Early Civilizations

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Early Civilizations
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The Nile Delta at Night

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Geography

• Mesopotamia In the Fertile Crescent. Yearly
  floods of Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.
• Egypt On the banks of the Nile River. Yearly
  predictable floods created fertile soil.
• Indus Valley Fertile plain between Indus and
  Ganges Rivers. Yearly floods leave fertile soil
  but have to deal with monsoons.
• China Plain between Huang He and Yangtze Rivers.
  Huang He floods deposits loess.

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Record Keeping

• Mesopotamia Developed Cuneiform. Tablets show
  maps, scientific investigations, medicine and a
  number system.
• Egypt Hieroglyphics developed, wrote on stone
  tablets, temple walls and papyrus

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• Indus Valley use of seal to mark items, Had a
  written language not able to decipher.
• China Earliest writing from oracle bones.
  Pictographs developed (can read without
  speaking). Number characters.

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Complex Institutions

• Mesopotamia GOVERNMENT City-state, Hammurabis
  Code, dynastic rule. Priests rulers but
  eventually military leaders take over power.
  
• RELIGION Polytheistic people servants to the
  gods, gods like humans but immortal. After death
  go to land of no return gloomy. Sacrifices
  to gods.
• Egypt GOVERNMENT Menes king that united Upper
  and Lower Egypt. Pharaohs ruled considered a
  god.
• RELIGION Theocracy pharaoh responsible for
  kingdoms well-being rules even after death.
  Polytheistic (2,000 gods), built temples to honor
  them. Belief in afterlife possible to live in
  beautiful Other World.

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• Indus Valley GOVERNMENT Not much is known about
  it. Organization of city-planning suggests a
  strong central government in place.
• RELIGION Polytheistic, evidence shows links to
  modern Hindu culture.
• China GOVERNMENT Dynastic Rule, Mandate of
  Heaven ruler has divine right to rule.
  Feudalism nobility granted land from king has
  servants work land and pays king with military
  service and crops.
• RELIGION Spirits of ancestors had power to bring
  good or bad fortune to family. Pay respect to
  fathers ancestors. Polytheistic.

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Specialized Workers

• Mesopotamia priests, military leaders,
  government workers, judges, merchants (trade),
  artisans, farmers, slaves
• Egypt Royalty, landownerd, government officials,
  priests, army commanders, merchants, artisans,
  farmers, slaves
• Indus Valley artisans, military, merchants,
  farmers not much known
• China artisans (bronze, weapons, jewelry, silk
  cloth), royalty, civil servants, military,
  farmers

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Advanced Technology

• Mesopotamia irrigation, wheel, sail, plow, use
  of bronze, writing, some medicine, geometry,
  columns, arches, ramps
• Egypt Papyrus (paper), hieroglyphics, numbers
  and geometry, stone columns, calendar, practical
  medicine (checking heart rate, splints), Pyramid
  building

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• Indus Valley Sophisticated city-planning grid
  system, plumbing and sewage system, citadel, oven
  baked bricks.
• China Silk cloth, roads, canals, coined money,
  cast iron, sickles, knives, spades, bronze work,
  pictographs

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Advanced Cities

• Mesopotamia Cities grew prosperous from farming
  and used surplus to increase long-distance trade.
  New cities grew and culture spread
• Egypt Cities grew along Nile with trade,
  protected by deserts around them. Large cites
  and tombs built up and down Nile.

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• Indus Valley streets laid out on grid system.
  Had plumbing and sewage system. Urban housing
  shows social division not great. More than 100
  cities along the Indus River.
• China large cities connected with roads and
  canals trade flourished all built within
  Chinas heartland. Leader in center of city.
  Upper class timber framed houses with walls of
  clay and straw inside city walls.