1. World History: Connections to Today
CHAPTER 1
Toward Civilization (Prehistory – B.C.)
Copyright, 2001 © Prentice Hall

2. C H A P T E R 1 Toward Civilization (Prehistory – 3000 B.C.)
SECTION 1 Understanding Our Past
SECTION 2 The Dawn of History
SECTION 3 Beginnings of Civilization
Chapter 1

3. S E C T I O N 1 Understanding Our Past
Archaeologists learn about the human past by studying artifacts, or objects made by people, such as tools, weapons, pottery, clothing, and jewelry.
Historians reconstruct the past by studying written evidence such as letters or tax records and visual evidence such as photographs or films.
Geography, the study of people and their environments, is key to understanding history. Geographers study five major themes:
(1) location where a place is on the surface of the Earth
(2) place physical and human characteristics of a location
(3) interaction how people have shaped and been shaped by the places where they lived
(4) movement movement of people, goods, and ideas
(5) region places with similar unifying physical, economic, or cultural features
Chapter 1, Section 1

4. S E C T I O N 2 The Dawn of History
During the earliest period of human history, the Old Stone Age, people made tools, learned to build fires, and developed spoken languages.
About 11,000 years ago, during the New Stone Age, humans learned to farm, a development that transformed the way people lived.
By about 5,000 years ago, the advances made by early farming communities led to the rise of civilizations.
Chapter 1, Section 2

5. S E C T I O N 3 Beginnings of Civilization
Historians identify eight basic features common to most early civilizations: cities, well-organized central governments, complex religions, job specialization, social classes, arts and architecture, public works, and writing.
Cities, the central feature of civilization, first rose in river valleys in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, where conditions favored farming and a surplus of food could be grown.
In the Americas, two major civilizations emerged in the highlands of Mexico and Peru.
Chapter 1, Section 3