Download The Four River Valley Civilizations

The Four River Valley
Civilizations
I. Tigris-Euphrates Rivers
 Located in the Middle East (modern-day Iraq)
 Often called Mesopotamia (“land between the rivers”)
 First example of human civilization
 By 4000 - 3500 B.C.E.
 Farmers were working with some metals, invented the wheel
 Flourishing culture
 Written language – cuneiform
 Complex religious beliefs
 Sumerians erected shrines and massive towers, called ziggurats,
to honor gods
 Some ideas (gods’ creation of earth, floods) influenced other
religious beliefs
 Lasting beliefs – Judaism began 2500 B.C.E.
I. continued…
 Highly organized
 Relied on city-states – small, autonomous regions ruled by a king
 Developed strict class systems – kings, noble class, priests
controlled most land
 Regulated system of laws and courts
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Babylonian leader, Hammurabi, set early code of law in stone
IV. Nile River
 Originated in modern-day Egypt, along Nile River
 3000 B.C.E.
 Ruled by a pharaoh, or king
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Considered to be directly descended from the gods
 Complex religious and political rituals
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Book of the Dead – guided the soul to the afterlife
Mummification of bodies – preserved those with elite status for eternity
Theocracy – ruled through laws based on religion
 Development of writing
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Hieroglyphics – comes from Greek words meaning “sacred carving”
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More complex than cuneiform
Used papyrus reeds to make a paper-like writing surface
V. Indus River
 Located in modern-day Pakistan, near India’s border
 2500 B.C.E.
 Advanced cities
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Sophisticated city planning – grid patterns, indoor plumbing
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Example: city of Harappa
 Traded with Mesopotamia, but developed independently
 Developed system of writing, but never been translated
 Thought to be a theocracy, religion a precursor to
Hinduism
 Environment and invasions a factor in disappearance
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Monsoons, floods
Nomadic invaders (Aryan tribes)
VI. Huanghe (Yellow River)
 Located in northern half of modern-day China
 Flows from central China to east coast
 About 2000 B.C.E.
 Developed independently from other civilizations
 Largely cut off from contact with outside world by geography
 Developed sophisticated irrigations systems
 Controlled flooding of Yellow River
 Early pioneers in science and weapon/tool-making
 Early religious beliefs based on spirits, centered around family
 Social classes divided society
 Nobles and peasants
 Established early system of feudalism – nobles owned all the land that
peasants worked
 Rigid political system develops – paves way for later dynasties