Presentación para ESO-1º-British. Tema: Egipto y Mesopotamia en el contexto de las civilizaciones fluviales. Tiene enlaces a vídeos cortos, de una duración entre 2 y 4 minutos. Después de cada punto plantea actividades de distinto tipo.

1. Unit 1.3 - 1.4 Ancient River Civilizations
Case studies

2. Do Now: Think About It…
Hazlo ahora: piensa en eso ...
Why would most of the earliest civilizations develop near rivers???
¿Por qué la mayoría de las civilizaciones más antiguas se desarrollarían cerca
de los ríos?
1)
2)
3)

3. Ancient ‘Mesopotamia’
Introduction Video to Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia literally means
“The land between two rivers.”
Tigris and Euphrates!

4. Introduction Video to Ancient Mesopotamian Civilization

5. Today Mesopotamia is in Iraq!

6. We are here!

7. The World’s First Civilization! -- 3300 B.C
‘Sumer’ in Mesopotamia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-n84sDBEB4 (3 minute Video)
-- Ancient Sumerians Invented Writing and the Wheel!
-- They also created the first ever written story! THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH

8. Ancient Sumerian Civilization! 3300 B.C

9. First Writing: ‘Cuneiform’
Wedge Writing!
Press down on clay with a
specific instrument!
Developed out of
pictographs!

10. Social “Stratification” in Mesopotamia
Because of ‘Surpluses’ not
everyone has to be a farmer or
produce their own food!
When people have enough
food, they can branch out and
do other things!

11. “Ziggurats”-- RELIGION!!!

12. Ziggurats were built to worship the Gods!

13. The World’s First Empire
By the year 2300 B.C, the Sumerians were invaded and conquered by a King Named
Sargon and his people named the Akkadians.
The Akkadians built the first ever Empire!
They did this by conquering more and more cities and land.
Instead of cities governing themselves, the Akkadian Empire
made one single government! With Sargon as the king, or
emperor, huge amounts of land were controlled!

15. Down Goes Sargon! Here comes
Hammurabi!
Soon after Sargon died, the Akkadian empire fell apart due to outside invaders and poor governance!
By the year 1790 B.C however, an Empire was once again in Mesopotamia. This time, the
legendary king Hammurabi established the Babylonian Empire!

16. Think-Pair-Share
What would be the benefit of having laws
written down??
What would some issues be with laws or social
rules not being written down?

17. Hammurabi’s Code!
King Hammurabi is famous in world history for his creation of the first ‘codified’ or
written law code around 1790 B.C!
Before King Hammurabi, no laws were written down!
An eye for an eye!!! An arm for an arm!
However! Consequences also depended on
your social status in society!!! If you were a
wealthy noble, you often only had to pay a fine!

18. Summary of Mesopotamian Civilization!
○ Tigris & Euphrates Rivers
○ Monarchy – King
○ Slaves, peasants, artisans & merchants, warriors & priests,
royal family-- Social Stratification
○ Cuneiform (writing), Epic of Gilgamesh, Hammurabi’s
Code
○ Phoenicians → Alphabet
○ Sumer -- Babylon -- Akkad

19. River Valley Civilization 2
Ancient Egypt
2,575 B.C to 332 B.C

20. Ancient Egypt lasted for a MIND BLOWING
amount of time… (Around 2,200 Years)
-- 2,200 years of Civilization in Egypt!
-- All before the birth and life of Jesus Christ around 4 B.C
*** Think about this…
The United States has been a country since 1776, that’s about 250 Years ago
Ancient Egyptian civilization lasted almost 9 times (9x)
as long as the United States has existed as a country!!!

21. Where?
Egypt is located in Northeastern Africa!

22. Where? (Continued)
The Mediterranean Sea is located just North of Egypt!
This eventually allowed Ancient Egyptians to TRADE with other peoples and cultures, leading
to CULTURAL DIFFUSION!

23. Why did Civilization arise there???
THE NILE RIVER!!!
The Nile River was very predictable! It always flooded at the same times of year,
allowing The Ancient Egyptians to plan how much food they’d have!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPXXeypfI5A (1 Min Nile Video)

24. The Nile From Space!!!

25. Why??? Natural Barrier!
The Nile provided The Ancient Egyptians with everything they needed for
survival. Just outside the areas of land made liveable by The Nile however,
was dry and barren desert!

26. Mummies! Pharaohs and other
egyptians with wealth and
power would have
themselves mummified!
What? Writing and Religion!
Hieroglyphics!
Egyptian scribes would
write down just about
anything important!
>>>

27. Document Analysis (Reading)
WIth a partner or alone, work through the document written by The Ancient Greek Historian
‘Herodotus.’
***Although historians and archaeologists still study the construction of the pyramids, they agree that this process involved tens of
thousands of workers working across two to three decades on each. Construction involved cutting, moving, and setting large stones
with chisels, ropes, oxen, and ramps. ***
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWaReNkjTLk

28. What? Scribes (continued)
Ancient Egyptians knew how important the scribes were. In the social
classes, scribes were near the top of the chart. Scribes didn’t have to pay
taxes, be part of the military or do any of the manual labor!

