Download What is a Civilization?

What is a Civilization?
A look at the earliest civilizations in
Mesopotamia
6 Elements of a Civilization
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Cities
Government
Religion
Art
Class Division
Writing
Farming Revolution
• Farming Revolution started about 10,000
years ago
• Domestication-tame plants and animals for
human use
• Villages grew as nomadic life changed for
farming
• Specialization-development of different types
of job, not everyone needed for food
collection
Mesopotamia-Cradle of Civilization
• “Land between 2 rivers”
– Tigris and Euphrates Rivers
– Floods once a year leaving behind rich soil good
for farming
– Travel, trade,
– Irrigation
The Fertile Crescent
Rise of the First Civilization
• Between 4000-3000 BC in Mesopotamia (Iraq
today)
• Complex societies arose which had cities,
government, art, religion, class division, and
writing
Cities of Mesopotamia
• Sumer
– City-state with
own independent
government and
defenses (like a
country)
– 3500-2800 BC
Government
• Organized to provide
for basic needs of
people
– Food, buildings,
laws, army
• Hammurabi
– Ruler of Babylon in
Mesopotamia
– Created a code of
laws which was a
first step toward a
fair system of justice
Religion
• Polytheistic-many gods
– Had powers over natural forces and human
activities
• Ziggurat
– Temple
– “mountain of god”
Art
• Developed after basic needs are met
Class Division
• Your place in society based on your job or
power.
king
priest, govt. officials
artisans, merchants, farmers, fishers
slaves
Writing
• keep track of records, ideas
-Sumer=cuneiform
-oldest story, Epic of Gilgamesh
Do we live in a civilization today? How
do you know that?