is the blending of ideas, goods and culture known as?
What buildings in the United States were influenced by the Parthenon?
Greece is often considered the father to Western Civilization. What contributions did the Greeks provide for Western Civilizations?
Why was Rome’s legal system often considered the greatest contribution to Western Civilization?
What geographic feature allowed Rome to trade with and conquer three continents?
Why must civilizations have a strong government in order to have a strong economy and vice versa?
Why were Rome’s roads important for a strong government and economy?
Why were aqueducts an important reason why Rome was the first city with over a million people?
What modern building have been influenced by Roman architecture and engineering?
Rome’s centralized government provided stability (provided trade, military protection) for nearly a thousand years. What effect do you think this has on society, when it is taken away? / I. Dawn of History
A. Paleolithic Age (Old Stone Age)
1. When - 2 million BCE to 10,000 BCE
2. First people lived more than 2 million years ago in East Africa
3. Hunters and Gatherers
a. People lived nomadic lifestyles
b. Men would hunt game animals and fish
c. Women would collect fruits, berries and other edibles
4. Adapting to their environment
a. Tools
1. Simple tools - digging sticks, spears and axes out of stone, bone or wood.
2. Clothing - skins of animals
b. Shelter – caves
c. Fire - people learned to build fires for warmth and cooking.
5. Paleolithic Societies
a. Groups numbered between 20-30 people
b. Developed spoken languages
1. Allowed people to communicate during a hunt
6. Early belief systems
a. Polytheistic – early forms of animism
b. People began burying the dead
1. Burials suggest that people believed in an afterlife
2. The dead were buried with their tools and weapons
7. Migration
a. People migrated from Africa to Asia, Europe and North America
b. Led to cultural diffusion
1. Also occurred through warfare and trade
8. Scarce resources
a. Hunting and gathering sustained human life for millions of years, but people barely survived.
b. People moved from place to place because resources were scarce
c. People needed a more reliable way of obtaining a supply of food
B. Neolithic or Agricultural Revolution (New Stone Age)
1. When - 10,000 BCE
2. Important discoveries
a. Farming
1. People learned to plant seeds to grow food
2. Led to permanent settlements
3. Sedentary agriculture – Farm in one place
b. Domesticate animals
1. Tamed animals they had been hunting
2. Herded and penned the animals
3. Used for food, clothing, labor and transportation
3. Impact of Neolithic Revolution
a. Farming led to a more reliable source of food
b. As food supply increased, so did the population
1. Population of settlements numbered in the hundreds to thousands
2. Permanent communities formed
c. New Technologies – people needed new tools in order to meet their new needs
1. Calendars – helped determine when to plant and harvest crops
2. Metal tools – built bronze and then iron plows that were pulled by animals
3. Irrigation systems – brought water from rivers to farms
4. Metal weapons – developed bronze and then iron weapons to defend their resources and villages
C. Rise of Civilizations
1. Rivers valleys - home to the first civilizations
a. Fertile Land – the yearly floods provided arable land
b. Fresh Water – gave people water source
c. Transportation – Used the river as a means of transportation
d. Trade – as the civilizations grew and expanded, more people came into contact with one another
2. Characteristics of a Civilization
a. Cities – populations grew into the thousands due to increased food supplies
b. Central governments – provide order, organization and protection
c. Traditional economy – based on farming and other skilled crafts such as pottery, clothing and other goods
d. Organized religion – polytheistic, where priests would perform ceremonies to ensure plentiful crops and protection
e. Specialization of labor - increased food supplies allowed people to perform different jobs in society
f. Social classes emerge – based on one’s occupation
1. Priests, warriors, craftsmen or artisan, and farmer
2. Chiefs - emerged as leaders
3. Women’s status declined as men took lead roles as warriors
4. Warfare increased as resources became scarce
g. Systems of writing – Used for record keeping. Early writing used pictures and then developed into symbols
h. Art and architecture – Built temples and palaces to honor religious and political leaders.
