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Homo Sapiens were the next species to come after Homo Erectus. They had a developed brain, especially in the frontal regions where conscious & reflective thoughts take place. Land bridges allowed Homo Sapiens to be more spread throughout the world even to regions such as, Indonesia, New Guinea, and the Americas. Their superior intelligence gave them the ability to control the environment, simultaneously pressurizing other species, leading to it's extinction.
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Being the longest portion of human intelligence, people started to forage for food during this era. Also, there weren't any social distinctions between men & women in the need to share jobs for survival. Humans created better tools through continuous hunting, demonstrating human's intelligence & creativity. Burials gives evidence that people respected the dead, starting to develop emotions & feelings. As humans started to domesticate, paleolithic age ended.
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Since after the Neolithic revolution domestication of plants and animals begun. In search for the best seeds to plant in limited space and the best animals to breed, domestication naturally occurred. By picking only the best ones, plants & animals begun to evolve into a better specie for humans to use. Therefore, overtime, domesticated plants & animals became dependent on humans to take care of not being ‘wild’ anymore.
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Neolithic age is notable for being a time of tool adjustments, also known as the early stages of agricultural society. The change from hunting & gathering to agriculture had people to settle. As agriculture spread, women generally took caring for plants while men began breeding animals. The result of agriculture is the formation of social classes, more innovations, and mass production of food supplies. Human population began to exponentially rise from this point.
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As agriculture emerged and flourished, social differentiation became noticeable among some societies of people. People hardly relied on sedentary farming and to earn more food, they must’ve had large fertile lands. It is unsure how social differentiation came with agriculture, however we could assume that social differentiation first came when people begun to compare each other’s land and how fertile it was. This concept later develops and plays a huge role in human society even today.
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Agriculture developed as people made big profits of it. Sedentary farming means to farm on the same land continuously, differing from the past where people had to farm on different lands because they used up all of the nutrients of the soils. Sedentary farming allowed people to yield bigger farm areas and also had people to permanently settle in their lands.
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Hunting & Gathering was one of the earliest method used to sustain life with no social distinctions. Humans developed new tools, tactics to get more food. This process provoked people to move from place to place, stocking on herds of animals, eventually having people to spread to different regions.
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Jericho is located in current Israel. It was one of the first Neolithic villages in human history, using agriculture as their main source of food supply. From evidences, it shows that in Jericho, wheat and barley was mainly harvested. Domesticated animals weren’t kept and also Jericho did not establish many tradings. The ancient city survived until it was destroyed in the late bronze age and lost it’s quality to being the urban center.
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Catal Huyuk was one of the first major cities located in current Turkey. About 5000 people lived together in a city where there are no roads or ground- level windows and doors to prevent outside invaders from coming in. The city’s main source of food was domesticated wheat, barley, and cattle, creating surplus food giving people free time to work in thinking and inventing. People developed pottery and textile skills for their own benefits in decorating their home or storing food.
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In the regions of the southern half of Mesopotamia, a group of people called ‘Sumerians’ inhabited the land. Irrigation system was built to increase agricultural surpluses and as the surplus of food grew, the population also grew exponentially. In Sumerian states, positions of powers were appointed and people started to create community projects such as palaces, walls, Ziggurats, etc. It’s techniques helped the following civilizations to develop much faster and better.
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Despite having many different communities that settled down and grew crops, some communities decided to depend more on herds/animals rather than crops. Pastoralists usually domesticated herbivores and traveled around to find a place and the best place for a pastoralist was the steppes, provoking them to trade often with any agricultural society in trade for resources they don’t have in the steppes, also interconnecting agricultural societies within tradings and travelings.
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Mesopotamia’s greatest inventions include the wheel, the plow, and bronze, each having important jobs in various ways. The wheel made transportations faster pulled by domesticated animals such as horses. The plow relates to the development of agriculture as it was an invention that boosted agricultural surpluses. Finally, the development in the skills of bronze metallurgy, it contributed so much because bronze was a new material that could replace materials made out of woods or stones.
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Cuneiforms are the world’s earliest known writing that came from Mesopotamia. Sumerians developed the technology of writing to keep track of tax incomes and commercial transactions. This writing system depends on pictures were noted on clay tablets and then stored in storage rooms. Cuneiforms recorded Sumerian education, astronomy, mathematics, and many stories that contributes to the development of literature.
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Indus valley civilization developed around the Indus river. Indus river flows through current Pakistan and India. As agriculture increased, population grew and numerous neolithic villages emerged in this region. There were 2 chief cities in the Indus valley: Harappa and Mohenjo-daro. The Harappan society had rich soils that benefited them in agriculture, thus creating Harappa and Mohenjo-daro bigger than Egypt/Meso.
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Mesopotamian peoples constructed step pyramidal shaped structures in order to commemorate gods. Ziggurats well represents the construction skills of Mesopotamian people. These stepped pyramids contained temples and altars, praising the gods for good crop harvests and for victories in military campaigns.
