Chapter 1

Toward Civilization(Prehistory-3000 BC)

Section 1:Understanding Our Past

• Prehistory- the time before people invented writing

• Historians- Study how people lived in the past• Archaeology- science that helps us learn about

our past– Artifacts: things such as tools weapons and clothing

that early people left behind

• Geography- Study of Earth, it’s people and it’s resources

Place

The Five Themes of Geography

Region

The Human Story

Human-environment interaction

Location

Movement

1

To learn how places affect the way people live and how they move from place to place

To learn how events happened

To learn about the beliefs and activities of a group of people

Why do they do it?

Study where people lived and why they lived there

Study artifacts, especially written documents

Study artifacts, such as tools, weapons, clothing, and pottery

What do they do?

Study of Earth, its people and its resources

-Geographers

Study of what happened and how people lived in the past.

-Historians

Study of early people by what examining things they left behind.

-Archaeologists

What is it and who does it?

GeographyHistoryArchaeology

Learning About the Past

Section 2: The Dawn of History

• During the Old Stone Age, people lived as nomads, in small hunting and food gathering groups. These people:

-made simple tools and weapons out of stone, bone, or wood;

-developed a spoken language;

-invented clothing;

-used caves and rocky overhangs for shelter;

-learned to build fires for warmth and cooking.

Early people left evidence of their belief in a spiritual world.• Stone statues are believed to have had religious

meaning. Statues of pregnant women suggest that early people worshiped earth-mother goddesses.

• Animism is the belief that the world Is full of spirits and forces that might reside in animals, objects, or dream

• Cave paintings may have been part of animist religious rituals.

• Early people began burying their dead with care, suggesting a belief in life after death. They provided the dead with tools and weapons for the afterlife.

The Neolithic Agricultural Revolution

PEOPLE BEFORE PEOPLE AFTER

Learned to farm and were able to produce their own food.

Settled into permanent villages.

Learned to domesticate, or tame, animals.

Relied on hunting and gathering.

Nomads lived in small hunting and food-gathering groups.

Waited for migrating animals to return each year.

Section 3: Beginnings Of CivilizationWhat Are the Basic Features of Civilizations?

Farmers began cultivating lands along river valleys and producing surplus, or extra, food.

Surpluses helped populations expand.

As populations grew, some villages swelled

into cities.

What Are the Basic Features of Civilizations?A civilization is a complex, highly organized social order. Historians distinguish eight basic features found in most early civilizations:

7. Public works

6. Arts and architecture

5. Social classes

4. Job specialization

3. Complex religions

2. Well-organized central governments

1. Cities

8. Writing

Civilizations Spread and Change

Civilizations spread when ancient rulers gained more power and conquered territories beyond the boundaries of their cities.

Interactions among people also cause cultures to change.

Powerful rulers created city-states and empires.

Civilizations change when the physical environment changes.

An empire is a group of states orterritories controlled by oneruler.

A city-state included a city andits surrounding lands andvillages.

Example: A tremendous volcano may have wiped out Minoan civilization.

Cultural diffusion is the spread of ideas, customs, and technologies from one people to another. Cultural diffusion occurred through migration, trade, and warfare.