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hello and welcome this is going to be
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our first lecture for history for a
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we're going to be talking about at first
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about what it was like before
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civilization and then we're going to
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talk about civilization requirements so
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one of the biggest questions that many
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people don't understand is where does
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history begin an archeology end and
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there's actually this time period in
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history is a blending of both archeology
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and history archaeology of course
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focuses on the study of artifacts and to
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some degree writing but really writing
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once writing begins in a civilization it
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becomes the province of history the
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sources of course of history our primary
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such as writing ruins and so on
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secondary would be where a historian
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actually takes both primary and
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secondary sources in other words ruins
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artifacts and so on or first-hand
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accounts and then blends them in with
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the works of other historians who
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studied or other related areas like
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archeology tertiary is common knowledge
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common knowledge is not that everyone
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knows this stuff but that everyone can
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agree that these are the facts names
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dates places obviously or easy although
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in some cases you do get conflicting
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names not so much names but dates for
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certain occurrences
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sources that are tertiary typically
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encyclopedias so let's take a look at
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origins and migration as you can see
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this is actually using DNA Y DNA and
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tracing humans as they cross the planet
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and you can see different migrations and
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movements throughout the world about
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100,000 BCE we have the great migration
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and that's when human beings came out of
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Africa spread into Europe spread into
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Asia and it gradually made their way all
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across the world we also see burials at
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this time which is perhaps good for
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scientists archeologists and historians
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because it makes this DNA typing
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possible because you have buried
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skeletons that are more likely to be
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preserved 35,000 23,000 BCE we have
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musical instruments beginning to show up
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three hold flutes for example have been
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found a drawings have been found
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particularly in caves and bone sewing
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needles have been discovered so
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obviously they're killing animals
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carrying the pelts and then making
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clothing out of them 9000 BCE we see the
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domestication of plants for the first
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time ever plants are beginning to be
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used by human beings to grow food not
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just gathered out in the while but now
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brought to a central location a village
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perhaps and grown and of course the
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streets more sedentary lifestyle where
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people are not moving around so
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there may be some movement for example
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moving in one location maybe towards the
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coast during the summer months and then
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in further into the interior during the
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winter months hmm
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we also see domestication of animals as
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well dogs pigs eventually cattle 6000
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BCE we see the first writing beginning
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to show up not all this writing is able
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to be understood by us primitive
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hieroglyphics or cuneiform in
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Mesopotamia Egypt and China where the
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first civilizations and these are these
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squares on the map show you the
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different civilizations moving from left
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to right we have Egypt then Mesopotamia
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then the Indus Valley Civilisation and
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then China moving into the new world
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Central America the Olmec and the Mayan
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civilizations and then into South
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America civilizations that would
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eventually give birth to the Incan
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civilization
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so let's take a look at civilization
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requirements and believe it or not
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constructing a civilization does have
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requirements agricultural of course but
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if you're going to have agriculture you
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need water access reasonably fertile
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soil and creation of some kind of
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irrigation system especially in more
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arid climates like in Mesopotamia where
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prayer or for that matter Egypt once you
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move out of the a certain area close to
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the water it becomes more difficult to
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grow food because there's just not
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enough rainfall now another thing is
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Public Works as a civilization you need
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to build and you need building materials
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sometimes it's stone but that's pretty
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hard to use a lot of times like amethyst
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it a mia they use mud brick and even
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though the Egyptians are associated with
