World-Jewish History Winter Final 2010 Evolution of Humans
Important archaeological digs
• Mary Leakey led an expedition in Africa. She discovered Australopithecus, which is a human-like hominid, but only related to us.
• Johanson discovered Lucy, or an adult hominid female. (She was given this name because at the time, the archaeological team was listening to the Beatles' song, “Lucy and the Sky of Diamonds.”)
The time periods of human evolution
• The Paleolithic Age, or the Old Stone Age, lasted from about 2,000,000 years ago to 8000 BCE. During this time, humans or human-like predecessors were able to create tools that were very basic and rudimentary out of stone. It is believed that Homo habilis was the first hominid to create tools. It lived sometime between 2.5 million and 1.5 million years ago.
• The Neolithic Age, or New Stone Age, began at the end of the Paleolithic Age (8000 BCE) and ended around 3000 BCE. It was during this time that humans were able to polish stone tools, make pottery, grow crops, and domesticate/raise animals.
The different stages of human evolution
• Australopithecus: were the first human-like creatures to walk upright • Homo habilis: were the first to make stone tools
• Homo erectus: had a brain about the size of about 1,000 cm3.
• The Neanderthals: first (that we know about) to perform ritual burials • Cro-Magnons aka Homo sapien: are modern human beings. They are us.
The Agricultural Revolution
The Agricultural Revolution, or the Neolithic Revolution, resulted in:
1. Slash and Burn Farming: farmers would burn down fields and use the fields for farming 2. Domestication: humans learned how to tame animals.
3. People also began to settle into villages. This, in turn, led to empires to be built. The Five Aspects of Civilization
• Advanced cities: A group of people living together that created an epicenter of trade
• Specialized Workers: Different people worked in different trades and helped build an economy based on their trade. For example, a city may have a doctor, a lawyer, an artisan, and a
merchant, who are all experts in what they do.
• Complex institutions: a long-lasting pattern of organization. One common example is government.
• Record keeping: As a result of growing trade and population, records were kept. Special people called scribes were hired for this. Their sole job was to write and keep records. (Most of the population was illiterate.)
Important Civilizations in History
Mesopotamia: Sumer and Akkad
• Location: Mesopotamia, the Fertile Crescent
• Power and Authority: In the beginning, the government and religion were very closely related. Priests were in control of the government.
• Religious and Ethical Systems: Mesopotamians were polytheistic and believed that everything had its own god or goddess that controlled it. They built pyramid-like temples called Ziggurats. • Interaction with Environment: The Mesopotamians were unable to predict the flooding of the Tigres and Euphrates. Sometimes it would overflow too much; other times too little. They were also able to create irrigation ditches from these rivers to farmers that were further inland.
• Revolution: The Mesopotamians were originally divided into separate city-states, such as Babylon, Sumer, Ur, and Akkad. They were then all conquered by Sargon, an Akkadian emperor. They were then taken over by a Babylonian emperor named Hammurabi, who is credited with being the first political leader to create a written code of laws.
• Economics: The Mesopotamians were mainly farmers.
• Technology and Important Contributions: The Mesopotamians, thanks to Hammurabi, were the first to create a written code of laws. (This prevented the aristocrats and wealthier of society to act arbitrarily towards the poorer laborers.) The Mesopotamians also created irrigation ditches.
Egypt: The Old and Middle Kingdoms
• Location: Egypt, the Nile River Valley.
• Power and Authority: Political power rested with the Pharaoh, who was both then political leader as well as the son of Re, or the sun god and the head of the other gods. (This is the first recorded theocracy, where the ruler was also a divine figure.) Egypt was originally divided into two kingdoms: the Upper Kingdom and the Lower Kingdom. It was then unified the Menes. He wore a crown like the one pictured right.
• Religious and Ethical Systems: Religion played a very central role in Egyptian Life. They built beautiful temples for their gods. One of the gods they worshiped was the Nile River. They were polytheistic.
• Interaction with Environment: Unlike the Tigres and Euphrates Rivers, the Nile overflowed at a steady rate and around the same time every year. (The Egyptians were able to create a calendar based on the overflowing of the Nile.) They were also surrounded by the Sahara Desert, which acted as a natural barrier and
protected the Egyptians from invasion.
• Revolution: The Old Kingdom ended when chariot riders invaded Egypt and overrode the Pharaoh. The Egyptians once again regained power in ca. 2080 BCE when the Middle
Kingdom. The Middle Kingdom lasted until 1640 BCE. They improved trade and transportation and created a canal from the Nile River and to the Red Sea. In 1640 BCE, Asian nomads named Hyksos invaded Egypt.
They were mainly farmers, but were also skilled craftsmen. When the Nile was overflowing and the grounds was still too wet to work, they built the pyramids. (The pyramids were NOT built by slaves or by the Jews.)
• Technology and Important Contributions: They created a calendar based on the overflowing of the Nile.
The Minoans
• Location: Crete, the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas. • Power and Authority: We do not know
• Religious and Ethical Systems: They believed the King Minos, who was man and half-bull (the Minotaur). They were probably polytheistic
• Interaction with Environment: Since the Minoans lived on Crete which is on an island, they were avid sailors.
