Notes for Week 1

Notes for Neolithic Man – Mesopotamia
• Paleolithic: The Old Stone Age 11,000 BCE (pre-civilization)
• Neolithic: The New Stone Age 11,000 BCE adaptation of sedentary agriculture and domestication of plants/animals
• Hunting and gathering: Forced a nomadic lifestyle
• Bands: Forced them into small groups of about 20 to 30
• Religion: Believed that all things possessed a spirit
• World view: Only the immediate environment existed
• Women: Critical to the survival of the clan
• Malnutrition: Less problems than in agricultural communities

Catal Huyuk
• 7000 – 5500 BCE
• Located in modern day Turkey
• North of Jericho
• Anatolian settlement
• Similar displays of agriculture and river valley elements
• Social structure
• Political structure
• Economic structure
• Agriculture
• Military
• Art/Architecture
• Religious beliefs

Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia was located between the Euphrates river and the Tigris river. (The Tigris was on the east and the Euphrates was on the west.) This area today is part of Iran and Iraq.
This area was very unfertile which is why the land had to be irrigated for survival. Most cities in Mesopotamia drew water from the Euphrates River
• Political: No longer was the leader an “equal,” rather the development of a “nobility”
• Hierarchy: Slaves were an important part of economy
• Artistic: Social structure also led to writing/arts
• Technology: Greater range of tools for craftsmanship, skilled metallurgists
• Wheel: developed the wheel as a means of transport
• Pottery: Potters wheel
• Writing: Cuneiform
• Complex mathematic system: measuring, plotting, surveying, building, commerce
• Sumerians – organized city states which self governed 4000 BCE
• Akkadian Empire – Saragon I, first unified Mesopotamia as a nation 2370 BCE
• Babylonian Empire –unified all of Mesopotamia 1800 – 1600 BCE
• Hittites – Came approximately 1750 BCE; destroyed Babylonian Empire by 1600 BCE
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