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huge stone buildings like the pyramids
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and various temples the reality is they
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use mud brick as well particularly for
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buildings that the common people use or
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in some cases even to some degree the
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middle and upper classes so we also need
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plumbing in order to you know running
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waters nice to have I'm sure we all
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agree about that but also plumbing is
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important for whisking away unwanted
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human refuse so you need sewers for that
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and interestingly enough a lot of
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civilizations don't necessarily have
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plumbing so that's an issue or sewers
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housing of course
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walls for protection especially early
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civilization obviously our cities
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nowadays don't have walls but once upon
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a time if you want to protect yourself
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from wild animals or marauding
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barbarians
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you'd need walls roads of course for
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commerce in other words trade between
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the cities buildings either for the
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purposes of worship or for government
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and of course cities will soon become
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the center place for manufacturing
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manufa whether it be clay pots or metal
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work cities had the concentrated
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population they also have access to
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foods that are grown city states would
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for example have villages that would
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provide the food for the city so people
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who live in the cities are not
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necessarily farmers there are people who
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are doing other tasks so now you have a
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reasonable performing production so that
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some of the population can be used to do
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other things the economy you need some
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kind of economy trade benefits the
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civilization not all civilizations have
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access to everything they need so they
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go elsewhere to find those things and
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other civilizations also have a deficit
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in what they control so there there's
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obviously a logic where different groups
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will trade amongst themselves in order
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to get what they want you need some kind
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of currency ideally but currency is not
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an initially when we look at early
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civilizations currency is not there
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people are bartering things now
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barter is fun and great but you have to
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find that person who has something you
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want and in reality that's very rare so
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you end up doing multiple trades in
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order to get what the other person wants
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that so you can get what you want
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you work for us obviously storage not
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only storage buildings but also things
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to store grains wines and so on in
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and so pottery becomes an absolute must
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for civilization that's why when you
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look at a lot of the ancient artifacts
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of civilization its pottery and a lot of
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times you can trace the time period
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within the civilization based on the
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pottery work so what are the
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requirements well you do need religion
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now I know nowadays in our secular world
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some people seem to view religion as
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well that kind of you know the frosting
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not the cake of life but the reality is
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back in these times it is the priests
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who know the seasons who have the
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knowledge and understanding tracing the
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Sun the Stars and the planets to know
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when is the ideal time to plant crops
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and that means religion is an absolute
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necessity for civilization religion also
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explains why things happen the way they
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do kind of constructs a world in which
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people can live in you need language in
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order to communicate with their fellow
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citizens you also need a legal code to
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kind of keep everybody in line
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you don't want lawlessness because it's
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really hard to live in a lawless world
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and of course the frosting is literature
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the need for literature literature talks
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about things
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literature can also take the form of
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plays which are presented in everything
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and and gets people helps people explore
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life's problems and also entertains and
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lastly trade language is absolutely
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essential for trade how are you going to
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trade if you can't talk to your fellow
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human beings and make an arrangement or
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draw up an agreement so we have a basic
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government and social hierarchy that
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most both pretty much all civilizations
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follow all of them follow it to one way
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or another there may see be some
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variations about who's in the middle
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classes and the bottom who's on the top
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but generally rulers nobility and
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priests are at the top in the middle are
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artisans laborers merchants farmers at
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the bottom
