1. Ancient River Valley Civilizations

2. Mesopotamia

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. Ancient Egypt

8. Nile River-floods regularly leaving fertile soil

9. 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

10. Indus River Valley Civilization

11. Subcontinent-

12. Monsoon-

14. Yellow River Valley Civilization

15. “The Middle Kingdom”

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

18. Complex Institutions
Dynasty-
Mandate of Heaven-

19. 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