The River Valley Civilizations

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The River Valley Civilizations
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THE SUMERIANS
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• The Fertile Crescent is an area of fertile
  farming land in Southwest Asia.
• The land surrounding the Crescent is much like a
  desert.
• Two rivers the Tigris and the Euphrates surround
  the Fertile Crescent and flood the area at least
  once a year.
• The Area became known as Mesopotamia, a Greek
  word meaning land between two rivers.

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Environmental Challenges

• People called the Sumerians were among the first
  to settle the Fertile Crescent.
• Despite the fertile soil they did face some
  challenges
• The annual flooding was unpredictable.
• Few natural barriers existed leaving the
  Sumerians open to attack.
• Natural resources needed for building were scarce.

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Meeting Challenges

• To provide regular water to crops they dug
  irrigation ditches from the rivers to their
  fields.
• For defense they built city walls using mud
  bricks.
• For building materials they traded their grain to
  people of the mountains and desert for stone,
  wood and metal.

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Sumerians Create City-States

• The Sumerians were one of the first groups in
  history to create a civilization.
• Five characteristics set them apart from earlier
  human societies
• 1)Advanced cities
• 2)Specialized workers
• 3)Complex institutions
• 4)Record Keeping
• 5)Improved Technology

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Sumerians Create City-States

• Eventually the Sumerians created several
  City-States each of which ran like an individual
  country.
• Priests ruled early governments except for in
  times of war when military commanders took
  control.
• Eventually these commanders would keep control
  and pass power to their sons creating ruling
  dynasties.

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The Spread of Cities

• With a surplus of food Sumerians began to travel
  to other cities to trade.
• These cities shared good and ideas. The sharing
  of ideas and the blending of cultures is known as
  cultural diffusion.

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Religion

• Sumerians believed that many Gods controlled the
  forces of nature.
• These Gods had human characteristics but were
  all-powerful and immortal.
• They saw themselves as slaves to the Gods and
  worked hard to please them.
• They did not believe in an afterlife for
  themselves.

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Social Classes

• In time Sumerians developed social classes which
  included
• Kings
• Landholders Priests
• Wealthy merchants
• Workers Farmers
• Slaves

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Science Technology

• For building Sumerians used arithmetic and
  geometry systems in a base of 60.
• Today we still use their 60 seconds in a minute
  and 360 degrees in a circle.
• They developed Arches, columns and pyramid shaped
  ziggurats.
• The developed a form of writing called cuneiform.
  Some of the oldest records of scientific
  investigation in astronomy, chemistry, and
  medicine.

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The first Empires

• Around about 2350 B.C. Sargon of Akkad invaded
  the city-states of Sumer and united them creating
  an empire.
• In about 2000 B.C. Babylonians invaded gradually
  taking over and establishing the capital of
  Babylon.
• This Empire peaked with the rule of Hammurabi
  from 1792 to 1750 B.C.
• Hammurabis most enduring legacy was his uniform
  code of laws that were used in every city of
  Sumer. Even as new groups dominated the area they
  continued to use his system of laws.

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Ancient Egyptan Overview
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Timeline

• Old Kingdom 2650 BC 2134 BC
• Middle Kingdom 2125 BC 1550 BC
• New Kingdom 1550 BC 1295 BC

• http//www.thebanmappingproject.com/resources/time
  line.html

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Three Kingdoms of Ancient Egypt
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NEW KINGDOM
MIDDLE KINGDOM
OLD KINGDOM
Powerful pharaohs created a large empire that
reached the Euphrates River. Hatshepsut
encouraged trade. Ramses II expanded Egyptian
rule to Syria. Egyptian power declined.
Large drainage project created arable
farmland. Traders had contacts with Middle East
and Crete. Corruption and rebellions were
common. Hyksos invaded and occupied the delta
region.
Pharaohs organized a strong central state, were
absolute rulers, and were considered
gods. Egyptians built pyramids at Giza. Power
struggles, crop failures, and cost of pyramids
contributed to the collapse of the Old Kingdom.
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Geography

