AP World History

1. Unit 1: Chapter
1
Chapter 1:
From the Origins of Agriculture to
the First River-Valley
Civilizations
8000-1500 B.C.E.

2. Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 1: Before
Civilization
Section 1: Before
Civilization

3. Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 1: Before
Civilization
I. Stone (Lithic) Age
A. Paleo-lithic - Old Stone Age
B. Agricultural Revolution
C. Neo-Lithic - New Stone Age

4. Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 1: Before
Civilization
A. Paleolithic Age
1. Communities – Hunter (men) & Gatherer
(women)
2. Tools – bone, skin, wood, & stone
3. Food – vegetables, nuts & fruits - very
little meat
4. Family – women raised children, cooking,
sewing
5. Shelter – natural shelters or mobile tents
6. Activities – art, tool making, religious
practices, social gatherings
7. Religion – belief in afterlife, complicated

5. Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 1: Before
Civilization
B. Agricultural Revolution
1. Domestication – plants & animals
a. Agriculture – cultivation- needed fertile soil &
rivers
b. Animals – transportation and ag. Purposes
c. Americas – limited due to few suitable species –
llama S.A.
d. Africa & Asia – cattle
e. M.E. – camel & donkey
2. Result – Population increase & stable
communities

6. Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 1: Before
Civilization
What to Plant?
• Mediterranean area - Wheat and Barley
• Sub-Saharan Africa - Sorghum, Millet,
Teff
• Equatorial West Africa - Yams
• Eastern and Southern Asia - Rice
• America - Maize, Potatoes, Quinoa, Manioc

7. Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 1: Before
Civilization
C. Neolithic Communities
1. Culture
a. Religion – ancestral worship & nature spirits
(earth, wind, fire); sacred places; deities –
mother earth, sky god (male)
b. Astronomy – megaliths – burial chambers,
calendar circles, astronomical observations
c. Language – societies began to spread and
language began to diversify
2. Towns
a. Villages – most people lived in small rural v.
b. Cities – few lived in large cities – problem:
needed large food supply to support a large

8. Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 1: Before
Civilization
Jericho
• Located on West Bank of Jordan River
(Israel)
• Walled town with mud-brick
structures
• Dates back to 8000 B.C.E.

9. Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 1: Before
Çatal H ϋ y ϋ k
Civilization
• Located in central Anatolia (Turkey)
• Dates to 7000-5000 B.C.E.
• Center for trade in obsidian, produced
pottery, baskets, woolen cloth, beads,
leather, and wood products

10. Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 1: Before
Civilization
What does this mean?
• Jericho and Çatal H ϋ y ϋ k tell us that there
were the social organizations necessary to
support non-food producing specialists such
as:
– Priests
– Craftspeople
– Had labor to build defensive walls, megalithic
structures, and tombs.
• Unknown if labor to build was free or coerced.

11. Due Friday!
• 6 Glasses: Chapter 1
• Unit 1: Part 1 Test - ch 1-3
• World Map Rivers quiz
Due Monday
• Reading #1 - Epic of Gilgamesh

12. Unit 1: Foundations
Chapter 1: River Valley Civ.
Section II. Mesopotamia

13. Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 2: Mesopotamia
II. Mesopotamia
A. Agriculture & the Landscape
B. Cities, Kings & Trade
C. Society
D. Gods, Priests & Temples
E. Technology & Science

14. Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 2: Mesopotamia
A. Agriculture & the
Environ.
1. Plain around the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.
2. Difficult environment for
agriculture:
 Little rainfall, floods, rivers change course
1. Warm climate & good soil
2. Used cattle-pulled plows and seed planter
3. Built irrigation canals to bring water to fields
4. + food & animals - no resources
5. Early people - Sumerians

15. Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 2: Mesopotamia
Do not copy this
Crops and Natural Resources
• Date Palms • Draft Animals:
• Vegetables – Cattle
• – Donkeys
Reeds
– Camels
• Fish
– Horses
• Land for grazing goats
and sheep
• No significant wood,
stone, or metal
resources

16. Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 2: Mesopotamia
B. City, Kings & Trade
1. City-State – urban center w/ ag. territory
a. Sometimes traded, sometimes fought over resources
2. Temples were more important than Palaces
3. Large City-States – Sumer, Babylon, Akkad

17. Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 2: Mesopotamia
C. Society
1. 3 Social Classes (kings controlled most of the wealth)
a. Free Landowning class
b. Dependent farmers & artisans
c. Slaves – POW, minor part of economy
2. Power shift – women men
(agriculture)
3. Women – no political role
- Could: Own property, Control their dowry,
Engage in trade
1. Rise of urban merchant class greater
emphasis on male privilege and decline in
women’s status.

18. Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 2: Mesopotamia
D. Gods, Priests & Temples
1. Each city-state had its own gods
2. Gods were humanlike –
anthropomorphic
3. Priests were highly honored
4. Temples were the 1 st monumental
buildings
5. Ziggaruts were the major part of the
temple

19. Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 2: Mesopotamia
E. Science
1. Technology=specialized knowledge that is
used to transform the natural environment
2. Forms of technology - Irrigation systems,
buildings
– Transportation, Bronze metallurgy, Brickmaking
– Engineering, pottery & potter’s wheel
– Military advances included:
• Paid, full-time soldiers, Horses, Horse-drawn chariot, Bow and Arrow,
Siege Machinery
1. Writing : Cuneiform – Sumerians
• Complex, hundreds of symbols, sounds,
• Only scribes could read & write

20. Cuneiform Samples

21. Unit 1: Foundations
Chapter 1: River Valley Civ.
Section III. Egypt

22. Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 3: Egypt
III. Egypt
A. The Land
B. Divine Kingship
C. Administration &
Communication
D. People
E. Beliefs & Knowledge

23. Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 3: Egypt
A. The Land
1. The Nile - thin strip of land along the
river is good for ag.
2. 2 Parts - Upper (south) & Lower (north)
3. Floods – regular, left fertile silt, good
timing
4. Resources – reeds, animals, fish, birds,
stone, clay, copper, turquoise, gold

24. Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 3: Egypt B. Divine
Kingship
1. Unification : 3100 BCE – Lower &
Upper Nile
2. 3 Periods: Divided into 30 Dynasties
a. Old Kingdom – Pyramid Age
b. Middle Kingdom – Agricultural Age
c. New Kingdom – Empire Age
3. Pharaohs – regarded as gods, death was
seen as his journey back to the gods
• Funeral/burial rites were very important
1. Pyramids – not all Pharaohs are buried in
pyramids!
• Early times – flat topped tombs, then stepped

26. Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 3: Egypt
C. Administration
1. Bureauracy – system of provincial admin.
• Tracked: labor, taxes, & people
1. Tax Collection: support the govt, temples,
buildings
2. Writing : Hieroglyphics & Demotic (cursive script)
• Wrote on papyrus with reed “pens” (paint brushes)
• Were able to decipher with the discovery of the Rosetta
Stone in 1799 – 3 languages: Greek, Demotic &
Hieroglyphs
1. Power struggles with provincial governors
• Strong central govt – loyal prov. gov.
• Weak central govt – autonomous prov. gov.
1. Foriegners – seen as enemies
2. Traded with Levant, Nubia & Punt
• Exported papyrus, grain, and gold

27. Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 3: Egypt
C. Administration
Rosetta
Stone

28. Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 3: Egypt
D. People
1. Population: 1 – 5 mil.; some darker, some
lighter
2. Social Classes
a. Kings & high ranking govt. officials
b. Lower level govt. officials, & priests
c. Peasants (majority)
3. The Working Class – Peasants
a. Farming villages, paid taxes, source of govt.
labor
b. Slavery – limited scale, well treated
4. Women – more rights than Meso. women
a. Subordinate to men
b. Right to hold, inherit, and buy property

29. Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 3: Egypt E. Beliefs &
Knowledge
1. Beliefs based on cyclical view of nature
a. Re – Sun god
b. Osiris – god of the underworld
2. Religion
a. Wealth & resources went into monumental
buildings
b. Regular offerings were made to the gods
c. Believed in magic and in an afterlife
d. Beliefs led to mummification and burials rituals
e. Tombs built outside of city in order to save ag.
Land
f. Contained: food, pictures, transportation, wealth
3. Knowledge

31. Grab a Senteo & Sign in!
Monday
• Chapter 1 – Practice Test online
• Complete CSG Section 4: Indus R.V.
• Objectives/Short Answer Questions
Tuesday Night: Chapter 1 Test

32. Unit 1: Foundations
Chapter 1: River Valley Civ.
Section IV. Indus River Valley
2600 – 1900
B.C.E.
http://mstreitwieser.com/civilization/indus.ph
p

33. Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 4: Indus RV
IV. Indus River Valley
A. Environment
B. Culture
C. Transformation

34. Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 4:
Indus RV A. Environment
1. Present day: Pakistan, India, Bangladesh
2. 2 regular floods a year
3. Carries a lot of silt
4. Irrigation allows 2 crops per year

35. Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 4:
Indus RV B. Culture
1. Don’t know much about civilization
because scholars have not deciphered
their writings
2. Evidence suggests standards in city
planning, architecture and even the size
of bricks
3. 2 Largest Sites: Mohenjo-Daro &
Harappa
4. Both were surrounded by brick walls,
had streets laid out in a grid pattern and
were supplied with covered drainage
systems to carry away waste.
5. Had access to more metals than Egypt or

36. Harappa

37. Mohenjo-Daro

38. Unit 1: Chapter 1: Section 4:
Indus RV C. Transformation
1. Declined because of natural disasters and
ecological change.
2. These changes included:
1. Drying up of the Hakra River
2. Stalinization
3. Erosion
3. When urban centers collapsed, so did the
way of life for the elite, but peasants
probably adapted and survived.