1. Unit I – Flipped Class Early River Civilizations
Take Notes and Answer Questions
Due Tuesday, Sept 27th

2. Geography of Ancient Egypt

3. What makes the “black land” black?
The 'black land' was the fertile (because of silt) land on the banks of the Nile. The ancient Egyptians used this land for growing their crops.
The Nile would flood annually (from snow melts in Ethiopia) and was predictable. The Nile is the longest river in the world, stretching north for approximately 4,000 miles.

4. Cataracts
Natural forming waterfalls and rapids (all African rivers have it since continent is plateau)
Impact – hinders trade (cultural diffusion) but protects from invaders

5. The 'red land' was the barren desert that protected Egypt on two sides.
These deserts separated ancient Egypt from neighboring countries and invading armies.
Delta – rich fertile area – few natural harbors. represented 63 percent of the inhabited area of Egypt

6. Deserts of Egypt Libyan – west Nubian – east Sahara – south
Impact – isolates Egypt from rest of African continent, hinders trade, but political stability

7. Dynastic Period 1st Intermediate Old Kingdom – 2700-2200 BC
Egypt ruled by series of families or dynasties.
An Egyptian Priest by the name of Manetho recorded the history of the pharaohs. Based on his records, scholars have attempted to date events and have divided the pharaohs into three kingdoms –
1st
Intermediate
Old Kingdom – BC
Middle Kingdom – BC
New Kingdom – –1090BC
2nd
Intermediate

8. Pharaoh meaning “great house”
believed to be the son of Amon-Re (the sun god).
As the sun lights every aspect of Egyptian life, the Pharaoh had absolute power over the people, the land, and government.
The Pharaoh owned all lands, mines, and water and was the source for all laws and justice.
The kingdom was divided into provinces supervised by officials (viziers) who also collected taxes.

9. Old Kingdom
Age of the Pyramids

10. True Pyramids –
introduced at beginning of the 4th dynasty
similar construction technique – packing blocks stacked until dimensions right, then finishing blocks (usually limestone) as last touch.
only finishing blocks remaining are those at top of Khafre.

12. Last surviving member of 7 wonders of ancient world is Pyramids of Giza.

13. Great Pyramid – 2. 5 million limestone blocks, each weighing 2-13 tons
Great Pyramid – 2.5 million limestone blocks, each weighing 2-13 tons. Largest of the pyramids – built during 23 yr. Reign. Have to set one block in place every two minutes during a 10 hr. day, 365 days a year. 480’ tall – tallest building ever erected until 19th c.

15. STRONG BELIEF IN AFTERLIFE
Mummification Process:
Ka (person’s double or invisible twin) lived in body until death.
Death killed body but not ka.
Ka needed body to survive – so mummification

16. How they mummified a body:
Get rid of any soft, moist body parts (took 70 days) – body lay on slanted table to drain blood. Vital organs removed and dried with natron (salt/baking soda) and placed in special jars (canopic jars). Brain removed through nose (stirred until liquid)

17. Mummification Table Slanted so blood drained down.
Hole where blood would drain out.

18. Body washed and rubbed with wine and spices
Body washed and rubbed with wine and spices. Wine was antiseptic to help kill bacteria. Corpse covered with natron and sat for 40 days. Skin would be then dry and leathery.

19. After dried, they added jewelry, Book of Dead btw
After dried, they added jewelry, Book of Dead btw. Legs, linen shrouds, magical amulets (such as scarab for rebirth) between the layers. Resin (sticky amber substance) used to waterproof.

20. New Kingdom Pharaohs
18th Dynasty Queen Hatshepsut – had to dress like male to gain respect, built huge funerary complex in Valley of Kings, major military campaign against Punt
Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV) - priests were attempting to gain too much power – he eliminated their power by creating new religion to “Aten” where he was only priest. (monotheism)
King Tut

21. Valley of King – Queen Hatshepsut’s Tomb
Hill behind is shaped like a pyramid – chosen place for burials because of that

22. Ramses II 19th Dynasty (1304-1237)
1274, fought Hittites at Battle of Kadesh (first written treaty)
remembered by some of the most exquisite monuments such as temple at Abu Simbel.

