notes-history-summary-beginningOfHumanityAndCivilization

This collection of notes is part of [1].

Humanity

"Anatomically modern humans evolved from archaic Homo sapiens in the Middle Paleolithic, about 200,000 years ago." -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatomically_modern_humans

" There is considerable debate regarding whether the earliest anatomically modern humans behaved similarly to recent or existing humans. Modern human behaviors characteristic of recent humans includes a language, the capacity for abstract thought and the use of symbolism to express cultural creativity. There are two opposing hypotheses regarding the origins of modern behavior. Some scholars argue that humans achieved anatomical modernity first, around 200,000 years ago. Later, around 50,000 years ago, humans then adopted modern behaviors. ... The opposing view is that humans achieved anatomical and behavioral modernity simultaneously. " -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatomically_modern_humans

Prehistory

"Prehistory means literally "before history"...Human prehistory is the span of time since behaviorally and anatomically modern humans first appear, and until the appearance of recorded history following the invention of writing systems. Sumeria in Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt were the first civilisations to develop their own scripts, and to keep historical records; this took place already during the early Bronze Age. The neighbouring civilisations of the Ancient Middle East were the first to follow." -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prehistory

Civilization

" A civilization (US) or civilisation (UK) is any complex society characterized by urban development, social stratification, symbolic communication forms (typically, writing systems), and a perceived separation from and domination over the natural environment.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] Civilizations are intimately associated with and often further defined by other socio-politico-economic characteristics, including centralization, the domestication of both humans and other organisms, specialization of labor, culturally ingrained ideologies of progress and supremacism, monumental architecture, taxation, societal dependence upon agriculture, and expansionism.[2][5][3][8][7] Historically, a civilization was an "advanced" culture in contrast to more supposedly barbarian, savage, or primitive cultures.[1][3][5][9] In this broad sense, a civilization contrasts with non-centralized feudal or tribal societies, including the cultures of nomadic pastoralists or hunter-gatherers. As an uncountable noun, civilization also refers to the process of a society developing into a centralized, urbanized, stratified structure.

Civilizations are organized in densely populated settlements divided into hierarchical social classes with a ruling elite and subordinate urban and rural populations, which, by the engagement in intensive agriculture, mining, small-scale manufacture and trade. Civilization concentrates power, extending human control over the rest of nature, including over other human beings.[10] " -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilization

The rise of civilization

" The cradle of civilization is a term referring to locations identified as the sites of the emergence of civilization.

In Western European and Middle Eastern cultures, it has frequently been applied to the Ancient Near Eastern Chalcolithic (Ubaid period, Naqada culture), especially in the Fertile Crescent (Mesopotamia and Levant) and Egypt, but also extended to sites in Asia Minor (Anatolia), Armenia[1] and the Iranian Plateau (Elam). Other civilizations arose in Asia, among cultures situated along large river valleys, notably the Indus River in the Indian Subcontinent present day Pakistan & north-western India and also the Yellow River in China.[2] Civilizations also arose independently in Norte Chico in present-day Peru,[3] the Andes, Mesoamerica, and Iron Age Sub-Saharan Africa. If writing is considered an indicator of civilization, the earliest "cradle" to have writing was Sumer (Jemdet Nasr) in Mesopotamia.

Scholars have defined civilization using various criteria. The use of writing is a common one. Some standard criteria include a class-based society and public buildings. Current thinking is that there was no single "cradle", but several civilizations that developed independently, of which the Near Eastern Neolithic was the first. The extent to which there was significant influence between the early civilizations of the Fertile Crescent and those of East Asia is disputed. Scholars accept that the civilizations of Norte Chico in present-day Peru and that of Mesoamerica emerged independently from those in Eurasia. " -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cradle_of_civilization