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In Mesopotamia, city states were built on fertile lands, competing, trading, communicating with each other. City states are a very small country, only having one city. It is often ruled independently with its own Kings and nobles, however a number of city states might come together under alliance or a powerful leader. City states contributed to the development of the technology by trading very often amongst each other.
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Pharaohs were Egypt kings who were both political and religious leaders of Egypt. Their powers thrived the country during the Archaic period and the Old kingdom constructing immensive structures of Pyramids, temples, monuments, statues, etc. An odd occasion that is rarely seen in history happens within the history of Pharaohs, which was the female Pharaoh. A female Pharaoh suggests that in Egypt, gender inequality wasn’t as harsh as Mesopotamia.
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Phoenicians migrants came to the mediterranean coasts and inhabited the place. Phoenicia was independent cities ruled by local kings. Instead of agriculture, Phoenicians developed more in sea tradings, benefiting their geographical locations. They had a polytheistic religion that originated from Mesopotamia, which proves that the Phoenicians were influenced a lot by the Mesopotamians who took tributes from them. Also, most importantly, the Phoenicians developed world’s first alphabet system.
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The Harappan civilization centered around the Indus river had fertile lands gave advantages in agricultural developments. There were 2 chief cities: Harappa and the Mohenjo-daro. Cities were economic and political centers for their own regions, and the 2 chief cities were prominent because of their size. There are no evidences that survives that proves of any political authorities, however there are some evidences that suggests that they might have practiced religions.
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Epic of Gilgamesh was one of the best well known stories back then in the Mesopotamian period. This story of a hero Gilgamesh contains themes of friendship, relations between humans and gods, and the meaning of life and the inevitability of death. This story was so widely known and was important that it survived for about 2000 years.
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Xia dynasty is the first dynasty in China, however it lacks informations and we do not know much of it. Xia dynasty managed their lands through many cities and people to watch over them. Also, they had armies to protect their states from outside nomadic invaders. Xia dynasty falls and Shang dynasty follows its path.
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With Hammurabi conquering Mesopotamia, the Babylonian period starts. Babylon took advantage of Sargon of Akkad’s techniques and building upon it, developed in a faster phase than other new born Empires. The second Babylon was ruled by Nebuchadnezzar II, a brilliant leader who revived Babylon and dominated the Mesopotamian regions and also provoking the fall of Jerusalem. However, the dominance of Babylon gave invaders more reason to destroy them, eventually falling to the Hittites in 1595 BCE.
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During the Old Babylonian period, Hammurabi set up law codes based on ‘lex talionis’ (law of retaliation). It was very strict and it also showed harsh discrimination to women, however it also shows how Hammurabi wanted an organized society. ‘An Eye for an Eye’ is what the base concept of this law is.
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Shang dynasty replaced Xia dynasty having developed technology and advanced weapons. Shang dynasty was remembered as the strongest and also the wisest dynasty known, one example would be the way they chose their capital. They took time in choosing their capital because it had to qualify socially, economically, and culturally.
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Aryans are one of the major groups of migrants who came to settle in the Indus region. They were Vedic Indic Nomads just like the Dravidians who clashed against each other and also with another civilization. Aryans has a long history, the religion (Vedic), and their social organizations.
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Hebrews were originally nomads settled in Mesopotamia. They migrated to Egypt in around 1800 BCE. However, some in Moses's command went to the Palestine region. Unlike other people in the ancient days, Moses believed in one god Yahweh, being a monotheistic religion.
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Olmecs are a group of people who inhabited the mesoamerican region. Olmecs built numerous amounts of temples, pyramids, monuments in honor of their rulers throughout their lands. The most bizarre of the monuments are the colossal human heads. Olmec influenced neighbouring civilizations with trading jade, obsidian, etc. However, Olmec suddenly fell due to an unknown reason with their temples are corrupted. Scholars say that the temples were broken down by Olmec people themselves.
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As Shang dynasty fell, a new dynasty ‘Zhou’ emerged. Zhou was remarkable in politics than in other dynasties because of the ‘Mandate of Heaven’. It gave reason to why the Emperor is ruling and also gave rights to people to overthrow the government if they are doing a bad job.
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Zhou dynasty had 8 states that was ruled over the Zhou government. However the states were nothing but each city states who fought, made an alliance, competed against each other. The period of time where each states continuously fought were called the ‘Warring States Period’. This time also provoked many philosophies to emerge. Eventually, one state conquered all the states and made a new dynasty called ‘Qin’.
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Mayans were one of the many communities that built up after the fall of Olmec. Maya contained diverse cultures having numerous amounts of societies, religion, writing system, and many religious practices such as, blood sacrifice that they thought it was honorable. Since in the Mesoamerican region people harvested maize, they thought maize and water as the one top most important factors in the world, also creating a belief system that humans were created out of maize and water.
