UNIT 3 - Early River Valley Civilizations

Sumer - Intro

  • The Fertile Crescent is an arable arc of land located between the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea

    • Fertile - good for farming, mainly based on river systems

  • Mesopotamia is located between the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers

    • Mesopotamia means “land between rivers”

  • People began to settle in Mesopotamia because the folding of the Tigris and Euphrates provided fertile soil, or silt, that was ideal for farming

  • The rivers are portrayed as the foundation of Mesopotamian life

  • Flooding was unpredictable. Some years would bring drought and yet others would bring about destructive floods

  • The ability to farm resulted in the ability to sustain larger populations and larger populations gave rise to civilizations

  • Sumerians were one of the first groups to settle in Mesopotamia

  • They built one of the world’s first civilizations

    • In advanced cities, More food is given away to more people

  • The Sumerians built several advanced cities, known as city-states because they were politically independent, each with its government and laws

    • Each city-state was their own country with their monarchs

  • Most Sumerians lived in a mud-brick house

  • The father was the head of the household - Extended and Patriarchal society

  • Farming and an expanding population led to the rise of specialized workers. Specialization, in turn, led to the rise of social classes (Hierarchy)

  • Sumerian specialized workers developed new, highly advanced technologies such as the wheel, the sail, and the plow

  • They also developed a base 60-number system, which is the basis for modern time increments

  • Also created a record-keeping system

  • Then pictographs evolved into a syllabic script and it is known as cuneiform

  • Scribes pressed a wedge-shaped reed called a stylus into soft clay tablets which were then hardened by being dried in the sun

    • % of literates were minimal

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Complex Institutions in Sumer

  • The Sumerians also developed complex institutions. A complex economy arose as evidenced by Sumerian trade networks

  • Merchants would sell their goods at the bazaar, or market, in the city center

  • The Sumerians also developed a complex government. The first Sumerian leaders are believed to have been priests

  • These priests were believed to be intermediaries between the people and their gods. They were expected to oversee the construction and maintenance of the temples and make offerings in an attempt to please the gods

    • Intermediate: Communicate with/favor of gods

  • However, warfare between the Sumerian city-states became more common. As a result, city-state leaders began to be chosen for their military, as opposed to religious, prowess

  • While city-states fought over water and control of trade routes, the most common cause of conflict was land

  • We don’t know where new leaders and their power were dynastic or passed down within a family

  • Thus, these leaders were responsible for appeasing the gods just as the priestly readers had been

    • Building a temple and making offerings to gods

  • These leaders also had to protect their city-states and many kings would often lead their armies into battle

  • Sumerians had complex religion and they were also polytheistic

  • The gods were immortal and possessed supernatural powers but also exhibited human emotion

  • Since disasters were common in Mesopotamia and the gods were responsible for the disasters, it appeared as though the gods were continually upset with human beings

  • As such, the purpose of Sumerian religion was to soothe or appease the gods with prayers and offerings

  • Sumeriab prayers were devoted to preventing punishment in this life. But there was no way to avoid suffering in the next life

  • It was believed that all souls went to the underworld upon death - a hot and dry place where people lived among worms and dust for eternity

  • The center of the Sumerian religion was the temple. Every city-state built a temple

  • Over time, one platform was built upon another creating the ziggurat, or the “mountain of god”

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Sargon and Hammurabi

  • The consistent warfare that plagued Sumer weakened all of the city0states considerably

  • This weakness, coupled with few natural barriers, left Sumer vulnerable to invaders

  • One such invader was Sargon

  • Sargon set out to conquer the Sumerian city-state, and in doing so he created the world’s first empire

    • Empire: A geographically extensive group of states and peoples united and ruled by a central authority

  • The Sumerian city-states were conquered once again by the Babylonians. The Babylonian Empire would create one of the ancient world’s most famous cities, Babylon

  • The Empire reached its peak during the reign of Hammurabi. Hammurabi’s most enduring legacy is his code of laws, the Code of Hammurabi

