Reflections: The Emergence of Cities WHAP/Napp
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“The first agricultural villages that archaeologists have discovered date to about 10,000 B.C.E. They are located in the ‘fertile crescent,’ which curves from the Persian Gulf and the Zagros Mountains in the east and south, on the border of today’s Iraq and Iran, northwest into Anatolia, present-day Turkey, and then turns south and west through present-day Syria, Lebanon, and Israel on the Mediterranean Sea. In this region, wild grasses – the ancestors of modern wheat and barley – provided the basic grains, first for gathering, and later for cultivation. By 8000 B.C.E. the Natufians, named for their valley in northern Israel, and the peoples immediately to the south, in the Jordan River valley near Jericho, were growing fully domesticated cereals. Peas and lentils and other pulses and legumes followed. The peoples of the Fertile Crescent hunted gazelles and goats. Later, they domesticated the goat and the sheep. In Turkey, they added pigs; around the Mediterranean, there were cattle.
In other parts of the world, agriculture and animal domestication focused on other varieties. In the western hemisphere, these included maize, especially in Mesoamerica, and rootcrops such as manioc and sweet potatoes in South America. Amerindians domesticated the llama, the guinea pig, and the turkey. Domesticated dogs probably accompanied their migrant masters across the Bering Straits about 15,000 years ago. Perhaps the process of domestication was then repeated with the dogs found in the Americas.
In Southeast Asia and in tropical Africa, wild roots and tubers, including yams, were the staple crops. In the Vindhya Mountain areas of central India, rice was among the first crops to be cultivated, about 5000 B.C.E. Anthropologists are uncertain when rice was first cultivated, rather than just being harvested from the wild, in Southeast and East Asia, but a date similar to India’s seems likely. From earliest times, as today, China’s agriculture seems to have favored rice in the south and millet in the north. Some crops, including cotton and gourds, were brought under cultivation in many locations around the globe.
The era in which villages took form is usually called Neolithic, or New Stone Age, named for its tools rather than its crops. Farming called for a different toolkit from hunting and gathering.” ~ The World’s History
1-Where were the first agricultural villages that archaeologists discovered located? ______
2-What is the Fertile Crescent? ______
3-Why were the Natufians and the people of Jericho significant in World History? ______
4-Identify crops and animals domesticated in the Fertile Crescent. ______
5-Identify crops and animals domesticated in the Western Hemisphere. ______
6-Why is the era in which villages took form called Neolithic? ______
Notes:- A Demographic Fact
- Even as cities emerged, majority of people remained in rural communities, linked through trade and contact with urban centers
- Causes of Urbanization
B.Increased trading opportunities
C.Desire to be near religious shrines or other sacred sites
D.Safety and defense afforded by large numbers
- West Asia
- Jericho was an older, year-round settlement, dating back to as early as 9000 B.C.E., when the site was established as a sanctuary beside a spring for hunter-gatherers
- Çatal Hüyük in central Turkey, is an example of a complex urban society that came to be based on agriculture but also relied on game hunting and the gathering of undomesticated plants
2.Çatal Hüyük’s economy centered on large herds of domestic cattle, though also grain farming dependent on irrigation
C. But following 3500 B.C.E., Sumer in Mesopotamia developed
- Changes Wrought by Urbanization
- Priests first appeared at some time prior to 3000 B.C.E., when they are depicted on seals and stone carvings
- They were perhaps the first social group to be released from direct subsistence labor, since their role in religious ritual and as spokesmen for gods was related to the exercise of power by kings
- Likely that the complexity of business transactions and administrative and legal needs presented by organizing larger urban communities stimulated the writing system developed by the Sumerians
- Changes
- Intensification of inequality and rigid divisions along lines of class, status, and gender
- Resulted not only in the benefits enjoyed by complex societies and cultures; homelessness, exploitation, and injustice have also been characteristic of the urban experience throughout world history
1-While permanent settlements and urbanization are often presented as consequences of the development of agriculture, agriculture was not the only force that led to these processes. Discuss the other forces that led to these processes? ______
2-Identify the origin of Jericho: ______
3-What was vital for Jericho? ______
4-Describe Çatal Hüyük. ______
5-Identify key changes wrought by agriculture: ______
6-Why were priests perhaps the first class released from direct subsistence labor? ______
7-Why did writing eventually develop? ______
8-Identify negative aspects of urbanization. ______
1. Which people are generally credited with founding Mesopotamian civilizations in the Tigris-Euphrates river valley?(A) Akkadians
(B) Hittites
(C) Sumerians
(D) Greeks
(E) Phoenicians
2.Wheat and barley were the grains associated with the development of sedentary agriculture in
(A) The Near East.
