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World History 1

<OpenstaxParagraph>
	Around 10,000 BCE, wheat was first domesticated in what is today northern Iraq, southeastern Turkey, and western Iran, and also in Syria and Israel. This region is commonly called the <OpenstaxTerm>Fertile Crescent</OpenstaxTerm> (because of its shape). It includes <OpenstaxTerm>Mesopotamia</OpenstaxTerm> (modern Iraq), southern <OpenstaxTerm>Anatolia</OpenstaxTerm> (modern Turkey), and the <OpenstaxTerm>Levant</OpenstaxTerm> (modern Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Palestine) and has yielded the earliest evidence of agriculture (<a href="#fig-00001">Figure 3.4</a>). This same region saw the rise of the first urban areas in the <OpenstaxTerm>Neolithic Age</OpenstaxTerm>, often called Neolithic cities. Examples include <OpenstaxTerm>Jericho</OpenstaxTerm> (8300–6500 BCE) along the Jordan River in what is today the Palestinian Territories, and <OpenstaxTerm>Çatalhöyük</OpenstaxTerm> (7200–6000 BCE) in southeastern Turkey. Archaeologists have established that these early urban areas had populations as high as six thousand.
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxFigure id="fig-00001" src="https://openstax.org/apps/archive/20240226.174525/resources/f5becf2637b4b47513a9769ec506e8dd3b741438" alt="A map is shown with land highlighted in pale yellow and water in blue. The year “7500 BC” is written in the bottom right corner. The Black Sea is shown in the northwest, the Mediterranean Sea in the west, the Caspian Sea in the northeast, the Red Sea in the southwest and the Persian Gulf the southeast of the map. The Nile River is labelled in the western part of the map and the Euphrates River is labelled in the middle of the map. A land area in the north of the map is labelled “Caucasus,” an area in the west below the Black Sea is labelled “Anatolia,” and an area below the Mediterranean Sea is labelled “Egypt.” An area in the middle eastern portion of the map is labelled “Mesopotamia.” A dark green upside-down U-shaped line is drawn from just south of the city of Jericho on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, up through the city of Huleh (labelled with a black square), north through the city of Göbekli Tepe (labelled with a black square), northeast through Cayonu, then south past the city of Zeribar (labelled with a red square) and ending just south of the city of Ganj Dareh (labelled with a red square). The area surrounding this line and a bit to the northwest is highlighted light green with a red edge. Within that highlighted area are these cities, from west to east, marked with a red square: Gatalhoyuk, Jerf el Ahmar, Nevali Cori, Hallan Cemi, Shanidar, Tell Mureybit, Abu Hureyra, Jarmo, Zeribar, Tell Aswad, Ain Ghazal, and Ali Kosh. Within that green area, these cities are labelled with a black square: Asikli Hoyuk and Enyan. In the southwestern corner of the map these cities are labelled with a black square: Elkab, Bir Kiseiba, and Nabta Playa. A small area north of the Mediterranean Sea is highlighted with green stripes and contains the city of Hacilar, labelled with a red square. On the island of Cyprus in the Mediterranean Sea the city of Parekklishia-Shillourokambos is labelled with a red square." mediaType="image/jpg" width="901" height="845" />
<OpenstaxFigureText width="901">
	Figure 3.4 This broad swath of land (shown in green) in what is now Iraq, Syria, Israel, Palestine, and Turkey was home to the world’s first cities, including Çatalhöyük and Jericho. (attribution: Copyright Rice University, OpenStax, under CC BY 4.0 license)
</OpenstaxFigureText>
<OpenstaxNote>
	<OpenstaxNoteTitle> Link to Learning </OpenstaxNoteTitle> 
	<OpenstaxParagraph>
		Hunter-gatherer cultures also built large structures, such as the monumental architecture at <OpenstaxTerm>Göbekli Tepe</OpenstaxTerm> in southeast Turkey and at <OpenstaxTerm>Poverty Point</OpenstaxTerm> in Louisiana in the United States. Listen to this <a href="https://openstax.org/l/77gobeklitepe">TEDx Talk lecture by the archaeologist who excavated at Göbekli Tepe</a> to find out more about the site. You can learn more about the Poverty Point culture by exploring the <a href="https://openstax.org/l/77PovertyPoint">Poverty Point website</a>. Look especially at “History and Artifacts.”
	</OpenstaxParagraph>