23. Downfall of Egypt
civil wars, leaving Egypt too weak to defeat a stream of invaders known as the Sea People, farmers displaced from western Mediterranean Sea.
Later Romans conquer (Cleopatra) make province

24. Egyptian Writing

25. Hieroglyphics – pictographic sacred writing, carved on stone or written in religious texts like Book of the Dead.

26. Scribes – those who were trained to write the hieroglyphs
Scribes – those who were trained to write the hieroglyphs. Could be women!

27. Rosetta Stone – Discovered by French
Same thing written in hieroglyphics, demotic, and Greek.
Before this stone was discovered could not read hieroglyphics or demotic. We knew Greek!

28. August 2016
Answer these questions on your note sheet.

29. Sumerian Civilization

30. What makes the location of the Fertile Crescent special?

31. MAJOR CITY-STATES Ur
Erech
Kish

32. SUMERIANS
First known civilization in ancient Middle East.
Consisted of several independent city-states (large town and countryside cooperating for mutual defense with own government and rulers).
built dykes and canals
defensive walls (stored food for attack)
built ziggurats (home or temple of city’s god) in shape of step-pyramid,
Since they were polytheistic

33. Sumerian Accomplishments
Developed cuneiform (wedge-shaped writing) to assist in keeping records, especially for trade. Established schools for scribes - harsh discipline.
First people to use wheel, wheeled cart and sail enabling merchants to engage in long-distance trade.
Developed a 12-month calendar based on seasons for farming
Introduced concept of irrigation and planted trees as wind-breaks

34. Sumerian Accomplishments
Created a system of arithmetic based on number 60 (used in our modern circles and clocks)
Rivaling City-States constantly at war with one another - developed chariot .

35. UR
Sumerian City-State
( BC)

36. The City-State of Ur was founded sometime in the 6th millennium B. C
The City-State of Ur was founded sometime in the 6th millennium B.C. and occupied for perhaps five thousand years.
Why was its location so important?

37. In 1920s, Leonard Woolley found a cemetery containing about 1800 burials, 16 of these as "royal".
How do we know they were “royal”?
The most elaborate (and unrobbed) grave was that of Queen Puabi. The tomb featured a vaulted chamber set at the bottom of a deep "death pit"; the lady was buried lying on a wooden bier.

38. Why did each attendant carry a cup?
remains of five men dressed in armor
a wooden sled drawn by a pair of oxen
12 female attendants and musicians holding their harps.
Each of the attendants carried stone or clay cups of poison – victims of human sacrifice.
Why did each attendant carry a cup?

40. Cuneiform Tablets:
'Cuneiform' means 'wedge-shaped' because the inscriptions were made by pressing the triangular tip of a reed or a stick (stylus) into wet clay tablets.
At first there were over 2000 different signs, but the Sumerians gradually reduced their 'alphabet' to about 600 symbols.

41. Most tablets would not have been preserved – simply reused.
Important tablets were allowed to dry in the sun. Like this one describing the Epic of Gilgamesh.
Others preserved in accidental fires.

42. COMPARISON OF GENESIS AND GILGAMESH
GENESIS
GILGAMESH
Extent of flood
Global
Cause
Man's wickedness
Man's sins
Intended for whom?
All mankind
One city & all mankind
Sender
Yahweh
Assembly of "gods"
Name of hero
Noah
Utnapishtim
Hero's character
Righteous
Means of announcement
Direct from God
In a dream
Ordered to build boat?
Yes
Did hero complain?
Height of boat
Several stories (3)
Several stories (6)

43. Aug 2012 The ancient Sumerians modified their
environment to increase food production by
(1) building terraces
(2) removing rain forests
(3) digging irrigation canals
(4) developing chinampas

44. Jan 2013 Which river system is found in Mesopotamia? (1) Nile River
(2) Yellow River
(3) Tigris and Euphrates rivers
(4) Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers

45. August 2010
One way in which The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Odyssey, and The Mah¯abh¯arata are similar is that they are
(1) sets of written legal principles that spell out the rights of citizens
(2) stories that are tied to monotheistic religious beliefs
(3) paintings that depict heroes and cultural values
(4) works of literature that give historians information about early civilizations

46. Indus River Valley Harappan Civ
(2500 – 1750 BC)

47. In 1920s, archaeologist discovered remains of a civilization dated to 3rd millennium BC (contemporary with Egyptian pyramids).
It is an area much larger than that of Old Kingdom Egypt or the Sumerians.
Since it goes beyond the limits of the Indus River Valley, many want to call it the Harappan civilization.
Its two major cities are Mohenjodaro and Harappa. There have been over 1,500 sites found.

