Chapter 1 LO1

From Prehistory to Civilization: 3000-1200 B.C

LO1- Trace the key developments of prehistory, from the emergence of our human ancestors to the beginnings of village life.

• Language, Religion, Art, Technology, Farming Life, and Village Communities- All these basic features of human existence originated in Prehistoric Times. 
• prehistory- The period before history was recorded through written documents. 
• earliest development; 3000 years ago- first civilization: Mesopotamia and Egypt 
• economic structures, government, religious beliefs, scientific and technical achievements, literary and artistic styles influenced many later civilizations, both Western and non- Western
• 1200 B.C.- international existence came into existence
• human-like species appeared 2.5 million years ago. 
• era ended with the rise of civilized societies producing permanent written records
• prehistory has no worldwide ending date
• earliest human-like species probably appeared in East Africa 
• Humans began to walk on 2 legs, releasing their hands to make and use tools and weapons; body hair thinned out, digestions weakened, clothing, cooking, and fire, brains grew larger, making possible language and abstract thought, complex manual and physical skills. 
• 200,000 years ago, probably in Southwestern Africa, that possessed these features. 
• human spread beyond Africa into Europe and Asia then made its way across a "land bridge" that linked the eastern tip of Asia with Alaska 
• 14,000 years ago, worldwide human race of the present day. 
• tools mainly chipped from durable stone 
• Paleolithic age- earliest and longest period of prehistory, when human used simple stone 
• 8000 B.C. people advanced so far in southwestern Asia and northeastern Africa, including neighboring regions like Europe called the neolithic age. 
• Neolithic Age- The period of human history characterized by advances in stone tool-making and the beginnings of agriculture 
• Paleolithic age, all human beings lived as migratory (wandering) hunters, fishers, and gatherers. 
• Agricultural Revolutions- shift from hunting and gathering food to a more settled way of life and based on farming and herding that occurred gradually between 8000 and 4000 BC in much of western Asia, northern Africa, and Europe, separately in other parts of the world
• 6000 BC the first agricultural villages appeared in southwestern Asia
• polytheism- the belief in many gods and goddesses.