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Early River Valley Civilizations (Mesopotamia-Egypt_trade_routes …
Early River Valley Civilizations
Mesopotmia
(Holt Ch.2 S.1)
Geography
Fertile Crescent
Definition
: A region's curved shape and the richness of its land
Between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers
Included Mesopotamia
Lands facing the Mediterranean Sea and a plain
Environmental Challenges
Unpredictable flooding
No natural barriers
Natural resources limited
Solutions for the Challenges
City walls with mud bricks for defense
Trade
Gave: grain, cloth, and crafted tools
Received: stone, wood, and metal.
With people in the mountains and in the desert.
Irrigation Ditches
Carried river water to their fields.
Allowed them to produce a surplus of crops.
Culture
Religion
Polytheism, believed in many gods
The Ziggurat
Priests and rulers appealed to the gods for well-being
Beginning of Social Classes
The Sumerian Social Classes
Developed Science and Technology
Arithmetic and Geometry
Architectural innovations
Cuneiform, writing system
Sumerian Cuneiform Script and Language
Key Terms
Cultural Diffusion
Polytheism
Dynasty
Empire
City-State
Mesopotamia
Fertile Crescent
Hammurabi
Society
City-States
Built a number of cities surrounded by fields of wheat and barley
Same culture, but own government and rulers
Included: Uruk, Kish, Lagash, Umma, and Ur
center of all the cities was the walled temple with
ziggurat
in the middle
First Empire
Important People and Places
Place
Ur
location
People
Hammurabi
Hammurabi's Code
Goal:
To bring the rule of righteousness in the land, to destroy the evil-doers, and to further the well-being of mankind.
Famous law code:
Law #196 - "If a man destroy the eye of another man, they shall destroy his eye. If one break a man's bone, they shall break his bone.
How did he get into power?
Hammurabi got to his power as a king in Babylon because he feared God. So, Anu and Bel named his name, Hammurabi to bring the rule of righteousness in the land.
First King of the city-state of Babylon
Ancient Egypt
(Holt Ch.2 S.2)
Geography
The Nile River
Yearly flooding:
Brought water and rich soil
Allowed settlements to grow
Left silt, a deposit of fertile black mud
Environmental Challenges
When the Nile's floodwaters were few feet lower than normal:
amount of silt and water reduced and thousands of people starved.
When floodwaters were few feet higher than usual:
unwanted water destroyed the villages
Deserts on either side of the Nile acted as natural barriers between Egypt and other lands.
Forced Egyptians to live on a very small portion and reduced interaction with other people.
First Cataract
Made it impossible for the riverboats to pass
Between the First Cataract and the Mediterranean laid two different regions
Higher elevation, Upper Egypt (south)
Near the sea, Lower Egypt (north)
Nile Delta
Upper and Lower Egypt
Culture
Religion
Polytheism
Believed in Afterlife
Believed they would be judged for their deeds when they died
Anubis (god of underworld) would weigh each dead person's heart
If the heart was no heavier than a feather = eternal life
If the heart tipped the scale = the Devourer of Soul would pounce on the impure heart and gobble it
Planned for their Burial
Royal and elite Egyptians
Mummification
Embalming and drying the
corpse to prevent from decaying
Invention
Egyptian Writing
Hieroglyphics
"Sacred Carving"
Were first written in clay
Soon invented the Papyrus reeds
Science and Technology
Calendar
To help them keep track of the
time between floods and to plan their planting season
Written Numbers for counting, adding and subtracting
Advantages:
Helped collect taxes
Scribes used to survey and reset property boundaries after the annual flood.
Helped engineers and architects make accurate measurements to construct their remarkable pyramids and pala.
Egyptian Medicine
They set broken bones with splints and had effective treatments for wounds and fevers.
Society
Egyptian Kings
:
Pharaohs
Were thought to be almost as splendid and powerful as the gods of the heavens.
Theocracy
Duty: Promote Truth and Justice
United into one kingdom
Crown:
Crown of the Lower Egypt
Crown of the Upper Egypt
United Kingdom
Social Pyramid
Pyramids
Egyptians believed that their king ruled even after his death
Their tombs were even more important than their palaces.
