Thursday Augsut 30th

Mesopotamia

was the 1st place the the Pythagorean Theorem was created.
Mesopotamia means the land between two rivers.
Trade and commerce was very important to the people by using the Tigris and Euphrates river. Rivers were used for irrigation, and for grazing animals
Many problems with the river: flooding which would force people to move from cities
They had many gods. They believed that the world was a flat disc and water covered the entire earth and that the universe was born from the enormous sea.
They settled because of water, warm climate and the fertile soil. However there was few trees very little rainfall, and Mesopotamian traded their surplus for stone wood and metal.
Babylon was known for it's color and luxury
Ashur is in modern day Iraq named after a god.

Nile

Its located in Africa and its over 4000 miles long.
Like many other civilizations of its time, life was mainly dependent on the river and the life it brought with it. It's also called the chief of transport.
The People of the Nile river were the Egyptians. Men wore skirts and robes and the women skirts and dresses. If you had money you wore sandals.
The sun God is RE or RA.
Egyptians believed in life after death. They did mummies. Clothing, foods, and other needed accessories were added into the grave just in case they would need it in the after life.

Yellow River

The yellow river has supported civilizations for thousands of years and still does today. Its 3000 miles long and begins in the Bayan Har Mountains and empties into the Pacific Ocean. Many people use to die because of natural disasters from the Yellow River.
Because of China's geography consists of mountain ranges and river valleys, so it made it hard for people to sell or trade for crops and livestock thus making people self sufficient by having to live off of their own crops and livestock
The Chinese believed in supernatural powers so when they needed something they asked the gods for it. Women were unable to own property. The leader was King Shang and he ruled for the civilization from the city of Anyang. Family was one of the most important things in the Chinese culture. The father was the head of the family and he arranged all of the marriages and chose his sons' jobs. Rituals were also preformed by the men.

Indus River Valley

Brahmins, Kshatriya, Vaishyas, Shudras
3300 B.C. - 1900 B.C.
It was in Southwest Asia and covered 1,260,000 sq km
Its in Present day Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, and China. Natural Borders of the Himalayas and Arabian Sea sheltered area from attacks and disease. The Indus River System branched out into 7 great rivers. Back then, the region was really diverse with forests, jungles, deserts, vast plains, mountains and the river delta and basin. The river provided fertile soil.
When the river flooded they had no dams, they also used it for drinking water, fish, and irrigation. The floods also fertilized the soil with the silt.
Their religion similar to Hinduism, seals of animals and swastikas, believed in life after death, and worshiped Mother Goddess. Worshiped animals, god names are unknown, and god names died with the civilization.
They were a literate society. Between 400-600 distinct Indus symbols. Wrote on pots and clay tablets.
Clothes were made of cotton and wool, colorful robes. Men and women wore jewelry. They were very skilled in Pottery. Had basic weapons like axes spears and daggers. Many People Danced for fun
Their cities were set up in perfect grid patterns comparable to that of NYC. The civilization was home to the first urban sanitation system. Lothal was the Trading center near a river. Harappa was on of the first cities built. Mohenjo-daro was the largest most advanced city. Homes were one or two stories high.

MY GROUP

The mesopotamia River valley is between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers by Bagdad and Iraq.

Farming villages developed allow these rivers with the idea of irragation around 6,000 BC and they turned into cities.

Babylonian Empire was the major civilization in the Mesopotamia River Valley.
XIA- Is the first know dynasty of the Chinese area along the Yellow river. Little is known about their dynasty because no writing remains. Xia was known for their black pottery.
Shang- they were the most advanced bronze-working civilization in the world. They liked human sacrifice a lot. If a king died, then more than one hundred slaves would join him in the grave. Some of them would be beheaded first. Some of them were just thrown in still alive. Later dynasties replaced the humans with terra-cotta figures,
Western Zhou- Used the father-son kingdom passing unlike the shang who used brother-younger brother. The Zhou didn't rule all of what was then China. It was broken into quasi independent principalities or different regions

The Decline of the Early River Valley Civilizations

The Akkadian Empire fell in 1950 B.C. They were attacked by the Amorites. It is unknown why they couldn't defend themselves. The Babylonia empire collapsed to the ROmans
Egypt: They were the most powerful during the Ramesside Period, they were conquered by the Libyans, Nubian, Assyria, Babylonian, Persian rule and Greece in the Third Intermediate Period of Egypt and Late Period. After Alexander the Great's death.
The Xia Dynasty was the first ever recorded Chinese civilization. Their culture subsided due to famine and being overrun by the Shang Dynasty. The Zhou late on destroyed themselves with a civil war.
Indus Valley were destroyed by foods by flooding the crop lands. As a result of the famine the Aryans invaded and took over

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