1. 5 Characteristics Of Civilization

2. 5 Characteristics Indicate the rise of human civilization
Characteristics continue to define and shape our civilization
The 5 characteristics are:
Advanced Cities
Specialized Workers
Complex Institutions
Record Keeping & Writing
Advanced

3. 1. Advanced Cities Not just large population centers
Centers of religion, politics, & trade for larger areas
Generally located near important landforms
Ex. Rivers

4. 1. Advanced Cities - Ur
-Advanced city located in Mesopotamia along the Euphrates River
-City state that operated as its own country
-Population of 30,000 people (large during that time period)
-Center for bartering (trading goods or services for other goods or services)

5. 1. Advanced Cities - Harappa
Indus River Valley Civilization – Located along the Indus River in what is modern-day Northeastern Pakistan
Grew on the floodplains of a rich and life-giving rive

6. 1. Advanced Cities – Mohenjo-daro
-Picture details excavated remains of the city
-Located in the Indus River Valley Civilization

7. 1. Advanced Cities – Ancient Egypt
-Located in Northern Africa/Modern-Day Egypt & along the Nile River
-Pictures details the Sphinx & the pyramids of Giza
-Thebes – center of artifacts
Temple of Luxor
Valley of Kings
Valley of Queens Necropolis
Giza – Sphinx & Great Pyraminds

8. 2. Specialized Workers
Surpluses of food = people specializing in jobs outside agriculture
This lead to more artisans, traders, and soldiers.
Allowed for stronger civilizations
Contributed to expansion of certain civilizations.

9. 2. Specialized Workers – Ancient Egypt
The bronze needle was a medical instrument mainly used during surgical operations to close wounds by stitching. Its pointed tip ends with a small hole where the medical wire is tied while the other end has a round-shaped head to hold the wire.

10. 2. Specialized Workers – Indus River Valley
Necklace from Mohenjo-Daro made from gold, agate, jasper, steatite and green stone.
The gold beads are hollow and the pendant agate and jasper beads are attached with thick gold wire.

11. 2. Specialized Workers - Mesopotamia
Mesopotamian Scribe - Scribes
Educated – understood writing system and record transactions

12. 3. Complex Institutions
Complex institutions were ways for governments to organize themselves
Examples include:
Government, law codes, religion, and the economy
Religion – Includes the existence of theocracies

13. 3. Complex Institutions - Mesopotamia
-The reconstructed facade of the Neo-Sumerian Great Ziggurat of Ur, near Nasiriyah, Iraq
-Ziggurat – city hall and temple. Priests managed irrigation and collected taxes. Polytheism – belief in many gods
Gods controlled nature
Gods behaved like humans, but all-powerful

14. 3. Complex Institutions – Ancient Egypt
Societal Structure

15. 3. Complex Institutions – Indus River Valley
-The Indus Valley worshiped animals to some degree and a mother goddess representing fertility.
-The Harappa religion was polytheistic
used cattle, elephants, and other animals to represent their Gods.

16. 4. Record Keeping & Writing
Institutions becoming more complex = need for organizing info
Most civilizations developed writing to organize this info

17. 4. Record Keeping & Writing – Ancient Egypt
Hieroglyphic Alphabet

18. 4. Record Keeping & Writing – Indus River Valley
4000 Indus symbols have been found on seals.
Writings have been found in leaves, barks, wood, cloth, wax, animals skins, and in other material.

19. 4. Record Keeping & Writing
Cuneiform - is one of the earliest known forms of written expression. Emerging in Sumer around the 30th century BC, with predecessors reaching into the late 4th millennium (the Uruk IV period), cuneiform writing began as a system of pictographs. In the three millennia the script spanned, the pictorial representations became simplified and more abstract as the number of characters in use also grew gradually smaller, from about 1,000 unique characters in the Early Bronze Age to about 400 unique characters in Late Bronze Age

20. 5. Advanced Technology Civilizations made new technology
Helped accomplish difficult tasks quicker & easier
Inventions include:
Drainage Systems
Wells
Water Storage System
Medicine
Wheel

21. 5. Advanced Technology – Indus River Valley

22. 5. Advanced Technology – Ancient Egypt

23. 5. Advanced Technology - Mesopotamia
Able to transport goods much more quickly & efficently