48. Urban Development - remarkable for its stability.
city planning (streets at right angles with covered drains, houses made of baked bricks of same size found across valley, common system of weights & measurements.)
Division between public and private (houses, granaries, baths, shops, walled fortresses)
Needed to know geometry and surveying.
Needed strong central authority.

49. Streets at Right Angles
Covered Drains

50. Almost every house unit at Mohenjo-daro was equipped with a private bathing area with drains to take the dirty water out into a larger drain that emptied into a sewage drain.

51. Central Sewage Drain

52. Occupations - Main occupations can be divided into two categories - farmers and traders.
Farmed - wheat, barley, peas, honey, dates. Kept camels, goats, water buffaloes, and birds. First known people to grow cotton and weave it into cloth.

53. Trade - a major activity along the Indus based on sheer number of square seals. Trade with neighboring areas of Indus River and Sumerians. Mesopotamia texts speak of trading with two seafaring civilizations - may have referred to the Indus.

54. weight system of Indus - for trade or taxes

55. Notice how bricks are same size – strong urban planning

56. Mohenjo-Daro
40,000 people lived in this city. Consisted of a lower city and a citadel.
Lower city with brick houses (remains several feet high). Houses are plain and utilitarian (useful).
They are built around a central courtyard with few external windows for protection
They are relatively large showing that the middle class was relatively prosperous.
Many show rebuilding due to floods - but obviously becoming poorer over time - more subdivisions.

58. Granary (150x75’) for the storage of grain was located on citadel
Granary (150x75’) for the storage of grain was located on citadel. Grain was placed on a platform and the walls were constructed like a fortress. Air was allowed to circulate beneath to prevent fermentation.

59. Granary - Acted like local “Bank” for citizens to deposit their grain
Granary - Acted like local “Bank” for citizens to deposit their grain. Was it a community that shared its profits? [Houses were not ostentatious - prosperous but did not need to show it.]

60. “Great Bath” of Mohenjo-daro is the earliest public water tank in the ancient world.
It was water-tight due to finely fitted bricks laid into a gypsum plaster, coated with layer of bitumen (natural tar).

62. Language – Not Translated Yet

63. Believe their government was led by priest-king much like Sumerians.
This statue shows trefoil design copied from Sumerians. Indicates trade and possible transference of ritual ideas.

65. Society – believe it to be somewhat egalitarian
Society – believe it to be somewhat egalitarian. Everyone had same type of house – no ostentatious wealth. Burials were all very similar with again little display of wealth. Communal sharing of wealth? Granary.

66. June 2013
34. Which statement about the early Indus River valley civilization is an opinion rather than a fact? (1) Farmers grew a surplus of barley, wheat, and dates. (2) The Indus people developed a system of writing. (3) Planned cities indicated a use of technology. (4) The Indus city-states were the most developed of the time period.

67. China

68. CHINA is the 3rd largest country in the world.
It has major geographic boundaries -
Himalayas Mts. Gobi Desert, Pacific Ocean, etc. that effectively surround and isolate China.
Due to its geographic isolation the people are often ETHNOCENTRIC – believing their culture is superior to others.

69. Yangtze River Valley in south has the best combination of level land, fertile soil, and sufficient rainfall anywhere in China. Very important river for China’s trade route.

70. Yellow River is the second longest river in China
Yellow River is the second longest river in China. It traces its source to the snow-capped mountains in the west. As the most heavily silt-laden river in the world, the Yellow River got its name from the muddiness of its water.
The silt comes from loess deposits that are deposited by the wind and easily eroded. The Yellow River has carved out hills and steep-sided valleys from these soft soils.

71. Close reading of document –
In your notebooks, describe what you see in this map

72. Yellow River Valley
The naturally steep slopes of the loess plateaus provided extra protection for early inhabitants and it is why they chose it over the easily attacked Yangtze River Valley. Farmers early on learned the practice of terrace farming.

