•Mesopotamia (3500 BC-1600 BC)

•Egypt (3000 BC-2000BC)

•Indus River Valley Civilization (2500 BC-
1700 BC)
•Chinese River Valley Civilizations (3950
BC-1000 BC)
From Neolithic to Civilizations
 Settlements need rules/law to maintain order
 Rules and laws needed to regulate irrigation
 Threat of outside invasion made it necessary to
have rulers who could provideprotection
 Money from taxes and tributes
Mesopotamia (3500 BC-1600BC)
 Tigris and Euphrates River around 4500 BC
 Sumerians arrive in 3500 BC-Begin irrigation
 City-States established around 3000 BC-ruled by monarchy-
often military leaders who displace priests as rulers-passpower
to their sons who pass it to theirsons (dynasty)
 Polytheistic religion-Ziggurat (temple) center of each city state
 Scientific Achievements:
Wheel, plow, sail, bronze,pottery, arch, number system based
on 60 and 360 degree circle, cuneiform (writing)
 Hammurabi’s Law Code-First written lawcode
 Other Civs (Assyrians, Phoenicians, Hebrews) adopt ideas first
developed by the Sumerians
Hammurabi’s Law Code…
Political Impact-Made the
law more stable and
predictable-less personal,
more objective
Legal Impact – The idea of a
separate judiciary (court
system) like the U.S.
Egypt (3000 BC-2000 BC)
 Earliest settlement along Nile-5000 BC
 “The Gift of the Nile” Regular yearly cycle of flooding
 Pharaohs=god-kings: theocracy-form of government
where the rulers were divine leaders of both the
religion and the government/army
 Polytheistic-belief in many gods
 Pyramids built as tombs for Pharaohs; belief in
afterlife; mummification
Egypt (3000 BC-2000 BC)
 Stratified society
 Writing system; hieroglyphics; papyrus
 Scientific achievements: written numbers, geometry,
stone columns, calendar for flooding cycle, advanced
medicine (repairing broken bones)
Indus River Valley (2500 BC-1700
BC)
 First Major cities include Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa
 Developed cities on grid system and had sophisticated
plumbing and sewage systems
 Early cities declined due to a possible change in the
course of the Indus River.
 Indo-European peoples known as the Aryans settle in
the Indus Valley around 1500 BC.
 Aryan religious features: sacred literature known as
the Vedas
 Caste system
Computer generated
picture of what
Mohenjo Daro may
have looked like.
Chinese River Valley (3950 BC-1000
BC)
 Huang He (Yellow) River Valley
 Shang Dynasty (2000 BC): Importance of
family, division of classes
 Writing system where each symbol represents an idea
 Technology and science: Great Wall of China,bronze
working, coined money, ironworks, and silk
Important Elements of ALL:
 Advanced cities
 Irrigation
 Systems of government and religion
 Written legal codes
 Trade networks
 Architecture-arch
 Divisions of time/calendar system
 Writing