Unit 1: The Ancient WorldTopic 2: River Valley Civilizations

Global History and GeographyOctober, 2013Mr. YannoStudent Name: ________________________________________________

What is a Civilization?

The seven main characteristics of a civilization are:

1. ____________________________________• A complex society can not survive unless the members have food

2. ____________________________________• A complex organization of jobs, social levels, and status• This might include an upper class (priests, land owners, government

officials), a common class (merchants, skilled laborers, farmers), and a lower class (slaves)

3. ____________________________________• Needed to direct people’s behavior and bring order to life• The justification for power differs for each civilization• Leaders need an organized military for protection• Scribes to record the law and history

4. ____________________________________• Religious system that includes a set of beliefs in a god or gods• Beliefs are practiced through a form of worship• Places or worship are built or recognized as sacred

5. ____________________________________• Creative forms of expression that reflect the culture• Can include music, paintings, architecture, weapons, jewelry, etc...

6. ____________________________________• Practical tools and inventions• Used to help their daily lives (wheels, pottery, building materials)

7. ____________________________________• Written language• Earliest forms were cuneiform and pictographs • To record information about their history, religion, government, etc...

Circle, underline, or highlight the correct answer to the Regents questions below:

Regents Question 1:

Which title best completes this diagram? (1) Elements of Civilization (2) Features of Nomadic Lifestyle (3) Basic Components of the Paleolithic Age (4) Human life 50,000 years ago.

Regents Question 2: Which heading best completes the partial outline below:

(1) Economic Development in Ancient Egypt (2) Cultural Diffusion in the Indus River Valley (3) Features of the Old Stone Age (4) Characteristics of Civilization.

TimelineAncient Mesopotamia: 3500 BC - 1600 BCAncient Egypt: 3000 BC - 300 BCAncient Indus Valley: 3000 BC - 1900 BCAncient China: BC - 221 BC

Think-Pair-Share Activity; Use the map and timeline above and on your cover (also on the board) to answer the following four questions in your notebook:

Making inferences about Geography and HistoryAn inference is making conclusions based on evidence and reasoning.

1. What do these four major civilizations have in common?2. Why might people choose to settle near rivers? What problems may arise?3. Ancient people would need to control their environment. What would they do when

there was too much water (for example, when the river floods)?4. What might they may do when there wasn’t enough water?

An Introduction To River Valley Civilizations

During your studies of the Neolithic Age, you created an advertisement for a Neolithic village. The advertisement explained what a Neolithic Village looked like (farms, permanent homes, often made with sub-baked mud bricks, with people working at different jobs, etc.), but didn’t say where the village was located. So, where were these ancient Neolithic villages that started popping up thousands of years ago? The answer - near rivers.

Why did humans settle in river valleys?

A civilization is a type complex society where people have the free time to do things other than farming. Therefore, in order to have a civilization, you first need a surplus (extra, or more than enough) of food. Once there is a surplus of food, some people in a society can work on other things (like creating new inventions, serving in a king’s army, building temples, boats, canals, etc). River valleys were perfect places to grow a surplus of food.

A valley is an a low area of land between hills or mountains, usually with a river running through it. When a river floods, silt (fine sand or clay carried by a river) is deposited on the river’s floodplains (the area flooded by a river), making the soil fertile, or good for farming. The fertile soil around rivers allowed ancient people to grow a surplus of food. People also settled near rivers because they could use them for irrigation (to water their crops), food (fish), and transportation (including building canals, or artificial waterways). If a river empties into a larger body of water like a lake, a sea, or an ocean, it begins to spread out into different branches. As it spreads out, it deposits silt, making the area very good for farming. Part of Ancient

Egypt was located on the Nile River Delta. Look at the satellite image of Egypt to the left. The delta is the triangular-shaped area at the mouth (the end) of the Nile River as it branches out before emptying into the Mediterranean Sea. The rest of Egypt is desert. The area around the river and delta is darker because of the vegetation (trees, farms, etc.)

Here are some questions about River Valley Civilizations that have been on past Regents exams.

Regents Question 1: Which geographic feature had the greatest influence on the development of ancient civilizations? (1) dense forests (2) mountain passes (3) smooth coastlines (4) river valleys

Regents Question 2: The development of early civilizations usually depended on: (1) the formation of democratic governments (2) a location near large deposits of gold and silver (3) the existence of large armies (4) a plentiful water supply and fertile land.

Regents Question 3: Before towns and cities can develop in a society, the society needs to establish: (1) an educational system (2) an agricultural surplus (3) a writing system (4) a democratic system.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Design and label what you think a River Valley Civilization looked like. Label as many of the following terms/concepts you can: river, valley, silt, fertile soil, agriculture/farming, floodplains, canals, transportation, irrigation, delta.

