The Nile River Valley
-The nile is the longest river in the world-4,100 miles
- floods every year from july to november
- this brought rich soil and washed away waste
- used for transportation since it runs north and south
- valley contains deposits of granite, sandstone, and limestone used for building materials
- used hand soughs, had oxen to pull larger soughs
- used animals to walk over planted seeds to pack it down
- used sickles to cut grain
- papyrus reeds grew along the nile, made into sadals, mats, baskets, boats and paper
- religion was polytheistic: multiple gods
- traveled on large boats and built pyramids
- the economy depended on farmers
- social structure--king, ruling class, craftsman, farmers, marginalized groups, slaves
Mesopotamia
- thought of as the first civilization, but they were just the area where the first civilizations were
- some cities were sippar, babylon, kutu, kish
- Uruk-founded in 5000 bce
- uruk had 50000=80000 people in its 6 km walls in 2900 bce
- that made it the largest city in the world at the time
- Nippur-considered sacred group
- it was a special place of worship to the sumerian god, enlil, ruler of the cosmos
- Nineveh, one of the oldest cities
- became very religious
- there was an earthquake that destroyed the first temple of ishtar, it was later rebuilt in the year 2260 bce
- the 2 rivers of mesopotamia are the Tigris and the Euphrates
- the valley between the tigris and the euphrates river was known as the land between rivers
- was never a regular supply of water
- mesopotamia is in between the tigris and euphrates in iraq
- mainly desert in the north and mainly marshes, lagoons and mudflats in the south
- the south gets a lot of rain, most crops are grown there and the rivers irrigate the crops in dry seasons
- trade routes between mesopotamia
- many of the objects traded were domesticated animals, wine, donkeys, gemstones, camels, pottery, and horses
- a lot of trading was done with persians and ancient india, also traded with afghanistan and egypt
- they used cuneiform to write
- they used a base 60 numeral system. 60 minute hour, 24 hour day, 360 degree circle
- they used advanced mathematics invented the wheel
- they believed that the world was a flat disk that was surrounded by a vast hollow space and that this was enclosed in an over arching heaven
- the sea was all around the earth top bottom and sides
- they believed in a lot of different gods
- they played sports-hunting, wrestling, polo, but with men sitting on the shoulders of wither men instead of horses
- majore-a sport like rugby
- gov. was a monarchy
- wrote the first code of laws
- believed that their rulers were descendants of gods
- broken up into a city-state areas
Indus River civilazation
- indus meant the father of rivers
- originated from the tibetan plateau
- located in south asia
- were naturally protected by deserts and mountains
- 1000 miles east of india
- the religion is still uncertain, very similar to hinduism
- people were born into social classes
- women were valued because they could make babies
- when kids grew old they took over the parents jobs
- highly organized agriculture
- trade was a big part of their culture and economy
- harappa-one of the first cities, three classes-religious elite, trading class, the poor workers
- had sanitation systems, people had their own water wells
Yellow River
- Anyang was built mainly of wood. the city stood in a forest clearing.
