Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Ancient Civilizations download (6) - Coggle Diagram
Ancient Civilizations 
Mesopotamia
Location: The location didn't have a name, but eventually it was called Mesopotamia, meaning between two rivers. Mesopotamia was the birthplace of writing as well as additional inventions that changed the world. In the book it states "the region between the rivers is sometimes called the cradle of civilization". (Steele, 6)
Architecture: Ziggurats were temples made of many bricks, with nobody allowed in except high ranks. Ziggurats were used to worship their many gods. In the book it says "A lasting symbol of ancient Mesopotamia is the ziggurat, a massive terraced platform made of brick.". (Steele, 24)
Religion: Sumerians have worshipped many gods and goddesses instead of one lord. Most believe that the stars at night time symbolized Sin or Nanna. The author wrote: "Enki, the god of water and wisdom, was thought to live in an underground ocean called the Aspu". (Steele, 14)
Art: The author says that "the Mesopotamians mastered many technologies and crafts at an early point in history". At about 3500 BCE, the people invented the potter's wheel. The Mesopotamians also created a gold, green, red, and blue necklace which was very expensive due to the amounts of gold and costly, scarce gems. (Steele, 28)
Writing: Mesopotamians wrote in cuneiform, which was their language. The author wrote "At first they used picture symbols to represent objects such as cattle, grain, or fish.". Cuneiform was written and not spoken. (Steele, 12)
Government: The land of Mesopotamia presumably has also meant "land of the civilized lords". They had different titles given to higher-ups, like en being lord and ensi which is governor. In the book it says, "Some rulers, such as Gilgamesh of Uruk, became legendary and their history was entangled with all kinds of myths". (Steele, 10)
Ancient Egypt
Location: On page 8 it says that "The Egyptians lived on the banks of the Nile River.". There would be no civilization without the Nile's fertility. The white and blue Niles merged together to make the big Nile, which brought silt to Egypt. (Hart, 8)
Writing: Hieroglyphs were the Egyptians' writing style. Scribes had to be great in writing the elaborate picture writing with over 700 different letters. It is that way so the scribes who learned it can keep their special position. The author wrote "Hieroglyphs were used on state monuments, temples, tombs, and religious papyri". (Hart, 34)
Architecture: The first pyramid was made as the burial place of King DJoser in 2650 BC. It was made of many, many sand colored bricks. The author wrote "It was supposed to represent a gigantic stairway for the king to climb to join the Sun God in the sky". (Hart, 20)
Religion: The Egyptians worshipped many different gods and goddesses. Most of them have an animal symbol, like a baboon for Thoth, god of wisdom. The book says "each of the 42 different administrative districts (or "nomes") had its own god, and there were many others besides". (Hart, 24/25)
Art: The Egyptians worried that one day their world would be gone when they woke up. Thus, they created a mummification process that was thought to keep someone alive forever. In the book it says "They made
a cut in the left side of the body with a flint knife and removed the liver and lungs. These were dried out and stored in special vessels called canopic jars. The brain was also removed, but the heart was left in the body". (Hart, 14)
Government: The pharaoh was the most important person in Ancient Egypt, they were proposed to be a god. There was a grueling training sequence for the rank of pharaoh-like training to be a sportsman and war strategy. The author wrote "Often the ruling pharaoh would adopt his heir as "co-regent" to enable a smooth takeover when he died". (Hart, 10/11)
Ancient China
Commerce/Trade: On page 58 it said "Trade flourished under the Mongol, or Yuan, Dynasty. The Mongol emperors ruled China from 1279 to 1368 and permitted merchants to trade freely throughout their vast empire." The Silk Road is a massive trade route that spreads through China and other countries that acted as the world's first world wide web. Mongols controlled all of the Silk Road. They traded things like gold, silver, silk, coal, and more. (Cotterell 58)
Writing: On page 11 it said that questions and answers were inscribed on Oracle bones. It states that "an ox bone or tortoiseshell was scorched until it cracked." The oracle bones were used by the Shang kings to consult with ancestors. The cracks in the bone were then read to discover the meaning. After that, they put the oracle bone to the ancestors. (Cotterell 11)
-
Architecture/Technology: The book states that some of the world's greatest inventions were made from China. Some inventions they have created were the wheelbarrow and the compass. Zhang Heng also created the seismograph, which showed when and where an earthquake happened. On page 22 it said "Other Chinese Inventions that made the world a different place were paper money, clockwork, silk, porcelain, fireworks, kites, umbrellas, and the wheelbarrow." (Cotterell 22)
Government: On page 16 it says that the Chinese empire formed in 221 BC. The first leader was Qin Shi Huang. In the book it says "His brief reign on Earth was harsh. He used his subjects as slave laborers to build the Great Wall and suppressed anyone who disagreed with him." (Cotterell 16)
Location: The book states that Ancient China is the oldest continuous civilization In the world. It lasted from 221 BC to 1912. Ancient China was united from one great empire. On page 6 the book says "From 221 BC to 1912, it was united under a single great empire. ancient China remained untouched by outside influences because it was a world apart. Vast deserts and mountain ranges cut off China from other cultures in India, West Asia, Europee, ad many hundreds of years passed before the Chinese realized in 126 BC that other civilizations existed." (Cotterell 6)
Art: In the book it says that Emperor Qin stored many things in his tomb to help him in the afterlife. One of these are the terracotta warriors. There were around eight thousand of these created by the soldiers to help Emperor QIn in the afterlife. On page 16 it says "No two soldiers had the same face - each is an individual portrait of a soldier from the Qin army." (Cotterell 16)
Ancient India
-
Government: The Aryans left a huge impact on current India's government. The Caste system of India is a sort of hierarchy, ranging from peasants to the lords. I know this because "A caste is a social group in which people are born and they cannot change. The caste system began because the Aryans had four social classes, which they called varnas". (https://sites.google.com/mccsc.k12.in.us/history-of-south-asia/home/1500-bc-aryans)
-
-
-