• 3500 to 500 BC
The “Cradles of Civilization”

Where did the earliest civilizations develop?
•
River valleys

Why did ancient civilizations develop in river valleys?
• They had rich soil for agriculture
• Periodic flooding left silt which made the soil rich in nutrients

( mountains , deserts , seas , jungles,etc.)
Helped protect many early civilizations from nomadic invaders

Where were the earliest civilizations located and when did they exist?
C
E
M I

River Valley Civilizations
(3500 BC to 500 BC )
•
Mesopotamia in the Tigris and Euphrates
River Valleys. (Southwest Asia )
•
Egypt in the Nile River Valley and Delta
( Africa )
•
India in the Indus River Valley in South Asia
•
China in the Huang He Valley ( East Asia).
•
From west to east “EMIC”

• What were the geographic, social, political, and economic characteristics of the Ancient
River Valley civilizations?

• The land between two rivers (Tigris and Euphrates)
• Part of the
Fertile Crescent

•
Arc of fertile land stretching from the
Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea
Mesopotamia

• Present day
Iraq
( Middle East ).

• The first of many civilizations to arise in
Mesopotamia
•
Protected by mountains, deserts and the
Persian Gulf

•
Sumer was made up of 12 independent city- states
• City-state: A city and the surrounding land it controlled

• Mesopotamia had a dry climate
•
Irrigation was required to bring water from the rivers to the fields during the dry summer months

• Invented the first written language: cuneiform
( w edge writing)

• Smelted from copper and tin

•
Plow
•
Ziggurats
•
Wheeled vehicles
•
Number system based on 60

Babylonian Empire
• The first empire to arise in Mesopotamia
• Empire: several peoples, nations, or previously independent states under the control of one ruler.

Code of Hammurabi
•
First set of published laws
• Based on the principle of an
“ eye for an eye”
• Laws differed based on class

• Nile Delta and Nile
River Valley
(Northeast Africa)
• Protected by deserts and seas

• Located in
Lower
Egypt ( northern
Egypt - lower in elevation)
•
Delta : broad, marshy, triangular area of land formed by deposits of silt at the mouth of a river.

Lower Egypt
• View from space shuttle

•
Pictures could stand for sounds as well as ideas

•Egyptian god-kings
• They had absolute power (complete control)
• Thought to be responsible for making the sun rise, the Nile flood , and crops grow.

• Like other River
Valley peoples,
Egyptians were polytheistic
(believed in many gods).

• Egypt, had a rigid class system and slavery was accepted.

• Indus Valley Civilization

• Located on the Indus
River in present-day
Pakistan (Indian subcontinent ).

Indus River Flood Plain

• The
Himalayan and the Hindu Kush Mountains as well as the Indian Ocean protected the Indian subcontinent from invasion .

• Made up of independent city states including
Harappa , and Mohenjo-Daro (and 2500 other sites)

Indus Valley Achievements
• Plumbing
The great bath at Mohenjo-Daro

• Indus valley people were the first to cultivate cotton and weave its fibers into cloth

Written Language
• has not been deciphered

• Huang He River

•Also called the
Yellow River and the River of
Sorrows (yellow silt caused flooding)

Flooding of the Huang He
• Satellite images before after

•
Gobi desert, Himalayan Mountains,
Pacific Ocean, dense jungles

• China was ruled by a succession of ruling families called dynasties (Early dynasties: Shang and Zhou)
Shang Dynasty

• Chinese rulers were considered divine ( god like).

• They served under a mandate of heaven
( approval of the gods) only as long as their rule was just
Mandate of Heaven

• Explains the rise, decline, and replacement of families of rulers

Chinese Silk
• The Chinese invented silk cloth (made from the cocoons of silkworms).

• Characters stood for ideas , not sounds.
• The earliest evidence of Chinese writing is found on oracle bones.

• The Chinese believed that the spirits of family ancestors could bring good fortune or disaster
• They paid respect to family ancestors and made sacrifices in their honor
Bronze vessel used for sacrificial food

Irrigation
•
Water wheels were used to bring river water to the fields