• Revolution: Not known
• Economics: They were sailors and artisans. Not much else is known. • Technology and Important Contributions: Not known
NOTE: The Minoans had a writing system, called Linear B, but we cannot decipher it. The only things that we know about the Minoans are from the pottery and other things that they made. They came to a mysterious end: some believe that they were invaded, others believe that they were killed in an
earthquake. The Phoenicians
• Location: Phoenicia, Tyre, the Middle East and Africa
• Power and Authority: The Phoenicians were headed by an emperor. They were brutal and cruel to whoever they conquered, and imposed forced conversions and heavy taxes. If you rebelled, then you were wiped out wholly and completely.
• Religious and Ethical Systems: They were pagans. • Interaction with Environment: Not known
• Revolution: Not known
• Economics: The established trade all along the Mediterranean coastline. They founded the cities such as Carthage (which would later be conquered by Rome in the Punic Wars), and established trading posts in Sicily, Spain, and Sardinia.
• Technology and Important Contributions: Their greatest contribution is the alphabet, from which Greek and English are both derived from. (The letters A, K, L, M, and O are almost identical across all three languages.
The Persians
• Location: Persia and the Middle East
• Power and Authority: The were ruled by an emperor, but were much kinder to the people that they conquered (similar to the Romans). However, they had zero tolerance for rebellion. The Jews loved them, since Cyrus the Great allowed the Jews out of exile from Babylon and back into Jerusalem, where they built the second temple. The placed satraps, or governors that reported to the emperor. The emperor also had spies (called “The King's Eyes and Ears), who were spies that ensured that the proper amount of taxes were being paid, etc. They reported directly to the emperor himself.
believed that you had two spirits that controlled you: 1. Ahura Mazda, the god of light and goodness. 2. Ahriman, the god of darkness and evil
you were able to chose which one you wanted to let rule your soul, and would go to heaven if Ahura Mazda ruled you, or hell if Ahriman did.
• Interaction with Environment: Not known • Revolution: Not known
• Economics: They built the Royal Road, which stretched throughout the Middle East and the Persian empire.
• Technology and Important Contributions: Zoroastrianism
Ancient Greece
• Location: The Greek peninsula
• Power and Authority: The Greeks were divided into individual city-states. Some were ruled by an oligarchy, where several important aristocrats held power. Others were dictatorships, where one person held total power. Athens, one city-state, was a democracy, where men who owned land were able to run for public office and make important decisions.
• Religious and Ethical Systems: The Greeks were pagans, which means that they believed that everything in nature had its own god or goddess that was in charge of it. In addition, each city-state had its own patron deity. For example, Athen's patron (or in this case matron) deity was Athena. Sparta's was Ares, the god of war.
• Interaction with Environment: Greece had little fertile land and had rugged mountain ranges, and as such, it made land travel very difficult. As a result, the Greeks became very good sailors and imported many of their goods. They were, however, able to grow grapes and olives, which they sold for a very high price.
• Revolution: They had wars with the Persians, called the Persian Wars. As a result, the Greeks created the Delian League, which attempted to unify the city-states under Athen's rule. This ended in the Peloponnesian Wars, where Sparta revolted because Athens was stealing money to beautify its own city-state. By the end of the war, Athens had lost everything: its wealth, its power, and its empire
• Economics: As mentioned above, the Greeks were avid sailors. They were very athletic, which fit the very moderate Mediterranean climate that they lived in. They exported grapes and olives, and imported almost everything else that they needed.
• Technology and Important Contributions: The had famous philosophers, such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. They began the Olympics. Alexander the Great was a Greek who made the largest empire to date, and them promptly dropped dead of a fever.
Ancient Rome
• Location: The Italian Peninsula
• Power and Authority: At first, the Romans were ruled by a series of emperors, but after the rule of Tarquin the Great, who was a horrible ruler, the kings were overrode and a republic, where citizens were given direct power in the government, was formed. At first, on the patricians,or the aristocrats, were allowed to hold public office, later, plebeians, or the lower class, were also allowed to. In amidst of civil war, Augustus became emperor, and the
government once again became a quasi dictatorship.
Constantine, Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire. (You were,
however, allowed to retain your religion if you were conquered by the Romans. They were very tolerant, similar to the Persians.)
• Interaction with Environment: The Romans grew grapes and olives, similar to the Greeks. After they had conquered an empire, though, they began importing mass amounts of exotic foods, animals for games, and gold and silver into the Roman empire.
• Revolution: As a result of the vast empire, the government, even under a emperor, became corrupt and unable to perform its job. The Roman empire was attacked by various Germanic tribes, the Huns, and others. In 476 CE, the last Roman emperor was overthrown. The
Byzantine empire (the eastern half of the Roman empire as divided by the emperor Diocletian), however, lasted around another 1,000 years.
• Economics: The Romans depended very heavily on farmers (which was one of the reasons for their downfall). They imported vast amounts of precious metals and animals from the territories that they conquered. They also relied heavily on slave labor.
• Technology and Important Contributions: 1. The arch
2. The aqueduct
3. Extensive roads: some are even still in use today. 4. Sanitation
5. Public toilets