</OpenstaxNote>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	Neolithic settlements depended upon the transition to agricultural production to sustain their populations. Such developments were also accompanied by increasing complexity in other areas of life, such as religion. An agricultural surplus enabled religious specialists to devote time to performing bull sacrifices at Çatalhöyük, for example, and freed artisans to hone their skills to create the frescoes that decorated the interior space where these sacrifices occurred. Some form of government must have organized the labor and materials necessary to construct the walls and tower at Jericho, which may have served as an observatory to mark the passage of the solar year. In both Jericho and Çatalhöyük, a shared belief system, or unity behind a leader, must have inspired the inhabitants to labor in the fields and distribute their agricultural surplus. At Jericho, the community may have been united by its veneration of ancestors, whose skulls were decorated and revered as idols. The people of Çatalhöyük may have offered their bull sacrifices to a mother-deity, possibly represented by small figurines of a woman that archaeologists have discovered there.
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxNote>
	<OpenstaxNoteTitle> Beyond the Book </OpenstaxNoteTitle> <OpenstaxH3> Interpreting Evidence from Neolithic Cities </OpenstaxH3>
	<OpenstaxParagraph>
		Prehistoric peoples left no writings behind, and historians and archaeologists can only attempt to understand their beliefs and attitudes by studying the artifacts they produced. This is challenging because ancient societies had very different religious and social systems from our own. But even the most convincing interpretations may not persuade everyone. We may simply never know what certain artifacts meant to the people who created them.
	</OpenstaxParagraph>
	<OpenstaxParagraph>
		Consider the famous tower of Jericho, built around 8000 BCE (<a href="#fig-00002">Figure 3.5</a>). Careful excavation has revealed that the tower likely took more than thirty years to build and had stairs for climbing to the top through the center. Some believe it was made for defensive purposes; others think it was a religious monument or even an observatory. Regardless of its use, it seems likely the city had some type of governing system that served to organize the labor. But that assumption too could be in error.
	</OpenstaxParagraph><OpenstaxFigure id="fig-00002" src="https://openstax.org/apps/archive/20240226.174525/resources/95b26ba09907db1704c6da0c37e60f52b62dc11d" alt="A picture shows an aerial view of a round, off-white stone structure in ruins, with other rocky walls surrounding it. In the bottom middle there are some tiny colorful objects strewn on the ground, five steps are seen in the middle right, a rocky road is seen in the top right, and rocky walls surround the round structure on the top and left. A square grate is seen in the middle of the round structure over a hole." mediaType="image/jpg" width="1350" height="1013" />
	<OpenstaxFigureText width="1350">
		Figure 3.5 Built around 8000 BCE, this twenty-eight-foot-tall tower at the Neolithic city of Jericho is one of the earliest stone monuments in the world, but its precise purpose remains unclear. (credit: &quot;Tower of Jericho&quot; by Reinhard Dietrich/Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain)
	</OpenstaxFigureText>
	<OpenstaxParagraph>
		As another example, consider a decorated skull found in Neolithic Jericho (<a href="#fig-00003">Figure 3.6</a>). An ancient artisan made it by plastering over a human skull and placing pieces of shell in the eye sockets. Historians and archaeologists have speculated that the people of Jericho venerated such skulls, which may have been seen as relics of ancestors and objects of worship. But perhaps the skull meant something else entirely.
	</OpenstaxParagraph><OpenstaxFigure id="fig-00003" src="https://openstax.org/apps/archive/20240226.174525/resources/95af7b897cd7815679d7978035c825347ef57470" alt="A picture of a brown, cracked skull on a glass surface is shown. Beige walls can be seen in the background. The top of the skull is in one piece, but cracks show all over. Almond shaped beige shells show in the eye sockets. Brownish-beige clay is shown in the nose hole, cheeks, ear holes, as well as in the top part of the jaw. Six teeth are showing in the upper half of the skull. No bottom jaw is shown." mediaType="image/jpg" width="1050" height="1256" />
