Monday: 8/28/17
World History Introduction Chapter 1
"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence" (George Washington paleoanthropologist Bernard Wood)
Paleoanthropologist = Someone who digs in the ground looking for fossils/items from past cultures
- What is World History? BC and AD? BCE? CE?
- BC= Before Christ
- AD= anno Domini (Latein for "in the year of our Lord")
- BCE= Before common era (BC without religion in it)
- CE= Common era (AD without religion in it
- How old is the Earth?
- 4.6 billion years old
- Where were the oldest human fossils found?
- Africa- specifically Tanzania, Ethiopia, and recently Morrocoo
- Who found the oldest human fossils?
- Louis and Mary Leakey, Donald Johanson, and numerous other scientists
- What are some of the biggest achievements in world history?
- Inventions of tools, mastery of fire, development of language, invention of wheels, invention of boats (the sail), and are
- Louis and Mary Leakey
- Searched for hominid remains in Tanzania from the 1930's - 1970's
- Hominid= The group consisting of all modern and extinct Great Apes (Modern humans, chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans plus all their ancestors)
- Found human-like fossils in 1959 in the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania (Africa)
- This discovery would usher many other findings over the decades
- Donald Johanson
- Discovered a 3.2 million-year-old fossil of a female skeleton in Ethiopia named "Lucy" in 1974
- This was the oldest known hominid remains found until 2015
- History of the World in Two Hours movie
Tuesday: 8/29/17
- History of the World in Two Hours Movie
Wednesday: 8/30/17
- History of the World in Two Hours Movie
Thursday: 8/31/17
- Lucy's Death
- Story Slides
- Earliest Homo Sapiens
- Found in Morocco (Africa) June, 2017
- Oldest Homo sapiens fossils found so far
- Previous oldest was 150,000 years ago
- These fossils date back 300,000-350,000 years ago
- Controversial within scientific community
- Are they truly homo sapiens or "early modern humans"?
- Story and video
- Dating Methods (How old things are)
- Carbon dating story and video
- Neanderthal vs Cro-Magnon vs Modern Article
- Agricultural/Neolithic Revolution
- Prior to more organized agriculture, people were nomadic and hunted animals and gathered plants-hunter-gatherer
- They lived in groups of about 25-70 people
- No one knows exactly how things changed, but about 10,000 years ago, people started more organized farming
- Along with planting crops, people also domesticated animals such as horses, dogs, goats, and pigs
Friday: 9/1/17 (Not in class, but got notes from powerpoint)
- As time went on, people started setting up villages, which then, over time, turned into towns and then some into cities
- As cities emerged, more complex ways of thinking and living emerged leading to civilization
- As cities grew, social classes emerged
- Define Civilization
- Book definition = An advanced state of human society, in which a high level of culture, science, industry, and government has been reached
- Student friendly definition = A highly advanced society
- The Five Traits of a Civilization
- Advances cities
- Writing/Record keeping
- Specialized workers
- Complex institutions
- Advanced technology
- Questions to Consider
- What are natural borders?
- What are some natural boundaries that would be helpful to an early civilization?
- Why are defensible borders important for a civilization to thrive?
Chapter 2 - Early River Valley Civilizations
- Arose in 4 separate river valleys around 3500 B.C.
- Fertile soil, mild climate, waterway for transportation, water for crops and drinking
- Provided for abundant crops and food surpluses
Chapter 2.1 Key Vocabulary
- Fertile Crescent
- See map
- Mesopotamia
- Greek for "land between the rivers" (see map)
- City-state
- A city and the surrounding territory it controls
- Functioned like an independent country
- Dynasty
- A series of rulers from a single family-father to son
- Cultural diffusion
- Process in which ideas spread from one culture to another
- Polytheism
- Belief in many gods
- Monotheism
- Belief in only one god
- Empire
- Group of territories or nations ruled by a single ruler
Chapter 2.2 Vocabulary
- Delta
- A broad, marshy area of land formed by deposits of silt where a river runs into a bigger body of water
- King Narmer
- King of Egypt that many believe united Upper and Lower Egypt around 3000 BC
- Pharaoh
- The god-kings of Egypt-Seen as almost as powerful as the gods of the heavens
- Theocracy
- Government headed by religious leaders or a leader regarded as a god
- Pyramid
- Huge structure where the Egyptian pharaohs are placed after they die
- Mummification
- The process of drying and embalming a corpse to prevent decay
- Usually reserved for royalty and the rich
- Hieroglyphics
- Egyptian form of writing
- Papyrus
- What Egyptians wrote on
- Came from papyrus reeds found in marshy areas
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