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 army betrayed him and went to the Zhou Dynasty
Mesopotamia
- commonly thought of as the first civilization but Mesopotamia is just the area where the first civilizations were. there were different civilizations, mostly broken up into city states.
- cities by the river
- kutu
- kish
- isin
- adab
- girsu
- erech
- Uruk
- one of the first civilizations
- in about 5000 BCE the city was founded
- had 50,000 - 80,000 people in its 6km by 6km walls, in 2900 BCE
- made it the largest city in the world at the time.
- had walls all around
- Nippur
- was considered a sacred group
- was formed around the year 5000 BCE
- hit its peak around 2500 BCE
- was a special pace of the worship to the Sumerian god, Enlil, ruler of the cosmos
- Ninevuh
- one of the oldest cities
- was founded around the year 6000 BCE
- by 3000 BCE they became very religious, worshiping the goddess Ishtar
- there was an earthquake that destroyed the first temple of Ishtar
- then it was later rebuilt in the year 2260 BCE
- How the river worked in the Mesopotamia
- the 2 rivers in Mesopotamia are the Tigris and the Euphrates
- the valley between the Tigris and the Euphrates River was known as the land "between the rivers" in Greek
- there was never a regular supple of water in Mesopotamia but the soil was so enriched over the years by the layers of silt which is material deposited by the two rivers
- Geography
- it's in between the Tigris and Euphrates river in Iraq
- Mesopotamia is mainly desert in the north and mainly marshes, lagoons, and mudflats in the south
- the south get a lot of rain. mostly crops are grown there and the rivers irrigate the crops in the dry seasons
- Mesopotamia is a 5,800 sq. mile area
- the trade routes of how they would get their money and food are
- Trade Routes between Mesopotamia
- many of the objects traded were domesticated animals, wine, donkeys, gemstones, camels, pottery, and horses
- a lot of the trading was done with the Persians and ancient India, but they also traded with Afghanistan and Egypt
- All of the trading was done between 4000 and 6000 BCE
- Culture/technology
- they used cuneiform to write
- they used a base 60 numeral system. this is where the 60 minutes hour, 24 hour days, and the 360 circle
- they used advanced mathematics invented the wheel
- only the sons of prominent people could to go to school
- Religion
- 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
- the universe had been born of these waters
- they were a polytheistic society
- they were a patriarchal society
- Sports
- Hunting
- Wrestling
- Polo, but with men sitting on the shoulders of other men instead of horses
- Majore - a sport like rugby
- Gov't
- were a monarchy - led by king and queen
- wrote the first code of laws
- they believed that their rulers were descendants of gods
- broken up into a city-state system
Indus River Civilization
- Geography
- "Father of Rivers"
- Originating from the Tibetan Plateau
- Located in South Asia
- Tibet north of the Himalayas
- The Indus Valley people had deserts and mountains protecting them naturally
- 1000 miles east of India
- Cultures of Indus
- the religion is still uncertain. It was very similar to the Hinduism of today
- people were born into social classes
- your social class wont change
- if you're born poor, you will always be poor
- Women were valued because they made babies
- when kids grew old they took on the parents' jobs
- Highly organised agriculture
- animals were a source of food
- trade was a big part of their culture and economy
- Harappa
- one of the first cities was located at Harappa
- three classes
- religious elite
- trading class
- the poor workers
- largest known Harappan site is Ganweriwala located on the bank of the Sarasvati river
- Mohenjo-Daro
- divided into 2 portions
- Citadel was the lower city
- which was called the public bath
- they had sanitation systems
- people have their own water wells
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