	<OpenstaxFigureText width="1050">
		Figure 3.6 More than nine thousand years ago, an artisan at Jericho covered this human skull with plaster and placed shells in the eye sockets, possibly to celebrate a distant ancestor. (credit: &quot;A plastered skull from the ancient city of Jericho in Palestine 7000 BCE&quot; by Mary Harrsch/Flickr, CC BY 2.0)
	</OpenstaxFigureText>
	<OpenstaxParagraph>
		Evidence from the Neolithic city of <OpenstaxTerm>Çatalhöyük</OpenstaxTerm> demonstrates that its people venerated bulls. Archaeologists have discovered numerous bucranium (bull heads and horns) at the site (<a href="#fig-00004">Figure 3.7</a>). But what did these bull symbols mean? Popular interpretation suggests they symbolize the son and lover of an important mother-deity. Other explanations call them female symbols of life and rebirth. Still others propose different interpretations.
	</OpenstaxParagraph><OpenstaxFigure id="fig-00004" src="https://openstax.org/apps/archive/20240226.174525/resources/1802e7461f828e1fba6ce437d7374d8a911266af" alt="A picture of a room is shown with two beige stone walls and a stone floor with raised platforms on two sides. Eight black, round pots lay around the room in various positions. Most are plain while some have handles on the sides. The wall facing forward has a large square projection sticking out in the middle at the top. The details cannot be seen. Below the projection are three stacked animal heads carved from gray stone with a beige horn on either side of the heads. All have a flat snout but no other details are shown. Another animal head is to the left of the square projection. It is beige with horns and no facial details. Below this head there are two long rectangular alcoves carved into the wall. On the bottom left sits a square stone with maroon and black décor on it. To the right of the three stacked animal heads is a long rectangular piece of the wall cut out with a small square piece of the wall cut out above it. An object of some sort rests in the square cut out section. The wall on the right shows two animal heads hanging stacked on top of each other with horns, flat snouts, and no facial features on a square projection coming out of the wall. Sunlight is shown in patterns on the left walls and a brown box sits at both bottom corners of the picture." mediaType="image/jpg" width="1352" height="897" />
	<OpenstaxFigureText width="1352">
		Figure 3.7 This reconstruction of a room at Çatalhöyük depicts several bucranium decorating the walls. Interpretations of their meaning vary. (credit: &quot;A reconstructed sanctuary of Catal Hüyük&quot; by Stipich Béla/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.5)
	</OpenstaxFigureText>
	<OpenstaxUl>
		<OpenstaxLi>
			What do scholars’ interpretations suggest about the way these artifacts are studied?
		</OpenstaxLi>
		<OpenstaxLi>
			Do their interpretations sound convincing to you? What others can you think of, given what you have read and seen?
		</OpenstaxLi>
	</OpenstaxUl>
</OpenstaxNote>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	The Neolithic cities of Jericho and Çatalhöyük were some of the earliest to emerge. But they are not the only such sites. As early as 7000 BCE, a Neolithic settlement appeared in modern Pakistan, at a site today known as Mehrgarh, whose inhabitants engaged in long-distance trade, grew barley, and raised goats and sheep. Comparable Neolithic settlements in China emerged around 8000 BCE along the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers, where people cultivated millet and rice. A few thousand years later in the Americas, Neolithic settlements sprang up in both Mesoamerica and the Andes Mountains region.
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	Not all the Neolithic settlements endured. Çatalhöyük, for example, was ultimately abandoned around 6000 BCE and never reoccupied. Jericho, on the other hand, was abandoned and resettled a few times and is still a functioning city today. What is important about these Neolithic settlements is what they can tell us about the long transition between the emergence of agriculture and the eventual rise of early civilizations thousands of years later in places like Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Indus River valley.
</OpenstaxParagraph>

