World History Unit 1 Key Notes Early Civilizations

Civilizations  Mesopotamia  Egypt  Hebrews  Phoenicians

Mesopotamia  Farming in the area allowed for the emergence of civilization.  Fertile cresent  Agriculture allowed people to settle down, social and cultural prosperity  Code of Hammurabi  First written law code  “Eye for an eye”  Social inequality  Cuneiform = wedge-shaped form of writing

Mesopotamia

Mesopotamian Religion  Ziggurat = political and religious center  Polytheistic = belief in multiple gods  Tigris and Euphrates Rivers  Unpredictable flooding led to the development of religion  People believed the gods were angry when the rivers flooded

Mesopotamian Government  City-state : political unit that included a city and its surrounding lands and villages  Instable because of constant warfare with each other

Egypt  Pharaoh = religious and political leader (theocracy)  Pyramids are a symbol of the Pharaohs’ divine power  Hieroglyphics = Egyptian form of writing with symbols and pictographs

Judaism a.k.a. Hebrews  Monotheistic = belief in one god  Different from polytheistic Mesopotamian and Egyptian religions  Torah = holy book, first five books of the Old Testament

Zoroastrianism  Monotheistic  Created by Zoroaster  Believed in one universal god  Struggle of good vs. evil

Phoenicians  Traded throughout the Mediterranean, spreading language and culture  Created the Phoenician alphabet  Most similar to present-day English alphabet

Phoenician Trade

Key terms  Monotheism  Polytheism  Hieroglyphics  Cuneiform  Pyramid  Ziggurat  Hammurabi’s Law Code  Hebrews (Judaism)  Zoroastrianism  Pharaoh  City-state  Theocracy  Phoenician alphabet