The Prehistoric Past

How did civilizations develop?

Paleolithic era Old Stone Age
Neolithic era New Stone Age
Bronze Age science of metallurgy; the stone
and bone tools were replaced by metal ones
Nomadic lifestyle gave way to a more
sedentary lifestyle
In the great river valleys of the Middle
East and Asia distinct centers of people
began to form civilizations

Paleolithic Culture and Its

Artifacts

Homo sapiens (L., one who knows) evolved about

100,000-120,000 years ago

Hunter-gatherers, they had lighter builds and larger

brains than earlier hominids

They developed more sophisticated tools than those of

their ancestorscleavers, chisels, grinders, handaxes,
and arrow- and spearheads made of flint

They produced the paintings in caves such as Altamira

in Spain and Chauvet and Lascaux in France; carved
small sculptural objects, the most remarkable of which
are the female figuresthe Venuses

The Great River Valley Civilizations,

2000 BCA

 What is a civilization?
Cooperative activity of human beings
Develop in fertile river valleys that have adequate
resources to support life
A social, economic, and political entity distinguished
by the ability to express itself through images and
written language
Organizing trade and production requires an
administrative elite
priest and ruler elites mediate between the ordinary
citizens and gods
One of the ways that societies have acquired goods is by
means of war

How do cultures begin?

Before the invention of writing
cultures created myths and legends
that explained their origin
Evidence survives in wall paintings
and small sculptures dating back
more than 25,000 years

What is culture?
Encompasses the values and
behaviors shared by a group of
people, developed over time, and
passed down from generation to
generation
Art from earliest times was
associated with the religious and
political elites, who used it as a
way of expressing the values of a
the culture

Chauvet cave in front of the horses is a herd

of aurochs, extinct ancestors of oxen

What is the significance of the

Chauvet cave?
its antiquity
The range of animals it depicts
Perspective painting style which
shows a stunning naturalism
Abandonment of the linear theory
of the development of realistic
art

Why were these paintings

made?
The drawings were magic charms meant
to ensure a successful hunt
The caves gateways to the underworld
and death
Served as calendars for predicting the
seasonal migration of the animals
Possessed some from of agency they
were created to exert some power or
authority over those who came into contact
with it

Lascaux Cave, Dordogne, France.

15,000 BCE
In Lascaux we find one of first depictions of a human being. He wields a spear-like throwing implement.
The human in the painting is stylized while the animals are realistic indicative of the ritual purpose of
these paintings.
Explain the discrepancy between the naturalistic representation of the animals and the abstract
realization of the human figure. Does it suggest that man and beast are different orders of being?

Venus of Willendorf, Austria. 25,000

BCE
Ideal of female beauty comparable to the Roman ideal of
beauty implied by the name Venus

Paleolithic Culture and its

Artifacts
What do female figurines suggest
about the Paleolithic era?
Women played a central role they
had considerable religious and
spiritual influence
Ritual purpose for sculpture which
may have been tied to fertility
Matrilineal and matrilocal

Neolithic Era

ca. 80002000 BCE

New Stone Ageneo + lithos

Defined by the rise in agriculture

Concentrated in the great river valleys of the Middle East

and Asia (Nile, Tigris and Euphrates, Indus and Ganges,
and Yellow Rivers)

How did agriculture

develop?
Agriculture-- animal husbandry,
domestication of dogs
From hunting gathering to agriculture
Populations came together into cities
in fertile river valleys
The transition led to the increased use
of pottery vessels in Iran
3000 BCE potters wheel was in use in
the Middle East

Beaker with ibex, dogs, and long-necked birds,

from Susa, Iran. 5000 BCE
The ibex was the most widely hunted game in the Middle
East.

Beaker with Ibex, Dogs, and Long-Necked Birds

Baked clay, 11"
Iran, ca. 50004000 BCE

Neolithic pottery the result

of transition from hunting
and fishing cultures to
agriculture
Used to carry and store
water and to prepare
and store certain types of
food
Ibex, a popular decorative
feature of prehistoric
pottery
from Iran, may have been
a
symbol of plenty

What are the Neolithic Megaliths of

Northern Europe?
A distinctive kind of monumental
stone architecture in Britain and
France
Were designed to be permanent
structures
Stood in tribute to the authority of
the leaders responsible for
assembling the labor force required
to construct them

Stonehenge, Salisbury Plain,

England. 2750 BCE
Its orientation to the rising sun and the summer solstice
suggest that Stonehenge served a ritual purpose.

