Farming and the Emergence

of Complex Societies
10,000 – 1,000 BCE.

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 Farming and complex
societies?
Where did they come
from?

I thought
we were still
hunting and
gathering!

2
 Farming and …and changes
complex have always been
societies are the —and still are—
result of part of human
CHANGE… history.

Big Eras 3-9

Big Era 1

Big Era 2

200k yrs ago 10k years ago Today

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 You will
probably recall
that life
200,000 years
ago life looked
something like
this.

Homo erectus doing lunch

Big Eras 3-9

Big Era 1 Human Origins

Big Era 2

200k yrs ago 10k years ago Today

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 190,000 years later,
around 10,000 B.C. life
looked more like this:

Homo sapiens at home

Big Eras 3-9

Big Era 1 Human Origins

Big Era 2

200k yrs ago 10k years ago Today

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 Age.
Changes that occurred over time during the Paleolithic

1. Homo sapiens appear.

2. Language develops.
3. Habitats expand.
4. Technology multiplies.
5. Wall painting and
End of Big Era Two
sculpture are created.
(Beginning of
Big Era 3)

Big Eras 4-9

Big Era 2

Big Era 3

10,000 years ago 1,000 years ago Today

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 Keep those changes
in mind, as we look
at life 9000 years later
around1,000 B.C.

Big Eras 4-9

Big Era 2

Big Era 3

10,000 years ago 1,000 years ago Today

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 Big Eras 4-9
Big Era 2

Big Era 3

10,000 years ago 1,000 years ago Today

8
 Notice any
Differences?

Quite a few,
Huh?

9
 So, how did we
get from…

HERE to HERE?

Jot down some

notes on what
events you think
might have
taken place
between 10,000
and 1,000 BCE.

10
 One of the major changes is
reflected in this frieze on a
wall in Mesopotamia (today
Iraq) :

which reflects the

DOMESTICATION of…

animals and plants

Big Eras 4-9
Big Era 2

Big Era 3

10,000 years ago 1,000 years ago Today

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 Domestication of plants and animals
was a monumental change.
Have you ‘herd’
It resulted in the new way of about pastoralism?
living we know as
FARMING
(AGRICULTURE)…

…which included both

PASTORALISM
(herding sheep, goats, cattle,
horses, and camels),

and…
Big Eras 4-9
Big Era 2

Big Era 3

10,000 years ago 1,000 years ago Today

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 Crop-growing
(cultivating domesticated
plants),

and…

Big Eras 4-9

Big Era 2

Big Era 3

10,000 years ago 1,000 years ago Today

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 the development of…

FARMING
COMMUNITIES

Big Eras 4-9

Big Era 2

Big Era 3

10,000 years ago 1,000 years ago Today

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 Eastern North America
China

Fertile Crescent

Nile valley
West
Mesoamerica Africa New Guinea
Ethiopia

Andes Amazonia

Between about 12,000 and 1,000 BCE, farming

appeared INDEPENDENTLY in a number of places,
possibly in all of the places marked in red on the map.
Big Eras 4-9
Big Era 2

Big Era 3

10,000 years ago 1,000 years ago Today

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Prior to farming,
population size in any
one area was limited
by the availability of wild
game, grain, berries,
seeds, and nuts.
POPULATION
Farming and the large, INTENSIFICATION
relatively dependable
crops it provides That means
allowed for… population increases
in certain areas.
Population in those
areas became both
larger and denser.

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 At the same time,
farmers in some
places were, in spite
of population growth,
able to produce
SURPLUS food.

What does
SURPLUS
FOOD
PRODUCTION
mean for a
society?

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 SURPLUS FOOD
PRODUCTION…

…means that not

everyone has to grow
food or tend animals.

                                                                  
They can take on other
tasks. They can
specialize in some non-
farming task.

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This is called…

Job Specialization.
Men and women may
become:

• Weavers
• Stone Masons
• Potters
• Priests
• Scribes
• Traders
• Army officers

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 So, let’s have a
quick review of that
last sequence of
events.

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 Domestication of Plants and Animals

Farming

Population
Surplus Food Specialization
Intensification

Complex Society,
also known as
CIVILIZATION
Big Eras 4-9
Big Era 2

Big Era 3

10,000 years ago 1,000 years ago Today

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Civilizations have a number
of elements in common.

You might want

to make a note
of these as we
go along.

Hint, hint!

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 Civilization
Can you
define
Did you catch it?
that term? Remember it.
Write it down.

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 Elements of civilization include:
1) Advanced
Cities
Mohenjo Daro
It’s the
law

2) Complex Institutions
(Central governments )
And Law codes

Hammurabi’s
Law Code
Pharaohs
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Elements of Civilization include:
1) Advanced
Cities
2) Complex Institutions
(Central governments ) 3) Writing and
and law codes record keeping

Can you identify

the society
represented
by each of these two
writing samples?

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Elements of Civilization include:
1) Advanced
Cities

2) Central Governments
and law codes

3) Writing and 4) Specialized Jobs

record keeping

Full-time monk

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Elements of Civilization include:
1) Advanced
Cities
2) Complex Institutions
(Central governments)
and law codes 5) Advanced
3) Writing and
record keeping Technologies
4) Specialized jobs

Chariot

Bronze Sword

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 Now, looking back
over this period of
time, let’s review the
major changes.

Big Eras 4-9

Big Era 2

Big Era 3

10,000 years ago 1,000 years ago Today

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 Domestication of Plants and Animals

Farming

Population
Surplus Food Specialization
Intensification

Complex Society,
also known as
CIVILIZATION
Big Eras 4-9
Big Era 2

Big Era 3

10,000 years ago 1,000 years ago Today

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 That translates into:

Farmers
Herders
Cities
Central governments
Armies
Monumental buildings
Written language
Social hierarchies
Complex belief systems

In 10,000 B.C. none of these existed in the world. By 1,000 B.C. they all did.

