The First Civilizations

John ErmerAP World History

Miami Beach Senior High School

Prehistory Paleolithic Age (c 1,800,000 B.C.E.- c 8,000 B.C.E.)

Nomadic Hunter-Gatherers Fire, bone tools, animal skin, stonework

Neolithic Age (c 8,000 B.C.E.-c 3,000 B.C.E.) Agricultural Revolutions

Systematic Agriculture Domesticated Animals

Land Ownership by Clan Long lines of patrilineal or matrilineal kinship

Reverence for ancestors—afterlife?

Civilization Six General Characteristics

Cities, Religion, Social Structure, Government, Writing, & Art

River Valley Civilizations

Mesopotamia• The Fertile Crescent• Tigris and Euphrates rivers

• “Mesopotamia” Land Between Two Rivers

• Unpredictable Floods• The Sumerians

• First urban dwellers; Ur, Eridu, Uruk• Cuneiform Writing

• The Akkadians• Semitic language• First Empire

Mesopotamian Society City-States

Sun-dried brick city walls Irrigation networks Government

Sumerian lugal Theocracy and Monarchy

Empire Building Sargon of Akkad

builds first empire, dominates neighbors Hammurabi of Babylon

Code of Laws

Social Structure 1. Free Landowning Class 2. Farmers and Artisans 3. Slaves Patriarchal Society (males dominate politics; women retained control of dowry, owned property,

engage in trade)

Religion Polytheistic, nature based anthropomorphic gods and goddesses ziggurat

The Nile River Valley (Egypt)

The Nile River Valley & Delta “The Gift of the Nile”=Floods

The Black Land The Red Land

Natural Defenses & Resources The Three Kingdoms

Old Kingdom Middle Kingdom New Kingdom

Egyptian Civilization

Government Capital cities: Memphis (Old Kingdom), Thebes

(Middle & New Kingdoms with Memphis at times) Divine Kingship—maintaining ma’at

Pharaohs as gods—sons of Re Pharaohs vs. the Bureaucracy

Writing Papyrus and Hieroglyphics

Urban Administrative Capital & Farming Villages Less urban than Mesopotamia, more dependent of

agriculture Canal Building and Land Surveying

Egyptian Society Social Structure

Multi-racial society Upper Class: Royals and high gov’t officials Middle Class: Priests, lower level officials, scribes, artisans, large land

owners, and local leaders Lower Class: Peasants Women=subordinate

Property ownership, divorce, significant influence over men in private

Religion Cycles of Renewal Polytheistic, anthropomorphic gods and goddesses Mummification and the Afterlife

Medical expertise Domination of economic wealth

The Indus River Valley

Indus Societies Several hundred urban centers along river valley

Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro

Dravidians replaced, pushed south by Indo-Europeans

Cities Walled with rectangular road grids Citadels

Metal work more common than in Mesopotamia and Egypt

Ecological change and systemic failure bring Indus civilization down around 1900 BCE