Stonehenge
Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, England

Four major building periods from ca. 2750 to 1500 BCE

Uncertain as to its purpose, but its orientation toward

the rising sun at the summer solstice connects it to
planting and harvesting

Post-and-lintel is the most basic technique for spanning

space. Two posts, or pieces fixed firmly in an upright
position, support a lintel, or horizontal span

This megalithic structure suggests that the late Neolithic

peoples who built it were extremely social beings,
capable of great cooperation

Neolithic Cultures of the

Americas
15,000 BCE a migration occurred from Asia into
northern America and continued down into Mexico
and Central America
Who were the Anasazi people?
Developed a civilization in modern day Colorado
between 900-1200 CE that bears many similarities
to earlier Neolithic civilizations found in the
Middle East
People without a beast of burden, the wheel, metal
or written language, yet they constructed
magnificent masonry housing and ceremonial
structures

Spruce Tree house, Mesa Verde. Anasazi

culture. 1200 CE

What are the Zuni Pueblo

Emergence Tales?
Myths stories used to explain, unify and order ones
experience
Not entirely fantasy for they are based on real experience
Myth have common characteristics:
animism
anthropocentricism
a belief that humans can communicate with the spirits in
natural objects
Religion and myths are intertwined
Zuni emergence myth explains the process of maturity from
childhood to adulthood
Pueblo people believe that they originated in the womb of
Mother Earth

Buffalo Kachina. Zuni

culture. 1875
It is designed to increase the population of furbearing
animals in the arid environment of the Southwest. Derived
from a Plains Indian ritual dance, it was first danced by
the Zuni near the end of the 19 th century as the regions
wildlife was becoming increasingly threatened

Mesopotamia: Power and Social

Order in the Fertile Crescent
The city of Ur in Sumer located between the Tigris
and Euphrates rivers developed a specialized society
of priest rulers made possible by canal irrigated
agriculture.
This area would become contested over successive
generations because of its rich soil and access to water
Ur is notable for its well preserved and reconstructed
ziggurat, a pyramidal structure with a shrine on top
The sanctuary might have symbolized the bridge
between heaven and earth
Offering of food or an animal to be sacrificed to the
resident god

The ziggurat at Ur, Iraq. 2100 BCE

It was the center of the city of Ur, the best preserved and
most fully restored of the ancient Sumerian temples

Reconstruction drawing of the

ziggurat at Ur

Reconstructed Drawing of
the Ziggurat at Ur

The best preserved and most

fully restored of the ancient
Sumerian temples

Platforms might have been

covered with soil and planted
with trees

Weeper-holes, venting ducts

loosely filled with broken pottery,
in the side of the ziggurat would
have drained rainwater

Might also have symbolized the

bridge between heaven and earth

Eastern Mediterranean basin and major

Mesopotamian capitals

What were the religions in Ancient

Mesopotamia?
With the exception of the Hebrew religion, they were
polytheistic
Gods were recognized for the forces of nature
Shamash sun
Ishtar love, war
Enlil air
Ea-water
Anu- father of the gods
Priest-ruler intermediary between gods and humans
Religious burial was important for the citizens of Ur.
Rich and poor were buried together

Royal Standard of Ur, War and Peace, cemetery

at Ur, Iraq. 2600 BCE
It depicts the themes of war and peace. The king is depicted using a
hierarchy of scale, showing his prominence by his large size.
Its narrative structure shows the unfolding of events through time
graphically.

Royal Standard of Ur

Rectangular box of unknown function

Main panels called War and Peace because they

illustrate, on one side, a military victory and, on the
other, the subsequent banquet celebrating the event

Social perspective, or hierarchy of scalemost important

figures (king) represented as larger than the others

One of the earliest examples we have of historical

narrative

Who were the Akkadians?

The Sumerian culture of Ur was superseded by the
Akkadians, a people from the north
Settled around modern Baghdad
Akkad lies under Baghdad
The Akkadians conquered virtually all other cities in
Mesopotamia, including those of Sumer
Sargon famous ruler, believed that he was god, a
status bestowed upon Akkadian rulers from his time
forward
Legend of his birth gave rise to what amounts to a
narrative genre: a boy from humble origins who
rises to a position of might and power

Head of an Akkadian Man, from Niniveh, Iraq.