74. The area was quite susceptible to droughts and floods
The area was quite susceptible to droughts and floods. As early as 200 AD they built massive dikes to hold back the water, but to little avail. Constant floods devastated the area so that the river became known as “China’s Sorrow.” The river is very unpredictable, having changed its course 26x in the last 3000 years.

75. January 2012
58. These photographs indicate the people of China and the people of ancient Peru modified their environment to (1) create effective trade routes (2) increase the amount of land available for agriculture (3) move large quantities of water into cities (4) provide an effective defense

76. June 2014
Historically, the Huang He has also been known as the “River of Sorrows” because
(1) frozen ports have made trade difficult
(2) cataracts have made transportation impossible
(3) floods have destroyed crops and villages
(4) burials have taken place at the sacred waters

77. Bronze Age -
Shang Dynasty, BC
The First Dynasty was the Shang dynasty.
They were a bronze age people; bronze-working seems to have entered China around BC (about one thousand years after its invention in Mesopotamia).

79. Very Intricate Details – High Level of Bronze Craftsmanship

80. Also quite skilled at jade carving – jade was their precious material like gold.

81. The Shang ruled in city-states which were, in turn, ruled over by a capital city. This capital was never fixed; as power shifted, individual city-states would become the capital.
The capitals were surrounded by massive walls with palatial buildings on the inside and houses, warehouses, merchants, etc. on the outside.
There was a rigid division between those who were wealthy landowners and those who were not.

82. King - was a kind of head priest, the leader of the military aristocracy, and in charge of the economy. Warfare common – mostly against Mongolians in north.
Army - Shang China endured mainly because of strength of army - consisted of as many as 4,000 peasants forced to be foot soldiers and aristocratic chariot-riding archers (composite bow).

83. Writing - Shang civilization invented writing - records were kept on strips of bamboo. However, inscriptions on bronze and on the oracle bones still survive so we have specimens of the very first Chinese writings.

84. The writing system was originally pictographic and eventually developed into the more complex ideographic (symbols representing ideas) writing that we are more familiar with. It included more than 3,000 characters. Since mastery of these characters required much time and practice, writing was reserved for the elite.

85. Oracle Bones -
The discovery of the oracle bones in China goes back to 1899, when a scholar from Peking was prescribed a remedy containing "dragon bones" for his illness: "dragon bones" were widely used in Chinese medicine and usually refer to fossils of dead animals.
The scholar noticed some carvings that looked like some kind of writing on the bones he acquired from the local pharmacy.

86. Oracle bones," were used to divine the future
Oracle bones," were used to divine the future. The question to the oracle would be written on the bone, and then its answer, and then the real outcomes. So a typical oracle bone would read, "Will the king have a son?" (Question) "Yes" (Answer) "This came to pass" (Outcome).

87. Mandate of Heaven and the Dynastic Cycle

88. The Mandate of Heaven
belief that heaven gives the right to rule (DIVINE RIGHT)

89. The Mandate of Heaven
ruler must be
moral
ethical
good

90. The Mandate of Heaven
in exchange, subjects are loyal and obedient

91. The Mandate of Heaven
bad leadership = right to rebel

92. Four Ways to Lose the Mandate:
weak, corrupt or cruel leadership
natural disasters:
earthquakes
floods
famine
losing the loyalty and support of the people
failing to meet the needs of subjects
rebellion
losing a war

93. The Dynastic Cycle Generations go by, New Dynasty becomes…
brings peace
rebuilds infrastructure
gives land to peasants
protects people
Generations go by, New Dynasty becomes…
The Dynastic Cycle
Old Dynasty
taxes people too much
stops protecting the people
lets infrastructure decay
treats people unfairly
New Dynasty claims Mandate of Heaven
Problems
floods, earthquakes, famine
peasant revolts
invaders attack empire
bandits raid countryside
Old Dynasty loses the Mandate of Heaven

94. The Dynastic Cycle Generations go by, New Dynasty becomes…
brings peace
rebuilds infrastructure
gives land to peasants
protects people
The Dynastic Cycle
Old Dynasty
taxes people too much
stops protecting the people
lets infrastructure decay
treats people unfairly
New Dynasty claims Mandate of Heaven
Problems
floods, earthquakes, famine
peasant revolts
invaders attack empire
bandits raid countryside
Old Dynasty loses the Mandate of Heaven

95. Mandate of Heaven
Shang dynasty will be replaced by Zhou dynasty