Homework Bell Ringer What time is the Homecoming Dance?

Early River Civilizations Summary Notes Use your PERSIA-G chart and fill in with these notes. Notes available online at wikispace.

Politics Theocracy – rule by priest-king Egypt: Pharaoh – long lasting rulers in dynasties. Considered to be reborn god Osiris; supported by viziers and scribes Owned all the land Able to conscript labor to build things like pyramids Build monumental architecture/sculpture that glorified pharaoh and insured people following them. So isolated and protected by deserts and cataracts they were able to create an empire and conquer other lands.

Politics (continued) Sumerians (Mesopotamian) – competitive city-states, ruler only of city-state not the entire region due to lack of natural barriers Responsible for major public work projects like dykes, dams, and irrigation canals Monumental architecture - ziggurats Queen Puabi’s grave shows power of elite monarchy – human sacrifice and gifts for afterlife Laws (Hammurabi Law Code) – retributive “eye-for-eye” punishment - harsh Indus River (Harappan) – empire, strong central authority shown by standardized weights and measurements throughout empire, urban planning at Mohenjo-Daro No monumental architecture – instead focus on public goods (ex. Granary)

Politics (continued) China (Yellow River) Dynasties – long lasting due to geographic barriers Empires – strong emperors who will command peasant armies Mandate of Heaven – method by which one family of rulers can be replaced by new family since families get the right to rule from the gods/ancestors (divine right).

The Dynastic Cycle Generations go by, New Dynasty becomes… brings peace rebuilds infrastructure gives land to peasants protects people Generations go by, New Dynasty becomes… The Dynastic Cycle Old Dynasty taxes people too much stops protecting the people lets infrastructure decay treats people unfairly New Dynasty claims Mandate of Heaven Problems floods, earthquakes, famine peasant revolts invaders attack empire bandits raid countryside Old Dynasty loses the Mandate of Heaven

Economics Subsistent farming of domesticated plants and animals. Barter/Traditional economies Taxes that are collected for public works and redistributed Little foreign trade – but some evidence in the creation of standardized weights Eventually near end of period some currency is created. Indus has some suggestion of more “socialist” tendencies by sharing of grain (granary)

Religion Polytheism – nature spirits – some animals but many anthropomorphic (human-shaped) Afterlife Important Egyptians – Book of the Dead, Mummification, Pyramids Sumerians – Queen Puabi’s burial Indus – grave goods found with dead China – use Oracle Bones to contact dead ancestors

Social Social Stratification – priest-king at top, scribes, artisans, peasants and slaves Women become more restricted with less rights. Patriarchal societies that occasionally practice polygamy (for more children) Some women gain political power (Egypt – Hatshepsut/Cleopatra, Sumeria – Puabi)

Intellectual/Technological Farm Tools Plows, Hoes, Seed Drills Irrigation, Dams, Dykes, Terrace Farming Writing – hieroglyphics (Egyptians – translated with Rosetta Stone), cuneiform (Sumerians – Epic of Gilgamesh), Indus untranslated seals, Chinese Pictographs/Ideographs (Oracles Bones) Pottery – wheel mass produced Urban Planning – sewers, standardized weights (bricks) Jewelry – Jade (China), Gold (Egypt/Sumeria)

Art / Architecture/ Literature Monumental architecture (pyramids, temples, ziggurats) funded by government to promote dynasties Public Works to promote community Portraits of Leaders (Egypt, Sumeria, and India)

Art/Architecture/Literature (Cont) Private art (jewelry, tomb paintings, pottery) Literature – Egypt: Book of the Dead, Sumeria: Epic of Gilgamesh Shang, China – Bronze and Jade Decor

Geography Along Rivers – Nile, Tigris/ Euphrates, Indus, Yellow Modifications Required: irrigation, dams, dykes, terrace farming Egypt – natural barriers (cataracts, deserts – Nubian/Lybian, Sahara) will impede trade/cultural diffusion but protect China – natural barriers (Himalayas, Gobi Desert, Pacific Ocean) create ethnocentrism and protection Sumeria – no barriers – constant political upheavals Indus – monsoons impacts farming and trade, mountains protect and isolate