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slaves who do the hard work or the
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outright poor one of the problems facing
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civilization well you you need water and
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unfortunately many of the sources of
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water also have problems in the case of
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disease it could be viral bacterial
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parasitic a parasitic disease like
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malaria or there also other parasites as
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one parasites for example in the Nile
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River where it will bro this parasite
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will burrow between your toes and this
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worm eventually makes it to your heart
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and it'll kill you so parasites are
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problem viruses of course people don't
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understand viruses at this time then we
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really understand bacteria bacteria and
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viruses still are a major problem of
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course nowadays we have antibiotics that
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helps a lot to kill bacteria but nothing
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seems to do much with viruses
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you just have to live with it now
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there's some things we've done with
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viruses with shots like flu shots and
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things like that but back in those days
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know nothing they can do I by the way
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one other thing a problem with water
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sources is there are usually animals who
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want to eat you there
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you know like alligators and crocodiles
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another problem facing civilization is
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environmental pollution not necessarily
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air pollution although in some cases
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that would be true for later
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civilizations that have industry but
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pollution in the form of contaminants
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like human fecal matter things like that
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you want to get that out you don't want
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to in your water supply if people drink
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it the die of a bacterial disease like
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cholera another problem is deforestation
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and there have been civilizations that
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have fallen that we know of there's at
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least one case of the Anasazi that
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historians believe collapsed because of
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deforestation which caused a short
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circuit of the water cycle which in turn
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caused famine because there's drought
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there's famine and then all this of
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course the deforestation everything is
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due to population growth so your very
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success can be undoing depending on the
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fragility of the environment where your
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civilization is the Indus Valley
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Civilisation for example had to
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constantly deal with issues of water in
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other words it wasn't that the Indus
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River overflowed its banks all the time
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unlike the Tigers and Euphrates which
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was another problem sometimes you get
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too much water when the brains overflow
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like the Tigers here freidy's causes
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massive flooding
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destruction of buildings and so on and
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farming fields but also killing people
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but in the case of Indus Valley it was
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just simply having enough water so they
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had to store it to make sure they always
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had enough water
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population growth again it can be if
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your environment is very fragile like
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that of their Anasazi and you start
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bringing in poor land into cultivation
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chopping down more and more trees
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short-circuiting in the water cycle then
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you're gonna have a problem because
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you're gonna have droughts and family
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natural diseases I mean it sorry
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misspoke natural disasters not disease
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diseases all natural anyway natural
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disasters are earthquakes volcanic
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eruptions tsunamis storms violent floods
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in the ancient world the yellow Yangtze
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Tigris and Euphrates rivers were
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notorious for violent floods that would
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kill thousands if not hundreds volcanic
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eruptions we you know one of the most
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famous volcanic eruptions was during the
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Roman civilization when a volcano
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erupted and nearby towns and a city were
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covered in volcanic ash tsunamis of
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course can be approached
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tsunamis for example in Minoan
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civilization a tsunami was apparently
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responsible for the collapse and decline
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of that civilization even storms
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nowadays we are in our safe homes and
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you know the only time you're threatened
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is if you get a tornado
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but most of the time we can survive our
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storms in in the comfort of our homes
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all right
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so in the Paleolithic period we still
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have hunting going on but we also have
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domestication of grains animals and so
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on about 9000 BCE Neolithic villages are
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using copper as a metal to craft various
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tools and there's division of labor
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apparently between men and women and
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women would typically make the baskets
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8000 BCE we see agricultural agriculture
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taking off actually a more organized