29. How did we figure out how to read
Hieroglyphics???
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeQ-6eyMQ_o (3 Minute Rosetta Stone Video)
The Rosetta Stone was found in 1799!
The writing on the top half of the stone
is in Ancient Hieroglyphics!
The bottom half is in Ancient Greek!
This allowed historians to figure out how
to read hieroglyphics!!!

30. Summary!!!
○ Nile (VERY predictable)
○ Monarchy – pharaoh
○ Slaves, peasants, artisans & merchants, warriors &
priests, royal family, pyramids
○ Hieroglyphics (Rosetta Stone)
○ Upper & Lower, Memphis, Valley of the Kings

31. Document Reading Ancient River Civs!
Page 35 -- Read the excerpt from ‘The
Epic of Gilgamesh’ Answer just
question 1
Page 65 -- Read Documents A and B,
Answer questions 1 -3

32. Indus Valley and
Chinese
Civilizations Un1.4
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=DbnxPY3D1Pg
2 ½ minute video (boring voice)
3300 - 1700 B.C

33. Where? Modern Day India!

34. Why???
The Indus River!!!

35. Mohenjo-Daro (Crash Course 2 min video)
Cities!
What?

36. What?
Although the Indus Valley people used written language, we have no
way to decipher____________ it.

37. What? Social Stratification!
Social Structure
Caste system with four main classes
People were born into social classes that could not be changed.
○ Brahmins (priests and the king)
○ Kshatriyas (warriors and aristocrats - rulers)
○ Vaishyas (cultivators, artisans, and merchants)
○ Shudras (peasants and serfs)

38. Down Goes Indus Valley Civilization!!! --
1700 B.C
The Indus Valley Civilization ended around the year 1700 B.C. Historians believe that changing climate lead to
massive
Drought!!
The people who live in the area now are not
descendants of the Indus Valley Civilization.
They most likely migrated in from elsewhere!

39. Indus Valley Civilization Summary!!!
○ Indus River
○ Little known (standardization in bricks & roads, major
engineering projects)
○ Little known – variety of material possession – social
hierarchy
○ Undeciphered
○ Mohenjo-Daro & Harappa (Largest Cities)

40. ‘Do Now’
Name 5 of the characteristics that
make up a civilization!!
Full sentence… “Five of the
characteristics that make up a
civilization are….”

41. Ancient China 1.5 Notes

42. Where is China?

43. Why There?
1. Geographical Barriers! China has mountains to
the West, The Pacific Ocean to the east, and a
Desert to the North!
2. This lead to early Chinese people thinking that
they were the center of the world!
3. So much so that they called themselves “The
Middle Kingdom.”

44. Why There?
1. Rivers!!! Duh!!!
2. Two rivers helped early chinese people, travel, farm, and trade within China!
3. The Yellow (Huang) and the Chang!
4. Very early on in Chinese history people started to farm and settle along these two rivers!

45. What?
1. There were many different kingdoms in China before it became unified (under the control
of one government)!
2. These kingdoms would fight for territory and control over parts of China. This lead
Historians to call that period of Chinese history as The _Warring__ Kingdoms period.
3. Around 1122 B.C (Before Christ) a kingdom named the __ZHOU___attacked and
overthrew the kingdom of Shang.
4. They justified this by what they called THE MANDATE OF HEAVEN.

46. ‘The Mandate of Heaven’
1. Mandate of Heaven means “The Divine Right to Rule.”
2. The Chinese believed that as long as the government did a good job, it kept the
Mandate of Heaven.
3. If rulers became weak or corrupt, they would lose The Mandate of Heaven and be
overthrown!

47. Zhou Rule… #Weak
The Zhou Dynasty did rule China longer than any other government in China’s history.
However, it’s rule was more so in name than in actual power. During the Zhou’s “rule” there
were many smaller kings and kingdoms that fought against one another for power and
honor!

48. What? China United!
China is eventually united in the year 221 B.C by the Emperor Qin.
Hence the name CHINa.
But more on that another day!

49. What? Confucius!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-c53OBwnsbI (2 Minute Crash Course Confucius)
Chinese Religion is based largely on the teachings of a man named Confucius.
Confucius was born in 551 B.C. His views were more philosophical than religious. In other
words, he was more concerned with life here on earth than an afterlife or belief in God or
gods.

50. What? Taoism!
Taoism offered up the more spiritual religious view in comparison to Confucius’ teachings!
Taoism is all about unity with nature!
The Taoists believe that people should not concern themselves with daily human affairs, but
instead focus on being one with the universe.

52. ○ Yellow River (“China’s Sorrow”)
○ Monarch
○ Bronze metallurgy
○ Oracle bones, keep pictographs (never alphabetic)
○ Shang, Zhou

53. Choose 1 region (Mesopotamia, Egypt,
Indus Valley, or China & discuss how it
meets the criteria of a “civilization”?
THINK-PAIR-SHARE
Full Sentences, you can write
this on the same paper as your
DO NOW!!!