1. The Four River Civilizations

2. Cities and Civilizations Seminar
We begin at about 8,000 BC
when village life began in the New Stone Age. . . Also known as the
Neolithic Revolution.
NEW STONE AGE

3. What is the REVOLUTION? A TOTALLY new way of living:
From
Hunter-Gatherers
to Agriculture

4. The invention of Agriculture changed the way people lived.
Agriculture (Farming)
Growth of Cities
Division of Labor (Specialization)
Trade
Writing and Mathematics

5. Agriculture leads to the development of Civilization
Writing
Cities
Art
Civilization
Religion
Social Structure
Government

6. GEOGRAPHY influenced the development of river valley civilizations.
Nile River
Tigris/Euphrates River
Indus Ganges River
Yellow and Yangtze Rivers

7. Early River Valley Civilizations
Environment
Flooding of Tigris and Euphrates unpredictable
No natural barriers
Limited natural resources for making tools or buildings
Sumer
Flooding of the Nile predictable
Nile an easy transportation link between Egypt’s villages
Deserts were natural barriers
Egypt
Indus Valley
Indus flooding unpredictable
Monsoon winds
Mountains, deserts were natural barriers
Huang He flooding unpredictable
Mountains, deserts natural barriers
Geographically isolated from other ancient civilizations
China

8. Define “Fertile Crescent.”

9. Define “Fertile Crescent”
A well-watered and fertile area,
the fertile crescent arcs across the northern part of the Syrian desert. It is flanked on the west by the Mediterranean and on the east by the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, and includes all or parts of Israel, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq. From antiquity this region was the site of sophisticated settlements.

10. (Iraq) Greeks called the northern part of the Fertile Crescent
Mesopotamia “Between Two Rivers”
(Tigris River and Euphrates River)
The southern part of Mesopotamia was called Babylonia, originally Sumer.
Which country is Mesopotamia today?
(Iraq)

11. Mesopotamia – Fertile Crescent
Sumer – The Earliest of the River Valley Civilizations 3000 BC
Sumerian Civilization grew up along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in what is now Kuwait.

12. Sumer - Sumerians (Kuwait) ca. 3500 to 3000 BC. (ca. = circa)
Sumer gave us the city-state.
Define: city-state
Political unit made up of a city and the surrounding lands. (Hinterland) Each city state has its own government, even when it shares a culture with neighboring city states.

13. Sumerian Writing: cuneiform
Cuneiform is created by pressing a pointed stylus into a clay tablet.

14. Sumerians invented: Brick technology Wheel
Base 60 – using the circle degrees
Time – 60 minutes in an hour, 60 seconds in a minute
12 month lunar calendar
arch
ramp
ziggurat

15. Ziggurat – Holy Mountain

16. The Akkadians To the north of Sumer was a city-state called Akkadia
Around 2340 BC under the their leader Sargon, The Akkadians conquered the Sumerians

17. Hittites Warrior empire in what is today modern Turkey (1750-1180 BC)
First to use War Chariots
Briefly invaded Egypt
Was later conquered by the Assyrians

18. Lydia
Develop in what is modern day western Turkey after the fall of the Hittite empire
Were traders
The first to develop coins

19. Babylon
In 1792 BC the city of Babylon conquered Sumer and Akkadia

20. Babylon
Babylon’s king, Hammurabi created the first know written law code and was the first civilization where the citizens live by the “Rule of Law”
Government by law. The rule of law implies that government authority may only be exercised in accordance with written laws, which were adopted through an established procedure.

21. Hammurabi’s Code - 1792 BC Hammurabi’s Code was this law code.
Hammurabi ruled the Babylonian Empire for 42 years. At the end of his long
reign, Hammurabi’s legal decisions were collected and inscribed on a stone tablet
in a Babylonian temple. The 282 laws of the Code of Hammurabi represent one of the earliest known legal systems.

22. “If a man stole the property of church or state, that man shall be put to death; also the one who received the stolen goods from his hand shall be put to death.”
The laws governed such things as lying, stealing, assault, debt, business partnerships, marriage, and divorce. In seeking protection for all members of Babylonian society, Hammurabi relied on the philosophy of equal retaliation, otherwise known as “an eye for an eye.”

23. The Phoenicians Lived along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea
They were sailors and traded through out the Fertile Crescent
The Phoenicians develop a written alphabet that later would develop into the alphabet we use today

24. Israelites Descendants of Abraham They were enslaved by the Egyptians
During the reign of Ramses II Moses led the Israelites to area along the Dead Sea and the Jordon River
Under a King named David the 12 tribes of Israel were united into one Kingdom and made Jerusalem the capital

25. Israelites
David’s son Solomon continued to expand the power of Israel and built Temple of Jerusalem
After Solomon’s death the kingdom divided in two
Israel
Kingdom of Judah
2 Tribes
Located in the South
Capital at Jerusalem
Kingdom of Israel
10 Tribes
Located in the north
Capital at Samaria

26. Israel Kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Assyrians
Kingdom of Judah conquered by the Chaldeans

27. Assyrians
Around 700 BC a city-state in the upper Tigris River valley conquered Mesopotamia
The Assyrians used iron weapons
Developed post roads
Because of their cruelty they were overthrown by the by the Chaldeans and the Medes

28. Chaldeans Allied with the Medes they overthrew the Assyrians
Their leader Nebuchadnezzar II made his capital at Babylon
He built the famous “Hanging Gardens”

29. Persia Lived in what is modern day Iran
Under the leadership of Cyrus the Great the Persians conquered as India to Egypt and part of Europe

30. Persia
Cyrus and his successors showed mercy to those they conquered and many civilizations wanted to be part of Persia
Very efficient rulers
Divided empire into 20 provinces call satrapies
Each satrapy had a governor call the satrap
Maintain a very efficient roads system with rest stations along the road

31. Persia Zoroastrianism developed around 660 BC in Persian
Zoroaster taught what he called the “true religion”
There was a supreme god (Ahuramazda) and he defended good
There was an evil god (Ahriman) and he was bad
There is a conflict between good and evil and in the end good will win out

32. Persia
In the 5th Century BC Persia’s expansion brought it into conflict with another group of city states called Greece
After losing two wars with the Greeks, Alexander the Great led a Greek army into Persia and overthrew the empire