Please get out your notebook… Using your vocabulary chart, please write 5 sentences, each sentence using a DIFFERENT vocabulary word!

Cities and Civilizations Ch 2 Sec 2

Key Ideas As populations grew, farming villages developed into cities. In several fertile river valleys, cities gave rise to the world’s first civilizations. Early civilizations all had certain features in common.

The First Cities The world’s first cities began as farming villages in the Middle East. As villages grew, trade grew and became an important source of wealth. One of the first farming cities was called Catalhoyuk, which is located in what is now Turkey.

The City of Uruk Uruk was the world’s first city founded around 6,000 to 7,000 years ago. Uruk was bigger than the older farming village called Catalhoyuk, it had more than 40,000 people, covered 1,000 acres, and had houses, gardens, and public buildings. Uruk had a strong, well-organized government. First rulers were probably the priests and later powerful military leaders became kings.

Centers of Wealth Cities had more complex economies than did early farming villages. An economy is the system that a community uses to produce and distribute goods and services. Uruk’s more complex economy was based on both farming and trade. Workshops produced all kinds of goods. The wealth of the cities attracted people and made them move from the country to the city. Many cities built walls around themselves for protection.

The Rise of Civilizations As cities grew in size and power, some of them became centers of civilizations. A civilization is a complex society that has cities, a well-organized government, and workers with specialized job skills.

The Importance of Resources The rise of civilizations depended on the creation of food surplus. In order to create a surplus, people needed to manage their resources well. A resource is a supply of something that can be used as needed. Important Resources: fertile soil, fresh water, and seeds. In order to use those resources they needed the labor and tools which required planning and organization.

Settings of Early Civilizations Earliest civilization was in southwestern Asia in city-state of Sumer. Many early civilizations developed around fertile valleys surrounding major rivers. Rivers provided a good setting for permanent settlements. The rivers would flood each year and when water went down it provided fertile soil for growing crops.

Features of Civilizations Civilizations arose in different parts of the world and in different ways. Though they all had certain things in common: cities, organized government, established religion, job specialization, social classes, public works, arts and architecture, and a system of writing.

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Cities Cities emerged near farming centers. Food surplus led to rapid population growth. Villages then grew into cities.

Organized Governments One role of government was to manage society’s resources so that people got the things they needed to survive. Governments also formed and trained armies to defend their society from attack. As populations grew rulers had to rely on public officials to help handle different duties.

Established Religion An established religion is a set of shared beliefs about supernatural powers that created and rule the world. Religion was often linked to the government. In most early civilizations, people believed in many gods or goddesses.. Religion included beliefs about life after death and rules about how to treat one another and live moral lives.

Job Specialization Most people in early civilizations were farmers who supported specialized workers such as: priests, rulers, soldiers, craft workers, traders, and merchants. Job specialization allowed people within a society to develop the many skills and talents needed to create and maintain a civilization.

Social Classes Social classes are groups of people that occupy different ranks or levels in society. The highest social class in most early societies was made up of priests and rulers and they had the most power and wealth. The social class in the middle included: farmers, merchants, and skilled workers. They varied in wealth and status from one society to another. Slaves or peasants made up the lowest class they were often captured in war or sold themselves to pay off debt.

Public Works Governments organized workers to build large-scale projects such as roads, water systems, city walls, and granaries. Building these public works was costly, time- consuming, and often dangerous.

Arts and Architecture Early people built decorated temples, tombs, and palaces. Skilled craftworkers produced fine luxury items such as gold jewelry and perfume boxes. Civilizations developed many forms of art such as painting and pottery. There were also advances in literature and music.

System of Writing Forms of writing varied in different civilizations they went from picture writing to symbols that represented sounds and letters. First developed to record numbers and eventually used more to preserve all kinds of information.