Ancient history. Typical features of ancient societies.

1. TRAITS OF ANCIENT
SOCIETIES
Traits means feature, quality, characteristic or
attribute.

2. Traits of Ancient Societies
Before Ancient Societies:
• Hunter/Gatherers
• Follow wild animal herds and fishing.
• Collect wild growing berries, fruits, roots,
nuts and seeds.
• Using fire, floods and other natural
phenomena to manage the natural
environment.

3. Traits of Ancient Societies

4. Traits of Ancient Societies
Horticultural/Pastoral Societies:
• Water Supply
• Good soil
• Safe Locations from attack
• Sympathetic environmental conditions
• Farming crops (eg. wheat, rice, millet, barley, flax,
papyrus, corn and so on)
• Domesticated animals (eg. sheep, goats, cattle, pigs and
geese)

5. Traits of Ancient Societies

6. Traits of Ancient Societies
Social Classes
• The social hierarchy (a system in which members of an organization
or society are ranked according to relative status or authority) of a
civilization refers to a system in which people are put at various
several examples of the social hierarchy in some of the ancient
civilizations, the highest rank at the top of the table:
Mayan Social Hierarchy: Nobles, priests, commoners and
slaves.
Indian Social Hierarchy: Priests, kings, merchants and
farmers, labourers and craftsmen and outcasts.
Egyptian Social Hierarchy: Nobles, merchants, farmers,
labourers and slaves.
Chinese Social Hierarchy: Kings, scholars, craftsmen,
merchants and peasants.

7. Traits of Ancient Societies
• Social Classes

8. Traits of Ancient Societies
2 - Interaction of Cultures: Trade
• Ancient civilizations eventually began to interact with one
another. For example, Egypt and Mesopotamia frequently
interacted since they were not significantly distant from
one another. The exchange of ideas and goods was
beneficial for both civilizations. Egypt's agriculture
benefited from interaction. Also, Mesopotamia had
extensive sea trade with the Indus Valley civilization as
early as 2300 B.C.E.

9. Traits of Ancient Societies

10. Traits of Ancient Societies
• 3 - Religion:
Religion has always played an important
part in man's life, as it is a source of spiritual
comfort in times of distress. The happenings
in legends and myths represent an idealized
version of the world that man hopes for the
world to become, thus we always see that
the monster who eats children is killed by
the god or warrior in the end, proving the
motto "Good Triumphs Over Evil" to be true.

11. Traits of Ancient Societies

12. Traits of Ancient Societies
•4 – The Law:
•A good example of Mesopotamian
law is the Babylonians' Code of
Hammurabi. There were 282 laws
drafted out for economic disputes
(for prices, taxes and trade), family
(marriages and divorce), criminal
(assault, theft, murder) and civil
offences (slavery, debt).

13. Traits of Ancient Societies