3.1.2 The First Urban Societies

1 Understanding the Past

1.1 Developing a Global Perspective

1.1.1 World History as Preparation for Life after College

1.1.2 World History and Global Citizenship

1.1.3 Features of This Textbook

1.2 Primary Sources

1.2.1 Learning to Evaluate Documents and Images

1.2.2 Documentary Sources: Competing Narratives

1.2.3 Textual Sources: The Importance of Language

1.2.4 Hidden in History

1.3 Causation and Interpretation in History

1.3.1 Levels of Causation

1.3.2 Interpretation in History

2 Early Humans

2.1 Early Human Evolution and Migration

2.1.1 Human Evolution

2.1.2 Why Did Humans Move and Where Did They Go?

2.1.3 Early Human Technologies

2.2 People in the Paleolithic Age

2.2.1 Ice, Ice, and More Ice

2.2.2 Life in the Paleolithic Age

2.2.3 Diverse Paleolithic Peoples

2.3 The Neolithic Revolution

2.3.1 The Development of Agriculture

2.3.2 How Farming Changed the Human Experience

2.3.3 Neolithic Peoples

3 Early Civilizations and Urban Societies

3.1 Early Civilizations

3.1.1 Attributes of Early Civilizations

3.2 Ancient Mesopotamia

3.2.1 The Rise and Eclipse of Sumer

3.2.2 The Rise of the World’s First Empire

3.2.3 Later Empires in Mesopotamia

3.2.4 Society and Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia

3.3 Ancient Egypt

3.3.1 The Origins of Ancient Egypt

3.3.2 The Age of Pyramid Building

3.3.3 A Second Age of Egyptian Greatness

3.4 The Indus Valley Civilization

3.4.1 The Origins of the Indus Valley Civilization

3.4.2 Trade, Writing, and Religion

3.4.3 The Era of Decline

4 The Near East

4.1 From Old Babylon to the Medes

4.1.1 Power Politics in the Near East

4.1.2 Foreign Affairs and Trade

4.1.3 Daily Life and the Family in the Near East

4.2 Egypt’s New Kingdom

4.2.1 The Hyksos in Egypt

4.2.2 The Pharaohs of the New Kingdom

4.2.3 Egypt’s Foreign Policy

4.3 The Persian Empire

4.3.1 The Rise of Persia

4.3.2 Darius I and the Reorganization of the Empire

4.3.3 Persian Culture and Daily Life

4.4 The Hebrews

4.4.1 The History of the Hebrews

4.4.2 The Culture of the Hebrews

5 Asia in Ancient Times

5.1 Ancient China

5.1.1 Prehistoric China

5.1.2 Early Dynastic China

5.1.3 The Zhou Dynasty

5.1.4 The Warring States Era and Qin Unification

5.2 The Steppes

5.2.1 The Nomadic Culture of the Steppes

5.2.2 Tribes, Confederations, and Settled Neighbors

5.3 Korea, Japan, and Southeast Asia

5.3.1 Ancient Korea

5.3.2 Ancient Japan

5.4 Vedic India to the Fall of the Maurya Empire

5.4.1 Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro

5.4.2 The Aryans and Brahmanism

5.4.3 Buddhism

5.4.4 The Mauryan Empire

5.4.5 The Gupta Dynasty

6 Mediterranean Peoples

6.1 Early Mediterranean Peoples

6.1.1 The Late Bronze Age World

6.1.2 Phoenicians, Greeks, and Etruscans

6.2 Ancient Greece

6.2.1 Archaic Greece

6.2.2 Sparta and Athens

6.2.3 Classical Greece

6.3 The Hellenistic Era

6.3.1 The Kingdom of Macedon

6.3.2 Hellenistic Culture

6.4 The Roman Republic

6.4.1 The Foundation and Function of the Roman Republic

6.4.2 The Expansion of the Roman Republic

6.5 The Age of Augustus

6.5.1 The First Triumvirate

6.5.2 From Republic to Principate

7 Experiencing the Roman Empire

7.1 The Daily Life of a Roman Family

7.1.1 The Structure of Roman Families

7.1.2 A Day in the Life of a Roman Family

7.1.3 What Family Meant in Rome

7.2 Slavery in the Roman Empire