Notes for Chapter 1.1 of The West: Encounters and Transformations Volume 1: to 1715
History Textbook Notes
Chapter 1.1: The Beginnings of Civilization (10,000-1150 B.C.)
Spring 2014
Objective: What is the link between food-producing revolution of the Neolithic era and the emergence of civilization? (The shift from hunting and gathering to farming and herding because it changed the way humans organized society.)
Neolithic Age: The New Stone Age (10,000-3,000 B.C.), characterized by the development of agriculture and the use of stone tools.
How do shifts in food production impact other cultural changes in a society? (It shifts the way human societies are organized.)
The Fertile Crescent was home to the world’s first farming communities.
The shift from hunting and gathering to farming and herding brought a corresponding shift in human social organization.
As a result of this Neolithic Revolution, the world’s first civilizations developed.
Mesopotamia: Land between the Tigris & Euphrates Rivers.
Shifts humans from being nomadic and following migratory patterns to more stable and permanent habits.
They constructed buildings of Religious and State establishments.
The act of domestication creates roles for humans (Jobs!).
Domesticating animals means humans no longer follow them, and instead use them as a function of economics (barter, labor, etc.)
What gave rise to the first writing system? (The need to record information, such as business and government transactions of present and past events.)
Cuneiform: The style of writing that involved using clay tabled and reeds.
Cuneiform developed first as a pictorial writing system.
The earliest written records track business and tax transactions.
Cuneiform was used for three thousand years, dying out in the Second Century, B.C.
Cuneiform was deciphered with the aid of the Behistun inscriptions.
Shifts from pictorial writing system to abstract alphabet.
Checklist for Civilization:
Cities
Warfare
Writing
Social Hierarchies
Advanced Arts & Crafts
Culture: The knowledge and
Chapter 1.1: The Beginnings of Civilization (10,000-1150 B.C.)
Spring 2014
Objective: What is the link between food-producing revolution of the Neolithic era and the emergence of civilization? (The shift from hunting and gathering to farming and herding because it changed the way humans organized society.)
Neolithic Age: The New Stone Age (10,000-3,000 B.C.), characterized by the development of agriculture and the use of stone tools.
How do shifts in food production impact other cultural changes in a society? (It shifts the way human societies are organized.)
The Fertile Crescent was home to the world’s first farming communities.
The shift from hunting and gathering to farming and herding brought a corresponding shift in human social organization.
As a result of this Neolithic Revolution, the world’s first civilizations developed.
Mesopotamia: Land between the Tigris & Euphrates Rivers.
Shifts humans from being nomadic and following migratory patterns to more stable and permanent habits.
They constructed buildings of Religious and State establishments.
The act of domestication creates roles for humans (Jobs!).
Domesticating animals means humans no longer follow them, and instead use them as a function of economics (barter, labor, etc.)
What gave rise to the first writing system? (The need to record information, such as business and government transactions of present and past events.)
Cuneiform: The style of writing that involved using clay tabled and reeds.
Cuneiform developed first as a pictorial writing system.
The earliest written records track business and tax transactions.
Cuneiform was used for three thousand years, dying out in the Second Century, B.C.
Cuneiform was deciphered with the aid of the Behistun inscriptions.
Shifts from pictorial writing system to abstract alphabet.
Checklist for Civilization:
Cities
Warfare
Writing
Social Hierarchies
Advanced Arts & Crafts
Culture: The knowledge and