The First Civilizations John Ermer World History Miami Beach
Senior High School
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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 ancestorsafterlife? Civilization Six General
Characteristics Cities, Religion, Social Structure, Government,
Writing, & Art
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The Spread of Agriculture
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River Valley Civilizations
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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
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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
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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
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Egyptian Civilization Government Capital cities: Memphis (Old
Kingdom), Thebes (Middle & New Kingdoms with Memphis at times)
Divine Kingshipmaintaining maat Pharaohs as godssons 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
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Egyptian Society Social Structure Multi-racial society Upper
Class: Royals and high govt 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
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The Indus River Valley
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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
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Chapter 1, Lesson 1 On page 10, write and answer questions 2,
3, and 5. Also complete all vocabulary from this section in the
manner described by Mr. Ermer.