• Egypt is located in northeastern Africa
• The Nile River runs the length of the country
  flowing south to north
• The river begins in the mountains of Africa and
  empties into the Mediterranean Sea
• The climate is hot and dry, part of the Sahara
  Desert

http//www.worldcountries.info/Maps/GoogleMap-Egyp
t.php http//www.ancientegypt.co.uk/geography/expl
ore/ter.html
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Geography

• Ancient Egypt was divided into two regions Upper
  and Lower Egypt
• Lower (northern) Egypt consisted of the Nile
  River's delta made by the river as it empties
  into the Mediterranean.
• Upper Egypt was the long, narrow strip of ancient
  Egypt located south of the Delta.

http//www.ancientegypt.co.uk/geography/home.html
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The Nile River

• The Nile was the lifeblood of ancient Egypt
• It made life possible in the otherwise barren
  desert of Egypt.
• It is the longest river in the world (over 4,000
  miles).
• It served as a source of food for the people of
  ancient Egypt
• It was the major source of water for bathing and
  drinking
• The Nile was crucial for farming

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Blue Nile
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White Nile
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White Blue Nile Meet in Sudan
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Floodplain
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Floodplain

• The low strip of fertile land located on either
  side of the Nile River
• The river flooded during the annual inundation
• When the inundation subsided, it left the earth
  soaked and overlaid with a fresh layer of black
  silt.
• Most of the farming occurred here

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Nile Delta

• Located in northern Egypt where the Nile River
  spreads out and empties into the Mediterranean
  Sea
• 240 km of coastline, 106 km in length
• Rich agricultural region
• Most fertile soil in Africa

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• Bordered on the south, east and west by
  the Sahara Desert, and on the north by the sea,
  ancient Egypt was protected from outside
  influences.

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Great Sahara Desert
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Facts About the Nile River
Length 4,184 miles
2 Sources Lake Victoria, Uganda (White Nile) Lake Tana, Ethiopia (Blue Nile)
Mouth Mediterranean Sea, off Egypt
Countries Flows Through Egypt, Sudan, Uganda, Ethiopia, Zaire, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi
Name Origin Greek word Nelios, which means "River Valley"

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Religion

• Belief that many gods and goddesses ruled the
  world and the afterlife
  Amon-Re
  sun god
  Osiris god of the underworld
  and of the Nile
• The pharaoh was believed to be a god as well as a
  ruler

Falcon Headed Sun God
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Religion

• Belief in eternal life after death.
• Relied on the Book of the Dead to help them
  through the afterworld.
• Practiced mummification, the preservation of the
  body for use in the next life.
• 
  

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Book of the Dead
Collection of spells, hymns, and prayers intended
to secure a safe passage to the underworld for
the deceased
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Writing
Making paper from papyrus
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What is hieroglyphics?

• Hieroglyphics is the picture writing used in
  ancient Egypt. The word hieroglyphics is made up
  of two Greek words - hieros, which means sacred,
  and glyphe, which means carving.
• The Egyptian hieroglyphic writing system consists
  of several hundred picture signs. The signs can
  be divided into two classes, phonograms and
  ideograms

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Phonograms represent sounds, much as alphabet
letters do. Ideograms are signs that represent
whole words or concepts.
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Pyramids
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The Great Sphinx
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Mythology
Egyptian goddess Isis, tomb painting, ca. 1360 BC.
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Social Classes
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PHARAOH Earthly leader considered a god
HIGH PRIESTS AND PRIESTESSES Served gods and
goddesses
NOBLES Fought pharaohs wars
MERCHANTS, SCRIBES, AND ARTISANS Made furniture,
jewelry, and fabrics for pharaohs and nobles, and
provided for other needs
PEASANT FARMERS AND SLAVES Worked in the fields
and served the pharaoh
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Daily Life

• The Egyptians - Daily Life
• Daily Life in Ancient Egypt

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Science Technology

• Developed 365 day, 12 month calendar just 6 hours
  off from a true solar year.
• Skillful in math and geometry allowing for
  accurate measurements in pyramids and palaces.
• First to use stone columns.
• Highly advanced in medicine. Set broken bones,
  developed effective treatments for wounds and
  fevers, and even used surgery.

