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Homo sapiens ("consciously thinking human") has evolved over the course of two hundred thousand years from other species like the Australopithecus and Homo erectus. They skillfully adapted to their surroundings and natural environments thanks to the possession of a larger brain.
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Venus figurines were early creations of the Homo sapiens found in numerous sites of early human habitation. Most scholars believe the figures represent a ritual tradition intended to increase fertility in women.
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The longest period of human existence in earth, also known as the "old stone age". Bipedal beings living during this era survived by hunting and gathering wild and animals and plants.
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The "new stone age" was an event in history when the refinement in tool-making techniques allowed early humans to farm and settle down. Polished stone tools found in sites show that the people then relied on cultivation, rather than foraging.
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Originally a small neolithic village, Catal Huyuk grew into a very prominent town with about five thousand residents. Thanks to the advancement of agriculture, job specialization was huge in Catal Huyuk. Some early craft industries include pottery, metallurgy, and textile production.
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Meaning "the land between the rivers", Mesopotamia is located in modern-day Iraq. Thanks to the fertile valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates River, early civilizations were easily able to settle in that land. The Sumerians and Babylonians were some civilizations that arose in the part of the world.
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The Nile River Valley was the fertile land thanks to the Nile River in Northeast Africa. Early civilizations, for example the Egyptians and Nubians, were able to successfully develop in this part of the world thanks to agriculture supported by the Nile.
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The Yellow and Yangzi River Valleys were home to three important ancient Chinese dynasties of the of the 2nd millennium B.C.E. The Yellow River was unfortunately unpredictable, which led to lots of floods in the farms of agricultural societies. Loess, an extremely fine, powder like soil was thankfully able to spread across the river valleys because of the constant floods.
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The Bantu were sub-Saharan Africans that always had an early readiness to migrate to new territories. It is speculated that they constantly migrated due to population pressures. Agriculture was fortunately able to spread across sub-Saharan Africa thanks to their constant moving.
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Hieroglyphs were early Egyptian writing that used symbols to represent sounds and ideas. Writing of it was found on sheets of papyrus containing records administrative and commercial information written down by scribes.
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Menes was an ambitious minor official from souther Egypt that later unified Egypt. He built a centralized state ruled by the pharaoh in order to bring control over the new kingdom.
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The Phoenicians were a group of city-states ruled by local kings that thrived under trade with other civilizations in the Mediterranean region. Not only that, they were excellent sailors, as they traveled far to trade with other kingdoms.
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Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro were two of the most important cities that arose in the Indus River Valley. Both cities depended heavily on agriculture, but also trade as well. Social distinctions were also evident in both cities.
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The Indus River Valley was the reason early civilizations were able to arise in India. Like the Nile, the Indus River draws its waters from water and melting snow on mountains. The Indus made agricultural society possible in northern India.
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Cuneiform was a flexible system of writing created by the Sumerians that used symbols to represent sounds, syllables, and ideas. It was mainly used by scribes to keep records of specific things.
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The kingdom of Kush was a strong and wealthy state that ruled over the upper reaches of the Nile. They constantly had conflicts with southern Egypt, which led to them being conquered later. Around 760 B.C.E., however, the kingdom was revived and ruled Egypt for almost a century.
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Oracle bones were principal instruments used by fortune-tellers in ancient China. They were used by first writing a question on the bone, burning it on a fire, and then interpreting the cracks and splits on the bone.
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Hammurabi was a Babylonian king in land of Mesopotamia that was specifically famous for his code of laws. His laws were based on the principle of lex talionis, meaning "law of retaliation". Under Hammurabi's rule, his empire was able to stretch from modern-day Syria to the Persian Gulf.
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The Shang dynasty was the successor of the Xia Dynasty that fell around 1800 B.C.E. The Shang had technology like bronze metallurgy and horse-drawn chariots that helped them spread their rule across China. Shang kings during that time ruled one thousand or more towns, as the government was not highly centralized.
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The Aryans were nomadic and pastoral people speaking Indo-European languages that settled in the Indus River Valley. They introduced their sacred language, Sanskrit, and their collection of works called the Vedas to the early civilizations already living in India at that time (the Dravidians).
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The Lapita people were the earliest inhabitants of Oceania, as they were excellent sailors who possessed remarkable seafaring skills. Lapita people maintained extensive networks of trade and communication across the Pacific Ocean. They spread to islands across the Pacific Ocean because of population pressures and conflicts, at the same time spreading agriculture to new, developing civilizations.
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Moses was a Hebrew leader who led his tribe out of Egypt. During his journeys, he introduced monotheism, the belief in one God, to his people. The Ten Commandments was a set religious and ethical principles Moses instructed to the Israelites, concerning Yahweh, the creator of the world.
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The Olmecs were one of the first civilizations for flourish in Mesoamerica. Maize was on of their stable foods, along with other foods like squashes, beans, and peppers. They also constructed elaborate drainage systems to get ride of floodwaters that would have destroyed their crops.
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The Zhou Dynasty arose from conflicts between the corrupted Shang kings and the people living in China. Zhou theory of politics rested on the 'mandate of heaven". Kings had absolute power over the kingdom and everyone had to listen to their laws and policies. As the Zhou dynasty was very large, kings created city-states ruled by officials. Later, these states became increasingly independent, which led to the Period of the Warring States (403 - 221 B.C.E).
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The Mandate of Heaven was a belief system that stated that heavenly powers granted the right to govern to a specific deserving individual known as the "son of heaven". The Zhou dynasty of China heavily relied on this belief to assign and remove kings from power.
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The Indian caste system had four main social classes:
1. Brahmins - priests
2. Kshatriyas - warriors and aristocrats
3. Vaishyas - cultivators, artisans, and merchants
4. Shudras - landless peasants and serfs
Later on, another class was created, called the Untouchables. The Untouchables were people who performed dirty or unpleasant jobs like killing animals and handling dead bodies. -
The Upanishads was a body of works that appeared in the Vedic age that explained religious practices and beliefs. Samsara and karma are all parts of the Upanishads that were taught to all religious men and even women.
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The Teotihuacan's were also heirs of the Olmecs. A huge agricultural city, job specialization was very significant in Teotihuacan. Cultivators, artisans, and merchants were present in Teotihuacan society. Like the Mayas, they built on the cultural foundations established by the Olmecs. They even created a ball game that was part of their religious ritual sacrifices.
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The Mayas were the earliest heirs of the Olmecs, who organized themselves into small city-kingdoms. The Mayas also created one of the most advanced calendars of their time, along with their flexible and sophisticated systems of writing. Conflicts between small kingdoms later led to the decline of the Maya civilization.
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The Mochica state was one of the earliest Andean states that arose in the many valleys on the western side of the Andes Mountains. Mochican paintings on pottery reflect and show how life was like in early Andean societies. Climate fluctuations and droughts brought an end to the Mochica state in the Andean region around the first millennium C.E.
