1. Early Civilizations
Getting it all started!

2. What is a “civilization” anyway?
It has FIVE characteristics
Advanced Cities
Specialized Workers
Record Keeping
Complex Institutions
Advanced Technology

3. Characteristics of civilizations
Large and advanced cities
Specialized workers who don’t grow their own food
Writing and record keeping
Complex institutions – like religion and law
Technology like metal and stone working

4. Advanced Cities Key characteristics Trade center Large populace
barter, bazaar
Large populace
What we have today
Network hubs – trade, transportation, finance, information
Metropolitan areas

5. Specialized Workers Key characteristics
Focus on different kinds of work
farmers, irrigation workers, artisans, bronze workers, merchants, priests
What we have today
Retail, manufacturing, communication
Assembly line
Education, training, tests, certification

6. Record Keeping Key characteristics
Writing, which can lead to other purposes
What we have today
Data of sales, payments, public records
Electronic files, books, newspapers, epics, novels, poetry

7. Record Keeping

8. Complex Institutions Key characteristics
Leads to government, religion, economy, social structure
What we have today
Government, religion, education, charities, corporations, social classes

9. Advanced Technology Key characteristics
Produce new tools & techniques for solving problems
Plows, irrigation, potters wheel, bronze
What we have today
Telecommunications, computers, science, automobiles, airplanes, spaces exploration

10. Where were these?

11. What did they have in common?
along rivers
natural barriers
agriculture
polytheism
afterlife
writing
mathematics
social classes
dynasties

12. Mesopotamia Modern-day Iraq primarily
Along the Tigris & Euphrates Rivers
“Land between the waters”
Fertile Crescent
Polytheistic
built large temples call ziggurats

13. Mesopotamia

15. Mesopotamia Main cities Controlled by various kingdoms
Ur – Sumerian city
Babylon (later capital of Mesopotamia)
Controlled by various kingdoms
Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian, Assyrian, Persian, Macedonians, Romans, Turks, Mongols, British, etc.

16. Mesopotamia
Ur was a busy trade center before the Persian Gulf shore formed further downstream. In the background is the Great Ziggurat.
The Torah states that Ur was Abraham’s birthplace and where he left with his family for Canaan.

17. Babylon ruins in 1932 and rebuilt ruins in 2003
Mesopotamia
Babylon ruins in 1932 and rebuilt ruins in 2003

18. Mesopotamia
Babylon becomes city-state dominant in region under Hammurabi.
The Code of Hammurabi is the first known written code of law.
The law was engraved onto pillars which were located in public places for all to see. Of course, it would help to be able to read them…. most people couldn’t read.

19. Cuneiform development as a pictograph language
Mesopotamia
Cuneiform development as a pictograph language

20. Egypt Along the Nile River Two kingdoms would unite:
Upper – Nubia (to the south)
Lower – Delta region connecting to the Mediterranean Sea
Major cities – Thebes, Memphis
Controlled by several pharaoh dynasties as well as Nubians, Assyrians, Hebrews, Persians, Greeks, Romans

21. Egypt

22. Egypt

23. Hieroglyphics started as pictographs for ideas, they became more like sounds. Could be written on papyrus or carved into stone at temples.
Rosetta Stone found in 1799

24. Indus Valley Along the Indus River in Pakistan and western India
Major cities – Mohenjo-Daro, Harappa
Sewage system
Unable to decipher ancient text
Indo-European invaders brought the foundations for later culture
Religions – Hinduism, Buddhism

25. Indus Valley

26. Indus Valley ?

27. China Along the Huang He & Chang Jiang Rivers
Many dynasties by the “mandate of heaven”
Large producer of silk
Ethical systems
Confucianism, Daoism, Legalism
Constant threat of invaders from the north, so built the Great Wall

28. China

29. China

30. China
Ancient Chinese pictographic language on paper and bamboo.

31. Oracle Bones
scapula from an ox
turtle shell