Name ______Period ______
Unit 1: Characteristics of Civilization Guided Notes
Please keep this packet in your World History class folder or binder.
Unit Essential Question: How does one characterize a civilization?
Section 1. This section on geography will be completed as part of a group discussion in class.
Lesson Essential Question: How do the Five Themes of Geography influence the development of civilization?
______is the study of the earth and of the ways people live and work on it.
Geography helps explain why ______
and the ______it had on how ______developed.
Five Themes of Geography: Review from last year!
1. ______: where a place is ______on the earth. Relative location
is the location of a place in ______to other places. Absolute location is the
______location of a place on the earth.
______Location: Harrisburg is west of Philadelphia, east of Pittsburgh, and along the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania.
______Location: Harrisburg is the capital of Pennsylvania. No other place is located where Harrisburg is found on the earth: Coordinates: 40.2732° N, 76.8867° W
2. ______: A place can be identified by ______
characteristics—climate, mountains, animals, bodies of water, etc. Places can also be identified by their
______ characteristics—language, population, jobs, etc. These include features and characteristics that give an area its own identity or personality.
· Nationalism: Feelings of ______and ______for one’s country
· Economics: The way the world’s ______are distributed (trade, imports, exports, quota, etc.)
· Government: Systems by which people ______and ______a civilization
3. ______/______: This is how people ______,
______, or ______- their environment. Building irrigation systems
for farming is an example of how people have changed their environment.
4. ______: Movement centers on how ______and
______are connected through ______and ______
systems. Cars, trucks, planes, trains, and ships have transformed the way goods and people travel around the
globe in modern times.
5. ______: Geographers have defined various types of ______around the world.
These have been set based on ______and ______characteristics.
Regions are areas that share one or more common ______.
______Characteristics: The Mojave Desert is a dry desert region in the Southwestern United States. This region is identified by its physical geography.
______Characteristics: French is a common spoken language in Quebec, Canada. This is a region of a country that is identified by a common language.
Section 2. This section on the Paleolithic Age will be completed as part of a group discussion in class.
Lesson Essential Question: How did the Neolithic Revolution lead to the rise of civilization?
Vocabulary to Know for this Part of the Unit!
Civilization / Archeology / Anthropology / PrehistoryMigrate / Domestication / Specialization / Code of Law
Prehistory vs. Civilization
Define archeology - ______
Define anthropology - ______
Why It’s Important
Ø Most archaeologists believe people have lived on the earth for ______of years.
Ø Define prehistory ______
Ø ______lasted until about five thousand years ago when people learned how to ______.
Ø Through the use of ______, archeologists have traced the milestones that paved the way from prehistory to the rise of ______, a time when people progressed culturally and began to live in cities.
The Paleolithic Age
Ø Although there were no written records during prehistory, scientists have learn a great deal about prehistoric people.
Ø Many scientists believe that until about 900,000 years ago people only lived on the ______of eastern and southern ______.
Ø Due to climatic changes, people were able to ______, or make their way, around the desert of northern Africa and across land bridges.
Ø Scientists call the first age in which people lived in the ______Age, or ______Age.
Ø It lasted from about 2.3 million years, until 10,000 years ago.
Ø During this period, people obtained their food by ______and ______.
Ø People in the Paleolithic Age were concerned with
o Obtaining ______
o Making ______
o Making ______
o Seeking ______
o Making ______
o Developing ______
Ø Two types of early people were ______and
______-______.
Section 3. This section on the Neolithic Age will be assigned for homework. Complete after reading pages 41-46 in the textbook.
The Neolithic Age (Page 41)
Ø In the ______or New Stone Age, about ______B. C., people change from food gatherers to food ______.
Ø Over several thousand years they began to obtain most of their food from ______.
Ø This brought about such great changes in the way they lived that experts call the beginning of farming the ______.
Farmers and Herders (Pages 41-42)
Two important discoveries brought on the Neolithic Revolution.
