Download Ancient Civilizations - An Online Resource Guide for

Resource: World History Encyclopedia Millennium Edition
Clip art source: Broderbund’s PrintMaster Platinum 10
The Ancient World
• 4 million years ago to 500 AD
• B.C. or B.C.E.- before Christ or before the
Christian Era
• A.D.- Anno Domini, in the year of the Lord
• 2.5 million years ago man’s earliest
ancestors appeared in Africa
• 5000 B.C.- the world’s first civilizations
began to appear
Big Advances
• 2.5-2 million years BC- tools are made
• 8000 BC- farming begins and first towns
appear
• 5000 BC- world’s first civilizations appear
• Civilization Characteristics: cities,
government, religion, social structure,
writing and art/technology.
Location
Sequence of Civilizations
 5000- 3100 B.C.- different cultures appear
along the Nile River
 3000 B.C.- farming settlements appear
around the Indus River valley
 2205 B.C.- families called dynasties rule
China: Yellow River; Yangtze River
 2000 B.C.- settlements along Indus River
and the Ganges River.
Ancient Egypt
• Gift of the Nile
• Lower and Upper
Egypt
• 3100 BC- King Menes
united the two
kingdoms
• 1554 BC- Pharaoh
title is used.
Ancient Egypt Government
• Viziers- two appointed
officials to help rule
and collect taxes
• 42 nomes- governed
by nomarchs
• Officials headed state
departments like
Royal Works
Egyptian Beliefs
• Life after death
• The soul had to pass
several ordeals to
make it to a better
world.
• Body had to be intact
for after world.
Indus Valley Civilization
• The Indus Valley
Civilization was larger
than Egypt.
• Harappa and Mohenjo
Daro were major cities.
• Highly organized trade
system
• Cities were laid out on a
grid system.
• The houses were made of
mud brick and had
bathrooms and a drainage
system.
Ancient China
• Located among three
major rivers- Chang Jiang,
Xi Jiang, and Huang He
• Irrigation was used.
• Ruled by a series of
families (dynasties)
• 221 BC Shi Huangdi
unites China and forms
Qin dynasty
• Shi Huangdi is the first
emperor of China.
Ancient China
• Shi Huangdi changed the
government and
standardized money,
weights, and measures.
• The Great Wall of China
was built between 214 and
204 BC in the north to
keep out the Huns.
• The Wall areas more than
1,400 miles long.
Ancient Chinese Culture
• Chinese nobles
watched the Great
Wall being
constructed.
• Convicted criminals
and peasants
constructed the wall.
• Chinese civil service
was based on the
beliefs of Confucius.
Mesopotamia
• Tigris River
• Euphrates River
• Fertile Crescent (land
between two rivers)
• Theocracy
• City-States