Ancient River Valley Civilizations

Mesopotamia

Fertile Crescent-area along Tigris-Euphrates rivers in present-day Iraq Believed to have invented the wheel Cuneiform-writing that was carved into a clay tablet using a wedge-shaped object called a stylus Ziggurat-pyramid-like temple with a shrine located at the top Also used by the Babylonians *Much of what was left of Mesopotamian art located in Iraqi museums has been destroyed by the US during the Iraq War

An eye for an eye; A tooth for a tooth Similar area to that of Mesopotamia Code of Hammurabi-law code developed by King Hammurabi Strict set of laws “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” (equal retaliation) Hanging Gardens-considered one of the original Seven Wonders of the World. Built by Nebuchadnezzar II around 600 BC Believed to have been constructed to please his wife, Amytis of Media, who longed for the trees and fragrant plants of her homeland An eye for an eye; A tooth for a tooth

Read the excerpt below & complete the following: Would you describe Babylon under this law code as “equal”? Why/Why not? 117. If any one fails to pay a debt, and sells himself, his wife, his son, or daughter for money or give them away for forced labor: they shall work for three years in the house of the man who bought them and in the fourth year they shall be set free. 138. If a man wishes to separate from his wife who has borne him no children, he shall give her the amount of her purchase money and the dowry which she brought from her father's house, and let her go. 196. If a man put out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out. 198. If he put out the eye of a freed man, or break the bone of a freed man, he shall pay one gold mina. 199. If he put out the eye of a man's slave, or break the bone of a man's slave, he shall pay one-half of its value. 202. If any one strike the body of a man higher in rank than he, he shall receive sixty blows with an ox-whip in public. 203. If a free-born man strike the body of another free-born man or equal rank, he shall pay one gold mina. Source: “Code of Hammurabi,” 1780 BCE. Vocabulary Dowry: money or property that a wife’s family gives to her husband when they marry

Ancient Egypt

Nile River-floods regularly leaving fertile soil

Pyramids-tombs for pharaohs or rich Pharaohs-Egyptian kings Famous pharaoh-King Tutankhamen Known because of the discovery of his untouched tomb in the 1930s The Sphinx-representation of a mythical creature In danger of being destroyed by acid rain due to pollution in Cairo Hieroglyphics-Egyptian form of writing based on pictographs

Indus River Valley Civilization

Subcontinent-

Monsoon-

Yellow River Valley Civilization

“The Middle Kingdom”

Chinese Characters Ox Goat Tree Moon Earth Water Field Heaven To Pray

Complex Institutions Dynasty- Mandate of Heaven-

The Dynastic Cycle New Dynasty-restores peace, redistributes land, appoint officers, repairs defensive walls, build roads, canals and irrigation systems Aging Dynasty-ignores corruption, loses control of provinces, imposes heavy taxes to pay for luxuries, allows walls to decay Problems-peasant rebellions, floods, famines, earthquakes, invasions