River Valley Era Colin Flanagan, Tom Ferguson, Autrey Gates, Brandon Bachelder, Dillon Girard, Seth Gonya

Why River Valleys?  River Valleys provide fertile soil the is ideal for farming  Provide protection from enemies and the elements  Agriculture supported large populations and allowed them to flourish

First Civilization  Mesopotomia  Located in Western Asia  Valley between Tigris and Euphrates Rivers  Eastern end of the fertile crescent  Rich soil and abundant crops  Assyria, Akkad, and Sumer made up the Mesopotamian civilization  Polytheistic- many gods

Assyrians  Located on Upper Tigris River  Semitic speaking, used iron weapons and established empire in 700 BCE  Empire included Mesopotamia, Plateau of Iran, parts of Asia Minor, Syria, Israel, and Egypt down to Thebes  Ruled by kings whose power was absolute  Had first large armies equipped with iron weapons

Akkadians  Located North of Sumerian city-states  2340 B.C.E. over ran Sumerian city-states and set up the first empire in world history  2100 B.C.E. Akkadian Empire fell because of neighbor city-states  1792 B.C.E. Hammurabi came into power, created a new Mesopotamian kingdom by taking over Sumer and Akkad. Created Code of Hammurabi

Code of Hammurabi  For centuries, Mesopotamia was governed by strict laws.  Based on a system of strict justice  Penalties for crimes severe, varied depending on social class  Used to standardize administration

Sumerians  Creators of the first Mesopotamian civilization  Cities surrounded by walls  Known for their mud-brick buildings and houses  Invented the arch and dome, built some of the largest brick buildings in the world  Theocracy- government by divine authority  Economy based around farming, agriculture  Trading and industry also became important  Invented first written language, cuneiform, for records

Egyptian Civilization Divided into three time periods  Old Kingdom  Middle Kingdom  New Kingdom

Old Kingdom  Considered the classic era for Egypt  Defined by powerful pharaohs and construction of massive pyramids  Period of security and prosperity

Middle Kingdom  Pharaoh power collapsed  Period of weak structure and decentralization

New Kingdom  Egypt’s most prosperous time period  Marks the peak of Egyptian power  Reached greatest territory limits, spanning into Nubia and fighting for control of modern day Syria.

Key Terms  Fertile Crescent  Polytheistic  City-state  Ziggurat  Theocracy  Cuneiform  Empire  Patriarchal  Dynasty  Pharaoh  Bureaucracy  Mummification  Hieroglyphics  Hieratic script