Exam 1 Review

The early phase of the Stone Age, lasting about 2.5 million years, when primitive stone implements were used. Also called Old Stone Age. The Paleolithic period extends from the first appearance of artifacts to the end of the last ice age (about 8,500 years ago).

Extended from the evolution of the first hominids (approx 2.6 million years ago) until about twelve thousand years ago (approx 10,000 BCE), when groups of Homo sapiens in several parts of the world began to rely on cultivated crops to feed themselves.

Natufians in eastern Mediterranean
Jomon in central Japan
Chinook in Pacific northwest area of North America

First era in human history. Also is 99% of human history. Time when first stone tools were used. Cave paintings and Venus figurines.

The most visually impressive creations of early Homo Sapiens are the Venus figurines and cave paintings found at many sites of early human habitation. Archaeologists use the term Venus figurines - named after the Roman goddess of love - to refer to small sculptures of women, usually depicted with exaggerated sexual features. Most scholars believe that the figures reflect a deep interest in fertility. The prominent sexual features of the Venus figurines suggest that the sculptors’ principal interests were fecundity and the generation of new life - matters of immediate concern to paleolithic societies. Some interpreters speculate that the figurines had a place in ritual observances intended to increase faith.

Paleolithic Era

The significance of this is not clear, but is normally assumed to be religious or ritual in nature - perhaps symbolic of the blood of menstruation or childbirth. Some buried human bodies were similarly covered, and the colour may just represent life.

Mostly found in Europe, but with finds as far east as Irkutsk Oblast, Siberia, extending their distribution to much of Eurasia, from the Pyrenees to Lake Baikal.

These regional empires emerged as Semitic peoples such as the Akkadians and the Babylonians of northern Mesopotamia began to overshadow the Sumerians. The creator of empire in Mesopotamia was Sargon of Akkad, a city near Kish and Babylon whose precise location has so far eluded archaeologists. A talented administrator and brilliant warrior, Sargon (2370-2315 BCE) began his career as a minister to the king of Kish. About 2334 BCE he organized a coup against the king, recruited an army, and went on the offensive against the Sumerian city-states. He conquered the cities one by one, destroyed their defensive walls, and placed them under his governors and administrators. As Sargon’s conquests mounted, his armies grew larger and more professional, and no single city-state could withstand his forces.

2334 BCE

Sumeria

Formed first empire. Because of all his successful conquests and wealth, left a legacy for others to follow. The memory of his deeds, recorded in legends and histories as well as in his works of propaganda, inspired later conquerors to follow his example.

During the second millennium BCE, as Harappan society declined, bands of foreigners filtered into the Indian sub-continent and settled throughout the Indus valley and beyond. Most prominent were nomadic and pastoral peoples speaking Indo-European languages who called themselves Aryans ("noble people"). By 1500 BCE or perhaps somewhat earlier, they had begun to file through the passes of the Hindu Kush mountains and establish small herding and agricultural communities throughout northern India.
Their migrations took place over several centuries: by no means did the arrival of the Aryans constitute an invasion or an organized military campaign. It is likely that Indo-European migrants clashed with Dravidians and other peoples already settled in India, but there is no indication that the Aryans conquered or destroyed Harappan society. By the time the Indo-Europeans entered India, internal problems had already brought Harappan society to the point of collapse. During the centuries after 1500 BCE, Dravidian and Indo-European peoples intermarried, interacted, and laid social and cultural foundations that would influence Indian society to the present day.

1500-500 BCE

Indo-Europe/ India

VEDAS ("wisdom" or "knowledge") which represents a priestly perspective on affairs. Refers to the knowledge that priests needed to carry out their functions.
Development of the caste and patriarchal systems.

Point of collapse for Zhou Dynasty. Nomadic peoples invaded China from the west. Subordinates refused to support the king and the invaders overwhelmed the Zhou capital at Hou. Royal court moved east to Louyang in the Yellow River valley. Royal court never regained its authority. Territorial princes ignored central government and used their resources to build, strengthen, and expand their states. They fought ferociously with one another in hopes of establishing themselves as leaders of a new political order. So violent were the last centuries of the Zhou dynasty that they were known as the Period of the Warring States (403 – 221 BCE). In 256 BCE the Zhou dynasty ended when the last king abdicated his position under pressure from his ambitious subordinate the king of Qin. Only with the establishment of the Qin dynasty in 221 BCE did effective central government return to China.

403-221 BCE

China. The Seven Warring States were: Qin in the west, in the lower Wei River valley "within the passes"; Chu, on the southern frontier around the middle Yangzi River; Qi to the east in Shandong; Yan, in the far northeast near Beijing; and in the center, from south to north, Han, Wei, and Zhao.

Invention of crossbow. Iron weapons replaced bronze weapons. The Warring States was a great period for military strategy. The military strategist Sun Tzu is said to have written The Art of War, which is recognized today as the most influential and oldest known military strategy guide.

Adventurer who laid the foundation for the Mauryan empire.

320 BCE

India

He was the founder of the Maurya Empire. He succeeded in conquering most of the Indian subcontinent and is considered the first unifier of India as well as its first genuine emperor.

One of several large states that dominated the central Andean region during the first millennium CE.

300 - 700 BCE

Valley of the Moche River, South America

Remarkable artistic legacy. Pottery vessels.

