Neolithic Revolution: transition from the old Stone Age (nomadic hunter-gatherers)

to the New Stone Age (sedentary, settled farming communities, farming and
pastoralism)
There are now villages, ways to store food and feed more people, much denser
populations
Main art in Paleolithic
Architecture (Stone
Statues (Venus of Willendorf: fertility goddess, seasons)
Multiple gods in early society and more gender equality
Cave art/painting
Cave of Lascaux
River Valley Civilizations (First Wave)
Flooding allows for better farming near rivers with more sediments
Mesopotamia (Between two rivers)
Dry climate, built irrigation development
City-states, first form of government
Diaspora: a large group of people moving away from their homes, willingly or not
Ex: Hebrews and Jews
Ziggurats and pyramids are built to get closer to the gods, religious purposes
Need lots of people/labor, government structure, money
Social classes developing
Literature development used for keeping track of basic information such as taxes.
Starting off as receipts
Pictograms, Cuneiform form
First rule system: to maintain order
The Ten Commandments
Do and do not, punishments in the afterlife (not really big with punishments), the
idea of equality?
Hammurabi Code
Laws are not equal, punishments are big, fluctuate based on social status and
gender
Nile
Indus River Valley
Spends more time politically fragmented, smaller kingdoms competing with each other
Chinese River Valley
Confucianism: the foundation of government development/society in China,
bureaucracy, centralized state
Either above, equal or below everyone
Gender Equality in Early Civilizations
Women were the property of their husbands, more male dominate (Patriarchy)
Paleolithic people left various forms of art such as sculptures and cave art
Sculptures are gods and goddesses and are usually related to fertility and death
The fact that there are women sculptures indicates some type of equality among men
and women
The transition from paleolithic to neolithic
Agriculture and sedentary instead of hunting and gathering
-12,000 years ago
Development of villages and farms
Denser populations are supported by farming
Farming communities get bigger and then the first civilization appears
The first civilization is in the river valley
River valley is close to water and makes the soil more fertile
Flooding gives better farming
Named "River Valley" civilizations
The first civilization is Mesopotamia, or Sumer (southernmost part)
Mesopotamia has dry climate
They needed irrigation
Government formed to organize Mesopotamia
Earliest government was a city-state meaning that every city had its own government
Smaller cities would get conquered by bigger cities and form empires
People were displaced (Diaspora)
Babylonians displaced Jewish people (Diasporan community)
Pyramids built by Egyptian and Mesoamerican civilizations
Pyramids in Egypt were tombs
Mesoamerican pyramids had places of worship
Ziggurrats built in Mesopotamia
Farmers produced more food than they needed, so specialization of labor was made
Created social classes
Everyone did a single job instead of one person doing everything
Taxes and government s allowed for the production of ziggurats and pyramids
Early civilizations had gender and social inequality
Women had restricted rights
In Athens, women could not become citizens because they had to be able to own land
and women weren't able to
Men controlled women's lives
Some societies were matriarchal (female-dominated), but most were patriarchal
Writing needed for organization
Sumerians formed cuneiform (form of writing)
A form of writing was created to keep track of taxes
The earliest forms of writing started as drawing, then symbols, then letters
Villages don't really write since everyone understands the rules, but places with
more people do
Law codes established (rule system). Two were established in Mesopotamia:
Hammurabi's code (focuses on punishments, but not everyone faces the same
punishment) and the Ten Commandments (rules from God instead of king, series of
rules instead of punishments, more equal than Hammurbi's code)
Confucianism
The basis for Chinese state system
Based on interactions with each other
Everyone is either high, medium, or low status
Ran by Bureaucrats
Centralized government
Empires in India and Europe empires don't last as long
Classical cultures wrote down their beliefs
Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity, Confucianism
Rules written down to preserve their religion
Bantu Expansion in West Africa
Expansion because their population grows so much that their people had to move to
other areas
Bantu people expand south and eat
Sub-saharan languages now are related to Bantu Expansion
Statues built could be religious
People also built statues of the kings
Mesopotamia and Egypt influenced Persians
Early civilizations influence later civilizations
Exceptions are an eastern island and the Indus valley
Persian empire spread from Turkey all the way to India
Conquered huge area
Zoroastrian
Persians were religiously tolerant and allowed the people they conquered to keep
their religion
Governing way: Governors in small areas and king of kings for all the empire,
centralized system. Decisions are still made by the king of kings. King of kings
picked governors based on loyalty. The king of kings also appointed other people to
make sure the smaller areas were doing what the king of kings wanted
Roads for transportation
Used quanat system for agriculture
Government put down revolts quite often
Revolts happen because of high taxes or religion
Persian empire managed empire through religious toleration
Minting money which means coins are being made for taces (currency)
The Persian Empire gets conquered by Alexander the Great
Hellenic is Greek and becomes a Hellenistic is a sync culture after Alexander the
great conquers from Greece to India
Greece has colonies all over the Mediterranean and black sea
Spreading Greek culture
Greeks and Romans have democratic and republican governments
Involved citizens in their government
Sumaria is the written system for Mesopotamia
Roman city-state became an empire
China, Han, and Rome don't interact
Economics connect them
Han dynasty collapses by the 200 B.C.E.
Gupta collapsed by the 500 B.C.E.
Pesian empire begins collapsing by 500 B.C.E.
Roman Empire split into two because it was too big to manage
East and Western half
West collapses first
Eastern collapses continued and lasted until 1453
Empires collapsed because of inequality, invasions, war, attacks, climate, and
disease
States need a lot of money to run their empire, eventually, there's not enough
money
Peasants who are pressed harder because of taxes begin revolting
Weaker governments over time
Centralization can work against the government
Not growing enough food because of changes in climate
Too much money used during war and attacks
The Huns attacked China, India, and Rome
This led to the fall of those empires
Chinese Philosophy - Confucianism:

Details Missing: Specific teachings of Confucius (e.g., Ren - benevolence, Li -

propriety), the impact on Chinese governance, and its role in the development of
bureaucracy.
Roman Decline:

Details Missing: More specific factors leading to the decline, including military
pressures, internal strife, economic troubles, and the division into Eastern and
Western Roman Empires.
Greek World:

Details Missing: Influence of Greek philosophy, democracy (especially Athenian

democracy), and the impact of Greek culture on the Roman Empire.
Epic Characteristics, Heroes, and Core Epics:

Details Missing: Specific characteristics of epic literature (e.g., epic similes,

invocation of the muse), notable epic heroes (e.g., Achilles, Odysseus), and core
epics from various cultures (e.g., The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Iliad, The Odyssey).
Persia:

Details Missing: Specifics about Persian governance, the extent of the Persian
Empire, Zoroastrianism, and how it influenced later cultures.
Bantu Migration:

Details Missing: More detail on the routes taken, the impact on Sub-Saharan Africa,
and how Bantu culture influenced the regions they migrated to.
Indus River Valley:

Details Missing: Specific details on government structure, urban planning, and the
decline of the Indus Valley Civilization.
Law Codes:

Details Missing: Comparison of different legal codes like the Hammurabi Code and
the Ten Commandments regarding their treatment of social classes, justice, and
equality.
Agriculture and Sedentary Life:

Details Missing: More on how agriculture led to social stratification,

technological innovations, and the development of complex societies.
Gender Equality in Early Civilizations:

Details Missing: Comparison across different early civilizations, including how

gender roles varied and the impact of societal structures on gender equality.
Classical Trade:

Details Missing: Details on trade networks like the Silk Road and Indian Ocean
trade, and their impact on cultural exchange and economic development.
Neolithic vs. Paleolithic Art:

Details Missing: Comparison of art forms between Paleolithic (cave paintings, Venus
figurines) and Neolithic periods (e.g., early pottery, sculptures).
Diaspora:

Details Missing: Examples other than the Hebrews, such as the Greek diaspora and
its impact on spreading Greek culture.
Epic Terms:

Details Missing: Detailed definitions and examples of terms like in medias res,
epic simile, epithet, and their usage in epic literature.