Resting Place after Death
Key Terms
Pharaoh
Delta
Narmer
Theocracy
Pyramid
Hieroglyphics
Mummification
Papyrus
Indus River Valley
(Holt Ch.2 S.3)
Harappan Culture
Language
developed written language
Impossible to decipher
Symbols
Found of stamps and seals made of carved stone
Culture
Animals were important
Are seen on pottery, small statues, children's toys, and seals used to mark trade items
Religion
Archaeologists' prediction: Theocracy
Similar to modern Hindu culture
Trade
Goods:
Afghanistan
Gold and silver
Persia and the Deccan Plateau
Semiprecious stones into jewelry
The benefits of Indus River
provided an excellent means of transportation for trade goods
provided a link to the sea
alloed Indus Valley inhabitants to develop trade with distant peoples
Civilizations on the Indus
Planned Cities
built strong levees, or earthen walls to keep water out of their cities
Constructed human-made islands to raise the cities above possible floodwater
Archaeologists found ruins of more than 100 settlements along the Indus
Sometimes called Harappan Civilization
Harappan Planning
The city was built on mud brick wall
Inside: citadel
provided portection for the royal family and served as temple
Earliest Arrivals
Unknown
Prediction: from Africa
Theories for Decline
3. Exhausted soil by overuse
Harappan agriculture suffered
forced people to leave cities in order to survive
My Opinion:
I think this is the most likely that actually happened because I think this is actually a huge problem because if the agriculture suffers, the people get to starve and this can actually cause the people to move, leaving nothing behind in the city. This is why I think this is the most possible reason for the decline in the Indus River Valley.
2. Trade became impossible
Cities began to die
1. Quality of building in the Indus Valley cities declined
cities gradually decayed
Revealed evidence of shits in tectonic plates
Probably caused earthquakes and floods and altered the course of the Indus River
Geography
Environmental Challenges
Cycle of wet and dry seasons brought by monsoon winds was unpredictable
Too little rain = plants didn't grow, people starved
If too much rain = floods swept away whole villages
Rivers changed course
Flood along the Indus was unpredictable
Monsoons
Seasonal winds
Winter
Dry winds
Summer
Heavy rain
flooding often happened
If fail to develop, drought caused crop disasters
Indo-Gangetic Plain
River Indus
From Himalayas to the Arabian sea
Thar Desert
Farming only possible in watered areas
River Ganges
Himalayas to Northern India
Deccan Plateau
Dry region
Center of the peninsula, a high plateau cut by twisting rivers
Eastern and Western Ghats
low mountain ranges
Keep moist air from reaching the Plateau
Indian Subcontinent
India, Pakistan, Bangladesh
World's tallest mountains
Provided protection to the Indus from the invaders
Ancient China
(Holt Ch.2 S.4)
Geography
Environmental Challenges
Natural Boundaries did not provide protection completely
Invasion occurred often
Geographic Isolation
Had to supply their own goods because they couldn't trade
Huang He floods were disastrous
Devoured whole villages
Natural Barriers
Isolated China from all other civilizations
East = Yellow Sea, East China Sea, and Pacific Ocean
West = Taklamakan Desert and icy Plateau of Tibet
Southwest = Himalayas
North = Gobi Desert and the Mongolian Plateau
River Systems
Two major river systems:
The Huang He (Yellow River)
Deposits huge amounts of yellowish silt when it overflows its banks
Loess
Chang Jiang (Yangtze)
China's Heartland
10% sutaible for farming
Between Yellow River and Yangtze
North China Plain
Center of Civilization
Culture
Family
Central to Chinese society.
Most important virtue = Respect parents
Role
Elder men in the family
Controlled the family's property and made important decisions
Women
treated as inferiors, expected to obey their fathers, husbands, and their own sons
marriage was arranged between 13-16 years old
Social Classes
Religion
Believed that spirits of family ancestors had the power to bring good fortune or disaster to living members of family
Every family paid respect to the father's ancestors
Supreme God = Shang Di
Oracle ones
priests applied hot poker to it, causing it to crack
Interpreted the cracks to see how the gods had answered
Development of Writing
No link between written and spoken language
Advantages:
Everyone could learn the same system of writing
written language helped unify a large and diverse land
Disadvantages:
Enormous number of written characters needed to be memorized
normal people: more than 1,500 characters
scholar: needed to know at least 10,000 characters
Written Language Symbols
Government
First Dynasties
Zhou Dynasty
Warning States
Royal family escape
Luoyang
Weaken of the Zhou
Sacked by nomads
Mandate of Heaven
Xia Dynasty
Leader = Yu
Engineer and Mathematician
Tamed the Huang He by controlling the floods
Qin Dynasty
Leader = Qinshihuang
Terracotta Army
The Great Wall
Shang Dynasty
Capital = Anyang
Elaborate palaces and tombs
1st family to leave written records
Feudalism
Key Terms
Loess
Oracle bone
Mandate of Heaven
Dynastic cycle
Feudalism
