The First Civilizations
John ErmerAP World History
Miami Beach Senior High School
Prehistory Paleolithic Age (c 1,800,000 B.C.E.- c 8,000 B.C.E.)
Nomadic Hunter-Gatherers Fire, bone tools, animal skin, stonework
Neolithic Age (c 8,000 B.C.E.-c 3,000 B.C.E.) Agricultural Revolutions
Systematic Agriculture Domesticated Animals
Land Ownership by Clan Long lines of patrilineal or matrilineal kinship
Reverence for ancestors—afterlife?
Civilization Six General Characteristics
Cities, Religion, Social Structure, Government, Writing, & Art
River Valley Civilizations
Mesopotamia• The Fertile Crescent• Tigris and Euphrates rivers
• “Mesopotamia” Land Between Two Rivers
• Unpredictable Floods• The Sumerians
• First urban dwellers; Ur, Eridu, Uruk• Cuneiform Writing
• The Akkadians• Semitic language• First Empire
Mesopotamian Society City-States
Sun-dried brick city walls Irrigation networks Government
Sumerian lugal Theocracy and Monarchy
Empire Building Sargon of Akkad
builds first empire, dominates neighbors Hammurabi of Babylon
Code of Laws
Social Structure 1. Free Landowning Class 2. Farmers and Artisans 3. Slaves Patriarchal Society (males dominate politics; women retained control of dowry, owned property,
engage in trade)
Religion Polytheistic, nature based anthropomorphic gods and goddesses ziggurat
The Nile River Valley (Egypt)
The Nile River Valley & Delta “The Gift of the Nile”=Floods
The Black Land The Red Land
Natural Defenses & Resources The Three Kingdoms
Old Kingdom Middle Kingdom New Kingdom
Egyptian Civilization
Government Capital cities: Memphis (Old Kingdom), Thebes
(Middle & New Kingdoms with Memphis at times) Divine Kingship—maintaining ma’at
Pharaohs as gods—sons of Re Pharaohs vs. the Bureaucracy
Writing Papyrus and Hieroglyphics
Urban Administrative Capital & Farming Villages Less urban than Mesopotamia, more dependent of
agriculture Canal Building and Land Surveying
Egyptian Society Social Structure
Multi-racial society Upper Class: Royals and high gov’t officials Middle Class: Priests, lower level officials, scribes, artisans, large land
owners, and local leaders Lower Class: Peasants Women=subordinate
Property ownership, divorce, significant influence over men in private
Religion Cycles of Renewal Polytheistic, anthropomorphic gods and goddesses Mummification and the Afterlife
Medical expertise Domination of economic wealth
The Indus River Valley
Indus Societies Several hundred urban centers along river valley
Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro
Dravidians replaced, pushed south by Indo-Europeans
Cities Walled with rectangular road grids Citadels
Metal work more common than in Mesopotamia and Egypt
Ecological change and systemic failure bring Indus civilization down around 1900 BCE