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Ancient Stuff: Around 8000 B.C.E. to Around 600 C.E.

I. CHAPTER OVERVIEW

There’s a lot of stuff in this chapter—nine thousand years’ worth. So before you begin, read through the outline below so you’ll know where to find what you’re looking for when you return to this chapter for a mini-review. (Remember, the key to doing well is to go through the chapter once, delve into the areas you are clueless or semi-clueless about, then return here for a mini-review.)

I. Chapter Overview
You’re reading it!

II. Stay Focused on the Big Picture
Organize the zillions of facts from the 9,000 years covered in this chapter into some big-picture concepts.

 III. History Review through 600 C.E
This is the bulk of the chapter, where we plow through the major civilizations, people, and events. Again, we suggest that if you’re totally clueless on a section, review the corresponding section in your textbook. Here’s a list of the major sections.

A. Nomads: Follow the Food

B. Settling Down: The Neolithic Revolution

C. The Big, Early Civilizations: Rivers Deliver

D. Early Mesoamerica and Andean South America: For Every Rule There’s an Exception

E. The Classical Civilizations: Mesoamerica

F. The Classical Civilizations: India and China

G. The Classical Civilizations: Mediterranean

H. The Late Classical Period: Empires Collapse and People on the Move

IV. Major Belief Systems through 600 C.E.
Although we’ll make reference to the major belief systems within the history review, we’ve provided this separate section so that they’re all grouped together in one place and you can refer to them easily. Major belief systems had a huge impact on the development of civilizations, so they’re important to review in detail. Also keep in mind that you’ll need to know the background of the major belief systems as you review the material in later chapters.

V. Technology and Innovations through 600 C.E.
Farming tools, metallurgy, and ability to manipulate the environment move humans from nomadic hunters and gatherers to builders of civilizations and empires

VI. Changes and Continuities in the Role of Women
Women lose power as humans start to settle down. A comparative look at trends in different regions of the world.

VII. Pulling It All Together
A quick review of the review that focuses on themes and trends

VIII. Timeline of Major Developments 8000 B.C.E. to 600 C.E., organized by time and place

II. STAY FOCUSED ON THE BIG PICTURE

As you review the details of the ancient civilizations in this chapter, stay focused on some big-picture concepts, including the following:

1. What are civilizations all about? Think about what makes a civilization a civilization in the first place. As you read through this chapter, we’ll give you some ideas. Focus on things like the existence and development of cities, formal institutions (including political, economic, and religious), different social levels and occupations, the use of technology (we’re not talking the Internet here, but basic and hugely important things such as wheels and weapons), the arts, and methods of communication and transportation.

2. How does change occur within a society? When change occurs, think about what caused it. Sometimes a society changed because it was exposed to a different way of doing things when it interacted with another culture (an effect that is sometimes calledcultural diffusion). Other times a society changed because its members invented something new, or realized how to use something in a new way. Always pay attention to why things changed in a particular society or civilization.

3. How are people impacted by, and how do they impact, geography and climate? Focus on the interaction between people and nature. We’ll draw your attention to this issue constantly in this chapter. Geography and climate help to explain where people live and build cities, why people suddenly move from one place to another, and how early civilizations chose to defend themselves against attack. They also greatly influenced which civilizations interacted with, or were isolated from, other civilizations. But people also use technology to impact their surroundings. Civilizations change the landscape by diverting water, moving natural resources, and building transportation networks. Nature impacts people; people impact nature. It’s a great, big complicated cycle … that’s why the AP people love to talk about it so much.

III. HISTORY REVIEW THROUGH 600 C.E.

Historians, including the AP course, use periods of time to organize history. Be aware that not everything will fit neatly into a predetermined period, but we’ll try to group events.

The first period we will look at is defined by the fact that everything that happened in these 10,000 years sets the stage or provides the foundation for what happens later. This period is marked by some major changes: Figuring out farming and what happens when there actually is enough to eat, developing technologies and ideas to support cities (and to take over other civilizations), the rise of most major world religions, and finally, the collapse of the classical empires. Not bad for one chapter, huh?

A. NOMADS: FOLLOW THE FOOD

Imagine early people. Really early people. They hadn’t yet built cities. They didn’t know how to farm. Their sole focus in life was to satisfy their most basic needs: shelter and food. Because they didn’t have any advanced tools and hadn’t yet developed anything as sophisticated as farming, the best way for them to get shelter was to find it, and the best way to get food was to follow it.

You won’t be asked a lot of questions about nomadic societies. However, you do need to understand why the development of more stable civilizations (which you will be asked a lot of questions about) was so significant, and the best way to do that is to learn what came before them. As you review world history before the Neolithic Revolution, focus on only the major developments. During this time period, those include the development of spoken language, the ability to control and use fire, and the ability to make simple tools out of stone.

Foraging Societies: Hunt and Gather

Foraging societies (hunter-gatherer clans) were composed of small groups of people who traveled from point to point as the climate and availability of plants and animals dictated. Because they depended on nature for sustenance, they were also at the mercy of nature. Climate changes, disease, famine, and natural disasters could endanger or eliminate entire communities. Even when times were good, foraging societies were limited by the capacity of their surroundings, and by their inability to store food long-term. Members of these societies did not build permanent shelters and had only a few personal belongings. Think about how much you can carry in your backpack: That will give you an idea how many possessions they had.

Pastoral Societies: Taming the Animals

Pastoral societies were characterized by the domestication of animals. These societies were often found in mountainous regions and in areas with insufficient rainfall to support other forms of settlement. Many of these societies used small-scale agriculture to supplement the main food supply of animal products (usually milk or eggs, which were much easier to produce and store than meat). The extended family was a major institution. Women had very few rights; however, these societies were more egalitarian than those that came later. Stratification and social status, which were limited in foraging societies, were based on the size of one’s herd in pastoral societies. But as in foraging societies, people in pastoral societies had few personal possessions. Even though they had domesticated animals (as opposed to having to hunt for animals), they didn’t settle down in towns because they had to continually search for new grazing areas and water for the herds.

As pastoral societies increasingly domesticated more and more animals, they also began to experiment with securing a more dependable food supply through the cultivation of plants. This was a revolutionary development that led to…