- rich people lived in timber framed houses with walls of clay and straw
- poor people lived in huts outside the city
- Shang people needed walled cities because they were constantly waging war
- It's called the yellow river because it deposits a yellowish silt
- Its floods are disastrous because it devours entire villages
- China couldn't trade with outsiders so they had to figure things out on their own
- Only 10% of China's land is suitable for farming
- Called the yellow river the mother river
- its important because it provides China's local population with drinking supply
- 400 million people live in the yellow river basin
The Early River Valley Civilizations
- Mesopotamian - The Babylonian Empire
- Powerful state in ancient world
- most fertile and rich parts of the ancient world
- kings are called first dynasty of Babylon
- Babylon is the capital
- Jew were held there for 70 years
- Babylon means "Gate of Gods"
- Babylon is located in the land of Shinar
- Babylonia was an ancient empire that was in the Near East in southern Mesopotamia in between the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers
- Babylonia was a long, narrow country about 40 miles wide and an area of about 8,000 square miles
- was from 606-536 BC
- death penalty
- the death penalty was prescribed for theft, murder, adultery, kidnapping, rape, the receipt of stolen property from a temple or a palace, and for a false accusation of a capital crime
- marriage
- marriage was only legal when recorded in writing
- the penalty for adultery was death
- married women were permitted to own property
- The Nile - The First Dynasty
- 3100 BC - 2890 BC
- it was during the Early Dynastic Period of Egypt
- the first dynasty was founded in the Lower Kingdom of Egypt
- the capital at this time was Memphis
- It was founded by the Egyptian Pharaoh Narmer
- Narmer is known as the first pharaoh in Egypt
- Pharaoh Narmer is also known for reuniting the two kingdoms of Egypt
- the Narmer Palette was made
- the shield was one of the first objects to have Egyptian hieroglyphic writing on it
- there is no definite ending, so many historian combine dynasties 1 and 2
- historians obtain this information from tombs
- The Nile - The Second Dynasty
- 2890 BC - 2686 BC
- it was during the Early Dynastic Period of Egypt
- the capital at this time was Thinis
- Hotepsekhemwy was the founder of the Second Dynasty of Egypt
- the last pharaoh of the Second Dynasty was Khasekhemwy
- he married Nemathap, ending the Second Dynasty
- their marriage strengthened the unity of the Upper Kingdom and the Lower Kingdom of Egypt.
- their son, Djoser, was the first pharaoh of the Third Dynasty
- the Third Dynasty started the New Kingdom Period in Egypt.
- The Indus
- arose about 2500 BC
- there has been 1056 settlements found
- two major cities: Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa
- they are called the Harappan culture
- People who developed the civilization are unknown
- advanced in technology
- created first known sanitation system
- strong and stable gov't
- written language - undeciphered
- The Yellow River Civilization (China)
- Shang Dynasty
- formed 1600 - 1046 BC
- first family of Chinese rulers that left written records
- built palaces and tombs
- ruled Yellow River Valley in 2nd millennium BC defeating the Xia (shyah) Dynasty
- Capital : Anyang
- Language : Old Chinese
- Religion: Chinese Folk Religion
- Gov't : Monarchy
- civilization was based on agriculture, lots of hunting and animal care
- they fought a lot of wars with neighboring settlements and nomadic people who raised animals
- court rituals were performed at the court to honor spirits, people were often buried alive with the royal corpse
- shang tang was the last leader of teh last Yin Dynasty
- he commited suicide after his army was defeated by the Zhou
- Legend says that his ary betayed him and went to the Zhou Dynasty
The Fall of Empires
-Mesopotamian
- The Assyrian Empire ended in 612 bc when the capital city nineveh was invaded by an allied force of babylonians, medes, scythians, and susianians
- king sin shar ishkun was killed druing the siege
- babylonians took over the area shortly after
- the babylonian Empire was the strongest empire after the fall of assyrian empire
- the king of th epersian empire, cyrus the great, ordered and invasion on the babylonian land
- babylonia soon became a part of the persian empire
- babylonia was then called persian babylonia
- the persian empire fell when alexander the great had a long military campaign
- it became a part of the greek seleucid empire
- after this there was a lot of conflict between the romans and parthians for the region
-The nubians and egyptians
- nubia and egypt were the two biggest river valley civilizations at the time
- the nubians fell when egyptians started making trade routes through nubia, as time progressed the routes expanded and eventually egypt took over nubia
-Indus
- people aren't really sure what happened to the indus civilization
- historians believe there may have been a huge climate change
- others believe that the river had a current change and parts of the indu region were flooded while others experienced drought
-Yellow River
- the fall of xia is blamed on its last king who fell in love with an evil woman and became a tyrant,
- people rebelled against his leadership
- the shange dynasty ended when kind zhou killed his own son and murdered his ministers
- the zhou army battled the shang zhou and shang zhou lost
- the zhou dynasty began with the suicide of shang zhou
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