Chapter 1 Identifications: Pre-History Flashcards
height of last Ice Age
ca. 16,000 BCE
melting of the ice
btwn. ca. 12,000 and 9,000 BCE
Stone Age
- precedes Bronze Age and Iron Age
- marked by use of stone implements and weapons
- subdivided into Paleolithic and Neolithic periods
Bronze Age
- characterized by use of the metal copper and alloy bronze (mix of tin and copper)
- begins in Middle East w/ rise of Sumer in 4th millennium BCE
Iron Age
- follows Stone Age and Bronze Age
- marked by use of implements and weapons made of iron
Paleolithic Era
- ca. 250,000 BCE-9,000 BCE)
- means “Old Stone Age” in Greek
- people being making tools made of bone and wood
- covers 99% of human history
- humans were formed in small bands
- gatherer hunters
- nomads
- lived in caves/temp shelters
- very little is known
Neolithic Era
-9,000 BCE-3,000 BCE
-“New Stone Age”
-agriculture is introduced
-
Homo Sapiens
pre-historic humans
Venus of Willendorf
- Austria
- ca. 30,000 BCE
- made of limestone
- anatomical exaggeration
- no facial features
- idealized (vs. realistic)
- could be seen as a fertility image
Hohle Fels Venus
- 35,000 year old figurine
- oldest known 3-D representation of female form
Idealized vs. Realistic Art
- very realistic art
- over-exaggerated features
Fertility Figurines
- Venus of Willendorf
- Venus of Lespugue (France)
- Venus of Laussel
Neolithic Revolution
- double breakthrough
- rising of the seas
- irrigation
- control of floods
- farming tools (wheel and plow)
- individual houses for families
- storage facilities for seeds/surplus food
- evolution of town and cities
- governments
- beginnings of law
- urban planning
- extra food=larger populations
- trade
- specialized crafts
- not necessary for all to farm
- artisans, priests, professional warriors
- social hierarchy
- written permanent records
- earliest form of writing (ca 3000 BCE)
- cuneiform tablets
- early money
- fortified communities
Cereals
- mainly wheat or barley
- grasses cultivated for edible components of their grain
Domesticated plants and animals
- goats and sheep first
- means to tame an animal and keep as a pet or for farm produce
- pigs
- cattle
Pastoralism
-practice of herding as the primary economic activity of a society
Fertile Crescent
- area of fertile land
- Tigris and Euphrates and Nile Rivers
Social Hierarchy
- governments
- administrations
- slaves
Patriarchy
-strong male rule
Stonehenge (ca. 4,700-2,000 BCE)
- near Salisbury, England
- circles like Stonehenge sometimes had permanent settlers
- some dedicated to religious rituals
- prosperous, well organized, centrally led communities
- astronomy
- no writing
Newgrange, Ireland (ca. 3,300-2,900 BCE)
-most famous Neolithic site in Ireland
-dawn on winter solstice, narrow beam of sunlight illuminates floor of chamber at end of long passageway
-500 years older than pyramids in Egypt
-
Copper
- extracted from rocks in a furnace
- heat would melt the metal
Bronze
- mixed tin and copper
- bronze tools first seen in Mesopotamia ca. 3500 BCE
Smelting
-melting metals