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 Not only has life changed
culturally and
technologically, but also Letters and
the rate of change has envelopes
accelerated. Writing

Irrigation Pyramids
Wheel
Copper
Temple building
smelting Walled cities
. Dogs, sheep. goats, horses, wheat, rice, Plow farming Alphabet
chiles, potatoes—all domesticated
Chariots
Pottery 360-degree circle
Sailing technology
Law Codes
Regular trade routes Big
Eras
Bow & arrow 4-9
Big Era 1 Language Art Calendars
Big Era 2 BE3

10k years ago

200k yrs ago
1k years ago
Today

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 What factors Make a few
do you think notes and
might account discuss this
for this question with
increasing rate your teacher
of change? and fellow
students.

32
 By 3,000 BCE, societies in Southwest Asia and Egypt
were developing elements of complex
societies(civilizations).

Are we
supposed
to be taking
notes on this?

Big Eras 4-9

Big Era 2

Big Era 3

10,000 years ago 3,000 years ago 1,000 years ago Today

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Early River Valley
Civilizations

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 Mesopotamia means, “The land
between the rivers”

The oldest civilization was found in

this region between the Tigris and
Euphrates Rivers in what is now Iraq.

This area was part of the Fertile Crescent.

• Flooded yearly (unpredictable) leaving a thick mud behind called silt.

• Farmers planted crops in rich soil

• Resulted in plentiful harvests which allowed villages to grow

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 Mesopotamian Environmental
Challenges
• Unpredictable
flooding
• No natural
barriers
• Limited natural
resources.

What problems
would could
things cause?

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 Geographic Features
Environmental Challenges for
Sumerians
• Solution:
– Dug irrigation
ditches that
carried river water
to their fields
– Led to production of
surplus crops

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 Geographic Features
Environmental Challenges for
Sumerians
• Solution:
–Built city walls with mud
bricks

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 Geographic Features
Environmental Challenges for
Sumerians
• Solution:
– Traded their grain, cloth, & crafted
tools with people of mtns & deserts
– In exchange, they received raw
materials like stone, wood, & metal
• Cultural Diffusion: process by which a
new idea or product spreads from one
culture to another.

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 Development of Mesopotamian
Culture
• Sumerian City-
States
– Small,
independent
cities w/
surrounding villages
& farms
– Not unified,
constantly at war
w/ one another

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 Development of Mesopotamian
Culture
• Rulers
– Military leaders that shared power
with priests
• Priests prayed to gods, controlled irrigation
systems
• Ruler controlled standing armies
• Military leaders eventually started
dynasties.

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 Development of Mesopotamian
Culture
• Polytheistic
– Belief in more than
one god
• Ziggurat (Sumerian
temple) was the
center of city life
– Priests conducted
rituals & sacrifices
to city gods
– Served as storage
for grains, fabrics,
gems
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 Empire in Mesopotamia
• Sargon of Akkad
defeated the city-states
of Sumer. This creates
worlds first empire.
• Hammurabi leads the
peak of the Babylonian
empire
– Hammurabi’s code unifies
entire empire
– Is the oldest full original
written text of law that
exists.

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 Hammurabi’s Code
• Written in
Cuneiform
• 282 laws that
formed the basis of
the Babylonian legal
system
• Different
punishments for rich
& poor
• “Eye for an eye”

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Now, looking back at
Ancient
Mesopotamia, can
you identify the
elements that made
it a complex society?

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 Review
• In what ways
Elements of Civilization include:
was
1) Advanced
Cities Mesopotamia a
2) Complex Institutions
(Central governments)
and law codes
complex society
3) Writing and
record keeping
(civilization)?
4) Specialized Jobs

5) Advanced
Technologies

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 Ancient Egypt

“Gift of the Nile”

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 The Geography of Egypt

The Nile would flood each year in the The most important thing to the
spring. With the flood it would Egyptians about The Nile was the
deposit a rich silt, or soil on either yearly flooding.
side of the river.

The rich soil around the Nile was Egypt had several natural
called the Black land. The desert was barriers which helped to
called the Red Land. protect it from invasion

These barriers gave Egyptians a sense of security that was lacking in

much of the ancient world.

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 Environmental Challenges
• Problems:
–Low waters in Nile resulted
in famine b/c of poor crops
–Flooding = destroyed
homes & crops

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 Environmental Challenges
• Deserts:
– Acted as barriers between Egypt &
other lands
– Forced Egyptians to live on a very small
portion of the land
– Reduced interactions with other
peoples (limited cultural diffusion)

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 Development of Egyptian Society
-Religion and Politics
• Pharaohs (God-Kings)
– Considered gods on Earth who
ruled over gov’t, religion, & the
military
– This is known as a theocracy
• *Comparison: Mesopotamian
kings were representatives of
gods, but they themselves were
not considered gods
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 Development of Egyptian Society
-Religion and Politics
• Pyramids
– Egyptians believed kings had eternal
spirits
– Built pyramids as tombs for
pharaohs (resting places from which
their rulers could reign forever after
death)

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 Development of Egyptian Society
• Achievements in Science &
Technology
– Number system
– Form of geometry
– Columns in architecture
– Calendar
– Medical Procedures
– Mummification
• Process of
embalming and
drying out the
corpse so that the
soul could return to
the body later

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Development of Egyptian Society

• Writing System
– Hieroglyphics
• Like Sumerian
cuneiform, it used
pictures to
represent ideas

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By about 1000
B.C. there were
several well-
established
civilizations in
Afroeurasia.

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