Neolithic Period pg. 10

Also known as the New Stone age, that began about 11,000 B.C.  The Ice Age ended around that time.  Then the hunter-gatherers were able to use stones for farming as well as hunting.  The climate had changed, so instead of following herds of animals, they found a new way (farming) to live.  Historians called the change the Neolithic Revolution or Agricultural Revolution.

5 Aspects of a Civilization pg.17

1)      City life, with complex social organization

2)      Trade and economic activity, which encourage innovation and spread knowledge

3)      Governance, through which social order is maintained

4)      Division of labor, in which different people take on specialized tasks

5)      Record keeping of some kind

Sumer pg. 17

Was formed in lower Mesopotamia around 3200 B.C. They used clay to build houses, and farmers grew grain they traded for wood and metals. Trade ships travelled to trading posts on the Persian Gulf. They created networks of trade by land, rivers and sea from: Indus Valley to Nile River to Black Sea. They learned to make Bronze (copper and tin), and made jewelry, weapons, farming tools, ceremony objects, and armor. They believed in many gods-polytheism.  They had a social hierarchy. Invented writing, record keeping-60 based system.  Decline started when soil had too much salt and couldn’t grow crops anymore.

Ancient Egypt pg. 27

They lived along the Nile River because there were predictable floods every year that would deposit a layer of black silt and create fertile ground for growing.  The Nile River was an easy way to travel. Deserts on the east and west provided protection from enemies. The learned to irrigate and hold water. They believed in many gods. Hieroglyphics was the style of writing. Rosetta Stone helped in figuring out the language. Hierarchy with a Pharaoh at the top and slaves at the bottom

Hammurabi was a King in Babylonia around 1790 B.C. He made rules for people to live by and appointed people to carry out the rules.  He had 282 rules carved into a 7ft stone and put it in the public square. The rules told the people what they could and couldn’t do and what would happen to them if they broke the rules.  A lot of the rules had to do with business and trading and family. The rules brought order to the people.

Cyrus the Great pg. 64

King of Persia (Persians and Medes) around 550 B.C.  Cyrus took Babylon by draining the waters that ran under the walls, and went thru the tunnels. Cyrus’ policies were more about tolerance than fear.  He let his captives keep their customs.  He protected the temples of captured places. He allowed exiled people to return home, like he did with the Hebrews.

Difference between Empire and Civilization pg.50

Civilization is kind of like a sub-set of an Empire.  Civilization usually shared common language, worship and ancestry.  An Empire brings different kinds of civilizations together under one ruler. Bringing different civilizations together made it possible to trade information and goods. Empires were first formed around 2350 B. C.

China pg. 43

Civilization settled in the North China Plain, where they had farms.  There were mountains in the west, and desert in the North and south and east were rivers (China See and Yellow See).  The plain had a layer of yellow soil (loess).  Some of the crops grew well in the yellow soil. Usually didn’t have animals because there weren’t places for them to graze. Family was the focus with the father and elders at the top. Most honored were ones that died.  Made pottery, created things from Jade, made silk.

Indus River Civilization

This civilization is estimated to have existed between 2300 B. C. to 1750 B.C.  Houses were made of brick with bathrooms and indoor plumbing. Not much is known about this civilization.  Located in the Himalayas by Indus River and Arabian Sea.  It was not discovered until the 1900’s, because people just thought they were just hills.  Their writing has not been able to be decoded. Possible flooding ended this civilization.