The First Civilizations John Ermer AP 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