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process of growing grains prior to that
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people probably went into the wild and
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collected these things and brought them
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home now they've not only brought them
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home but now they've realized these
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seeds can be used to grow more 4000 to
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3500 BCE we start seeing the first
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cities the medal of bronze the
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combination the smelting if you will
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melting of bronze and it's actually ten
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and copper to make bronze we also see
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the creation of primitive ships we see
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trade taking place especially in the
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Mediterranean world we see the wheel
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being invented and utilized in some
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cases in in the case of the Inca
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civilization they were aware of the
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wheel but their terrain was so
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mountainous and rough that there were
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very few places the wheel could be used
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so it wasn't used even though the people
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knew about it and of course we also see
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pottery
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pottery is very important because you
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can store Grange can store wine in it
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and it's durable even though we think of
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pottery is fragile at times it's it's a
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lot more durable than other ways of
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storing things like animal skins and
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stuff like that
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3200 BCE we see writing we may very well
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see writing a little bit earlier than is
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still debatable who invented the writing
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first was the Egyptians weathers that
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the Mesopotamians was that the Chinese
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and a lot of this is this debate is
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based on archaeological evidence but in
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the case of the Chinese they used bamboo
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as excuse me as their writing material
00:21:04
well that's not a help because bamboo
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rots and deteriorates over time the
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Egyptians they use papyrus again same
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problem so what about the mr. Tim Ian's
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why are they right now given credit for
00:21:22
inventing writing the cuneiform writing
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because they used wet clay tablets and
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those last the test of time they don't
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rot like bamboo and papyrus 2000 BCE we
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see trade caravans to China and back
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from the Middle East
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and we also see shipping taking place
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and we begin to see early trade routes
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beginning to take place ships from both
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China and the Middle East would meet in
00:22:00
India there they would exchange goods
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and then go back to their respective
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countries
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1200 BCE we see iron being invented and
00:22:13
of course iron is much cheaper than
00:22:15
bronze so now we have an inexpensive
00:22:18
metal that we can use for making plows
00:22:23
and this makes farming more efficient so
00:22:32
what we rent civilizations like well
00:22:36
typically patriarchal the husband held
00:22:41
the authority although we are seeing in
00:22:43
some civilizations where women did have
00:22:46
some kind of authority
00:22:48
typically the elderly women in the
00:22:51
household
00:22:51
for example the Iroquois civilization
00:22:55
had clan mothers who chose the men who
00:22:59
would go to the council the of Chiefs
00:23:03
where they would make the big decisions
00:23:06
for their coronation but in other cases
00:23:10
men pretty much called the shots
00:23:12
although we all see a few places where
00:23:15
women were able to gain power and
00:23:19
authority even in patriarchal Egypt
00:23:24
patrilineal again inheritance traced
00:23:28
through the father
00:23:33
we have a division of labor
00:23:36
initially women were involved in
00:23:40
agriculture but I guess once the men
00:23:42
figured out hey this isn't so bad you're
00:23:45
not to run around and hunt for animals
00:23:47
all the time they pretty much took over
00:23:50
agriculture from the women a women are
00:23:53
given credit for domesticating the wild
00:23:56
grains like wheat and barley maybe even
00:24:02
corn in Central America we not sure
00:24:05
about who domesticated the corn we know
00:24:08
roughly where the corn was domesticated
00:24:11
to this day it still called corn
00:24:13
Mountain and Central America so men did
00:24:20
agriculture they handled the metallurgy
00:24:22
in other words making metal objects and
00:24:26
of course they were in the positions of
00:24:29
kings warriors priests okay
00:24:35
priests were of course fairly new idea
00:24:40
at least it's generally believed that
00:24:43
priests came after kings and warriors
00:24:45
because but it's hard sometimes to know
00:24:50
which came first it's kind of the
00:24:51
chicken or the egg
00:24:53
women would embrace textiles pottery and
00:24:58
basket weaving although you will see
00:25:02
some men who are participating in
00:25:04
pottery so these areas there are going
00:25:06
to be some crossovers although you're I
00:25:09
dare see you will never see a woman
00:25:11
Playa blacksmith but you I could see in
00:25:15
some cultures women helping men in
00:25:17
agriculture and I could also see some
00:25:20
men participating in the manufacture of
00:25:23
pottery but not so much in textiles and
00:25:27
back skin weaving
00:25:30
cities were places of incredible
00:25:33
productive power the first cities were
00:25:38
in China around the Yellow River which
00:25:41
is in northern China Egypt the Nile
00:25:44
River India around the Indus River and
00:25:48
Mesopotamia and the Tigris and Euphrates
00:25:51
and of course the reason why the first
00:25:55
cities developed in these regions is
00:25:59
because of the access to water but it's
00:26:02
a double-edged sword because with water
00:26:04
as you know comes disease and parasites
00:26:10
alligators all that sort fun stuff
00:26:15
so in in cities we have an incredible
00:26:17
concentration of wealth and power
00:26:20
political power military power as well
00:26:23
if there's any kind of standing military
00:26:26
it's going to be typically located in
00:26:28
the cities where the ruler is we also
00:26:32
have religious powers this is where the
00:26:34
temple is or the temples actually
00:26:38
typically economic power to
00:26:42
concentration of manufacturing pottery
00:26:45
metallurgy and so on and so forth
00:26:48
so you might in the village find one
00:26:52
blacksmith or someone dealing with metal
00:26:58
but in the city you'll find hundreds of
00:27:00
them that's the difference it's a matter
00:27:04
of degree city-states for the first form
00:27:09
of government so what is a city-state
00:27:11
you might as well know what it is we're
00:27:13
gonna run into it again and again and
00:27:15
not only in Greece but the Indus River
00:27:20
some Central America and so on
00:27:22
city-states or a distinct geographic
00:27:28
area where the city dominates there are
00:27:32
no other cities just one city and then
00:27:34
there are surrounding villages is a very
00:27:37
limited geographic area so we're not
00:27:39
going to see you know who huge swaths of
00:27:42
territory like all of Germany is one
00:27:44
sees they know it'll be one city-state
00:27:47
it might go out maybe 50 miles away from
00:27:50
the sea state at most and that's it they
00:27:57
don't have the ability to really expand
00:27:58
beyond that so until their resources are
00:28:03
and this of course is what makes empires
00:28:07
so powerful it's multiple cities not
00:28:10
just one
