Ancient History(5% of AP Exam Questions)

Circa 8,000 BCE, fancy way of saying around that time, people started farming for some reason. This becomes called the Neolithic Revolution or the Agricultural Revolution. Farming does something interesting: it separates society into the haves and have-nots (defined social classes). Once farmers grow a surplus of crops, people have time to do other stuff, and thus can have other jobs besides farming (specialized labor). Important new shift - people can be rich or poor.

People slloooooowly start to become civilized, meaning they eventually (over 4,000 years or so) start to have government and cities and big buildings and writing. (This developed from having to agree and work together to store grain or irrigate land - you need soldiers and builders and maybe a government.)

The first civilizations are in lush river valleys (remember farming...you need to be near fresh water). First glimpses of civilization: Mesopotamia! (modern-day Iraq) 3500 BCE-ish. They're creative people, coming up with the WHEEL and WRITING. I would say those are 2 rather important inventions. Egypt comes in second (although this is debated) circa 3100 BCE. (Give or take a couple centries). The Egyptians were very inventive although rather morbid. The Indus Valley (modern-day Pakistan) comes in 3rd at around 2500 BCE with amazingly organized cities and indoor plumbing as well as early air conditioning! Last but not least is Shang China around 2000 BCE. They had cool bronze pottery, some oracle bones and some cool writing, well pictograms.

(NOTE: notice the "-ish" and the "around" and the "give or take a century" phrases and additions. These dates, especially during this time period are fuzzy. Plus, it's easier to remember: Meso 35, Egypt 30, Indus 25, Shang 20.)

Other civilizations start cropping up around the globe. The Olmecs in Mexico start building soccer courts and big heads. The Chavin in South America cultivate the potato. The Kush in Africa build some tall skinny pyramids. The Hebrews have a crazy new idea - monotheism (one God).

So all that stuff above is called Ancient History. Those civilizations are called "Ancient Civilizations."