Ø One was learning to ______.
Ø The other was learning to ______.
Ø Scientists believe agriculture developed independently in different parts of the world.
Ø People probably learned they could herd animals when a hunting band built fences to enclose a herd of wild animals they had chased into a ravine.
Ø Soon captured animals began to lose their fear of people and became ______, or tamed, and the hunters became herders.
Ø The Neolithic Revolution greatly increased people’s ______.
Ø With more food available, the ______, or number of people, began to grow.
Early Villages (Pages 42-45)
Ø Once people began to produce food, they were able to settle in ______place.
Ø The earliest known villages in the world have been found in Southwestern Asia.
Ø Two of the oldest are ______in present-day Israel, which dates back to about 8,000 B. C., and Abu Hureyra in present-day Syria, which was established about 500 years later.
Ø Another early village is ______located in present-day Turkey.
Ø Archeologists know a great deal about Catal Hüyük because it was struck by a fire that blackened rather than destroyed wooden and cloth objects.
Ø Evidence shows the houses in Catal Hüyük were made of ______.
Ø As protection against attack, the houses in this village had two or three rooms and no doors.
Ø Among the houses stood courtyards with large ovens for baking bread.
Specialization (Page 45)
Ø A result of increased food supplies was ______, or the development of occupations.
Ø As fewer people were needed to produce food, they became ______, ______, and ______.
Ø Specialization was aided by a number of developments.
o People learned to make pottery by ______.
o People learned to ______.
o People also learned to ______.
Government (Page 45)
Ø Another development of Neolithic times was village government.
Ø It was more ______than government in earlier times due to ______and the disputes that arose.
Ø To keep order in Neolithic villages, a single ______was chosen.
Religion (Pages 45-46)
Ø Experts believe that the chiefs of most Neolithic villages were also ______.
Ø At first, Neolithic people prayed to the forces of ______that they saw around them.
Ø After a time, they created______and ______to represent these forces.
Ø Archeologists believe that more elaborate religious customs and ceremonies appeared at this time.
Section 4. This section will be completed as part of a group discussion in class.
Lesson Essential Questions: Why are ancient cultures considered civilizations? How do early civilizations demonstrate the characteristics of civilization?
Characteristics of Civilization
Characteristic / Definition or DescriptionSocial Structure / Ø A system of levels in society.
Ø This can be ______(jobs and wealth) or ______(popularity).
Ø As jobs became ______so did the status and needs of certain individuals.
Ø The need for a ______and ______religious leader was more respected than an ______worker.
Ø Herders were needed and respected for the food, while masons were needed for building.
Ø The ______was on the lowest rung of the social ladder warriors and kings were on top.
Government and Laws / Ø A group of people who keep law and order and make laws.
Ø As cities developed and expanded, the food supply and irrigation systems needed to be maintained.
Ø ______, such as councils or religious leaders, began to oversee the business and existence of the cities.
Religion / Ø A set of beliefs, usually in a god or gods, together with forms of worship such as holidays, prayer services, and rituals.
Ø Religious leaders would conduct elaborate ceremonies to appease the gods (______) and insure a bountiful harvest.
Ø Floods and droughts were blamed on the gods’ anger so rituals were conducted in the temples.
Language / Ø Records were needed to keep accounts on trade goods and food storage.
Ø ______was needed because the information became too great.
Ø In addition, one needed to express more complex ideas such as "belief" and "social order" where pictures and words simply would not suffice.
Arts and Literature / Ø This expressed the ______and ______of a civilization.
Ø Different styles were developed and copied by societies.
Ø Often the art was used to impress visitors and people about the beauty and power of a king or a community.
Economics / Ø The system a community uses to ______and ______goods.
Customs and Traditions / Ø ______are a practiced followed by people of a particular group or religion.
Ø ______are beliefs, values, stories and ways of doing things that are passed on to us from our ancestors.
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