TET - Where Else? What Else? Who Else? (Lesson)

Where Else? What Else? Who Else?

As mentioned in the introduction, it is difficult to write a "world history"—who gets included, who gets left out, what gets included and what gets left out—there are no easy answers. However, it must be said that the previous lessons left some things out. For starters, the previous lessons focused on four civilizations. All of the civilizations mentioned in the previous lessons could not have achieved the strength and prosperity they did without trading with neighbors—most of whom were less powerful, but no less an important culture during the time. So those people need to be discussed. And there were people living within these civilizations that were considered separate peoples and they need to be discussed. This will be the section where we fill in the blanks...and prepare for the next unit by introducing peoples.

Microsocieties

Defined as "small-scale, fragmented, and dispersed communities that had limited interaction with others," Microsocieties or Microstates existed around the world following the Agricultural Revolution during the Neolithic Period and into the Bronze Age. They could be found in Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia (Oceania,) and the Americas—essentially, everywhere. One could identify a microsociety by the consistency of certain characteristics of the people who lived there- perhaps they all shared the same type of pottery, or practiced the same form of agriculture, or used the same architectural styles, worshipped the same deity, were governed by the same body...but what distinguished it from a civilization (by definition) was the lack of urbanization. Click through the activity below to become familiar with the different microsocieties of the time.

Not all microsocieties or civilizations were located in Africa, Europe and Asia. There is archaeological evidence of them in Australia (Oceania) and the Americas...

Norte Chico	Chavin	Olmecs
Existing as a civilization from the 4^th to the 2^nd Millennium BCE, the Norte Chico were located along the coast of modern-day Peru. They built terraced pyramids, erected megalithic structures, established major urban sites, and harvested crops not used for food. They also invented an accounting system using quipu. It is considered the oldest known civilization in the Americas following its discovery in the early 21^st century CE.	Until the discovery of the Norte Chico sites, the Chavin were considered to be the oldest culture of the Americas, with dates of 900-200 BCE. (Just goes to show how much we don't know about ancient history.) Also located in Peru (but mainly in the highlands of the Andes Mountains,) the Chavin achieved many of the same accomplishments of the Norte Chico with the addition of drainage canals under temples. Archaeological evidence supports the idea that the Chavin traded among their region and beyond (but still within the South American continent.)	The Olmecs practiced jaguar worship and were the first complex society in Mesoamerica. Their timeline began around 1500 BCE (during the Mesoamerican Formative Period) but mysteriously ended sometime in the middle of the 1^st century BCE. The Olmec had all of the factors required to describe a civilization in a manner that had yet to be known in the Americas. Their development included sports too- in the form of a ball game to honor the rain god. Those of power were actually buried with the equipment for the game- an interesting twist from those rulers on other continents who were buried with servants. Their life wasn't just fun and games though. They built elaborate structures, traded with other cultures, developed a writing system, and practiced human sacrifices. Very busy.

Norte Chico

Chavin

Olmecs

Existing as a civilization from the 4^th to the 2^nd Millennium BCE, the Norte Chico were located along the coast of modern-day Peru. They built terraced pyramids, erected megalithic structures, established major urban sites, and harvested crops not used for food. They also invented an accounting system using quipu. It is considered the oldest known civilization in the Americas following its discovery in the early 21^st century CE.

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Until the discovery of the Norte Chico sites, the Chavin were considered to be the oldest culture of the Americas, with dates of 900-200 BCE. (Just goes to show how much we don't know about ancient history.)

Also located in Peru (but mainly in the highlands of the Andes Mountains,) the Chavin achieved many of the same accomplishments of the Norte Chico with the addition of drainage canals under temples. Archaeological evidence supports the idea that the Chavin traded among their region and beyond (but still within the South American continent.)

text annotation indicator

The Olmecs practiced jaguar worship and were the first complex society in Mesoamerica. Their timeline began around 1500 BCE (during the Mesoamerican Formative Period) but mysteriously ended sometime in the middle of the 1^st century BCE. The Olmec had all of the factors required to describe a civilization in a manner that had yet to be known in the Americas. Their development included sports too- in the form of a ball game to honor the rain god. Those of power were actually buried with the equipment for the game- an interesting twist from those rulers on other continents who were buried with servants. Their life wasn't just fun and games though. They built elaborate structures, traded with other cultures, developed a writing system, and practiced human sacrifices. Very busy.

At this point, we end our first discussion on the ancient civilizations knowing who they were, where they were located and what they created. Without giving too much information away about the next unit—be prepared to study a point in time when the peoples we just learned about began to clash with one another in a way unprecedented in the prior 3000 years of history.

Review

Review what you've learned in this module by completing the activity below.

RESOURCES IN THIS MODULE ARE OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES (OER) OR CREATED BY GAVS UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED. SOME IMAGES USED UNDER SUBSCRIPTION.