What are some advantages disadvantages of living near

What are some advantages & disadvantages of living near a source of water?

River Valley Civilizations

The BIG Four ● Mesopotamia ● Ancient Egypt ● Ancient China ● Indus River Valley

Let’s define it What is a River Valley Civilization?

River Valley Civilization It is a type of civilization that locates itself next to a river in order to take advantage of the drinking water there, and to use it for agricultural activities.

What every River Valley Civilization has in common ● ● ● Stable Food Supply Artisans Advanced Technology Complex Institutions and Cities Caste System

Stable Food Supply

● When a society doesn’t need to worry about having enough food to survive they can start working on other things. ● Being located next to a river provided these societies with fertile soil and freshwater making it easy to grow crops ● Having a surplus of food also could be used for trade, or stored in case there was ever a famine ● Most importantly, having a lot of food meant that the population of the society could grow without having to worry about feeding everyone

Artisans

● Artisans are people who specialized in doing a particular kind of job. ● They might make pottery, or build houses, make weapons/tools, or even furniture. ● Artisans would constantly try to improve how they did their job, which led to new discoveries that benefited the society that they lived in

Advanced Technology

● All of these civilizations are going to be judged based on what kind of technology that they invented. ● Examples of some tech include: written languages, religion, architecture, codified laws, government, money, and advanced farming practices.

Complex Institutions & Cities

● The larger a society, the more people you need to run it. ● Governments need people who can perform the day to day tasks required of a government, and also people who will focus on more big picture things, and you need people who can organize and guide all of these people. ● Religious organizations operate in the same way, as do schools, and traders. ● Cities also started popping up, as people wanted to live close together because it was generally safer, and it gave people more access to goods

Caste Systems

● A Caste System is a social hierarchy within a civilization, usually based on personal wealth, and sometimes religion ● At the top of the system would be the leaders of the civilization, and at the bottom were usually slaves, farmers, and peasants. ● Some civilization, like the Indus River Valley civilization, had a very strict caste system. They had laws the said what you could and couldn’t do based on what level of the caste system you were in.