(B) Africa.
(C) China.
(D) Mesoamerica.
3. Another term for the Neolithic Age is the
(A) Old Stone Age.
(B) Bronze Age.
(C) New Iron Age.
(D) New Stone Age.
4. The social and economic status of women was highest in
(A) Sedentary agricultural communities.
(B) Urbanized societies.
(C) Pastoral societies.
(D) Hunting and gathering communities. / 5. Cities first emerged from agricultural villages and towns in
A. the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.
B. Egypt.
C. China.
D. India.
E. South America.
6. All of the following social changes werebrought about by agriculture EXCEPT
A. population growth.
B. the emergence of villages and towns.
C. the invention of writing.
D. the specialization of labor.
E. the emergence of social classes.
7. The most significant defining characteristic of the Paleolithic era was that
A. human beings used stone and bone tools in their cultivation of crops.
B. peoples relied on hunting and gathering for subsistence.
C. men and women engaged in the same economic activities.
D. people domesticated animals.
E. none of the above.
Reading:
“Considerable power rested with the priests of the many deities of Sumer, because residents believed that their survival in the harsh environment of ancient Mesopotamia depended partly on the will of the gods. In contrast to modern patterns, in which the countryside is often considered more religious than the secular city, the authority of the ancient temple community gave the religious establishment enormous prestige and power in the city, and urban ritual practice was more fully elaborated than was its rural counterpart.
To consolidate their temporal and supernatural influences, the city priests built great temples, called ziggurats. Found throughout the region, ziggurats were a form of stepped temple built on a square or rectangular platform of small, locally produced, sun-baked bricks. The baked bricks were covered by glazed bricks, which may have had religious significance. A small sanctuary rested atop the structure, which could reach as many as ten stories high…As their power increased, priests built the ziggurats taller and more massive. From within these vast temple complexes, they controlled huge retinues, including artisans and administrators, and retained gangs of field workers to farm the temple’s estates. Temples employed and fed multitudes. The chief temple in the city of Lagash in Mesopotamia, for example, provided daily food and drink (ale) to some 1200 people by about 3000 B.C.E. The leading temples became virtual cities within cities.
…Trade was central to urban life. Sumerian traders carried merchandise by land, river, and sea, in the world’s first wheeled carts and sailboats, as well as by donkey caravan. Rich in agricultural commodities and artisan production but poor in raw materials, Sumerians traded with the inhabitants of the hilly areas to the north for wood, stone, and metal. They sailed into the Persian Gulf to find copper and tin and then continued along the Arabian Sea coast as far east as the Indus valley for ivory and ceramics. They traveled east overland through the passes of the Zagros Mountains to bring back carnelian beads from Elam. Shells from the Mediterranean coast that have been found in Sumer indicate trade westward, probably overland, as well.” ~ The World’s History
1-Why did considerable power rest with the priests of Sumer? ______
2-Identify one significant change regarding religious patterns from the ancient world to the modern world. ______
3-Identify one significant continuity regarding religious patterns from the ancient world to the modern world [Thinking Question – Not in Reading]. ______
4-Define ziggurat. ______
5-How did the Sumerian priests provide more than religious guidance? ______
6-What was central to urban life? ______
7-Why did Sumerians engage in trade? ______