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The Indus Valley

• In 1922, archaeologists made a startling
  discovery in northwestern India. While digging
  in the Indus River Valley, they unearthed bricks,
  small statues, and other artifacts unlike any
  they had seen before. The archaeologists soon
  realized that they had uncovered a lost
  civilization one that had been forgotten for
  some 3,500 years.

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Mysteries of the Indus Valley

• The earliest Indian Civilization emerged in the
  Indus River Valley, in present-day Pakistan,
  about 2500 B.C.
• Indus Valley sites have not fully been uncovered.
• We have no names of queens, no tax records, no
  literature, or no accounts of famous victories.
• The Indus Valley civilization covered the largest
  area of any civilization until the rise of Persia
  more than 1,000 years later.

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Well-Planned Cities

• Two main cities Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro
• Both cities had huge warehouses to store grain
  brought from outlying cities.
• Both cities were very well planned. Each city
  was laid in a grid pattern.
• Houses had surprisingly modern plumbing systems,
  with baths, drains, and water chutes that led
  into sewers beneath the streets.
• From all the evidence, archaeologists have
  concluded that the Indus Valley cities had a well
  organized government with powerful leaders.

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Farming Trade

• Most of the people were farmers
• Crops included wheat, barley, melons, and dates.
• They were the first people to cultivate cotton
  and weave its fibers into cloth.
• Some were merchants and traders.
• Ships carrying cotton, cloth, grain, copper,
  pearls, and ivory combs sailed to distant lands
  by hugging the Arabian Sea coast and sailing up
  the Persian Gulf.
• Contact with Sumer may have stimulated the people
  to develop their own system of writing.

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Religious Beliefs

• Polytheistic
• They worshipped sacred animals
• A mother Goddess, the source of creation, seems
  to have been widely honored.

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Early Civilizations in China

• The distance and physical barriers separated
  China from the rest of the world.
• This isolation contributed to the Chinese belief
  that China was the center of the Earth and the
  sole source of civilization.
• Chinese history began in the Haung He valley
  where Neolithic people learned to farm.
• Chinese civilization first took shape about 1650
  B.C. under the control of the Shang.

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Government Social Classes in Ancient China

• Kings during the Shang period probably only
  controlled a small area. Loyal princes and
  nobles governed most of the land.
• Artifacts suggest that noblewomen had
  considerable status during the Shang period.
• Most people in Shang China were peasants, the
  middle class was made up of merchants and
  artisans. The upper class was the royal family,
  nobles, and warriors.

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Religion

• They prayed to many Gods and nature spirits.
• The King was seen as the link between the people
  and the Shang Di (The mother Goddess who brought
  plants and animals to earth).

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• Ancestor worship Gods would not respond to mere
  mortals, so only spirits of the greatest mortals,
  such as the ancestors of the King, could get the
  ear of the Gods. The Chinese called on their
  ancestors to bring good fortune to the family.
• Some of the oldest examples of Chinese writing
  are on oracle bones. On the animal bones or
  turtle shells, Shang priests wrote questions
  addressed to the gods or the spirit of an
  ancestor. Priest then heated the bone or shell
  until it cracked. By interpreting the pattern of
  cracks, they provided answers or advice from the
  ancestors.

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China

• North China is dominated by the alluvial plain
  along the Yellow River. This part of China Proper
  is mostly flat and the soil, replenished by silt
  carried down by the river, is well-suited to
  agriculture.