Early Peoples through the

Agricultural Revolution

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 What Is Prehistory?

Prehistory is everything that happened before written records.

Historians using the term prehistory are generally referring to

time before the very first human writing (or the Stone Age)
circa 3000 BCE
 Paleolithic Stone Tools
Basic Stone Tools
This
shows
how a
point was
made
from rock.
 The Stone Age
Paleolithic Age Neolithic Age

Old Stone Age New Stone Age

2,500,000 to 8000 BCE
Basic stone tools
Hunter-gatherers
Humans migrated across the
globe
End of the Paleolithic
coincided with the end of the
last ice age
Cave paintings and small
carvings
8000-3000 BCE
Tools are more advanced
but still stone!
Humans made numerous
tools, as well as jewelry, from
bone, wood, stone, tusks, etc.
Pottery
Permanent settlements
Agriculture (farming)
Animal domestication
 Cave Paintings.
Spain-16,000-9,000 BCE

Bulgaria-8,000 BCE
 Lascaux Grottoes- France
Cave paintings- oldest in world (15,000 BCE)

The original Lascaux

Grottoes consist of a main
cave 66 feet wide and 16
feet high, plus several
smaller galleries. The walls
and ceilings of the caves
are decorated with some
600 painted figures and
almost 1,500 engravings in
total.
 Stone Age Venuses

Venus of Willendorf
Austria
30,000-25,000 BCE Venus of Lespugue
24,000-22,000
France Venus of Laussel
Venus of Dolni 27,000-22,000
Vestonice France
29,000-25,000
Check Republic
 The Agricultural Revolution
The Neolithic Revolution is also
called the Agricultural
Revolution. People developed For generations, humans had
farming for the first time. noticed plants growing where
they had spit out seeds.
Humans began planting seeds
Who probably noticed this on purpose, which was the
first? invention of farming.

The first farming method was

slash-and-burn. Farmers burnt
grass and trees to clear a field.
Why use slash & burn farming?
farms so they could store and
People continued to hunt,
returning to their farms to
harvest their crops.
Eventually, people built
permanent homes near their
guard their grain.
Permanent homes made
following game difficult.
Eventually, farmers
domesticated animals, such as
cattle, goats, pigs, and sheep.
This is also called animal
husbandry.
 Agriculture around the World
Africa Central India Iraq
(Nile America (Indus (Mesopotamia
China Peru
River and River - Fertile
Valley) Crescent)
Valley) Mexico

5000 BCE 6000 BCE

5000 BCE 5000 BCE 5000 BCE 3000 BCE
- Millet

Beans,
Wheat, 5000 BCE Wheat, Tomatoes,
corn, Cotton
barley - Rice barley potatoes
squash

What trend do you notice between agriculture

and all these civilizations?
Catal Huyuk
7500-5700 BCE
 Catal Huyuk
One of the worlds very first permanent settlements
Population of approximately 6,500 people
1,000 dwellings crammed together like a honeycomb
No streets people climbed out through ladders in their
ceilings
Supported by agriculture and animal domestication
Famous because it is so well-preserved

Trivia: The oldest-known village in the world

existed in Jericho (in modern-day Israel) in 9000
BCE.:
 Catal
Huyuk

Earth mother goddess

Typical Catal Huyuk interior (restoration). Wall mural.

Why Live in a Settled Community?
Pros
Common culture expressed
Mutual protection
Near farms
Grain and seed storage

Cons
Disease spreads more rapidly among a
dense population
Grain stores were tempting to raiders
Permanent settlements suffered from
natural disasters (drought, fire, floods)
 Review Questions
1. Generally, when did prehistory end and history
begin?
2. How did the Neolithic (New Stone Age) differ from
the Paleolithic (Old Stone Age)?
3. What was life like in a settled community such as
Catal Huyuk?
4. What are advantages of living in a settled
community?
5. What are disadvantages of living in a settled
community?
 Big Ideas and Questions
1. Why did AP pick 8000BCE to begin World History?
2. How did the environment play a part in the
Agricultural Revolution?
3. What is the most common source of change:
connection or diffusion vs. independent invention?
4. How did gender relationships/roles change or not
change after the Neolithic revolution?
5. What was the impact of agriculture on the
environment?
Beginnings
of
Civilization
o Once cities appeared,
civilizations began to emerge
(first one in 3800 BCE
UR~ part of Sumer)
Civilization = a
complex, highly
organized social order
o Our first four civilizations
surfaced near river valleys b/c
conditions favored farming:
 River Valley
Pros Cons
(1) Flood waters spread silt (1) Had to control flooding
across valleys, which (2) Had to channel the waters
renewed the soil & kept to fields
it fertile (favorable for (3) Due to these challenges,
farming) cooperation was needed so
(2) Animals flocked to rivers farmers worked together:
to drink & became a built dikes and dug
source of food canals for irrigation
(3) Regular water supply Large scale projects
(4) Means of transportation like these required
leadership well-
organized govts
formed
Features of a Civilization (Civ)
For a society to be considered civilized, it must have the
following characteristics:

Specialized Workers
Complex Institutions
Advanced Cities
Advanced Technology
Record Keeping
 Specialized Workers
1. Food surplus allowed job specialization
development of skills in a specific kind
of work.
2. Artisans (skilled craft workers that make
goods by hand) = made pottery, wove
goods, metalworkers, bricklayers
3. Specialization made people dependent on
others for various needs!!!!
 Complex Institutions
Institution long, lasting pattern of organization in a
community. Ex. government, religion, economic
1. Religion was important in civilizations. Great
temples were built where priests took charge of
religious duties.
2. Temple = hub of religious and government affairs
as well as economic center.
 Advanced Cities
1. The main feature of a civilization
2. Center of trade
3. Had monument building
 Advanced Technology
1. Used new tools and techniques (ex. Plow,
irrigations systems).
2. Bronze Age used bronze instead of
copper and stone ~around 3300 BCE.
When the Bronze Age beginswhat age
ended??
 Record Keeping
1. Priests needed to record accurate information about the seasons &
rituals
2. Government document taxes, grain collection and passage of laws.
3. Merchants document debts and payments
4. Scribes (record keepers) used pictograms like cuneiform in Sumer
5. Does NOT have to be written records!!!
Compare &
Contrast?
What are you
being asked to
do??
1. How did the diet of people change from hunting & gathering
to agriculture beginning?
2. Compare & Contrast how the role of women changed
between women in hunting & gathering societies versus after
agriculture was developed.
3. Compare & Contrast the social stratification/social hierarchy
within a hunting & gathering society vs an agricultural
society.
4. Explain why early agricultural societies became more socially
stratified compare to hunters and gathers.
5. Explain why the amount and grandeur of art, sculpture and
painting increase from hunting & gathering societies to
agricultural societies?
6. Explain how the Neolithic Revolution made government more
important.
 Practice
Look at the visual
Using the visual, a description if available, and your
features of a civilization notes. Decide which
features in the picture matches which quality of a
civilization?
 Placard A

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Placard I

Archeologist notes: Excavation being done in Ur. Ur was an

important city-state in ancient Sumer