Nile River Valley Egypt Nile River Yearly Floods

Nile River Valley Egypt

Nile River • Yearly Floods <> Every spring heavy rains would flood the Nile River Valley <> The floods would soak the wide river banks and leave SILT when the water would recede. <> Silt was extremely FERTILE

Controlling the Floods • Irrigation Systems

Three Kingdoms of Egypt The Old Kingdom 2700 BC >> 2200 BC The Middle Kingdom 2050 BC >> 1800 BC The New Kingdom 1550 BC >> 1100 BC

Government • Strong Pharaohs • Divine Right • Pharaoh was considered a God

Social Hierarchy

Religion • Polytheistic Belief in MANY Gods • Chief God Amon-Re (Sun God) • Pharaoh Considered a God

Belief in the Afterlife • Mummification • Pyramids

“A Fateful Test” • Each soul must pass a test in order to win eternal life 1. ) Isis Osiris Goddess God 2. ) Dead souls will be ferried across a lake of fire to the hall of Osiris 3. ) Osiris will look at the souls heart 4. ) If the soul was a sinner, it would be fed to the Crocodile shaped “Eater of the Dead” 5. ) If the soul was good, it would live forever in the “Happy Field of Food”

“The Book of the Dead” • A book to help the souls pass the Fateful Test • The book is full of spells, charms, and formulas for the dead to use in the afterlife

Hieroglyphics • System of writing using pictures

Ideograms • Pictures that symbolize words or actions

Papyrus • A plant that grows along the banks of the Nile that they used to make a paperlike writing material

The Rosetta Stone • A Flat black stone discovered by a French scholar • The stone has a message written in three different languages…. Hieroglyphics Demotic Greek • The three languages enabled the scholar to decipher the meanings of many of the hieroglyphics symbols

Decipher • To Decode

Mesopotamia • In what today is known as Iraq

Mesopotamia • “The Land Between the Rivers” • Tigris and Euphrates

The Fertile Crescent

The Cradle of Civilization

Crossroads The Fertile crescent became a crossroads • Few Natural Barriers • A place where people and ideas met and mingled (CULTURAL DIFFUSSION)

Sumer • The first civilization in Mesopotamia

City States • Sumer was made up of a number of “CITY STATES” <> A political unit made up of a city and it’s surrounding land

Sumerian Religion • Polytheistic…. . (believed in many Gods)

Religion Cont’d • God’s Linked with Nature • Temples called Ziggurats

Social Hierarchy Ruling Family Officials/High Priests Middle Class Merchants and Artisans Peasant Farmers

Economy • Rich from trade

Sumerian Contributions • Cuneiform • The first wheeled vehicles • Irrigation Systems

Strong Rulers of the Fertile Crescent Hammurabi • King of Babylon (Empire in Mesopotamia) • Powerful Ruler • Code of Hammurabi

Code of Hammurabi • Legal Code (LAWS) • An Eye for and Eye Justice (Very Harsh) • Code was carved on a stone and displayed in the public

Code of Hammurabi cont’d • 1 st Time a code of Laws was displayed in a public place • Code was more favorable to the upper class • The code made society run smooth

Indus River Valley

Indian Subcontinent

India • Subcontinent A large part of a continent that juts out into the water • Peninsula A large mass of land surrounded by water on three sides

Monsoon • Seasonal Winds • Heavy Rains • The people depended on them for crops

Two Main Cities • Harappa Mohenjo-Daro <> Very organized city governments <> Houses had baths, drains, and water chutes leading to sewers <> Grid like city blocks <> Oven fired clay brick built houses

Aryan invaders • 1500 BC • Aryan warriors invaded and conquered the Indus Valley

Chinese Civilizations Two River Valleys • Huang He (Yellow River) • Yangtze

China Isolation Isolated by Four Natural Barriers • • Mountains Desert Ocean Jungles

Natural Barriers • Gobi Desert to the north • Himalayan Mountains to the west • Pacific Ocean to the East • Jungle to the south

Chinese had little contact with other civilizations………. WHY ? ? ? Because of their ISOLATION…. . It was hard to get there……

Because of the isolation…. . • Chinese Civilization became very UNIQUE…. . with little outside influence

Dynasty • A Ruling Family who controls power from one generation to the next

Dynasty Cycle

Contributions • Written Chinese Language • 4000 years old • Uses both Pictographs Ideograms

Contributions • Silk Road