Early Civilizations

1. 4000-1000 B.C. Early Civilizations

2. A River Valley and Its People • The Egyptian civilization in the Nile River valley is probably the most well-known of the four early river valley civilizations. • Egypt receives little rainfall, so its people relied on the Nile’s predictable yearly floods to bring them water. The Nile Valley

3. A River Valley and Its People • Around 3000 B.C. a king of Upper Egypt invaded and conquered Lower Egypt, setting up the first government that ruled an entire country. • Historians have organized the dynasties that ruled ancient Egypt into three periods: the Old Kingdom, the Middle Kingdom and the New Kingdom. The Nile Valley

4. The Old Kingdom • The Old Kingdom lasted from about 2700 B.C. to 2200 B.C., during which Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt combined to form a strong national government and developed the basic features of the Egyptian civilization. • The Egyptian government was a theocracy, in which the same person serves as both the religious leader and the political leader. The Nile Valley

5. The Old Kingdom • The king delegated many responsibilities to a bureaucracy, including the control of trade, the collection of taxes, and the building of the nation’s infrastructure. • To honor their god-kings and to provide them with an eternal place of rest, the Egyptians of the Old Kingdom built the Pyramids. The Nile Valley

6. Uniting Egypt • Around 3000 B.C.Narmer, a king of Upper Egypt, gathered forces and led them north to conquer Lower Egypt. • He built a capital city at Memphis, near the former border of the two kingdoms. The Nile Valley

7. The Middle Kingdom • The Middle Kingdom, which lasted from 2200 B.C. to about 1800 B.C. was brought on by a period of upheaval and violence against the Old Kingdom, was based in the city of Thebes. • In the 1700s B.C., the Theban kings faced challenges to their authority from local leaders and were conquered by a people from western Africa called the Hyksos, who then ruled for about 110 years. The Nile Valley

8. The New Kingdom • An Egyptian prince named Ahmose overthrew the Hyksos in about 1600 B.C. • Around 1480 B.C. Queen Hatshepsut came to power in Egypt, carrying out an extensive building program. The Nile Valley

9. The New Kingdom • Queen Hatshepsut’s stepson Thutmose III, who claimed the throne at her death, established an empire by conquering Syria and moving the Egyptian frontier to the northern part of the Euphrates River. The Nile Valley

10. The New Kingdom • The Egyptian Empire grew rich from commerce and tribute from the conquered territories and also benefited from cultural diffusion. • Ramses II, who ruled during the 1200’s B.C., erected large statues of himself and built many temples and tombs. The Nile Valley

11. The Nile Valley Akhenaton Founds a Religion • Amenhotep IV assumed leadership about 1370 B.C. and declared that Egyptians should only worship Aton, the sun god. This caused turmoil among the people, who believed in many deities. • Claiming to be Aton’s equal, Amenhotep changed his name to Akhenaton. • Akhenaton moved the capital from Thebes to a new city in central Egypt. • After Akhenaton’s death, the priests restored the old religion. • They made Akhenaton’s successor, Tutankhamen, move the capital back to Thebes.

12. Life in Ancient Egypt • Royalty, nobles and priests formed the top of the social order; the majority of Egyptians, including farmers, belonged to the lower class. • The status of Egyptian women, who in the Old Kingdom were treated as the property of their husbands, improved somewhat as the centuries passed. The nile Valley

13. Life in Ancient Egypt • The worship of multiple deities guided every aspect of Egyptian life; because their religion stressed an afterlife, Egyptians devoted much time and wealth to preparing for survival in the next world. • The earliest Egyptian writing system, called hieroglyphics, consisted of carved picture symbols. The Nile Valley

14. The Twin Rivers • Around 500 BC migrants began to settle in the Fertile Crescent, which included parts of modern Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq, and Syria. The Fertile Crescent

15. The Twin Rivers • Many of these people chose to settle in Mesopotamia, between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, but the twin rivers did not provide a regular supply of water, and their strong floods sometimes swept away entire villages and fields. • To meet the rivers’ challenges, the early Mesopotamian villages cooperated to build dams, escape channels, canals and ditches. The Fertile Crescent

16. The Sumerian Civilization • Around 3500 BC a people called the Sumerians arrived in Mesopotamia and built what historians consider the world’s first city-states. • Each Sumerian city-state usually governed itself independently and selected a military leader to serve as king and high priest. The Fertile Crescent

17. The Sumerian City-States The fertile crescent • By 3000 B.C., the Sumerians had formed 12 city-states in the Tigris-Euphrates valley, including Ur, Uruk, and Eridu. • A typical city-state consisted of the city and the land around it. • The population of each city-state ranged from 20,000 to 250,000.

18. The Sumerian City-States The fertile Crescent • The people of Sumer shared a common culture, language, and religion. • City-states also shared some physical features, such as a ziggurat, or temple, that rose above each city in a pyramid fashion.

19. The Sumerian Civilization • Sumerian law extensively regulated family life, in which men exercised great authority over their wives and children. • The Sumerians developed a system of writing, cuneiform, so that they could keep accounts and prepare documents relating to commerce and trade. The Fertile Crescent

20. The Sumerian Civilization • The Sumerians practiced a polytheistic religion and pictured their gods and goddesses as unpredictable, selfish beings with little regard for human beings. • Historians credit the Sumerians with numerous technological inventions, including the wagon wheel, the arch, the sundial, and bronze. The Fertile Crescent

21. First Mesopotamian Empires • When Sargon I assumed power, his people the Akkadians, launched a military campaign of expansion and eventually united the city-states of Mesopotamia under one empire. • During Sargon’s rule, the Akkadians and Sumerians adopted aspects of each other’s culture. The Fertile Crescent

22. First Mesopotamian Empires • The Amorites, a Semitic people from western Syria, overran many Sumerian centers and founded a dynasty in Babylon ruled by Hammurabi. • Hammurabi eventually brought the entire region under his control, organizing a strong government and increasing the prosperity of his people. The Fertile Crescent

23. First Mesopotamian Empires • Historians consider Hammurabi’s greatest achievement to be his written law code, which assigned specific punishment for each violation. • After Hammurabi’s death, the Babylonian empire declined, and his dynasty was destroyed when the Hittites raided Babylon about 1600 BC. The Fertile Crescent