Resources and Early Civilizations

Bellwork: On a piece of paper, write the top 10 things you would hate to live without. Together, let’s narrow the list of things that humans cannot TRULY live without to 5 things You have 2 minutes in groups to narrow that to 3 things What’s the #1 thing that humans can’t live without? If you don’t settle near water, you MUST have a system for irrigation: bringing the water to you!

Resources Resource: available material that can be used for survival or economic gain Natural resources: water; rocks and minerals (gold, limestone, marble); oil; natural gas; trees; land Resources (and the struggle for control of them) are at the heart of almost every major conflict in the history of the world.

Earliest Villages Jericho: – Small city in present-day Palestine – Built between 10,000 and 9,000 BCE – Size of a few soccer fields – A few thousand people – Surrounded by a huge wall Çatalhüyük: – Small city in modern-day Turkey – Developed around 7000 BCE – Population: 6,500 people – Three times more land than Jericho – Contained hundreds of connected, mud-brick houses

Major Centers of Developing Civilizations Major civilizations in Asia and Africa all developed around river valleys River valleys provided – Fertile land – Sources of fresh water – Transportation

4 River Valley Civilizations Sumer: Between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in the Middle East Egypt: Along the Nile River in East Africa Indus: Along the Indus River in India Shang: Along the Yellow River in China

Chalk Talk You have just landed on a distant world. Your government has assigned your group the job of determining whether or not the people you come in contact with are “civilized.” What criteria will you use to decide? What basic characteristics will the people or their society have to have to be “civilized?”

Basic Features of Civilization “Having cities” isn’t enough Seven other features: 1.Organized governments 2.Complex religions 3.Job specialization 4.Social classes 5.Arts and architecture 6.Public works (water, sewer, trash, etc) 7.Writing

Organized Governments

Complex Religions

Job Specialization

Social Classes

Arts and Architecture

Public Works

Writing