Paleolithic Age - Beginning of Human History to approx 8,500 years ago
Venus Figurines - Paleolithic Era
Sargon of Akkad - 2334 BCE
Aryans - 1500 - 500 BCE
Period of the Warring States 403-221 BCE
Chandragupta Maurya 320 BCE
Mochica 300 BCE

To Confucius, the junzi sustained the functions of government and social stratification through his ethical values. Despite its literal meaning, any righteous man willing to improve himself can become a junzi. "junzi" means "lord's son" and is translated to mean gentleman or superior person. today it can mean "gentleperson".

like Christianity, Zoroastrianism taught that its Creator was all good, and that no evil originates from Him.
unlike Christianity, Zoroastrianism believes that heaven is achieved through doing good works in life and resisting evil. C believes in salvation through faith. Z also claims that all religions are equal because they lead people to goodness and faith in God. They don't convert. They marry and produce children.
Z also teaches that the sources of good and evil came from the same place (they were twins).

Ancient Greek philosophy arose in the 6th century BCE and continued through the Hellenistic period, at which point Ancient Greece was incorporated in the Roman Empire. It dealt with a wide variety of subjects, including political philosophy, ethics, metaphysics, ontology, logic, biology, rhetoric, and aesthetics. Many philosophers today maintain that Greek philosophy has influenced much of Western
thought since its inception. Alfred Whitehead once noted: "The safest general characterization of
the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato."Clear,
unbroken lines of influence lead from ancient Greek and Hellenistic philosophers, to medieval
Islamic philosophers, to the European Renaissance and Enlightenment.

The practices and goals of Buddhism and Hinduism have similarities and differences. The
Theravada Buddhism is relatively conservative, and generally closest to the early form of
Buddhism. The Mahayana and Vajrayana beliefs developed later.[citation needed] It appears that
later schools of Buddhism developed a variety of other rituals and devotional practices that were
inspired or influenced by existing religions and cultures of India, China, Japan, Southeast Asia,
and Tibet.[citation needed] However, the more historical or beginning forms of Hinduism and the
teachings of Buddha have pronounced differences, as evident in the recorded materials of the
Pali Canon of the Theravada school of Buddhism.
The Vedic, the Buddhist, the Jain, and the later more modern versions the Buddha and the
Mahavira (the 24th Tirthankara of Jainism), and the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, which is
considered among the very earliest Upanishads,[1] (the Upanishad text was compiled under King Janaka of Mithila) all share a common cultural theme influenced by the north eastern areas of India, modern day eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Nepal.
Ancient India had two philosophical streams of religious thoughts: the Shramana and the Vedic.
These two religions have shared paralleled beliefs and have existed side by side for thousands
of years.[2] Both Buddhism and Jainism are continuations of the Shramana belief while modern
Hinduism is a continuation of the Vedic belief with considerable admixture of Sramanic, folk
and tribal traditions of India. The similarities between the Shramana and the Vedic religions
were influenced by the Vedic priests called the Brahmins who also followed some of the
Shramana teachings thus incorporating some of the Shramana beliefs into the Vedic's religious
philosophy.
The Buddha rejected various religions' path to salvation. He teaches that to achieve salvation
one does not have to accept the authority of the scriptures or the existence of God,[3] which
was regarded as an Advaita Vedanta view. (At the time of the early Buddhists there was no
independent Vedanta school with a developed and organized philosophical system; the various
philosophical theories of the pre-Buddhist Upanishads were quite widely disseminated.) In
Buddhist texts he is presented as rejecting such avenues of salvation as "pernicious views".[4]
Later Indian religious thoughts were influenced by this interpretation and novel ideas of the
Buddhist tradition of beliefs. Buddhism attained prominence in the Indian subcontinent, but was ultimately eclipsed in the 11th century CE at its point of origin by Hinduism and Islam. While Buddhism declined in India, Buddhism continued outside of India. Tibetan Buddhism is the predominant religion in the Himalayan region while Theravada Buddhism continues in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia, and Mahayana Buddhism continues in India, East Asia and among the Chinese diaspora.

The Mandate of Heaven is a traditional Chinese philosophical
concept concerning the legitimacy of rulers. It is similar to the European concept of the divine right of kings, in that both sought to legitimize rule from divine approval; however, unlike the divine right of kings, the Mandate of Heaven is predicated on the conduct of the ruler in question. The Mandate of Heaven postulates that heaven ( ; Tian) would bless the authority of a just ruler, as defined by the Five Confucian Relationships, but would be displeased with a despotic ruler and would withdraw its mandate, leading to the overthrow of that ruler. The Mandate of Heaven would then transfer to those who would rule best. The mere fact of a leader having been overthrown is itself indication that he has lost the Mandate of Heaven.

Plato believed that a soul transmigrated until it was able to free itself from physical form and returned to the a realm without form. Plato also taught that true knowledge came from the soul and reason which would make him a rationalist and he believed that things like beauty and good in the physical world were glimmers of reality. He taught that the physical body had "forgotten" its true self and thus the soul would move about until such time as it became aware of its true nature once again and freed itself from the physical realm. Aristotle also believed in a soul but he maintained that the human soul was unique due to the ability to reason. He also taught that there were two parts to human reasoning passive and creative. The creative part was the spiritual part and the passive part was the physical aspect. Aristotle taught that at death the passive part died with the body but the creative part lived on to join with god whom he described as the "prime mover" and considered the idea a metaphysical necessity. He described god as "Pure thought thinking about itself". Plato and Aristotle both drew from Socrates as a primary influence. Aristotle stated that philosophy exist because of the mind's ability to wonder.