NAME______________________________________PER.____DATE_____________________________
CHAPTERS 1 – 4: LESSON 2 NOTES TEACHER COPY - DAVIS
CRADLES OF ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS
Located:
 b/t Tigris & Euphrates Rivers in Mesopotamia (“land b/t the rivers”), providing fertile soil to grow crops to
sustain life with surplus food
 within Fertile Crescent region
 within the Middle East in what is now Iraq
Major accomplishments:
 est. Babylon as 1st center of trade (city)
 built ziggurats – tier-shaped temples; intro.
wheel, plow; 1st to use bronze (tin &
copper)
 hierarchy of society from kings & priests to
scribes (professional writers) to merchants
& artisans to farmers, fishermen
Sumer
 1st to intro. any form of writing
 called cuneiform
 used stylus to mark on wet clay tablets
 deciphered by discovery of the Behistun Rock
 irrigation projects
Government:
 autocracy
 theocracy
 ruled city-states
 Babylonian king, Hammurabi
 intro. world’s 1st written law
code
 harsh, “eye for an eye…”
Religion: polytheistic
Located:
 along Nile River in N.E. Africa, providing fertile soil to grow crops to sustain life
with surplus food
 also known as “Kemet” meaning “Black Earth or Black Soil”
 Herodotus, Greek historian and father of history called Egypt the “gift of the Nile”
Major accomplishments:
 1st capital called Memphis by 1st
pharaoh, Menes, when he united
Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt
 built pyramids
 became best known doctors around
Mediterranean
 merchants, artisans
Egypt
 facial make-up
Government:
 Pharaohs as autocrats / theocrats
ruling with the power of
 dynasties (a series of rulers from the
same family)
Religion: polytheistic
 hieroglyphics on papyrus written by scribes
 deciphered by discovery of the Rosetta Stone found in
18th century by a soldier serving under the leadership of
French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte while on campaign
in Egypt
 chariots
 canals
 embalming (mummification)
Located:
 along Indus River in South Asia, providing fertile soil to grow crops to sustain life with
surplus food
 major centers of trade: Harappa (Pakistan) & Mohenjo-Daro (near Arabian Sea) built
on grid pattern
Major Accomplishments:
 underground sewer system
 use of bronze, copper, silver,
shell, ivory
 pictograms by scribes
 Sanskrit as cultural form of
writing
Government:
 kings ruling dynasties as
autocrats / theocrats
India
 Gupta Dynasty as example:
 gave India its Golden Age
 earliest form of Arabic
numerals as we use today
 vaccinations against
smallpox
 most families patriarchal;
 family most basic unit in
society
Religion: polytheistic
Located:
 along Huang He River (the Yellow River or the “River of Great Sorrow”), providing fertile soil
more times than not to grow crops to sustain life with surplus food if loess did not cause
catastrophic flooding
 China considered world’s oldest continuous civilization
Major Accomplishments:
 Shang dynasty 1st to shape
civilization
 several centers of trade; for
centuries preferred to remain
isolated from outside influences
(outsiders may change Chinese
culture)
 metal-casting
 jade
 silk
 kaolin (a fine white clay)
 seafarers, merchants, artisans
 scribes wrote characters in
vertical columns;
 later intro. elegant calligraphy
using brush & ink
China
Government:
 kings as autocrats / theocrats
 ruling dynasties
 by order of the “Mandate
of Heaven”: from old
dynasty’s cycle of
disaster to new dynasty’s
cycle of prosperity, which
eventually becomes the old
dynasty with problems,
leading to new dynasty
Religion:
 polytheistic
 honored spirits of ancestors
Location:

 Paleolithic groups of Asian people first crossed a land bridge connecting Asia and Alaska now called the
Bering Strait following migrating animal herds in search of food. These early Americans spread southward,
settling along lakes and rivers, where they learned to farm maize (corn) and beans, tomatoes and squash to
sustain life with surplus food.
Major Accomplishments:
 The Olmecs as oldest American
civilization:
 ceremonial centers
 pyramid-shaped temples
 calendar
 carved inscriptions by scribes
• intricately carved jade
figurines & jewelry
• utilized rubber for ball
games [The Olmecs: the “Rubber
People”]
The
Americas
 domesticated animals like llama
for their wool
 traders
 influenced the Mayas & the
Aztecs
Government:
 priestly leadership with religious
devotion
Religion: polytheistic