Transcript Ancient Civilizations

Ancient Civilizations
Civilization
 A complex culture that has at least three charactericts.
 People are able to produce surplus or extra food.
 People establish large towns or cities with some form of goverenment.
 People perform different jobs, instead of doing all kinds of work.
Chinese River Valley Civilizations
(3950 BC-1000 BC)
 Huang He (Yellow) River Valley
 Shang Dynasty (2000 BC) – division of classes, importance of family.
 Buddhism – Founded by Siddhartha Gautama, born in 6th Century
BC to a noble family in northern india. (Buddhism follows many of the
beliefs of Hinduism, including non-violence, selfdenial,
 and to seek oneness with the “Great World Soul”; but it rejects the Caste System
and numerous of gods.
 Confucianism – Based on the ideas of Confucius (the Latin name for Master
Kung). His major ideas are recorded in the Analects.
 .
The rivers of China
 The Huang
 The Chang
 The Xi
The Huang He
 Flows 2,900 miles across
china before empying into
the yellow river.
 Ferile yellow soil called
“loess”
 yellow river
 “china’s sorrow”
Shang Dynasty
 Shang Dynasty (2000 BC) – division of classes, importance
of family.
 Stretched 40,000 square miles( moving capital several times)
 Lunar calendar, moon-based. Used to record private and
public events such as birth of a child and death of a ruler.
 Religion, animism-the belief that spirits inhabit everything
with ancestor worship.
 Writing,ideograpghs and calligraphy.
Ancient Egypt
 Earliest settlement along the Nile River begins in 5000 BC.
 Irrigation along the Nile leads to Egypt being known as “The Gift of
the Nile”. Flooding was on a regular yearly cycle.
 Ruled by pharaohs who were considered god-kings; theocracy
established as form of government
 Polytheistic religion
 Religious features: pyramids built as tombs for pharaohs; belief in the
afterlife; mummification of the dead to prevent bodies from decaying
 Stratified society: royal family followed by upper class followed by
middle class (merchants and
 artisans), and then the lower class (peasant farmers and unskilled
laborers) Slaves later became a source of labor.
 Writing system: hieroglyphics; writing done on papyrus
The Nile River
 The longest river in the
world.
 4,160 miles
 Main sources are the White
Nile, beginning near Lake
Victoria in eastern Africa.
Blue Nile, runs from the
Ethiopian high lands.
 Runs north to south,
fanning into a delta near the
Mediterranean Sea.
Ancient India and the Indus river
 First major cities include: Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa which were developed
on
 grid systems and had sophisticated plumbing and sewage systems.
 These early cities decline around 1750 BC due to a possible change in
course by
 the Indus River.
 Indo-European – people known as Aryans settle in the Indus Valley around
1500
 BC
 Aryan religious features: sacred literature known as Vedas
 Caste system develops under Aryans
 Hinduism – Polytheistic religion dating back to the Aryan invasion in 1500 BC
 Vedas – collection of hymns and religious ceremonies of the Hindus that
were
 passed down orally and eventually written down
 Reincarnation – belief that the soul is reborn in a different form after death.
 Reincarnation reinforces the caste system of India
 Karma – a person’s actions on earth that determine how the soul will be
reborn
Indus River
 First Indian civilization
establish. about 4,500
years ago.
Ancient Mesopotamia and the
Tigris-Euphrates