Neolithic and Paleolithic Paleolithic Age 1 million 11k BCE The OLD STONE AGE Neolithic Age 10k 3k BCE The NEW STONE AGE During the Old Stone Age people did not have domestic or agricultural characteristics they are mainly hunters gatherers During the Old Stone Age hierarchies were much more equal in these groups because they were always on the move Because people moved around a lot it is unclear how many were in this civilization However the people did not have much specialization nor were there much divisions with job specialization and hierarchies Major key shift from Old Stone Age to New Stone Age shift from nomadic lifestyle to settled agricultural lifestyle Around 11k BCE there is a change in climate and with the warmer climate it is better to plant crops such as wild grains rather than follow gain Three important things Cultivation of plants domestication of animals pottery Populations begins to increase and people outstrip number of crops available leads to domestication People also began domesticating pigs sheep goats and cattle which eventually replaced wild game as the main sources of meat Goat domesticated occurred about 8900 BCE Pigs were domesticated around 7000 BCE Domestication became widespread around 6500 BCE Due to the increased number of food supply newborns survived past infancy populations expanded and so did human settlements Small villages are founded in this area semi permanent eventually permanent as societies become more stable become more complex Through pottery hold more crops within the pots to transport trade routes store food for seasons and not starve created specialization of jobs Tigris and Euphrates Rivers One thing about these civilizations takes place in river valleys Flowing fresh water irrigation fresh drinking water for the people and the animals the land is fertile traveling and trading for transporting goods is convenient Mesopotamia sees the first cities around 3000 BCE The Sumerians invent the city larger populations than villages larger and monumental buildings more specialization of jobs Without a regular water supply villages and cities could not have survived in Sumer Mesopotamia means the land between the rivers It is nestled between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers Sumerian civilization developed as its peoples learned to control the rivers that both enabled and imperiled human settlements Sumerians discovered that they could build and maintain levee systems and irrigation channels on a large scale With water passages Sumer cities served as economic centers where craft specialists such as potters and weavers gathered to swap information and trade goods Fertile Crescent The world s first food producing communities emerged in southwest Asia People began cultivating food in three separate areas the Levantine Corridor The Fertile Crescent Mesopotamia and Anatolia In the Levantine Corridor around 7500 BCE the people began to plant and harvest grain and discovered that crop rotation plating different crops in a field each year resulted in a much higher yield Bronze Age 3600 1200 BCE Humans created bronze and alloy of tin and copper Advances in agriculture due to urban civilization and farming Increased population Bulla Mesopotamians are credited for developing the first writing They had a system of symbols little clay tokens to represent things people were buying and selling The tokens have little holes in them to string together for more complex words The Bulla were little clay balls that would be filled with tokens and sealed This allows people to know the inventory of what you bought move in a single unit rather than multiple units They would draw little images on the outside and would represent what was inside eventually the bullas are turned into flat tablets with pictographs on the exterior More abstract form of writing developed from these pictographs happiness gods etc Effects Record keeping complex ideas become more visual laws begin to be written down ideas become more sophisticated major shift intellectually and culturally Education class of people who are educated scribes priests and government officials Cuneiform Sumerians devised a unique script to record their language by pressing symbols onto clay tablets with sharp objects cuneiform or wedge shaped writing As commodities and trading became more complex the number of symbols multiplied These scribes the people who mastered these signs became important figures in the royal and religious courts because their work enabled kings and priests to regulate the economic life of their cites Code of Hammurabi The Law Code of Hammurabi 282 civil commercial and criminal laws is the world s oldest complete surviving compendium of laws Many of the laws focus on the irrigation system that made Babylonian agriculture possible Hammurabi s law code buttressed Babylon s social hierarchy by drawing legal distinctions between classes of people The crimes of aristocrats free men were treated more leniently than were the offenses of common people while slaves were given no rights at all If an aristocrat killed a commoner he or she had to pa a fine whereas vice versa he or she was executed If a home was robbed ad city officers failed to find the burglar then the householder had the right to expect reimbursement for his losses from the city government If a moneylender suddenly raised interest rates beyond those already agreed on then he forfeited the entire loan The laws focus on questions of dowry and inheritance reflect the Mesopotamian view of marriage as first and foremost a business matter Hammurabi s laws also highlight the patriarchal structure of Mesopotamian family life The husband father possess supreme authority in the family If the wife had a lover both her and her lover would be drowned while a husband was permitted extramarital sex If the wife neglected her duties at home or failed to produce children her husband could divorce her If a husband divorced his wife without sufficient cause then he had to give her back her entire dowry A married woman was an independent legal entity she could appear in court and she could engage in commercial contracts Some Babylonian women ran businesses such as small shops or inns The idea that the punishment must suit the crime at least in crimes involving social equals Hammurabi 1792 1750 BCE By 1780 b c e the kingdom of Babylon had become a mighty empire under Hammurabi Hammurabi developed a centralized administration to direct irrigation and