LO1 notes

• LO1 was about the trace of key developments of prehistory, from the emergence of our human ancestors to the beginnings of village life
• The basic features originated in prehistoric times
• There appeared complex social and economic structures in Southwestern Asia and northeastern Africa
• in 1200 BC an international region of civilization came into existence
• It took thousands of centuries of developing physically and completing a series of successful responses to the environment before human beings were at last able to take the first important steps toward civilization
• The era ended with a rise of civilized societies producing permanent written records
• excavations of fossils indicate that the earliest humanlike species probably appeared in East Africa
• 20,000 years ago, most likely in southwestern Africa, there appeared a human species that seemingly possessed more of these features than any other
• the earliest and longest prehistoric period is called the Paleolithic age 
• this era began the earliest human types
• stone tools became stronger, sharper, and more specialized
• in 8000 BC they advanced in southwestern Asia and northwestern Africa
• Neolithic Age was when metals replaced stone as the principal tool material
• in Paleolithic age humans lived as hunters, gatherers, fishers, sheltering in caves
• they combined into small bands of 20 to 30 people to find food, and protect themselves
• most food bands needed to survive was plants
• women were mainly responsible for gathering plants and eating
• agricultural revolution was a whole series of discoveries
• bread, beer, wine, cheese, edible oils, woven cloth, leather, pottery for cooking, and storage are the things we take for granted today were used by the early famers of this region
• 6000 BC was where the first agricultural villages appeared in Southwestern Asia
• polytheism was the belief in countless human like gods and goddesses
•  agricultural was accompanied by a lasting shift in pattern of relations between men and women
• it made men main suppliers of food
• and it made them do other jobs so women could have more children, and take care of the house and other duties
• the Americas separate agricultural revolutions based on local crops such as yams, rice, corn and potatoes
• "cradles of civilization are the river valleys of the southwestern Asian land of Mesopotamia