Unit 1 covers the origins of civilization from 8000-1500 BCE. It discusses the Stone Age and Agricultural Revolution that led to more settled communities. Mesopotamia was an early civilization that grew along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, developing cities, kings, trade networks, and advanced technologies like writing. Egyptian civilization also arose along the Nile River, with powerful pharaohs regarded as divine kings. Egyptians developed monumental architecture like pyramids, a bureaucracy to manage resources and taxes, and advanced knowledge in many fields like mathematics and astronomy.

1. Unit 1: Chapter 1
Chapter 1:
From the Origins of Agriculture to the
First River-Valley Civilizations
8000-1500 B.C.E.

2. Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 1: Before Civilization
Section 1: Before Civilization

3. Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 1: Before Civilization
I. Stone (Lithic) Age
A. Paleo-lithic - Old Stone Age
B. Agricultural Revolution
C. Neo-Lithic - New Stone Age

4. Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 1: Before Civilization
A. Paleolithic Age
1. Communities – Hunter (men) & Gatherer (women)
2. Tools – bone, skin, wood, & stone
3. Food – vegetables, nuts & fruits - very little meat
4. Family – women raised children, cooking, sewing
5. Shelter – natural shelters or mobile tents
6. Activities – art, tool making, religious practices,
social gatherings
7. Religion – belief in afterlife, complicated deity
system

5. Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 1: Before Civilization
B. Agricultural Revolution
1. Domestication – plants & animals
a. Agriculture – cultivation- needed fertile soil & rivers
b. Animals – transportation and ag. Purposes
c. Americas – limited due to few suitable species – llama S.A.
d. Africa & Asia – cattle
e. M.E. – camel & donkey
2. Result – Population increase & stable communities

6. Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 1: Before Civilization
What to Plant?
• Mediterranean area - Wheat and Barley
• Sub-Saharan Africa - Sorghum, Millet, Teff
• Equatorial West Africa - Yams
• Eastern and Southern Asia - Rice
• America - Maize, Potatoes, Quinoa, Manioc

7. Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 1: Before Civilization
C. Neolithic Communities
1. Culture
a. Religion – ancestral worship & nature spirits (earth, wind,
fire); sacred places; deities – mother earth, sky god (male)
b. Astronomy – megaliths – burial chambers, calendar
circles, astronomical observations
c. Language – societies began to spread and language began
to diversify
2. Towns
a. Villages – most people lived in small rural v.
b. Cities – few lived in large cities – problem: needed large
food supply to support a large population

8. Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 1: Before Civilization
Jericho
• Located on West Bank of Jordan River (Israel)
• Walled town with mud-brick structures
• Dates back to 8000 B.C.E.

9. Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 1: Before Civilization
Çatal Hϋyϋk
• Located in central Anatolia (Turkey)
• Dates to 7000-5000 B.C.E.
• Center for trade in obsidian, produced
pottery, baskets, woolen cloth, beads, leather,
and wood products

10. Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 1: Before Civilization
What does this mean?
• Jericho and Çatal Hϋyϋk tell us that there were the
social organizations necessary to support non-food
producing specialists such as:
– Priests
– Craftspeople
– Had labor to build defensive walls, megalithic structures,
and tombs.
• Unknown if labor to build was free or coerced.

11. Due Friday!
• AP Exam Pre-Test
• World Map quiz
• Chap 1 Vocab. quiz
Due Monday
• Reading #1 - Epic of Gilgamesh

12. Unit 1: Foundations
Chapter 1: River Valley Civ.
Section II. Mesopotamia

13. Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 2: Mesopotamia
II. Mesopotamia
A. Agriculture & the Landscape
B. Cities, Kings & Trade
C. Society
D. Gods, Priests & Temples
E. Technology & Science

14. Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 2: Mesopotamia
A. Agriculture & the Environ.
1. Plain around the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.
2. Difficult environment for agriculture:
 Little rainfall, floods, rivers change course
3. Warm climate & good soil
4. Used cattle-pulled plows and seed planter
5. Built irrigation canals to bring water to fields
6. + food & animals - no resources
7. Early people - Sumerians

15. Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 2: Mesopotamia Do not copy this
Crops and Natural Resources
• Date Palms • Draft Animals:
• Vegetables – Cattle
• Reeds – Donkeys
– Camels
• Fish
– Horses
• Land for grazing goats
and sheep
• No significant wood,
stone, or metal
resources

16. Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 2: Mesopotamia
B. City, Kings & Trade
1. City-State – urban center w/ ag. territory
a. Sometimes traded, sometimes fought over resources
2. Temples were more important than Palaces
3. Large City-States – 2)Babylon – Hammurabi
1) Akkad – Sargon

17. Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 2: Mesopotamia
C. Society
1. 3 Social Classes (kings controlled most of the wealth)
a. Free Landowning class
b. Dependent farmers & artisans
c. Slaves – POW, minor part of economy
2. Power shift – women men (agriculture)
3. Women – no political role
- Could: Own property, Control their dowry, Engage in
trade
4. Rise of urban merchant class greater emphasis on
male privilege and decline in women’s status.

18. Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 2: Mesopotamia
D. Gods, Priests & Temples
1. Each city-state had its own gods
2. Gods were humanlike – anthropomorphic
3. Priests were highly honored
4. Temples were the 1st monumental buildings
5. Ziggaruts were the major part of the temple

19. Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 2: Mesopotamia
E. Science
1. Technology=specialized knowledge that is used
to transform the natural environment
2. Forms of technology - Irrigation systems, buildings
– Transportation, Bronze metallurgy, Brickmaking
– Engineering, pottery & potter’s wheel
– Military advances included:
• Paid, full-time soldiers, Horses, Horse-drawn chariot, Bow and Arrow,
Siege Machinery
3. Writing: Cuneiform – Sumerians
• Complex, hundreds of symbols, sounds,
• Only scribes could read & write

20. Cuneiform Samples

21. Unit 1: Foundations
Chapter 1: River Valley Civ.
Section III. Egypt

22. Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 3: Egypt
III. Egypt
A. The Land
B. Divine Kingship
C. Administration & Communication
D. People
E. Beliefs & Knowledge

23. Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 3: Egypt
A. The Land
1. The Nile - thin strip of land along the river is
good for ag.
2. 2 Parts - Upper (south) & Lower (north)
3. Floods – regular, left fertile silt, good timing
4. Resources – reeds, animals, fish, birds, stone,
clay, copper, turquoise, gold

24. Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 3: Egypt
B. Divine Kingship
1. Unification: 3100 BCE – Lower & Upper Nile
2. 3 Periods: Divided into 30 Dynasties
a. Old Kingdom – Pyramid Age
b. Middle Kingdom – Agricultural Age
c. New Kingdom – Empire Age
3. Pharaohs – regarded as gods, death was seen as
his journey back to the gods
• Funeral/burial rites were very important
4. Pyramids – not all Pharaohs are buried in pyramids!
• Early times – flat topped tombs, then stepped pyramids
• Great Pyramids of Giza – 2550-2490 BCE – Old Kingdom
• Valley of the Kings – tunnels cut into the side of cliffs

26. Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 3: Egypt
C. Administration
1. Bureauracy – system of provincial admin.
• Tracked: labor, taxes, & people
2. Tax Collection: support the govt, temples, buildings
3. Writing: Hieroglyphics & Demotic (cursive script)
• Wrote on papyrus with reed “pens” (paint brushes)
• Were able to decipher with the discovery of the Rosetta Stone in
1799 – 3 languages: Greek, Demotic & Hieroglyphs
4. Power struggles with provincial governors
• Strong central govt – loyal prov. gov.
• Weak central govt – autonomous prov. gov.
5. Foriegners – seen as enemies
6. Traded with Levant, Nubia & Punt
• Exported papyrus, grain, and gold
• Imported incense, Nubian gold, Lebanese cedar, African ivory, ebony,
and animals.

27. Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 3: Egypt
C. Administration
Rosetta Stone

28. Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 3: Egypt
D. People
1. Population: 1 – 5 mil.; some darker, some lighter
2. Social Classes
a. Kings & high ranking govt. officials
b. Lower level govt. officials, & priests
c. Peasants (majority)
3. The Working Class – Peasants
a. Farming villages, paid taxes, source of govt. labor
b. Slavery – limited scale, well treated
4. Women – more rights than Meso. women
a. Subordinate to men
b. Right to hold, inherit, and buy property
c. Retained rights over dowry

29. Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 3: Egypt
E. Beliefs & Knowledge
1. Beliefs based on cyclical view of nature
a. Re – Sun god
b. Osiris – god of the underworld
2. Religion
a. Wealth & resources went into monumental buildings
b. Regular offerings were made to the gods
c. Believed in magic and in an afterlife
d. Beliefs led to mummification and burials rituals
e. Tombs built outside of city in order to save ag. Land
f. Contained: food, pictures, transportation, wealth
3. Knowledge
• Chemistry, anatomy, mathamatics, astronomy, calendar,
irrigation, engineering, architecture, transportation

31. Unit 1: Foundations
Chapter 1: River Valley Civ.
Section IV. Indus River Valley
2600 – 1900 B.C.E.
http://mstreitwieser.com/civilization/indus.php

32. Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 4: Indus RV
IV. Indus River Valley
A. Environment
B. Culture
C. Transformation

33. Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 4: Indus RV
A. Environment
1. Present day: Pakistan, India, Bangladesh
2. 2 regular floods a year
3. Carries a lot of silt
4. Irrigation allows 2 crops per year

34. Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 4: Indus RV
B. Culture
1. Don’t know much about civilization because
scholars have not deciphered their writings
2. Evidence suggests standards in city planning,
architecture and even the size of bricks
3. 2 Largest Sites: Mohenjo-Daro & Harappa
4. Both were surrounded by brick walls, had streets
laid out in a grid pattern and were supplied with
covered drainage systems to carry away waste.
5. Had access to more metals than Egypt or Meso.
6. Technology – irrigation, potter’s wheel, bricks,
bronze, writing
7. Trade – North – Iran, Afghanistan, Meso.

35. Harappa

36. Mohenjo-Daro

37. Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 4: Indus RV
C. Transformation
1. Declined because of natural disasters and
ecological change.
2. These changes included:
1. Drying up of the Hakra River
2. Stalinization
3. Erosion
3. When urban centers collapsed, so did the way of
life for the elite, but peasants probably adapted
and survived.