  • The Code consisted of 282 laws and was among the world’s first law codes

  • It’s best known for its harsh punishment

    • EX: If a man put out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out

    • If a man knocks out the teeth of his equal, his teeth shall be knocked out

    • If a builder builds a house for someone and does not construct it properly, and the house he built falls in and kills its owner, then the builder shall be put to death

    • If it kills the son of the owner the son of that builder shall be put to death

    • If a collapsed house kills a slave of the owner, then he shall pay slave for slave to the owner of the house

  • The code was engraved on stone and put on display across the empire

  • As such, the law became public. This ensured justice would be objective and not based on clan loyalties

  • However, Hammurabi did not treat people equally. The rich were treated better than the poor

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“Egypt was the gift of the Nile”

  • The inundation took place between July and October

    • Def: an overflow; a flood; a rising and spreading of water over grounds

  • The waters of the Nile would rise 30 ft. and flood the surrounding land

  • The receding floodwaters would leave behind dark, rich soil for farmers to plow and seed

  • From March to June, framers would harvest the crops and repair damaged reservoirs and irrigation canals

  • Caste system/Hierarchy:

    • King

    • Vizier (chief advisor/assistant to the Pharaoh)

    • Priests

    • Nobles and Government Officials

    • Scribes, Doctors, and Engineers

    • Artists, Craftsmen and Merchants

    • Soldiers

    • Farmers and Builders

    • Slaves

  • The Egyptians also developed the Calendar and paper (Papyrus)

  • The Pharaoh was the leader of the Egyptian government and military. He ruled over Egypt in an absolute manner and led the army into battle

  • Pharaohs direct religion, but they were also believed to be gods on Earth

  • Eypgpitians also have extensive networks of trade. The Nile facilitated trade within Egypt

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  • Egypt was a polytheistic society

  • Priests soon became very wealthy and influential

  • Osiris and Isis were brother and sister but also husband and wife

  • Osiris and Isis came to Earth and civilized to Earth and civilized Egypt by teaching humans how to farm and domesticate animals. When they became king and queen they had a son and named him Horus

  • Isis reassembled Osiris and brought him back to life when his brother shut him out in a coffin as a gift and threw him down the Nile. The brother when he became king also cut up his body into 13 pieces and scattered them around the country

  • Osiris becomes the god of the afterworld

  • Osiris asked his now-grown son Horus to avenge his death

  • Horus drafted Seth, the brother, but did not kill him. Thus, evil is still present and the good hunt must always be on guard and vigilant

  • Upon death, Horus would escort pharaohs through the underworld to Osiris

  • Egyptians also relied on the Book of the Dead, a collection of spells, to assist them in their journey through the underworld to the afterlife

  • Weighing of the Heart - Judgement Day?

  • The afterlife is believed to be very much like this life, just better. Thus, tombs were filled with goods that the dead would need in the next life

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  • The pyramids are royal tombs that were built during the Old Kingdom

  • Snedfaru’s Khufu built the Great Pyramid at Giza

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Mummies

  • Egyptians had to find a process by which moisture would be artificially removed from a corpse. That process became mummification

  • They would leave the heart inside the body so it was used in the ‘weighing of the heart ceremony”

  • Next, the embalmers would remove the brain

  • A mummy looks the way it does due to the 35-day process, not because it is thousands of years old

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Upper and Lower Egypt

  • Narmar, king of Upper Egypt, conquered Lower Egypt and united Egypt for the first time in history

  • The Old Kingdom collapsed and Egypt entered a period of political and economic turmoil known as the Intermediate Period

  • The Hyksos Invasion: Unification collapsed again when the Hyksos gained control of Lower Eygpt during the 2nd Intermediate Period

  • Some believe the Hyksos, crossed the Sinai, invaded Egypt, and took the Delta by force making use of the horse-drawn chariot

  • The Hyksos Migration: Others believe that the Hyksos were simply migrants attracted to Egypt by the reliability of the Nile River

  • As their population expanded and Egypt weakened, they simply exerted their control over the Delta region

