First Wave Civilizations - 3500-600 BCE

Mesopotamia quick sum + time period

3500-3000 BCE, called ‘Land Between the Rivers’, Region of Sumer, first written language

use of sumerian cuneiform

written on clay tablets, record goods received by various temples

Mesopotamia organization

• Ziggurats: big temples at core of cities, religious & civic hubs

• Each ruled by a monarch

• Theocratic origins

• Divine cloak = street cred

Mesopotamia geography influence

• Irrigation introduced

• Flat area = conflict over land & water (‘The Wild West’)

• Home to world's first empire

Akkadian

Akkadian: Sargon of Akkad (2334 BCE), created world’s first empire set a precedent

Babylon

• Babylon: Hammurabi (1792 BCE), the Law Giver, Lex Talionis (proportional justice), known for more than law code

Ancient Egypt quick sum + time period

• 3300 BCE

• ‘The Gift of the Nile’

• Independent writing system called hieroglyphics, 2 types (upper/lower people), written on stone and papyrus (early paper)

Ancient Egypt organization

• Unified territorial state (city-states less prominent)

• King Menes-3150 BCE, dynastic rule

• upper/lower class

Ancient Egypt Old Kingdom

(2649-2150 BCE): pyramids, pharaohs, mummies

Ancient Egypt Middle Kingdom

(2030-1640 BCE): public works projects, drained swamps, canals linking red and mediterranean seas, conquered by outsiders

Ancient Egypt New Kingdom

•  (1550-7120 BCE): drove foreigners out, expanded bordered, big wealth and power, future troubles

Norte Chico

•  (modern day Peru, 3000-1800 BCE)

  • Desert region with little rain, lots of rivers

  • 25 urban centers

  • Small cities, less specialized

  • Economy based on fishing

  • Exchanged with inland people for cotton & food (squash, beans)

Indus Valley time period + quick sum

3000-2000 BCE, larger area than other centers, written script undeciphered

Indus Valley common patterns

• Elaborately planned cities

• Standardized weights and measures, architectural styles, brick sizes

• Irrigated agriculture as economic basis

Indus Valley variations from SW Asia

• Standardized weights and measures, architectural styles, brick sizes

• Irrigated agriculture as economic basis

• ?? about political & social organization

• No palaces, temples, evidence of kings/warrior class

• Lots of theories (small republics? Priestly rule? Caste system?)

• Environmental degradation: overirrigation & deforestation for building caused cities abandoned around 1700 BCE

Indus Valley influence today

Today, still use ceremonial bathing, fire in rituals, religious symbolism

Ancient China time + quick sum

• The Middle Kingdom

• Isolation

• 3 early dynasties (Xia, Shang, Zhou)

China ruling, writing, and culture

• Centralized state leadership as a focus

• Ruler = Son of Heaven, Mandate of Heavan (dynastic cycle)

• Oracle Bones, early writing

• Impressive cultural continuity into present

Oxus time period + quick sum

2200 BCE

• Amu Darya River Valley

• Modern Northern Afghanistan

• Irrigation & stock raising

Oxus characteristics

• Many fortified center

• Distinctive culture (art, burial rituals = signs of aristocratic hierarchy)

• No evidence of literacy

• Brief, gone by 1700 BCE

• Cross cultural trade- east to west

Olmec quick sum

• (Southern Mexico)

  • City-states arose from competing cheifdoms

  • Agricultural economies (slash and burn)

  • First written language in the Americas

Olmec cultural features

• Elaborate builders (temples, altars, pyramids, tombs)

• ‘Mother civilization’ of Mesoamerica