Ancient River Valley Civilizations Free Powerpoint Templates Page

Ancient River Valley Civilizations Free Powerpoint Templates Page 1

The common tie between all 4 early civilizations is how each rose independently in river valleys! Free Powerpoint Templates Page 2

The 4 main River valley civilizations are: • Mesopotamia Tigris and Euphrates Rivers • Egypt Nile River • Ancient India Indus River • Ancient China Huang He River Free Powerpoint Templates Page 3

The Cradle of Civilization Free Powerpoint Templates Page 4

Free Powerpoint Templates Page 5

The Cradle of Civilization When a newborn baby begins life, he or she is placed in a cradle. Mesopotamia is called the cradle of civilization because the first civilizations began there, about 5, 500 years ago in 3500 B. C. WRITE Free. DON’T Powerpoint Templates Page 6

1. Geography A. Mesopotamia means “between two rivers” B. It is also called the Fertile Crescent. It had good farmland. Free Powerpoint Templates (Think of a crescent roll or a crescent-shaped moon) Page 7

C. The lack of natural barriers allowed frequent migration (GOOD!) and invasion (BAD!). Free Powerpoint Templates Page 8

Why are mountains natural barriers? Free Powerpoint Templates DON’T WRITE Page 9

Why is the ocean a natural barrier? Free. DON’T Powerpoint WRITE Templates Page 10

Why is a jungle a natural barrier? Free Powerpoint DON’T WRITE Templates Page 11

DON’T WRITE Why is a glacier a natural barrier? Free Powerpoint Templates Page 12

D. Mesopotamia became a crossroads of civilization where people shared customs and ideas. Free Powerpoint Templates Page 13

E. The diversity of people made it difficult to unite them into a single nation so citystates developed. Free Powerpoint Templates Page 14

Why Did These Cities Develop? Due to the fertile soil in Mesopotamia, farming was very successful. In fact, people were able to create surpluses of food. This meant that some people could stop farming and begin doing other things, like building a city. As cities began to develop, people began to worry about others who might come and invade their city. They wanted to protect themselves from enemies, so people in Mesopotamia built walls around their cities. Free Powerpoint Templates DON’T WRITE Page 15

2. The city-state of Sumer Achievements: A. Large, pyramid temples called ziggurats Free Powerpoint Templates Page 16

DON’T WRITE Each city-state had its own special god or goddess, closely tied to nature. Free Powerpoint Templates Page 17

B. The earliest form of writing known as cuneiform Free Powerpoint Templates Page 18

Sumerian Writing Scribes used a sharp point called a stylus to etch words into clay tablets. These tablets have been discovered by archaeologists and looked at by historians. Free Powerpoint Templates DON’T WRITE Page 19

C. The epic poem The Epic of Gilgamesh tells the adventures of a Sumerian king and a great flood! Free Powerpoint Templates Page 20

D. Inventions • The wheel, the sail, the plow • Bronze tools • Number system with base 60 • 360 degree circle • Use of mud bricks and mortar Free Powerpoint Templates Page 21

http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v= XJo. Dbe. REUBk Free Powerpoint Templates Page 22

3. Babylonians A. Babylon was one city-state kingdom in Mesopotamia. Free Powerpoint Templates Page 23

B. King Hammurabi conquered other kingdoms and created an empire C. He created the first written law code, Hammurabi’s Code. Free Powerpoint Templates Page 24

Hammurabi’s Code of Laws Free Powerpoint Templates Page 25

D. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were Built by King Nebuchadnezzar II for his wife to remind her of her home, Persia. Free Powerpoint Templates Page 26

DON’T WRITE The garden was irrigated using the Euphrates River and chain pumps to funnel the water to the plants. Free Powerpoint Templates Page 27

3. Other Mesopotamian Peoples: • Assyrians • Hittites • Phoenicians • Akkadians Free Powerpoint Templates Page 28

EXTRA INFO Free Powerpoint Templates Page 29

Sumerian Religion Sumerians believed in many gods. This is called polytheism. “Poly” means many and “Theism” means gods. The picture above shows a ziggurat. Ziggurats were the main temples used to worship the gods of a city. Ziggurats were built in the center of the city. They had steps and ramps, and it was believed that the gods descended to the Earth using the ziggurat as a ladder. Free Powerpoint Templates Page 30

A Sumerian City Sumerian city streets were so narrow that you could hardly get a cart through them. Narrow Streets Sumerian houses faced away from crowded streets. Instead, they faced onto courtyards where families ate and children played. Courtyard Area Free Powerpoint Templates Page 31

Sumerian Cities On hot nights, people slept outdoors on the top of their house’s flat roof. Sumerians had a form of light at night. They burned oil lamps. Sumerians even had plumbing! Clay pipes that were buried underground carried their waste away. Inventions like plumbing wouldn’t come around for another thousand years in other parts of the world! Free Powerpoint Templates Page 32

Sumerian Mythology Sumerian myths, or stories, explained people’s beliefs. Sumerians believed that a person must keep the gods happy by going to the ziggurat and praying to them. They believed that the gods would reward them for good service. They also believed that the gods would punish the people who made them angry. ziggurat Gods Free Powerpoint Templates Page 33

The Downfall of the Sumerians Each of the Sumerian city-states had a ruler, and these city-states began fighting each other. They fought over land the use of river water. Since the Sumerians were constantly at war with each other, they became weak. By 2000 BC, Sumer was a weakened area, and by 1759 BC, Sumer was conquered by another group of people - the Babylonians, who were from the north. Free Powerpoint Templates Page 34

The Babylonian Empires Free Powerpoint Templates Page 35

A. Mesopotamians believed that the world was a flat disc surrounded by a huge, holed space, and above that, heaven. Free Powerpoint Templates Page 36

• The idea of the world being flat would stick around until the 14 and 15 th centuries, when explorers such as Christopher Columbus and Magellan would disprove that theory. Free Powerpoint Templates Page 37