Hunt, tijdvak 1
Chapter 1 Early Western Civilization Bladzijde 3 - 26
Kings in ancient Egypt believed the gods judged them in the afterlife. Civilization first emerged
around 4000 – 3000 B.C.E. in cities in Mesopotamia. Historians define civilization as a way of life
based on agriculture and trade with cities containing large buildings for religion and government.
The formation of civilization produced intended and unintended consequences. The spread of
metallurgy, for example, created better tools and weapon but also increasing pre-existing social
hierarchy (ranking people as superiors of inferiors).
From the Stone Age to Mesopotamian Civilization, 400000 – 1000 B.C.E.
People in the Stone Age developed patters of life, the most significant of those developments were
(1) the evolution of hierarchy in society and (2) the invention of agriculture and the domestication of
animals.
Life and Change in the Stone Age
Anthropologists call this time the Stone Age because people made tools and weapons from stone as
well as from bone and wood. The Stone Age is divided in two parts (1) the Palaeolithic (Old Stone)
and the Neolithic (New Stone). Object from distant regions found in burials show that hunter-
gatherer bands traded with one another.
Hierarchy probably began when men acquired prestige from bringing back meat after long hunts and
from fighting in wars.
Historians call agriculture and the domestication of animals the “farming package”: this package
created the Neolithic Revolution.
The Neolithic Revolution generated more hierarchy because positions of authority were needed to
allow some people to supervise the complex irrigation system that supported agricultural surpluses,
and because greater economic activity created a stricter division of labor by gender.
The Emergence of Cities in Mesopotamia, 4000 – 2350 B.C.E.
The need to construct and maintain a system of irrigation canals in turn led to the centralization of
authority in Mesopotamian cities, which controlled the farmland and irrigation systems outside their
fortified walls. This political arrangement is called a city-state.
The invention of the wheel for use on transport wagons around 3000 B.C.E. strengthened the
Mesopotamian economy.
Patriarchy – domination by men in political, social and economic life – already existed in
Mesopotamian citiy-states. The king formed a council of older man as his advisers, but he pubicly
acknowledged the gods as his rulers; this concept made the state a theocracy.
Today this form (the writing of the Sumerians) of writing is calles cuneiform (from cuneus, Latin for
“wedge”)
Metals and Empire Making: The Akkadians and the Ur III Dynasty, c. 2350 – c. 2000 B.C.E.
The ownership of metal objects strengthened visible status divisions in society between men and
women and rich and poor.
The desire to acquire metals led the kings of Akkad to create by force the world’s first empire (a
political state in which a single power rules formerly independent peoples).
Chapter 1 Early Western Civilization Bladzijde 3 - 26
Kings in ancient Egypt believed the gods judged them in the afterlife. Civilization first emerged
around 4000 – 3000 B.C.E. in cities in Mesopotamia. Historians define civilization as a way of life
based on agriculture and trade with cities containing large buildings for religion and government.
The formation of civilization produced intended and unintended consequences. The spread of
metallurgy, for example, created better tools and weapon but also increasing pre-existing social
hierarchy (ranking people as superiors of inferiors).
From the Stone Age to Mesopotamian Civilization, 400000 – 1000 B.C.E.
People in the Stone Age developed patters of life, the most significant of those developments were
(1) the evolution of hierarchy in society and (2) the invention of agriculture and the domestication of
animals.
Life and Change in the Stone Age
Anthropologists call this time the Stone Age because people made tools and weapons from stone as
well as from bone and wood. The Stone Age is divided in two parts (1) the Palaeolithic (Old Stone)
and the Neolithic (New Stone). Object from distant regions found in burials show that hunter-
gatherer bands traded with one another.
Hierarchy probably began when men acquired prestige from bringing back meat after long hunts and
from fighting in wars.
Historians call agriculture and the domestication of animals the “farming package”: this package
created the Neolithic Revolution.
The Neolithic Revolution generated more hierarchy because positions of authority were needed to
allow some people to supervise the complex irrigation system that supported agricultural surpluses,
and because greater economic activity created a stricter division of labor by gender.
The Emergence of Cities in Mesopotamia, 4000 – 2350 B.C.E.
The need to construct and maintain a system of irrigation canals in turn led to the centralization of
authority in Mesopotamian cities, which controlled the farmland and irrigation systems outside their
fortified walls. This political arrangement is called a city-state.
The invention of the wheel for use on transport wagons around 3000 B.C.E. strengthened the
Mesopotamian economy.
Patriarchy – domination by men in political, social and economic life – already existed in
Mesopotamian citiy-states. The king formed a council of older man as his advisers, but he pubicly
acknowledged the gods as his rulers; this concept made the state a theocracy.
Today this form (the writing of the Sumerians) of writing is calles cuneiform (from cuneus, Latin for
“wedge”)
Metals and Empire Making: The Akkadians and the Ur III Dynasty, c. 2350 – c. 2000 B.C.E.
The ownership of metal objects strengthened visible status divisions in society between men and
women and rich and poor.
The desire to acquire metals led the kings of Akkad to create by force the world’s first empire (a
political state in which a single power rules formerly independent peoples).
