Introduction to

Science and
Technology and
Society
MODULE 1
 Cradle of civilization
❖ It is a location where civilization is understood to have
emerged.
❖ Several civilizations developed independently:
➢ Fertile Crescent (Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia)
➢ Ancient India
➢ Ancient China - understood to be the earliest.

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 INTRODUCTION
❖ Significant influence between the early civilizations of
the Near East and those of East Asia (Far East) is argued.
❖ The civilizations of Mesoamerica, mainly in modern
Mexico, and from Pacific Ocean coast in South
America, emerged independently from those in Eurasia.

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 Criteria For Defining Civilization
❖ use of writing
❖ cities
❖ a class-based society
❖ agriculture
❖ animal husbandry branch of science deals with the practice of
breeding, farming and care of farm animals

❖ public buildings branch of science and technology

❖ metallurgy concerned with the properties of metals
and their production and purification
❖ monumental architecture
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MESOPOTAMIA
reporter: kyle santos
 SUMER
The earliest known civilization in the
historical region of southern
Mesopotamia.

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 Major Sumerian cities
during the Ubaid
period

❖ Eridu
❖ Ur
❖ Nippur
❖ Lagash
❖ Kish
❖ Uruk

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 Around 10,200 BC

❖ Neolithic cultures appeared in the

Fertile Crescent which then
spread eastwards and westwards.
❖ Neolithic - “NEW STONE AGE”,
use of stone tools
❖ Jericho - one of the most notable
PPNA settlements

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 JERICHO

world's first
town

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 TIGRIS AND EUPHRATES

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 Convergence of The Tigris
and Euphrates

Produced rich fertile soil

and supply of water

Non-nomadic Agrarian
societies

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 UBAID PERIOD (6500 to 3800 BC)

❖ Earliest known period on the alluvial

plain
❖ Movement towards urbanization
began.
❖ Agriculture and animal husbandry
were widely practiced.
❖ Intensive irrigated hydraulic
agriculture began

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 Around 6000 BC
❖ Neolithic settlements appear all over Egypt.
❖ Studies based on morphological,
genetic, and archaeological data.
❖ Have attributed these settlements to
migrants from the Fertile Crescent in the
Near East returning during the Egyptian and
North African Neolithic Revolution and
bringing agriculture to the region.

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Ancient egypt
Reported by: Katerina Lupangco
 Ancient Egypt
⬗ The earliest type of sickle blades were
used during this era. They replaced the
culture of using stone tools for hunting,
fishing, and gathering.
⬗ 8,000 BC - natural climate change made
pastoral lands in Northern Africa
became the Sahara (Desert) that we know
today.
⬗ Early Egyptians were forced to settle
around the Nile.
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 Fayum Culture
⬗ Began around 5500 BC
⬗ Small tribes living in the Nile Valley
developed a series of interrelated cultures
in agriculture and animal husbandry.
⬗ They also developed the creation of
pottery and personal items (combs,
bracelets, and beads) which became a
part of their signature.

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 Badari Culture
⬗ Largest of all early cultures in Egypt.
⬗ Originated in the Western Desert.
⬗ Known for the development of ceramics,
stone tools, and use of copper.

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Naqada Culture
● Technological improvements.
● Mastered the art of agriculture
and use of artificial irrigation and
no longer needed to hunt for
food.
● People began to build towns, and
population density became higher
than before.
 Amratia Culture
⬗ Egyptians imported obsidian from Ethiopia to
shape blades and other objects from flakes.
⬗ Black-topped and painted pottery.

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 Gerzean Culture
⬗ Egyptian civilization began during the
second phase of the Naqada culture
(around 3500 BC)
3300 BC - divided into two kingdoms:
Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt.
3150 BC - unification of two kingdoms.
● Farming - produced majority of the
food, thereby increasing the food
supply
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 Gerzean Culture
● The population grew to 5000 residents.
● City dwellers started using mud brick to
build their cities.
● Copper, instead of stone, was used to
make tools and weaponry.
● Symbols on Gerzean pottery resembles
Egyptian hieroglyphs.

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 Semainean Culture
⬗ The hallmarks of ancient Egyptian
civilization (e.g. art, architecture and
many aspects of religion) took shape
during the Early Dynastic period.
⬗ Pharaohs developed a strong institution
of kingship that was responsible for the
state control over the land, labor, and
resources that served as essentials for the
survival and growth of the ancient
Egyptian civilization.
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Ancient india
REPORTED BY:
Zierelle M. Vito
 Ancient india: civilization’s
origin
One of the earliest Neolithic sites in the Indian
subcontinent is Bhirrana along the ancient
Ghaggar-Hakra (Saraswati) riverine system in
the present day state of Haryana in India,
dating to around 7600 BC.

Lahuradewa (middle Ganges) and Jhusi

(Ganges and Yamuna rivers) both dated 7000
BC.

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 Mehrgarh
⬗ Aceramic Neolithicat Mehrgarh lasts
from 7000 to 5500 BC, ceramic
Neolithicat Mehrgarh lasting up to
3300 BC
⬗ The earliest sites with evidence of
farming and herding in the Indian
subcontinent

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 “It is likely that the culture
centered around Mehrgarh
migrated into the Indus
Valley and became the
Indus Valley Civilisation.