  • Relatives of Joseph: Others believe the Hyksos were not a united people but simply a collection of foreigners

  • That would have included the Hebrews

  • King of Thebes, a city in Upper Egypt, attempted to drive out the Hyksos

  • His son Ahmose continues their father’s fight against the Hyksos

  • Ahmose drove the Hyksos out of the Delta and reunited Egypt. This began the New Kingdom

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Geography of the Subcontinent

  • The Indus Valley civilization began on the subcontinent

  • The subcontinent is also known as South Asia, a peninsula bounded by the Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean, and Bay of Bengal

  • Hindu Kush and Himalayan Mountains serve as an important source of river systems like the Indus and Ganges

  • The Indus River flows southwest from the Himalayas into the Arabian Sea

  • Ganges flows into the Bay of Bengal

  • Although these rivers floor in an unpredictable manner, they enabled the rise of agriculture and civilization

  • Perhaps the most important geographic feature of the subcontinent, however, is the monsoon.

  • A monsoon is a seasonal wind and there are summer and winter monsoons

  • The Winter Moonsoon begins over the Himalayan Mountains and blows cooler, dry air

  • The Summer Monsoon begins over the Indian Ocean and brings warm, moist air while also resulting in floods. Yet, when they fail to develop the result can be drought and famine

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Indus River Valley Civilization

  • Environmental challenges: River/monsoons flooded unpredictably and would change course but provided the opportunity to farm

  • Valley’s best-known cities out of hundreds: Harappa, Mohenjo - Daro

  • Features of Valley’s cities: Constructed with sun-dried bricks, had drainage systems (defining feature), public baths, ritual bathing, used a grid system for city planning, and had underground pipes/sewage systems

  • Had a complex economy because the Valley had access to Mesopotamia - found Indus artifacts there

  • Advanced tech: sewage system (unmatched)

  • Record Keeping: Clay tablets, pots, stone stamps, 400 symbols for language (haven’t been deciphered)

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China

  • Geography to know: Mongolia, Manchuria, China, Korea, Japan, Himalayan Mountains, Pacific Ocean

  • China was largely isolated because of its natural barriers

  • Its inhabitants came to believe that it constituted the middle of the world so they referred to China as the Middle Kingdom

  • China regarded people residing on the outskirts of them as barbarians and the country would often seek to isolate itself intentionally

  • This isolation created a very unique culture and it would lead to ethnocentrism

  • 2/3 of China is dominated by mountains and deserts and only 10% of China is suitable for farming

  • North China Plain is the vast majority of arable land

  • This plain lay between the Yangtze (Chang Jiang) and the Huang He (Yellow) river

  • Yellow River is called that because it is the color of silt known as loess

  • Flooding of the rivers is unpredictable and the flooding of the Yellow River is quite violent also known as China’s sorrow

  • When the first cities were eventually established those responsible were the 5 sage kings of the Zia Dynasty

  • The Xia Dynasty is the origin of Chinese civilization

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Shang Dynasty

  • Shang Dynasty is best known for its royal burials and oracle bones

  • Oracle bones were a means of communicating with the gods. A question would be written on a turtle shell or animal bones

  • A priest would apply heat to the oracle bones causing them to crack. The crack was then used as a means of divination to provide an answer to the question posed - record-keeping

  • The writing system included 3,000 pictographic characters

  • The dynasty also devoted prayers and offerings to the spirits of their dead ancestors

  • The Shang dynasty was violently overthrown by the Zhou

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Zhou Dynasty

  • “He who wins is king. He who loses is a rebel” (Analyze text in test, related to the mandate of heaven)

  • To justify their conquest, the Zhou argued that the gods were unhappy with the state of China. As such, they had taken away Shang’s right to rule and had given it to the Zhou

  • The idea that royal authority came from the gods became known as the Mandate of Heaven

  • The Mandate of Heaven was used to explain floods, famine, riots, and rebellion.

  • It also explained, as a result, the rise and fall of dynasties. This is known as the Dynastic Cycle

  • The Zhou governed their last kingdom with the system of feudalism