MesopotamiaThe Standard of Ur

Ur was a city-state in ancient Sumer, an ancient civilization in Mesopotamia.

Was Ur a civilization? Annotate the image of the Standard of Ur to the right by circling examples of the characteristics of civilization (listed below)

Characteristics of Civilization1. Stable Food Supply2. Social Structure (Social

Class)3. Government4. Religion5. The Arts6. Technology7. Writing

Summary: What does the Standard of Ur tell you about Ur’s civilization?

River Valley Civilization Scavenger Hunt

Identify the characteristic with the civilization (Egypt, Indus, Mesopotamia, or China)

Stable Food Supply_____________________ The Indus River_____________________ The Huang He and Chiang Jiang Rivers

Government_____________________ Menes united this kingdom, starting its first “dynasty” (a dynasty is a series of rulers from the same family)_____________________ Priest-Kings ruled the city states here_____________________ The first written law: The Code of Hammurabi (pg. 54 purple book) _____________________ The Shang Dynasty came to power here in 1600 BCE

Religion

_____________________ Magical Oracle bones (cracked animal bones or tortoise shells) were used to tell the future.

Writing_____________________ Writing (known as Cuneiform) Invented in 3200 BCE!

Religion, Writing, and The Arts

_____________________ The photo on page 20 shows Hapi, the god of the Nile River. He is surrounded by hieroglyphics.

Social Structure (Social Class)_____________________ In Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, the ruling class met and worked in the citadel.

Technology and Writing_____________________ Scribes wrote on papyrus, a type of paper made from reeds (a type of grass)

_____________________ Invented the plow (pg. 43 purple book)

****Regents Question:Hieroglyphic and cuneiform systems provided the basis for the development of (1) substance farming (2) painting and sculpture (3) oral traditions (4) written history.

Mesopotamia The Code of Hammurabi

Hammurabi was an ancient Babylonian king who ruled in Mesopotamia from c. (c. means “circa,” or estimated) 1792-1750. He started out as the ruler of the small city-state of Babylon, but later conquered and unified the rest of Mesopotamia into the Babylonian Empire. To unite and create order in his empire (an empire is a group of states ruled by the same leader) King Hammurabi did something that no one had ever done before. The Sumerians had created the first system of writing called cuneiform. Using this written language, Hammurabi created the first written set of laws. He claimed the laws were given to him by the gods and applied to everyone in the empire. The code was written on a stele (a stone column) and placed in a temple for everyone to see. In Hammurabi's court, it did not matter if you were rich or poor. If you broke the law, and were found guilty, you would be punished. Since the laws were clearly written down, everyone was expected to obey them.

“An Eye for an Eye, a Tooth for a Tooth”

Have you ever heard this expression before? Read excerpts from the Code of Hammurabi and answer the questions below.

Law 196. If a man has knocked out the eye of a free man, his eye shall be knocked out. Law 197. If he has broken the limb of a free man, his limb shall be broken.

Why is Hammurabi’s Code sometimes called “An eye for an eye” code?

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What was the significance of the Code of Hammurabi?Hammurabi didn’t create human’s first laws, but he was the first person to have the laws written down. Why is this significant? In other words, why is having written laws better than having non-written laws.?

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Regents Question 1: The Code of Hammurabi was a major contribution to the development of civilization because it (1) treated citizens and slaves equally (2) ended all physical punishment (3) recorded existing laws for all to see (4) rejected the principle of filial piety.

Regents Question 2: The code of Hammurabi is an example of (1) written rules for legal procedures (2) the power of strong kings to control trade (3) regulations on the way to conduct wars against neighboring nations (4) the power of a legislature to veto laws passed by absolute monarchs.

Regents Question 3: “If a son has struck his father, they shall cut off his hand. If a nobleman has destroyed the eye of a member of the aristocracy, they shall destroy his eye.”The idea expressed in this quotation is found in the (1) Ten Commandments (2) Twelve Tablets (3) Justinian Code (4) Code of Hammurabi

Regents Question 4: If a man has destroyed the eye of a free man, his own eye shall be destroyed.If a man has knocked out the teeth of a man of the same rank, his own teeth shall be knocked out.These rules are based on: (1) Analects of Confucius (2) Code of Hammurabi (3) Ten Commandments (4) Koran (Qur’an)

Mr. Yanno (not regents) Question 5: The above questions mention rank, citizens and slaves, and noblemen and the aristocracy. These are categories of people in a civilization. A citizen has more rights than a slave. Noblemen and the aristocracy are have “higher rank” over others in society (typically they are born into this rank based on their parents also being part of the nobility or aristocracy). What characteristic of civilization is this evidence of? (1) government (2) social structure (3) technology (4) the arts