Download Classical River Valley Civilizations

What makes a civilization? Classical River Valley Civilizations
Chronology / Timeline
Civilization
One way to look at the past is on a timeline. A timeline has
What is a civilization? A civilization is a when people create
dates in order. A timeline is also called a chronology. A
ways to organize their community. A civilization has:
chronology helps us understand what happened in the past. The
events are in order. This is a chronology:
ü Religion / Beliefs
ü Agriculture
ü Government
ü Social classes (different pay for different jobs)
2010:
2013:
1998:
2003:
2008:
ü Art and architecture (buildings)
Middle
High
Born
School
Moved
ü Cities
School
School
ü Different jobs (Divisions of labor)
ü Communication (writing)
ü Roads, bridges, buildings
CE (Common Era) (after year 1)
Archeology / Archeologist / Artifacts
Four Classical Civilizations
Archeology is the study of past human life and artifacts.
Four classical or ancient (old) civilizations are (1) the Nile River
Artifacts are objects made by people in the past. An archeologist in Egypt, (2) the Tigris and Euphrates River Valley in
is a person who studies civilizations and people who lived in the Mesopotamia, (3) the Indus River Valley in India / Pakistan and
past. They find tools, buildings, art, toys, dishes, clothes, and
the (4) Hueng He or Yellow River Valley in China. The
other artifacts to learn about the people. We learn about
civilizations grew along rivers.
classical civilizations from archeologists.
1 Religion / Beliefs
Agriculture / Farming
Agriculture is planting crops (vegetables, fruit, rice, corn, wheat)
Religion is what people do to worship god or gods. Beliefs are and raising animals for food. Some people are farmers.
something you think are good or true.
7000 BCE:
First crops
are planted
5000 BCE:
Rice planted
in China
4000 BCE:
Farming
started in
Europe.
3000 BCE:
Farming of
corn in the
Americas.
BCE: Before Common Era (before the year 1)
Religion in Classical Egypt and the Indus Valley
Classical Egypt had 28 gods
and goddesses. Re (Ra) is the
god of the sun and the creator
of humans.
People in the Indus Valley
worshiped a mother goddess
and a father god. They
believed in a tree of life and
magic.
Agriculture / Food in Mesopotamia and China
People in Mesopotamia grew
peas, beans, cucumbers,
lettuce, grapes, apples
melons, figs and dates. The
most important crops were
wheat and barley.
Chinese civilization was the
first to grow rice. Rice needs
water. They irrigated or
watered the land. They had
iron plows and water wheels.
2 Government
Government is a group of people that make laws or rules. If
people do not follow the rules may be punished or hurt.
Government in Mesopotamia and China
The government in
Mesopotamia had a king and
nobles. They made the laws,
declared war and told people
how to honor the gods. There
was an assembly of the
people. They could say a law
was bad and stop it.
The government in China
believed in the “Mandate of
Heaven.” The leader had
authority or power to rule
from the gods. The gods
decided who had power. The
emperor ruled the nobles.
The nobles ruled the slaves.
Social Class
A social class is a group of people from the same group. People
in the group have the same job, role or power. People live in the
same type of home or neighborhood. People “on top” have more
power. They are the “ruling class.”
China, 1027 – 221 BCE
Social Class in Classical Egypt and the Indus Valley
Social Class was organized like a pyramid or a triangle. In
Egypt, gods were at the top. The pharaoh or king had all power
over the people. In the Indus River Valley, the gods were at the
top. The priests and king had all the power over the people.
People could not change their social class. You had the same
social class as your parents.
Egypt
Indus River Valley
King Cheng of
the Zhou
3 Art and Architecture (buildings)
Art is drawings, painting, jewelry, pottery, and sculpture.
Architecture is buildings.
Art and Architecture (buildings) in China and Egypt
China
Art in China started in 5000
BCE. People decorated
bones, stones, and pottery.
2500 years ago, Chinese
paintings had patterns or
designs but not pictures.
Egypt
City / Cities
A city is a place where many people live and work. People stay
in one place. The first city was Uruk in Mesopotamia. Uruk had
50,000 people in 3000 BCE. Trade is important in cities.
City / Cities in the Indus Valley and Mesopotamia
Indus Valley
Most Indus Valley people
were farmers. They did not
live in cities. The people in
cities lived in mud-brick
homes. The cities had walls,
roads and wells. MohenjoDaro was the biggest city.
Mesopotamia
Uruk was rich because of
farming. The most famous
king was Gilgamesh. The
Epic of Gilgamesh is a myth
about his superhuman
strength.
Pyramids were tombs. The
tombs were for the king and
his family. Religious
buildings were next to the
pyramids.
4 Different Jobs (Division of Labor / Work)
People had different jobs. For example, people were farmers,
soldiers, servants, engineers, carpenters, bakers, and metal
workers.
Different Jobs in the Indus Valley and Mesopotamia
Indus Valley
Indus Valley people had
different jobs. They wove
cotton into clothes and bags.
They ground grains into flour.
City workers made beads,
fishing nets, pots and baskets.
Mesopotamia
When people in Mesopotamia
built cities, there were
different jobs. People were
priests, scribes (writers),
merchants, weavers, soldiers,
and laborers (workers). The
farmers and laborers did hard
work. Some people were
slaves. Rich people and the
king had slaves.
Communication
People started writing to save information. The first writing was
pictures or symbols. People wrote about how they lived. People
wrote about what they believed
Communication / Writing in Egypt and China
Egypt
Egyptians wrote information
about religion, history and
government. Hieroglyphics
is ancient Egyptian writing.
They wrote on papyrus.
Papyrus is from a plant. It is
like paper.
China
There are many different
dialects or ways of speaking
Chinese. To help people
communicate, they used
pictures or characters for
whole words. Chinese
writing has over 3000
characters.
5 Roads and Buildings
Roads, bridges, and buildings help people move and live. Roads
and bridges let people move products from the rivers to their
homes and businesses. Public buildings were for government and
religion.
Roads and Buildings in the Indus Valley and China
China
Indus Valley
In China, they built new roads, Walls were around all cities in
palaces and temples. The
the Indus Valley. City streets
Chinese traded along the roads were on a grid. The houses had
and rivers. The Great Wall of drains. The drains carried dirty
China was built in 260 BCE.
water outside of the homes.
Roads and Buildings in Mesopotamia and Egypt
Egypt
Most Egyptians traveled on
the Nile River. There were
short roads. There were maps
with roads.
Mesopotamia
In Mesopotamia, a few roads
were made with stones. The
people built big buildings
with bricks. The buildings
were to make the gods happy
and show the ruler’s power.
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