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 ⬗ Earliest fortified towns found was
Rehman Dher (4000 BC) in Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa close to River Zhob
Valley.
⬗ Other towns found to date are at Amri
(3600–3300 BC), Kot Diji in Sindh,
and at Kalibangan (3000 BC) at the
Hakra River.

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 Indus Valley Civilisation
⬗ starts around 3300 BC
⬗ earliest examples of the Indus Script date
to this period as well as the emergence of
citadels
⬗ Trade networks linked this culture with
related regional cultures (raw materials for
bead making)

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 ⬗ Trade networks linked this
culture with related
regional cultures (raw
materials for bead making)

⬗ Villagers had domesticated

numerous crops

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Ancient China
Reported by:
de Chavez, Aivy I.
 Ancient China was one of the oldest and
longest lasting civilizations in the history of the
world. The history of Ancient China can be
traced back over 4,000 years. Located on the
eastern part of the continent of Asia, today
China is the most populous country in the
world.
 ● Traditional Xia sites (black) and
Erlitou sites (red) near the
Yellow River (Huang He)
● Drawing on archaeology,
geology and anthropology,
modern scholars do not see the
origins of the Chinese
civilization or history as a linear
story but rather the history of
the Interactions of different and
distinct cultures and ethnic
groups that influenced each
other's development.
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specific cultural regions that
developed Chinese civilization

● Yellow River Civilization

● Yangtze Civilization
● Liao Civilization
 Yellow river civilization
- is the second-longest river in
China, after the Yangtze
River, and the sixth-longest
river system in the world at
the estimated length of 5,464
km (3,395 mi).
YANGTZE CIVILIZATION

- is the longest river in Asia, the

third-longest in the world and the
longest in the world to flow
entirely within one country.
 LIAO RIVER CIVILIZATION
● is an ancient Northeast Asian
civilization that originated in the Liao
basin. It is thought to have formed in
about 6,200 BC.
● This civilization was discovered when
Ryuzo Torii, a Japanese archaeologist,
discovered the Hongshan culture in
1908.
● Early evidence for Chinese millet agriculture
is dated to around 7000 BC, with the earliest
evidence of cultivated rice found at
Chengtoushan near the Yangtze River, dated
to 6500 BC.
● Chengtoushan may also be the site of the
first walled city in China. By the beginning
of the Neolithic Revolution, the Yellow
River valley began to establish itself as a
center of the Peiligang culture which
flourished from 7000 to 5000 BC, with
evidence of agriculture, constructed
buildings, pottery, and burial of the dead.
● With agriculture came increased population, the ability to
store and redistribute crops, and the potential to support
specialist craftsmen and administrators. Its most
prominent site is Jiahu.

● Some scholars have suggested that the Jiahu

symbols (6600 BC) are the earliest form of
proto-writing in China. However, it is likely
that they should not be understood as
writing itself, but as features of a lengthy
period of signuse which led eventually to a
fully-fledged system of writing.
● Archaeologists believe that the
Peiligang culture was
egalitarian, with little political
organization.
Mesoamerica
REPORTED BY:
Zierelle M. Vito
 Mesoamerica as a cradle of civilization
The Coxcatlan caves in the Valley of Tehuacán
provide evidence for agriculture in components
dated between 5000 and 3400 BC. Similarly, sites
such as Sipacate in Guatemala provide maize
pollen samples dating to 3500 BC.

It is estimated that fully domesticated maize

developed in Mesoamerica around 2700 BC.
https://library.si.edu/image-gallery/68495

https://slideplayer.com/slide/3833055/

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 Around 1900 BC, the Mokaya domesticated
one of the dozen species of cacao.

⬗ Mokaya are also thought to have been among

the first cultures in Mesoamerica to develop a
hierarchical society. What would become the
Olmec civilization had its roots in early
farming cultures of Tabasco, which began
around 5100 to 4600 BC.

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 Map of mesoamerica
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The emergence of the
Olmec civilization
● dated around 1600 to 1500
BC.
● first emerged in the city of San
Lorenzo Tenochtitlán (1400
BC)
 “
The rise of civilization was
assisted by the local ecology
of well-watered alluvial soil,
as well as by the
transportation network
provided by the
Coatzacoalcos River basin.

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 ⬗ The environment encouraged a densely
concentrated population, that triggered the
rise of an elite class and an associated
demand for the production of the symbolic
and sophisticated luxury artifacts that
define Olmec culture.
⬗ early Olmec elites had access to an
extensive trading network in
Mesoamerica.

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 ⬗ Aspects of Olmec culture
perhaps most familiar
today is their artwork,
particularly the Olmec
colossal heads.

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 San Lorenzo: the ceremonial site

⬗ was situated in the midst of a large

agricultural area.
⬗ ceremonial site, a town without city walls,
centered in the midst of a widespread
medium-to-large agricultural population.

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 ⬗ The ceremonial center
and attendant buildings
could have housed 5,500
while the entire area,
including hinterlands,
could have reached
13,000.

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 ⬗ San Lorenzo was all but
abandoned around 900
BC at about the same
time that La Venta rose
to prominence.

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 A wholesale destruction of many San Lorenzo
monuments also occurred circa 950 BC,

⬗ may indicate an internal uprising

or, less likely, an invasion.
⬗ Latest thinking suggests that
environmental changes may have
been responsible

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 Thank you!
“ We are not makers
of history, we are
made by history.”
-Martin Luther King Jr.
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