Download Mesopotamia and Egypt Notes

River Valleys
Mesopotamia & Egypt
Mesopotamia
• Mesopotamia is the land between the
Tigris & Euphrates Rivers, present day
Iraq
• It is also part of the Fertile Crescent
• Sumerian City-states began to develop
around 3000 B.C.E. (after the Neolithic
Revolution)
Geographic Challenges
• Unpredictable flooding and periods of
drought
• No natural protection from invasion
• Scarce building resources
Solutions
• Government developed to build large
public projects like irrigation system & city
walls
• Trade-Sumerians traded for the resources
they needed
Culture
• Rigid social structure led by a warrior-king
and priests
• Polytheistic religion, mean (not nice) gods
• Each city-state had a ziggurat for worship
• Cuneiform- pictograph writing to keep
records
Contributions
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Cuneiform (writing)
Wheel (transportation)
Arch (construction)
Potter’s Wheel (manufacturing)
Sun Dial (time & record keeping)
12 month calendar (time & record keeping)
Number System (math+)
Gilgamesh(literature)
Laws
• Hammurabi unifies Mesopotamia under one
government to create the Babylonian Empire
• 1700 B.C.E. 1st Written Code of Law (MAJOR
TURNING POINT!)
• Government protects people in return for loyalty,
service, & taxes
• Laws carved into pillars so everyone knew
• Laws covered daily life: marriage, property,
inheritance, vandalism, negligence, etc.
Egypt-Nile River Valley
• Located in NE Africa
• First settled circa 5000 B.C.E. during the
Neolithic Revolution
• Annual Flooding of the Nile deposits dark
rich silt making the Valley one of the most
fertile places on the earth
• Nile River is the key to Egyptian
development
• Nile is the longest river in the world, 4,160
miles & flows north from the mountains of
Ethiopia
Egyptian Culture
• Rigid social structure
• Religion focused on the after-life where
you judged for your actions & bodies were
mummified for life in the Other World
• Theocracy led by a god-king called a
pharaoh
• Polytheistic religion based on nature with
nice gods
• Architecture still standing and amazing in
modern times
Egyptian Contributions
• Hieroglyphics- a pictograph writing deciphered
after the discovery of the Rosetta Stone in the
19th century
• Papyrus- a better writing surface than clay,
similar to paper
• 365 day calendar, only 6 hours short of the solar
year
• Geometry- used to survey land for taxes
• Stone Columns in buildings
• Medicine-checked pulses, splinted broken
bones, & conducted surgeries
1st Nation State
• A nation state is a country united by a
common culture, language, & history
• It is believed King Narmer united Upper &
Lower Egypt into a single country around
3000 B.C.E
• The red & white crown symbolized the
united nation