1. Civilizations

2. Intro: Major agricultural regions had more permanent settlements
Catal Huyuk: modern day Turkey; founded around 7000 BCE
Mud homes
Religion
Self-sufficient
Linked to smaller communities
Developed politics

3. Ancient Civilizations
Mesopotamia – Tigris-Euphrates River
Egypt – Nile River
India – Indus River
China – Huang He

4. Mesopotamia Developed from scratch 3500 BCE
Occupied by Sumerians – main city was Sumer
Developed cuneiform – first human writing
Arts, science, and religion
System of numbers
Ziggurats – massive towers
polytheistic

5. Their religious texts had an influence on later Jews, Christians, and Muslims
Afterlife of punishment…
City-states
Kings, nobles, and priests controlled the land work on by slaves
Fertilizers
Silver for currency

6. Conquered by the Babylonians – under King Hammurabi
Followed by future conquests from Assyrians and Persians…

7. Egypt 3000 BCE Benefited from Mesopotamia but developed differently
Isolation helped preserve its culture
Pharaohs
Economy was government directed
Irrigation important feature
Pyramids – tombs for the pharaohs

8. Egyptian influence spread north to Kush – known as Sudan…
More advanced mathematics than the Sumerians
Belief in afterlife
Hieroglyphics – Rosetta Stone

9. Rosetta Stone…
In 1799, near the village of Rosetta, French soldiers found a tablet…
3 languages on the tablet, the first was hieroglyphics, the second was a simpler form of hieroglyphics, and the third was Greek
By 1822, a French scholar, Jean Francois Champollion broke the code of hieroglyphics

12. The stone weighs over 1700 pounds
45 inches high
28 inches wide
11 inches thick
Made of some form of granite

13. India
Indus River
2500 BCE
Several large cities – Harappa and Mohenjo Daro
Developed an alphabet – writing not deciphered – similar to hieroglyphics

14. China Huang He River Developed in isolation – 1500 BCE
Organized state – managed the floods
Domesticated horses, skilled in pottery
Bronze and iron use
Ideographic symbols….
By 1500, a line of Kings – the Shang began to rule