Week 1

Course Introduction:

Primary vs. Secondary sources

How to evaluate Primary Sources

Ask: - type of source?

- when written or made?

- location, culture?

- author, artisan?

- what does the source say? (1 sentence summary)

- what does the source mean? (analysis)

- hidden evidence? (What does this source tell me about the culture that created it?)

Neolithic Revolution c. 8,000 BCE

1. Hunter-gatherer societies
2. Early agriculture
3. Farming societies

A. Why Farm?

B. Neolithic villages

C. Growing social complexity

4. Alternatives to farming

Important terms to know:

Neolithic Revolution (agricultural revolution) Fertile Crescent

Archaeology Ethnography

Nomadic Domestication

Neolithic villages – Jericho and Çatal Hüyük Obsidian

Pastoralism

Mesopotamia

I. Origins of Early Civilizations (need complex social and political structures)

II. Geography

III. Technology

IV. Sumerian City-States

V. Kingdom of Babylonia

Important terms to know:

Pictographs Ziggurat

Cuneiform Epic of Gilgamesh

City-states Law Code of Hammurabi