Early River Civilization Notes
The Nile
- The Nile River valley was necessary for farming, used for traveling, and is the longest river in the world (4100 miles).
- floods every year from July to November, and it brought rich soil for the Egyptians, and washed away all of the waste
- contains deposits of granite that were used for building materials.
- Farming: used hand saws, oxen pulled larger soughs, goats and animals to walk on the ground after planting to pack the seeds down.
- harvest march-may--used sickles to cut grain
- Culture-Religion Polytheistic religion: multiple gods
- traveled on large boats
- economy depended mostly on farmers
- Social structure: king, ruling class, craftsman, farmers, marginalized groups, and slaves
The empires (MY GROUPS PRESENTATION)
Mesopotamian
- The Babylonian Empire
- •Powerful state in ancient world
- •Most fertile and rich parts of ancient world
- •Kings are called first dynasty of Babylon.
- •Babylon is the capital.
- •Jews were held there for 70 years.
- •Babylon means "Gate of God's”.
- •Babylon is located in the land of Shinar.
- •Mesopotamian
- The Babylonian Empire (Continued)
- •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.
- •Fun Facts: Babylonian Empire
- •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 B.C.-2890 B.C.
- •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 historians combine dynasties 1 and 2.
- •Historians obtain this information from tombs.
- •The Nile
- The Second Dynasty
- •2890B.C.-2686 B.C.
- •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 Nile
- The Second Dynasty (Continued)
- •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 Lower Kingdom of Egypt.
•The Nile - The Second Dynasty (Continued)
- •Their son, Djoser, was the first pharaoh of the Third Dynasty.
- •The third dynasty started the New Kingdom Period in Egypt.
- •Fun Facts: The Kingdom of Egypt
- •You could be put to death for killing a cat.
- •Cats were thought to be manifestations of the Egyptian goddess, Bast.
- •The penalties for killing or mistreating a cat were severe; one could be put to death if only suspected of harming a cat.
•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.
- •The Indus (Continued)
- •People who developed the civilization are unknown.
- •Advanced in technology
- •Created first known sanitation system
- •Strong and stable government
- •Written language- undeciphered
The Yellow River Civilization (China) - •Shang Dynasty
- •Formed 1600-1046 B.C.
- •First family of Chinese rulers that left a written records
- •Built palaces and tombs
- •Ruled Yellow River Valley in 2nd millennium B.C. defeating the Xia (shyah) Dyansty
- •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 preformed at the court to honor spirits, people were often buried alive with the royal corpse. - •Shang Tang was the last leader of the last Yin Dynasty.
- •He committed suicide after his army was defeated by the Zhou.
- •Legend says that his army betrayed him and went to the Zhou Dynasty.
- •Yin Dynasty is a synonymous for the Shang Dynasty.
- •Yin Dynasty collapsed and the people that were left change their surname to honor the name of the Dynasty Yin `O.
Mesopotamia
- the area in the middle east broken up into different civilizations
- Nuzi, Nineveh, Mari, Assur, Babylon
- Uruk-one of the first civilizations 5000 B.C.E. 50000-80000 people, making it the largest city of that time
- Nippur-considered a sacred group, 5000 BCE 2500 BCE, and it was a special place to worship
- Nineveh-one of the oldest cities, 6000 BCE, around 3000 BCE it became very religious, an earthquake destroyed temple of Ishtar -- rebuilt 2260 BCE
- Mesopotamian rivers--2 Tigris and the Euphrates, Land between rivers (land between the rivers), material was deposited by the 2 rivers, but there was never a regular supple of water
- Mesopotamia, in Iraq, mainly desert in the N and marshes and lagoons in the S, S gets a lot of rain, 5800 sq. mi. area, Most crops are grown in the S.
- Trade routes-pottery, gem stones, wine, and animals were traded, 4000-6000BCE, trading was done with Persians in Ancient India, but also traded with Egypt and Afghanistan.
- Culture-
- Technology--Used cuneiform to write, used base 60 numeral system, used advanced mathematics, invented the wheel, only the sons of prominent people could go to school
- Religion-believed the world was a flat disk surrounded by vast hollow space, the sea was around the earth (top, bottom, and sides), the universe had been born to the waters, polytheistic society (more than one god), Patriarchal (fathers were head of the household)
- Sports-hunting, wrestling, polo (but with men sitting on the shoulders of other men instead of horses, Majore (like Rugby)
- Government-Monarchy, First code of laws in action for thousands of years, believed that their rulers were descendants of gods, broken up into a city-state system
Indus
- Monsenjo-Daro-mound of dead-largest city, 2 portions, Citadel was the lower city, called public bath, had sanitation systems, had own water wells
- Father of Rivers, Originated from Tibetan Plateau in South Asia, Tibet North of the Himalayas
- deserts and mountains protected the people naturally, 1000 mi east of India
- Culture-religion is uncertain, similar to Hinduism, people were born into social classes, classes didn't change, women were valued because they had babies, the kids took on the parents' jobs when they were older, highly organized agriculture, animals were food, trade, made jewelry
- first city was Harappa-3 classes-religious elite, trading class, the poor workers, Gujranwala was the largest site
The Yellow River located in China
- Anyang was built manly of wood. Rich people lived in timber framed houses. Poor people lived outside of the city.
- Shang people needed walled cities, since they were constantly waging war.
- it deposits yellowish silt, it's floods are disastrous and sometimes it's called "China's Sorrow".
- early settlers couldn't trade with outsiders
- Only 10% of China is suitable for farming and most land is located between the yellow river and Chang Jiang in Eastern China.
- Culture-called mother river, paper making, gun powder, poetry, printing,inventions and scientific achievements spread to the rest of the world and promoted chines culture
- Supplies most of China's local population with drinking water, and irrigates much of China's farmland.
- 400 million people live in the Yellow River Basin.
The Fall of the Empires
- many empires did not survive
- Mesopotamian--cradle of civilization-the assyrian ended in 612 BC, when Nineveh was invaded by an allied force of Babylonians, Medes, Scythians, and Susianians, King Sin-Shar-Ishkun was killed during the seige, the Babylonians took over the area
- The fall of the Babylonian empire-was the strongest empire--in 539 BC, the king of the Persian empire, Cyrus the Great, ordered an invasion on the Babylonian land, Babylonia became part of the persian empire (Persian Babylonia)
- Fall of Persian Empire--Alexander the great took over the area and it became part of the greek seleucid empire, there was a lot of conflict between Romans and Parthians for the region
The Nubians and Egyptians
- Nubia and Egypt were the two biggest river valley civilizations by the Nile River
- Around 1640 BC Egyptian trade people started making trade routes through Nubia, the routes expanded and Egypt took over Nubia
Indus
- Historians are not sure how it ended, there may have been a climate change, the region flooded, others experienced drought, and food shortages caused people to starve and spread diseases
Yellow River
- Fall of Xia blamed on its last king who fell in love with an evil woman and became tyrant, people rebelled against his leadership
- Shang Dynasty ended when king Zhou killed his own son and murdered his ministers, the Zhou army battled the Shang Zhou and the Shang Zhou lost
- The Zhou dynasty began with the suicide of Shang Zhou.
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