Classical Studies 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Neolithic Revolution, Chalcolithic, Lerna
28 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Classical Studies 1000: Ancient Greece & Rome
Week 2: Prehistoric Greece
Prehistoric Time Periods:
•Stone Ages
– Old
– Middle
– New
•Bronze Age
•Iron Age
->The dates of these particular ages vary from region to region
Stone Ages:
• Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) before 10,000 BC
• Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) 10,000-8,000 BC
• Neolithic (New Stone Age)
– Pre pottery 8000-5500 BC
– Pottery5500-4000BC
How can we study prehistory?
• Archaeology
– Analyzes material remains from the past
• Reconstructing daily life (food, tools, housing,...)
• Anthropology (Ethnography)
– “Anthropology is the study of humans, past and present”
– ”Ethnography is the study and systematic recording of human cultures”
– establish models to interpret material remains • E.g. social organization, use of daily items
Anthropology/Ethnography: Sociocultural Evolution Theory
• Increased complexity of social organizations
– Bands (foragers: hunters and gatherers)
– Tribes (sedentary life: farmers)
– Chiefdoms (social differentiation: specialized crafts: metallurgy)
– States
– Civilized States
Evolution of Social Organization
• Bands
– Small, politically autonomous group of 20-50 people with an informal leader
• Tribes
– Usually incorporate a few thousand people into a single tribal organization via pan-tribal
groups, usually (fictive) kinship groups, age-grades, clubs etc.
• Chiefdoms
– Organizations that unite thousands of people under a formal full- time leadership that control
production and redistribution of surplus, may have a council of chiefs with a single paramount
chief. Leadership is for life and may be hereditary or the result of merit (war chiefs)
Evolution of Social Organization
• States
– Have a central government, is class stratified, has coercive power and seeks to maintain a
monopoly of deadly force
• Civilized states
– As above but with record keeping ability
Document Summary
>the dates of these particular ages vary from region to region. Pottery5500-4000bc: paleolithic (old stone age) before 10,000 bc, mesolithic (middle stone age) 10,000-8,000 bc, neolithic (new stone age) Analyzes material remains from the past: reconstructing daily life (food, tools, housing,, anthropology (ethnography) Anthropology is the study of humans, past and present . Ethnography is the study and systematic recording of human cultures . Establish models to interpret material remains e. g. social organization, use of daily items. Anthropology/ethnography: sociocultural evolution theory: increased complexity of social organizations. Small, politically autonomous group of 20-50 people with an informal leader. Usually incorporate a few thousand people into a single tribal organization via pan-tribal groups, usually (fictive) kinship groups, age-grades, clubs etc. Organizations that unite thousands of people under a formal full- time leadership that control production and redistribution of surplus, may have a council of chiefs with a single paramount chief.
