River Valley Civilizations

• 3500 to 500 BC

The “Cradles of Civilization”

Where did the earliest civilizations develop?

• River valleys

Why did ancient civilizations develop in river valleys?

• They had rich soil for agriculture

• Periodic flooding left silt which made the soil rich in nutrients

Geographic Barriers (mountains, deserts, seas, jungles,etc.)

Helped protect many early civilizations from nomadic invaders

Where were the earliest civilizations located and when did they exist?

E M I C

River Valley Civilizations

• Mesopotamia in the Tigris and Euphrates River Valleys. (Southwest Asia)

• Egypt in the Nile River Valley and Delta (Africa)

• India in the Indus River Valley in South Asia • China in the Huang He Valley (East Asia).• From west to east “EMIC”

(3500 BC to 500 BC)

• What were the geographic, social, political, and economic characteristics of the Ancient

River Valley civilizations?

Mesopotamia• The land between two rivers (Tigris and Euphrates)

• Part of the Fertile Crescent

Fertile Crescent •Arc of fertile land stretching from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea

Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia• Present day Iraq

(Middle East).

Sumer• The first of many civilizations to

arise in Mesopotamia• Protected by mountains, deserts and

the Persian Gulf

Sumer• Sumer was made up of 12 independent city- states

• City-state: A city and the surrounding land it controlled

Irrigation• Mesopotamia had a dry climate

• Irrigation was required to bring water from the rivers to the fields during the dry summer

months

First Writing

• Invented the first written language: cuneiform (wedge writing)

Invented Bronze

• Smelted from copper and tin

Other Sumerian Accomplishments

• Plow

• Ziggurats

• Wheeled vehicles

• Number system based on 60

Babylonian Empire• The first empire to arise in Mesopotamia

• Empire: several peoples, nations, or previously independent states under the

control of one ruler.

Code of Hammurabi

• First set of published laws

• Based on the principle of an “eye for an eye”

• Laws differed based on class

Egypt• Nile Delta and Nile

River Valley (Northeast Africa)

• Protected by deserts and seas

Nile Delta• Located in Lower

Egypt (northern Egypt - lower in elevation)

• Delta: broad, marshy, triangular area of land formed by deposits of silt at the mouth of a river.

Lower Egypt• View from space shuttle

Hieroglyphics

•Pictures could stand for sounds as well as ideas

Pharaohs

• They had absolute power (complete control)

• Thought to be responsible for making the sun rise, the Nile flood, and crops grow.

•Egyptian god-kings

Religion

• Like other River Valley peoples, Egyptians were polytheistic (believed in many gods).

Class System

• Egypt, had a rigid class system and slavery was accepted.

India•Indus Valley Civilization

Indus Valley Civilization• Located on the Indus

River in present-day Pakistan (Indian subcontinent).

Indus River Flood Plain

Natural Barriers • The Himalayan and the Hindu Kush Mountains as

well as the Indian Ocean protected the Indian subcontinent from invasion.

Indus Valley Civilization• Made up of independent city states including Harappa, and Mohenjo-Daro (and 2500 other

sites)

Indus Valley Achievements• Plumbing

The great bath at Mohenjo-Daro

Cotton Cloth• Indus valley people were the first to cultivate

cotton and weave its fibers into cloth

Written Language• has not been deciphered

China• Huang He River

Huang He

•Also called the Yellow River and the River of Sorrows (yellow silt caused flooding)

Flooding of the Huang He• Satellite images

before after

Geographically Isolated• Gobi desert, Himalayan Mountains,

Pacific Ocean, dense jungles

Shang Dynasty

• China was ruled by a succession of ruling families called dynasties (Early dynasties: Shang and Zhou)

Divine Rulers

• Chinese rulers were considered divine (god-like).

Mandate of Heaven

• They served under a mandate of heaven (approval of the gods) only as long as their

rule was just

Dynastic Cycle• Explains the rise, decline, and replacement of

families of rulers

Chinese Silk• The Chinese invented silk cloth (made from

the cocoons of silkworms).

Writing

• The earliest evidence of Chinese writing is found on oracle bones.

• Characters stood for ideas, not sounds.

Ancestor Worship• The Chinese believed that the spirits of family

ancestors could bring good fortune or disaster

• They paid respect to family ancestors and made sacrifices in their honor

Bronze vessel used for sacrificial food

Irrigation

• Water wheels were used to bring river water to the fields