Early River Valley Civilizations

Early River Valley Civilizations:
Sumerian Civilization - Tigris & Euphrates Rivers (Mesopotamia)
Egyptian Civilization - Nile River
Harappan Civilization - Indus River 

Ancient China - Huang He (Yellow) River
Mesopotmia
Flat plain known as Mesopotamia lies between the two rivers in SW Asia(Middle East)
. Because of this region’s shape and the richness of its soil(silt) it is called the Fertile Crescent, the rivers flood unpredictably. Sumerians were first to settle in this region, attracted by the silt.
Disadvantages / Environmental Challenges
1. Unpredictable flooding / dry summer months
2. No natural barriers for protection
3. Limited natural resources - stone, wood, metal
Solutions

1. Irrigation systems
2. Built city walls with mud bricks and ziggurats
3. Traded with people around them 
for the products they lacked
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
1. One of the first writing systems – Cuneiform
2. Invented wheel, the sail, the plow
3. First to use bronze.

Empires
1. Sargon of Akkad (Akkadian Empire)- 1st empire
2. Hammurabi of Babylon (Babylonian Empire)- 1st law code
Egypt:
GEOGRAPHY
Nile River
1. Egypt’s settlements arose along narrow strip of land made fertile by the river
2. Yearly/predictable flooding and harvesting- agriculturally wealthy
3. Intricate network of irrigation ditches
 and were isolated by cataracts, deserts, and the Mediterranean Sea
4. Worshiped as a god – giver of life(river enhanced life)
EGYPT’S GOVERNMENT
Unlike Sumer, no independent city-states in Egypt
The Pharaoh– the ruler of Egypt they were considered gods; served both political and religious roles
Vizier- highest official in pharaoh’s bureaucracy and made sure governors did their jobs and made sure that everything was running well
Type of government where the political rulers are thought to be divinely-guided, or even divine themselves is a theocracy.
RELIGION/CULTURE
1. Polytheistic like Mesopotamians
2. Belief in afterlife and built pyramids and practiced mummification
3. Women had more rights, they could own land
4. Pictographs developed into hieroglyphics, which was written on papyrus
Egyptians conquered by Nubians- African kingdom in Sudan
INDUS RIVER VALLEY
The Indus Valley civilization flourished around 2,500 B.C. in the western part of South Asia,
in what today is Pakistan and western India.
PROBLEMS
1.unpredictable rivers
(similar situation to Mesopotamia region) 2.strong winds / monsoons
CULTURE
1.Careful city planners; laid out in grid with a defendable citadel(city-state)
2,Engineered sophisticated plumbing and sewage systems
END OF CIVILIZATION
1.The river may have changed course, natural disaster (caused by heavy monsoons)
2.The people may have overworked the land
(overcutting trees, overgrazed, overfarmed land depleting nutrients)
3.Invasion of Aryans- Indo-European speaking people from north of the Hindu Kush mtns crossed Khyber Pass
CHINA
GEOGRAPHY
1. China was isolated geographically, cut off from trade, but traded
CULTURE
1.First written records
- calligraphy writing, symbols represented ideas not sounds
2.Sharp division between king’s nobles and the peasants
3.Emphasis on family, respect of parents veneration of ancestors-worshipping dead ancestors to posses power to influence future life
4.Oracle bones used to consult the gods
The Fertile Crescent is a part of the Middle East where some of the world's first civilizations began. In ancient times the land there was fertile, or good for growing crops. On a map, the land forms the shape of a crescent moon. The Fertile Crescent extends from the Persian Gulf to the Nile River valley. It includes the areas known as Mesopotamia