i. Public works – built infrastructure such as roads, bridges and walls for protection
II. River Valley Civilizations - (4000 BCE - 1650 BCE)
A. Nile River Valley – Egypt (North Africa)
1. Geographic Setting
a. Region – North Africa, Middle East
b. Topography – Mostly Desert
1. Natural barrier – provided protection from invasion
2. Lack of arable land
c. Nile River - River flows from South to North
1. Silt from floods leaves a rich deposit of soil
2. Used as a highway for travel and trade
3. Villages merge to form cities along river becomes into one kingdoms: Upper Egypt (South) and Lower Egypt (North)
4. Nile Delta - in Lower Egypt, where the Nile emptied into the Mediterranean Sea
2. Government
a. Pharaohs – ruler of Egypt that is believed to be both a God and a King
1. Absolute power – claimed divine right
2. Centralized Government – Strong central government/leaders
3. Bureaucracy – Run by a Vizier to help run government business, such as collecting taxes
b. Dynasty – Ruling family of Egypt; When the pharaoh died, power was passed onto the another family member
c. Menes – Pharaoh (3100 BCE) - United Upper and Lower Egypt to create the first dynasty
1. Used the Nile to link Upper and Lower Egypt
3. Religion
a. Polytheistic – Worshipped many gods
1. Amon-Re – The Sun God and the Chief God
2. Osirus – God of the Nile, controlled the Nile’s annual flood
b. Afterlife – Egyptians prepared the dead for life after death
1. Pyramids – Tombs and monuments used to store the remains of dead pharaohs as they await the afterlife
4. Society
a. Social Classes
1. Upper Class – Pharaoh, Priests, Nobles
2. Middle Class – Merchants and artisans (skilled workers)
3. Lower Class – Peasants (Farmers)
4. Slaves
b. Role of Women:
1. Legally own property
2. Run business
3. Divorce
c. Contributions
1. Papyrus – Paper making
2. Hieroglyphics – Writing system that used pictures to represent words and ideas
a. Rosetta Stone- Helped translate Egyptian writing
3. Literature - poetry, songs, hymns and fiction
4. Surgery and Medicine
a. Mummification preserving the dead helped them diagnose illnesses and perform surgery
5. Calendar – based on 365 days (solar)
6. Number system - based on 10 (10, 100, 1000, etc)
B. Tigris & Euphrates Rivers – Mesopotamia (Middle East)
1. Geographic Setting
a. Region – Middle East
b. The Fertile Crescent – a crescent shaped region of good farmland created by the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers that stretches from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea
c. Mesopotamia – The land between the rivers
d. Few natural barriers
1. Cultural diffusion – exchange of goods and ideas
2. Invasion – lack of barriers allowed for several invasions
2. Sumerian Civilization – (3000 BCE)
a. Government
1. City- States – Sumer was divided into independent areas that included a city and the surrounding land
2. Rulers – seen as the chief servant to the gods
a. Role – Enforced laws, collected taxes, led armies into war, kept records, maintained city walls and irrigation systems
b. Religion
1. Polytheistic – Gods had human qualities and were tied to the forces of nature
2. Each city-state had their own God or Goddess
3. Ziggurats - Stone temples made out of sun-dried bricks that were used for religious purposes
c. Social Classes
1. Upper Class – Ruling family, officials and high priests
2. Middle Class –Merchants and artisans (skilled workers)
3. Lower Class – Peasants (Farmers)
d. Contributions
1. Inventions
a. Sailboat
b. Wheel
c. Plow
d. Walled cities
2. Architecture
a. Ziggurats
3. Irrigation Systems – a network of canals that provided water for those away fro the river banks
4. Cuneiform – Writing systems that used wedged shaped marks to keep records
5. Math contributions
a. Basic algebra
b. Geometry
c. Number system - based on 6
6. Literature - The Epic of Gilgamesh
3. Babylonian Civilization
a. Government
1. Centralized government – strong central government
2. Hammurabi – (1792-1750 BCE) God-like king
3. Code of Hammurabi – 300 codified laws carved in stone
a. Criminal Law – robbery, assault, murder
b. Civil law – business contracts, property, taxes, marriage and divorce
c. Specific punishments for specific laws
d. Harsh punishments – “Eye for an Eye”
e. Unequal enforcement – Lower social classes vs. nobles, men vs. women, adults vs. children – laws were harsher for lower classes, women and children)
b. Contributions
1. Contract - written agreement
2. Astronomy – Study of universe
a. Lunar calendar (12 months, 7 day week, 24 hr day)
3. Number system - based on 60 (60 minute hour, 360 degree circle)
4. Map makers – cartographer
C. Indus River Valley – Indian Subcontinent (India and Pakistan)
1. Geographic Setting
a. Region - South Asia
b. Mountain ranges
1. Hindu Kush
2. Himalayan
c. Climate - Hot dry
d. Monsoons – seasonal winds that brought rainfall to the Indian Subcontinent
e. Indus River - Floods brought rich soil and destruction (unpredictable due to monsoon rains)
2. Mystery
a. Little is known about the Indus river valley because historians and archaeologists have not been able to decipher the writing system.
