NEOLITHIC AGE AND FIRST CIVILIZATIONS

NEOLITHIC AGE

• Definition: Transformation of human society from hunters and gatherers to farmers and herders (food producers).

• What Else Happened: • Domestication of sheep, goats, and

cattle• Development of ground-stone tools• Pottery• Establishment of permanent or

semipermanent settlements• Time period: Circa: 10,000 BCE

and ended with the development of metal tools circa: 4000 BCE• Though those developments occurred

in different parts of the world at different times.**

Neolithic, leaf-shaped, flint arrowhead found in the

United Kingdom. Neolithic people mined flint, made tools, and traded them over great distances.

CITIES AND CIVILIZATIONS• Cities: On site of first settlements• Result of innovation rather than diffusion• Why did cities have an opportunity to come about?!• Agriculture!!!!

• Civilization: Human societies that have cities and states• Some Early Examples:• Mesopotamia• Egypt• Indus Valley region of what are now Pakistan and India• Huang He (Yellow River) valley of China• Olmec in Central America

• Similarities: • Built cities (architecture)• Invented forms of writing• Learned to make pottery and use metals (metallurgy)• Domesticated animals• Specialization of labor• Created fairly complex social structures with class systems

(hierarchy)

RESOURCES

• “Ancient civilization." Compton's by Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online School Edition.Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 2012. Web. 5  Sept.  2012.<http://www.school.eb.com/all/comptons/article-9272856>.

• "Neolithic Age." World History: Ancient and Medieval Eras. ABC-CLIO, 2012. Web. 5 Sept. 2012.

• "Neolithic flint arrowhead." Image. Corinium Museum. World History: Ancient and Medieval Eras. ABC-CLIO, 2012. Web. 5 Sept. 2012.

• "Neolithic Revolution." World History: Ancient and Medieval Eras. ABC-CLIO, 2012. Web. 5 Sept. 2012.