1/31/2014: Notes

Before Civilization and the Prehistoric Era

• "If we reduce the time since the first humanlike species appeared (about 2.5 million years ago) to the period of a twenty four hour day the five-thousand-year era of civilization takes up less than the last three minutes."

• The Origins and "Ages" of Human beginning
• Paleolithic (Old Stone) Age- The earliest and longest period of prehistory, when humans used simple stone tools.
• Neolithic (New Stone) Age- The period of human history characterized by advances in stone tool-making and the beginnings of agricultural.
• The Hunting Gathering Way of Life
• The Agricultural Revolution 
• Agricultural Revolution, also called Neolithic Revolution- The shift from hunting and gathering food to a more settled way of life based on farming and herding that occurred gradually between 8000 and 4000 BC in much of western Asia, northern Africa, and Europe, and separately in other parts of the world.
• Climate, Skills, and Technologies
• Villages and Families
• polytheism- the belief in many gods or goddesses 
• Over many generations, the life of village communities and families came to be regulated by complex systems of tradition, custom, and authority, out of which the law and government of civilized societies would ultimately grow."  
• New Environmental Conditions 
• around 10,000 BC, the planet was warming and the ice sheet that covered much of the Northern Hemisphere began to melt and withdraw northward.
• southwestern asia emerged as a region with a mid climate, fertile soil, and a good water supply- key elements for cultivating crops.
• wild grasses that bore nourishing seeds flourished naturally in the grasslands above the river valleys of the region
• The Developments of Techniques for Domesticating Plants
• women of hunting and gathering bands, who were responsible for plant food, were probably the ones who noticed that the seeds of wild grasses could sprout into plants, and they began tending garden patches.
• by choosing to put back into the soil the seeds of those grasses that grew best and were easiest to harvest, cultivators helped breed (over many generations) wheat and barley.
• Tools were fashioned to make farming possible on a large scale, Stone-bladed holes loosened the soil for seeding, and flint-edged sickles cut the edible seeds from the stalks.
• The Development of Techniques for Domesticating Animals
• wild dogs were the first animals to be tamed- probably by the men of hunting bands.
• sheep, goats, pigs, and cattle were domesticated to provide meat, wool, skins, and milk.
• toward the end of Neolithic Age, humans began to use oxen for farming, along with a new tool- the plow. The oxen and plow made it possible to cultivate larger fields and feed more people.
• with the invention of the wheel, oxen were also used to pull carts and transport goods and people.
•   Villages and Civilization
• "Nurtured by a favorable environment and then toughened by harsher conditions, there grew up in southern Mesopotamia a new kind of society, so much more complex than the older one that today it counts as one of the world's first true civilizations."