b. All that is known comes from archaeological finds
3. Government
a. Centralized government – strong central government
1. Well-Planned Cities – Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro
2. Streets with grids
3. Uniformed Systems - weights and measures
4. Religious buildings
5. Buildings used to store grain
4. Contributions
a. Plumbing systems – baths, drains, sewers
b. Buildings made of brick
c. Irrigation ditches and flood barriers
d. Wheel
D. Yellow River Valley (Huang He) and the Yangzi River – China (3000-2500 BCE)
1. Geographic Setting
a. Region – East Asia
b. Natural barriers – mountains, deserts, rainforest, ocean
1. Isolation
c. River Valleys
1. Huang He – Yellow River
a. Loess - yellow matter in river that brings nutrients to soil
b. Floods – given the nickname, “River of Sorrows”
2. Yangzi River
2. Government
a. Decentralized government
1. Shang Dynasty – 1650 BCE
2. Dynasty – Ruling family of China; when the emperor died, another family member took over
3. Kings controlled small areas of land
4. City-states – ruled by groups of families
3. Religion
a. Polytheistic – worshipped many gods and nature spirits
b. Early form of Daoism
1. Yin and yang – opposing forces that held nature in balance
c. Ancestor Worship – honored ancestors with sacrifices and shrines
4. Society
a. Social Classes
1. Upper Class - Royals family and nobles
2. Merchants and artisans
3. Peasants – farmers
b. “Middle Kingdom” - Due to isolation, early Chinese thought of themselves as the center of the universe
5. Contributions
a. Writing system
1. Thousands of characters made it hard to learn
2. Pictographs – drawings of objects
3. Ideographs – Drawings of thoughts and ideas
III. Classical Civilizations
A. Zhou Dynasty – China (1027 BCE-221 BCE)
1. Government
a. Overthrew the Shang Dynasty
b. Mandate of heaven – Right to rule comes from heaven; used to explain the dynastic cycle
c. Dynastic Cycle – cycle that explained the rise and fall of dynasties, based on the mandate of heaven
d. Feudal government – Zhou emperors granted control of large areas of land to their supporters. The local lords controlled their own areas, but owed military service to the emperor
2. Economy
a. Trade – increased as a result of new roads and canals that were built (infrastructure)
b. Money – Chinese copper coins as a form of currency
c. Agriculture – expanded after the development of iron tools such as plows and axes
3. Contributions
a. Confucianism – Belief system that provided order and stability in China by creating rules of behaviors for individuals based on filial piety; Best government was educated
b. Daoism – Belief system that stressed harmony in nature, based on the Dao and concepts of the yin and yang; best government, governed least
c. Literature – “Book of Songs” – poems that describe farming, government, ceremonies and love
d. Astronomy – Studied planet movements and ellipses to create a 365 day calendar