CHAPTER 1
FIRST RIVER
VALLEY
CIVILIZATIONS
PRE-CIVILIZATION
• Stability due to need to control water
• Small groups could not regulate waters
• Small groups could not defend area
• Predecessors to civilizations
• Small farming villages
• First appeared in S.W. Asia
• Catal Huyuk as example
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Self-sufficient agricultural village in Turkey
Evidence of trade, tool making, artisans
Evidence of complex religion
Specialization of occupations: politics, military
Evidence of metal working (Copper Age)
CIVILIZATION
• Civilization as Advanced Culture
• Population dependent on cities
• From Latin civitas
• Permanent institutions
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Politics, Religion; ability to make war
Social, labor, gender divisions, inequality
Clearly defined sense of other: barbarian, nomad
Artisan, intellectual classes favoring technology
• Form of record keeping, specifically writing
• Do not confuse with “good” or “superior”
THE MAP OF 1ST CIVILIZATIONS
ANCIENT HUMOR
ENVIRONMENT AS CATALYST
• Mesopotamia (land between rivers)
• Harsh heat, drought; unpredictable floods
• Few natural resources short of mud; no
wood
• No natural defensive areas such as hills
• Area open to invasion by migrating nomads
• People in area must
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Provide permanent food supply
Regulate, provide permanent water supply
Provide defense against invaders
Acquire materials such as timber, minerals
TIGRIS-EUPHRATES
 “Necessity is the mother of invention”
 Sumer in S. Iraq was first civilization
• Cuneiform, sciences, math aided farming
• Polytheistic religion
• Religion was to appease gods, control nature
• Art, architecture dedicated to gods, religion
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Priests, later kings rule city-states
Land owning aristocracy dominate
Warlike society with slavery
Trade for needed materials
LATER MESOPOTAMIANS
• Cycle of Civilization
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Nomads come in and conquer sedentary people
Conquerors assimilate local sedentary culture
New civilization blends cultures, thrives for a while
“New” civilization grows old, invaded by nomads
• Akkad “First”
• First Empire
• Sargon conquered all of Sumer
• Babylonian “First”
• City at junction of Tigris-Euphrates
• Hammurabi’s Law Code
• Laws included in Jewish Torah
MESOPOTAMIA AS A CHART
THE NILE RIVER
• Society very different from Sumer
• Nile flooded regularly, predictably
• Provided rich soil, Easy soil to farm
• Civilization regulated flooding, surveying
• Location isolated
• Pharaoh was considered god-king
• Theocracy, almost absolute
• Built pyramid tombs for dead
• Egypt unified for most of history
• Achievements
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Mathematics especially geometry; architecture
Sciences, Medicine
Art was both secular and sacred
Religion was positive, egalitarian in many ways
INDUS VALLEY
• Arose around 2,500 BCE
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Mohenjo Daro, Harappa main cities
Independent city-states, strong government
Extremely well-planned, coordinated cities
Elaborate writing system (undeciphered)
Religion worshipped mother goddess
Little evidence of warfare until end
• Devastated by environmental upheavals
• Destroyed by Indo-European (Aryan) nomads
HUANG-HE (YELLOW) RIVER
• Developed in isolation
• Compare with ancient Egypt
• Xia Dynasty (Mythical?)
• God-like kings
• Taught irrigation, sericulture
• Shang Dynasty
• Warlike kings, landed aristocracy; few priests
• Most people worked land as peasants
• Elaborate bronze workings; naturalistic art
CHINESE WRITING
• Ideographic
• Writing denotes ideas
• First used on Oracle Bones
• Priests asked gods questions
• Wrote questions on bones
• Tossed into fire; cracks read by priests (divination)
• Elitist technique = scholar-bureaucrats
• Extremely difficult to read
• Required well-educated class to use
• Only elite had time to learn
• Cuneiform, hieroglyphs had similar effects
DYNASTIC CYCLE
• One ruling family replaces another
• The Dynasty Changes
• Due to the loss of the Mandate of Heaven
• Stages in Cycle
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New dynasty arises, takes control of China
Strengthens rule, reestablishes prosperity, peace
Weakens, becomes lazy, problems arise
Invasions, revolts toss out reigning dynasty
• Shang replaces Xia, Zhou replaces Shang
MANDATE OF HEAVEN
• Chinese political idea
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Rulers exercise power given by heaven
Rulers continue to rule if heaven pleased
Heaven will take back mandate to rule
Heaven will replace ruling dynasty
• Indicators of a Lost Mandate
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Wars, invasions, military disasters
Over-taxation, disgruntled peasants
Social, moral decline of elite classes
Increased crime, banditry
HOW
THE
CYCLE
AND
MANDATE
WORK
TOGETHER
HERITAGES
• First heritages passed on
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Writing systems inherited
Intellectual systems, art copied
Religious, philosophical systems copied
Useful inventions rarely forgotten, easily spread
• River valley civilizations decline by 1000BCE
• All subject to nomadic invasions
• Indo-Europeans and Semites were strongest
• Geographical centers shifted (all except China)
• Political Structures often not continued
CIVILIZATION SPREADS
• Phoenician Sailors in Lebanon
• City-states traded across Mediterranean
• Invented alphabet
• Lydians, Hittites in Asia Minor
• Introduced Iron, coinage to area
• Hebrews in Palestine
• Large Semitic migration in area
• Ethical monotheism
• Conduct determines salvation
• There is only one God speaking through prophets, priests
• God made a covenant with the Jews, his Chosen people
NOMADS: BARBARIANS?
• Pastoral herding on fringes
• Seen as savages
• Interaction vs. conflict
• Nomads traded, coexisted with settled areas
• Nomads warred on, conquered settled areas
• Often protected merchants, allowed trade
• Prior to 1500 BCE little major threat
• Chariot Peoples (Central Asian Indo-Europeans)
• Domesticated horse, invented chariot, iron weapons
• Pushed into SW Asia, S. Asia, E. Asia, Europe
• Responsible for spread of ideas, trade