knowt logo

Chapter 2 - Early River Valley Civilizations 

2.1 - City-States in Mesopotamia

  • Before 4500 B.C., people began to dwell and plow the flat, swampy regions of southern Mesopotamia.

    • Around 3300 B.C., the Sumerians, who you learned about in Chapter 1, appeared on the scene.

    • The advantage of good soil was what drew these settlers in.

    • There were, however, three drawbacks to their new surroundings.

  • Sumer's inhabitants devised answers to these issues over a lengthy period of time.

  • They created irrigation ditches to provide water, which brought river water to their fields and allowed them to cultivate a surplus of crops.

  • They built city walls out of mud bricks for defense, and they exchanged food, cloth, and handcrafted tools with people from the highlands and the desert.

    • They were given raw commodities such as stone, wood, and metal in exchange.

  • The temple priests were in charge of Sumer's early administrations.

    • Farmers thought that the gods' blessings were necessary for their harvests to succeed, and priests served as intermediaries between the gods and the farmers.

  • The surplus food produced on Sumer's farmland helped the city-states grow.

    • Sumerians were able to increase long-distance trade by exchanging surplus grain and other goods for those they required.

Sumerian Statue

2.2 - Pyramids on the Nile

  • As in Mesopotamia, yearly flooding brought the water and rich soil that allowed settlements to grow.

    • Every year in July, rains and melting snow from the mountains of east Africa caused the Nile River to rise and spill over its banks.

    • When the river receded in October, it left behind a rich deposit of fertile black mud called silt.

  • Egyptian farmers were significantly more fortunate than Mesopotamian people.

    • In comparison to the unpredictability of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, the Nile flowed like clockwork.

  • Ancient Egyptians lived along the Nile from its mouth all the way into Africa's interior.

    • River navigation was frequent, but it came to a stop at the Nile's cascade, where rocks convert the river into churning rapids.

2.3 - Planned Cities on the Indus

  • The Indus Valley was protected from invasion by the world's largest mountains to the north and a huge desert to the east.

  • No one knows when human habitation in the Indian subcontinent began.

    • Those who arrived by sea from Africa may have settled in the south.

  • Northern migrants may have passed over the Hindu Kush mountains' Khyber Pass.

  • Harappa is a wonderful example of this type of urban development.

    • To defend the city from flooding, it was built largely on mudbrick platforms.

    • It was enclosed by a three-and-a-half-mile-long masonry wall.

  • Inside was a fortification that protected the royal family while also serving as a temple.

  • The Harappan cities exhibit exceptional religious and cultural unity.

    • The dwelling implies that there were not many socioeconomic distinctions in the society.

    • Clay and wooden children's toys indicate a highly rich civilization that could afford to manufacture non-essential commodities.

    • Few weapons of war have been discovered, implying that the conflict was brief.

Map of Harapan City

2.4 - River Dynasties in China

  • China's initial civilization, like the other ancient civilizations in this chapter, arose in a river valley.

    • Floods were a threat to China as well, but the country's geographic isolation posed its own set of problems.

  • Early Chinese cultures were creating agrarian communities along the Huang He even before the Sumerians settled in southern Mesopotamia.

  • Some of these communities matured into China's earliest cities around 2000 B.C.

  • According to legend, the Xia (shyah) Dynasty, the earliest Chinese dynasty, arose about this time.

    • Yu, an engineer and mathematician, was the group's head. His flood-control and irrigation efforts enabled communities to expand by taming the Huang He and its tributaries.

    • Yu's mythology illustrates the technological level of a society transitioning to civilization.

RB

Chapter 2 - Early River Valley Civilizations 

2.1 - City-States in Mesopotamia

  • Before 4500 B.C., people began to dwell and plow the flat, swampy regions of southern Mesopotamia.

    • Around 3300 B.C., the Sumerians, who you learned about in Chapter 1, appeared on the scene.

    • The advantage of good soil was what drew these settlers in.

    • There were, however, three drawbacks to their new surroundings.

  • Sumer's inhabitants devised answers to these issues over a lengthy period of time.

  • They created irrigation ditches to provide water, which brought river water to their fields and allowed them to cultivate a surplus of crops.

  • They built city walls out of mud bricks for defense, and they exchanged food, cloth, and handcrafted tools with people from the highlands and the desert.

    • They were given raw commodities such as stone, wood, and metal in exchange.

  • The temple priests were in charge of Sumer's early administrations.

    • Farmers thought that the gods' blessings were necessary for their harvests to succeed, and priests served as intermediaries between the gods and the farmers.

  • The surplus food produced on Sumer's farmland helped the city-states grow.

    • Sumerians were able to increase long-distance trade by exchanging surplus grain and other goods for those they required.

Sumerian Statue

2.2 - Pyramids on the Nile

  • As in Mesopotamia, yearly flooding brought the water and rich soil that allowed settlements to grow.

    • Every year in July, rains and melting snow from the mountains of east Africa caused the Nile River to rise and spill over its banks.

    • When the river receded in October, it left behind a rich deposit of fertile black mud called silt.

  • Egyptian farmers were significantly more fortunate than Mesopotamian people.

    • In comparison to the unpredictability of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, the Nile flowed like clockwork.

  • Ancient Egyptians lived along the Nile from its mouth all the way into Africa's interior.

    • River navigation was frequent, but it came to a stop at the Nile's cascade, where rocks convert the river into churning rapids.

2.3 - Planned Cities on the Indus

  • The Indus Valley was protected from invasion by the world's largest mountains to the north and a huge desert to the east.

  • No one knows when human habitation in the Indian subcontinent began.

    • Those who arrived by sea from Africa may have settled in the south.

  • Northern migrants may have passed over the Hindu Kush mountains' Khyber Pass.

  • Harappa is a wonderful example of this type of urban development.

    • To defend the city from flooding, it was built largely on mudbrick platforms.

    • It was enclosed by a three-and-a-half-mile-long masonry wall.

  • Inside was a fortification that protected the royal family while also serving as a temple.

  • The Harappan cities exhibit exceptional religious and cultural unity.

    • The dwelling implies that there were not many socioeconomic distinctions in the society.

    • Clay and wooden children's toys indicate a highly rich civilization that could afford to manufacture non-essential commodities.

    • Few weapons of war have been discovered, implying that the conflict was brief.

Map of Harapan City

2.4 - River Dynasties in China

  • China's initial civilization, like the other ancient civilizations in this chapter, arose in a river valley.

    • Floods were a threat to China as well, but the country's geographic isolation posed its own set of problems.

  • Early Chinese cultures were creating agrarian communities along the Huang He even before the Sumerians settled in southern Mesopotamia.

  • Some of these communities matured into China's earliest cities around 2000 B.C.

  • According to legend, the Xia (shyah) Dynasty, the earliest Chinese dynasty, arose about this time.

    • Yu, an engineer and mathematician, was the group's head. His flood-control and irrigation efforts enabled communities to expand by taming the Huang He and its tributaries.

    • Yu's mythology illustrates the technological level of a society transitioning to civilization.