2.  Desert Between Persian Gulf and Mediterranean Sea in S.W. Asia  Fertile Crescent – land in this area that provides for some of S.W. Asia’s best farming  Fertile Plains (Eastern) – Tigris / Euphrates Rivers  Mesopotamia = between rivers  Rivers flooded Mesopotamia – left silt behind  Wheat / barley = growth of villages

4.  First famers in S. Meso.  Sumerians (3500 BC) arrive  Good soil attracted settlers  3 Disadvantages  Unpredictable flooding + little / no rainfall  Small region + a lot of people = defenseless  Limited natural resources

5.  Irrigation ditches  Built city walls  Traded with mountain people  Required organization, cooperation, leadership  Laws to decide distribution of land and water  Beginning of organized gov’t

6.  Advanced cities  Specialized workers  Complex institutions  Record keeping  Advanced technology  Each city developed its own gov’t (with own rulers) = city state

7.  Gov’t controlled by priests  Middle man to Gods  Ziggurat used for many purposes  Demanded % of crops  War = elected commander  Sometimes became Monarch after  Passed power to kin  Multiple family rulers = dynasty  Grew prosperous from surplus of crops  Long distance trade (including new ideas/religion) also known as cultural diffusion

8.  Religion  Polytheistic (3,000 + gods)  Gods had human qualities (humans were servants)  Sacrifice to keep gods happy  Life  Priest/Kings = highest power, then wealth merchants, then slaves  Women – could pursue most occupations, hold property, join lower ranks of priesthood  Could not attend upper class schools  Science/Technology  Invented the wheel, sail, plow  1 st to use Bronze and developed writing system (cuneiform)  Arithmetic and Geometry, number system in base 60 (minute/circle)  Arches, columns, ramps, pyramid-shape designs

9.  Sumerian city-states constantly at war with each other  Sargon of Akkad (Akkadians)  Defeated Sumer  World’s 1 st Empire (What is an empire)  Collapse due to internal fighting, invasions, and severe famine

10.  Nomadic warriors (Amorites) invaded Mesopotamia  Took control – established capital of Babylon  Reached peak during reign of Hammurabi  Code/Laws (Hammurabi’s Code)  Would unify diverse people  Engraved in stone  282 specific laws  2 centuries after Hammurabi – empire fell to nomadic warriors

12.  Mountains – Hindu Kush, Karakorum, Himalayas  Creates subcontinent (India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh)  Indus and Ganges Rivers  Indus Ganges Plain (Around rivers)  Deccan – narrow border of lush tropical land in southern India  Monsoons

14.  Unpredictable floods and change of river course  Monsoons brought wet/dry seasons

15.  Writing has not been deciphered  Area larger than Mesopotamia and Egypt  Not sure where people came from  Arrived by sea from Africa?  Passed through Khyber Pass in Hindu Kush mountains?  Built pyramids in their cities  Sophisticated city planning (buildings/streets)  Precise grid system, fortified Citadels, residential areas  Plumbing and sewage systems  Strong central government

16.  No major social divisions  Prosperous society (clay/wooden toys)  Nonessential items  Little warfare  Shiva (major Indian God)  Mother goddess, fertility images, worship of cattle  Long distance trade  Traded with the Sumerian civilization

17.  Quality of building decreased  Cities began to fall  Indus River changed course?  Overused the land  Major catastrophe?  Unburied bodies (attack, natural disaster?)  Aryans?