2300 BCE
Sargon, or Sargons grandson
It is a realistic work, depicting a man who appears both powerful and majestic
The fine detail testifies to the Akkadian mastery of the lost-wax casting
technique that originated in Mesopotamia

Head of an Akkadian Man

Copper Alloy, 14-1/8", ca. 2300-2200 BCE

All that survives of a life-size

statue

Once thought to be Sargon I,

many modern scholars
believe it depicts his
grandson, Naramsin

A highly realistic work,

depicting a man who
appears both powerful and
majestic

The first existing

monumental work made by
the lost-wax casting
technique

Babylon
No one in Mesopotamia matched the Akkadians
power until the 18th c. BCE when Hammurabi gained
control of the region
Law Code of Hammurabi: its purpose was to
celebrate his sense of justice -- a record of
decisions and decrees
Significant for its presentation of the principle of
talion (eye for an eye)
Snapshot of Babylonian social and familial life
Provided a uniform set of laws for a millennium
Made the law more objective by removing it from the
arbitrary whim of the sovereign

Video will play automatically.

"Contracts and Laws

Mesopotamia: I Have Conquered the River (length
2:46).

What is the Epic of

Gilgamesh?
One of the greatest works of Mesopotamian literature
100,000 clay tablets and fragments in Akkadian
cuneiform script
Written around 1200 BCE
Discovered in the library of King Ashurbanipal at
Niniveh
Epic a long poem in elevated language that follows
characters of high position through a series of
adventures, including a visit to the world of the dead
Epic poems are about the origin and development
of a nation
Deeds of a semi-divine character

The Hebrews

The Hebrews (from Habiru, outcast or nomad) were

forced out of their homeland in the Mesopotamian basin
in about 2000 BCE

They differed from other Fertile Crescent cultures in that

their religion was monotheisticthey worshiped a single
god: YHWH (Yahweh)

According to the Hebrew bible, their lawthe Ten

Commandmentswas delivered to Moses on stone
tablets and carried in a sacred chest, called the Ark of the
Covenant

What makes the Hebrews

unique?
Monotheistic
God created Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (delta of Tigris and
Euphrates)
Abraham of Ur led his people out of here into Canaan in order to escape the
warlike Akkadians and Babylonians
Hebrew Bible a compilation of hymns, prophecies, and laws 800 400 BCE
The stories represent the Hebrews attempt to maintain their sense of their
own history and destiny
See themselves as chosen by God, as a moral example
God establishes a covenant with the Hebrews beginning with Noah, and
reaffirming later with Abraham and other Hebrew patriarchs
Under the leadership of Moses, the Hebrews settled for 40 years in the desert
of the Sinai peninsula where they received the 10 commandments from
YHWH
Entered Canaan under the leadership of Joshua
Took the name of Israel from the patriarch Jacob
The kingdom of Israel was united by King David

How do the Ten Commandments

differ from the Code of Hammurabi?
Afford rights to all citizens
Do not differentiate between poor and rich in
assigning penalties for violations
Ethical and moral system derived from an
omnipotent God
Torah- Law instructions
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers,
Deuteronomy
The Hebrews carried the commandments in a
sacred chest, called the Ark of the Covenant

The Ark of the Covenant

Two menorahs flank each side of the Ark. The menorah is a
symbol of the nation of Israel

Ancient India

Indian civilization was born along the Indus River around

2700 BCE in an area known as Sindfrom which the
words India and Hindu

By the early years of the second millenium, they were

adept at bronze casting

They even had a written language, although it remains

undeciphered

Sometime around 1500 BCE, the Aryans, nomads to the

north, invaded the Indus River valley and conquered its
inhabitants, making them slaves. Thus began the
longest-lasting set of rigid, class-based societal divisions
in world history, the Indian caste system

Ancient India

Rigid caste system:

Untouchables
Unskilled workers
Artisans and merchants
Warriors and rulers
Brahmins

India Around 1500

BCE

How did Hinduism develop?

From two sets of Aryan texts: the Vedas and the
Upanishads, written in Sanskrit
The purpose of life is to be free from illusion and achieve
nirvana the state free from death, life and rebirth
Unification with Brahman, the universal soul
Brahman- creator
Vishnu-preserver
Shiva- destroyer
Ramayana- relates the story of the pious incarnation of
the god Vishnu through Ram and his wife Sita
They illustrate lives that follow dharma, the path of right
conduct

Hinduism and the Vedic

Tradition

Hindu religion has no single body of doctrine, nor any

standard set of practices

Brahmin, the universal soul, is at its center

Brahmins functions are split among three gods: Brahma,

the creator; Vishnu, the preserver; and Shiva, the
destroyer

In Hinduism, creation follows destruction. Shiva, though a

god of destruction, is regarded as a reproductive power as
well and is commonly portrayed in a circle of fire, symbolic
of both creation and destruction, the endless cycle of
birth, death, and reincarnation

Shiva, Lord of the Dance, Southern

India
Framed in a circle of fire, symbolic of both creation and
destruction