Cultural Hearths

New ideas, technology, and practices were born in places that we call cultural hearths
These cultural hearths spread ideas and practices throughout the world through cultural diffusion
They influenced the way people did things (burying the dead, planting crops, domestication of animals, forming governments, settlements, and building places of worship)
The five cultural hearths were the Catalhoyuk, Banpo, Oaxaca, Faiyum, and Gobekli Tepe

Catalhoyuk

The Catalhoyuk people lived in an early village
9,000 years ago, these people lived in what is present day Turkey
This Neolithic people (New Stone Age) lived in a small village, but it was advanced for its time
These early people farmed for their existence
They grew barley and wheat
These early people also raised livestock (sheep, goats, and cattle) for meat, milk, and clothes
They lived in permanent mud brick buildings that looked like condos or apartments
Archaeologists found copper and lead in the ruins (these people may have practiced metallurgy: metalworking)

About 5,000 B.C., the weather had become warmer and wetter
A new group of people began to settle along the Huang He river (southern China)
The Yangshao culture emerged in this land of fertile soil
Banpo was a large farming village
Banpo had many small houses that faced a larger community building in a central sguare
They grew rice, millet (their staple, or main, crop), and hemp
These peoples cultivated silk for clothing and fabric
The Yanshao were excellent pottery makers (pots were used for food storage, etc.)
These early groups (clans) were matrilineal (traced their lineage (descendancy) through their mother instead of their father

Early humans living in Mesoamerica (middle America) were nomadic people (on the move searching for food)
They began to domesticate wild plants (like other cultural hearth civilizations)
Soon after, they domesticated maize (corn)
Archaeologists found prehistoric corncob pieces in the highland caves of Oaxaca and the Tehuacan Valley
Stone tools for grinding the corn into flour were also found by archaeologists

Early humans living in North Africa laid the foundation for the Egyptians to come
The Sahara Desert (once a tropical grassland about 10,000 years ago) became the dry wasteland it is today due to climate change
Climate change also dried up the swamp lands along the Nile River, creating ideal lands for farming
Archaeologists discovered storage pits for grain and postholes for building foundations in Faiyum (an oasis 50 miles from modern day Cairo)
Neighboring cultures taught the people in Faiyum the art of agriculture (wheat and barley & sheep and pig bones were found)
Archaeologists believe that farming and domestication were brought to Faiyum via cultural diffusion (learning new ways from others)

Gobekli Tepe is an interesting cultural hearth because archaeologists believe that it is the world's first religious temple
Located in modern day Turkey, this interesting temple sheds light on the dawn of religion
Around 11,600 years ago, early humans built massive T-shaped limestone pillars with animal carvings, arranged into circles
This was done before the invention of the wheel
Archaeologists believe that hunter-gatherers built this temple, not farmers
The debate is: What came first, agriculture, or religion? (Gobekli Tepe caused archaeologists to rethink their beliefs on the evolution of religion)

Olive Vista Middle School Student