Download Early Civilizations Review

Early Civilizations Review
Made for your learning pleasure
By:
Abbey Cameron
The Eras of Ancient History
1. The Stone Age
2. The Bronze Age
3. The Iron Age
The Neolithic Revolution
• Neo= New
• Lithic= Stone
• Prior to Neolithic revolution early man only
hunted and gathered for food.
• At some point (historians unsure) during
the stone age groups of people stopped
being nomadic and began farming.
• This made cities and civilization possible
What is a civilization?
•
Historians and Scientists classify a group of
people as a civilization if they have these 5
characteristics:
1. Advanced Cities: Center of trade.
2. Advanced Technology: Created something that has
contributed to human existence.
3. Record Keeping: Had the ability to record events for
posterity.
4. Complex Institutions: Government, Religion, Clubs
or any organization with rules and hierarchy.
5. Skilled Workers: Division of labor with jobs that
require time and training.
Where did these first civilizations
show up?
• River Valleys
• People need water: drink, wash,
transportation, farming, Marco Polo
Mesopowhat?
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Latin Translation:
Meso= Middle
Potamia= River
Mesopotamia refers to several ancient
civilizations that thrived in the area known
as the fertile crescent.
• The fertile crescent is the spot of land in
between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in
what is present day Iraq.
Advanced Cities
• Mesopotamia is made up
of many city- states and
civilizations with their own
cultures and contributions
to history.
• Due to a lack or
resources (desert) they
had to trade.
• Sumer
• Napur
• Babylon
• Assyria
• Akkadia- The first empire.
Advanced Technology
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Wheel
Plow
Cuneiform
Irrigation ditches
Ziggurats
Record Keeping
• Created the first
known written set of
laws:
Hammurabi's Code
• The earliest work of
fiction: The Epic of
Gilgamesh
Complex Institutions
• Governments varied by
civilization: First city-states.
Dynastical rulers.
• Most Mesopotamian
civilizations had Polytheistic
Religions: Built Ziggurats to
sacrifice for gods.
• Each city-state had its own
patron god.
• Zoroastrianism
• Judaism began in the
Canaanite civilization in
Mesopotamia. First
Monotheism.
Skilled Workers
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Scribes
Architects
Priests
Merchant class