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Sumer: 3500-2300BCE
Ancient Egypt: 2700-1100BCE
Indus Valley: 2500-1500BCE
China:
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Shang 1650-1027BCE
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Zhou 1027-256BCE

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Rivers provide drinking water, fish, game, and transportation for people, armies, and products.
Flooding deposits a layer of silt – rich soil.
To control floods and store water for the dry season – dikes, reservoirs, and irrigation canals were constructed.

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Cities
Organized Central governments
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Priest-kings were followed by military leaders who were followed by hereditary monarchs
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Bureaucracy - government organized into departments
Complex Religion
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Polytheistic – belief in many gods that control the forces of nature
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Most gods behave like humans

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Job Specialization/Social Classes ~ Hierarchy
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Priests
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Nobles
Wealthy Merchants
Government Workers
Artisans (skilled craft workers)
Soldiers
Peasant Farmers
Slaves

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Public Works
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Irrigation Systems
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Roads
Bridges
Defensive Walls
Arts & Architecture
Writing

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Cuneiform – 3200BCE
First-Known Writing
Wedge-like shapes made on clay tablets

HIEROGLYPHICS

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Seals have not been deciphered.

ANCIENT CHARACTERS MODERN CHARACTERS

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Tigris and Euphrates rivers – unpredictable floods
Fertile Crescent:
Persian Gulf to
Mediterranean Sea
Mesopotamia
(between the rivers)
Modern-day Iraq
City-States constantly fought

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Nile River – 4160 miles
– longest in the world.
Center of a ten-mile wide strip of fertile land.
The desert protected against invasion, but limited settlement and the acquisition of new ideas.

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Indus River modern-day Pakistan
Barriers

HUANG HE RIVER AKA YELLOW RIVER
AKA RIVER OF SORROWS

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Goal was to keep gods happy with sacrifices and ceremonies.
Each city-state had a special god or goddess.
Fear of natural disasters led to a pessimistic world view.
At death, people went to a huge cave filled with dust and silence.
Inanna and Dumuzi

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Village gods
Afterlife = Good go to Happy Field of Food –
Bad go to crocodile-shaped eater of the dead.
Mummification to provide a home for the soul.
Wealthy entombed with everything needed for eternity.
Pharaoh considered a god – son of Amon-Re.

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Figurines representing a mother goddess and a three-faced god have been discovered.
Sacred animals included the bull.
Certain trees were revered.

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Shang Ti ruled over the other gods.
Priests acted as intermediaries between humans and the gods.
Veneration (respect) of ancestors because deceased relatives would intervene with the gods on your behalf.
Household gods oversee activities in the home.
Taoism/Daoism
Confucianism
Legalism

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Mandate of
Heaven – gods grant the right to rule to a dynasty
Dynastic Cycle – rise and fall of dynasties (ruling families)

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First Writing – Cuneiform
First Wheeled Vehicles – carts and war chariots
Basic Algebra & Geometry
Number System based on 6 ~ 360-degree circle & 60-minute hour
Accurate 12-month Calendar tracked seasons
Ziggurats
First to use arches, columns, ramps
Complex Irrigation Systems

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Old Kingdom – 2700-2200BCE – Pyramid Age
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Pharaohs, Mummification, Pyramids
Middle Kingdom – 2050-1800BCE – Turbulent Age
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Major Construction – land drainage, canal to Red Sea,
temples at Luxor & Karnak
New Kingdom – 1550-1100BCE – Empire Age
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Empire at its largest – from Kush to the Euphrates
Famous Rulers: Akhenaton, Hatshepsut, Ramses II

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Women had high status
Education for wealthy males
Geometry
Astronomy
Engineering
Painting, Sculpture, Literature
Best medicine in the ancient world

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Son-in-law (maybe son) of Akhenaton ruled
1333-1323BCE.
Died at 19.
Tomb discovered in
1922 by Howard Carter.
Curse: many associated with the opening of the tomb died soon after – fueling the legend ~ true cause = mold.

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Written in
Hieroglyphics
(important and religious
documents), Demotic
(everyday script), and
Greek (rulers at the time).
Written in 196BCE and discovered by one of Napoleon’s men in 1799.

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Discovered in 1922
Cities: Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro and farming villages over 950 miles
First city planning: grid pattern, uniform building style, rectangular city blocks, plumbing
First to cultivate and weave cotton

SHANG
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Small kingdoms
Silk Making
Bronze Tools
Characters
Oracle Bones –
Questions written on bones or tortoise shells
Astronomy
ZHOU
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Feudalism
Iron Tools & Weapons
Use of Money
First Books
Soybeans