The first civilizations developed along major river valleys, including Mesopotamia between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. In Mesopotamia, independent city-states emerged around 3000 BC practicing irrigation-based agriculture. These city-states developed systems of governance ruled by monarchs with the help of priests, scribes, and armies. They established some of humanity's earliest social hierarchies, legal codes, and written languages.

1. THE FIRST CIVILIZATIONS: MESOPOTAMIA

2. THE FIRST URBAN CIVILIZATIONS: THE RIVER
CIVILIZATIONS
 Some 6 000 years ago,
some Neolithic villages
became cities as a result of
agricultural and commercial
prosperity.
 These civilisations invented
writing.

3.  The first great civilizations developed along large
rivers surrounded by fertile land:
 Mesopotamia: Tigris and Euphrates Rivers
 Egypt: the River Nile
 India: Indus River
 China: Huang He (Yellow) and Yangtze (Blue) Rivers

5. MESOPOTAMIA: THE LAND BETWEEN TWO
RIVERS
 The first civilizations
appeared in the Fertile
Crescent, in the fertile plains
between the Tigris and
Euphrates rivers.
 This area was called Sumer.

6. POLITICAL ORGANIZATION
 agriculture changed
Neolithic villages into
independent city-states.
 The most important city-states
in Sumer were Ur,
Uruk and Lagash.
 .

7.  Leadership
 The monarch controlled the
city-state and was in charge of:
 Executive power: government
 Legislative power: law
 Military power: army
 Religious power: connections
to de god
 Judicial power: justice

8.  He was advised by civil servants and
scribes (bureaucracy) that collected
taxes, applied the orders and the
laws…
 He controlled the population through
the army and the priests.

9. Monarch
Priests
Army and
Scribes (civil
servants)
Peasants, Farmers,
Merchants,
Traders…
Slaves

10.  Mesopotamian hierarchy: privileged groups and
non-privileged groups.
 Privileged-groups: controlled the power and the
wealth.
 The Monarch
 The priests
 The army and the civil servants
 Non-privileged groups: produced the products
needed by society
 Farmers, peasants, stockbreeders…
 Merchants, traders, craftsman...
 Slaves: group without rights. They were their
master’s property. They became slaves through conquest
(war prisoners) or debts.

11. MESOPOTAMIAN RELIGION
 Polytheistic: their gods were
similar to human beings but they
were immortal.
 Temples were the god’s residences
on Earth. They were built on
stepped pyramids called
ziggurats.
 Each city-state was under the
protection of a god.
 They believed in life after death
and buried their dead with
everything they would possibly
need.

12. MESOPOTAMIAN CULTURE
 The Sumerian people are
believed to be the first ones
to develop a written
language.
 Cuneiform writing
consisted of signs drawn on
clay tablets with a reed.
 Writing made it possible to
organize the state by
recording government
issues and business
transactions.

13.  The first schools were created
here to train scribes. Only
male children from rich families
went to school.
 The Code of Hammurabi is
one of the earliest legal codes
in history.
 Engraved on a rock around 1800
BC.
 Based on the law of retaliation
(“an eye for an eye”).

14. MESOPOTAMIAN ART: ARCHITECTURE
 Materials: brick and adobe (bricks of clay and
straw)
 To sustain the ceiling they invented the arch and
the vault.
 Walls were decorated with brightly colored glazed
ceramics with floral motives, geometric designs,
scenes of war…
 Type of buildings:
 Palaces
 Ziggurats (temples)

15.  Ziggurats: temples
built at the center of
the city. They were
the house of god on
Earth.

17. MESOPOTAMIAN ART: SCULPTURE
 Materials: gold, lapis, clay,
wood…
 Types:
 Statues (not attached)
 Reliefs (different carving
techniques)
 Themes:
 Men and women worshipping
 Kings
 Military or hunting scenes…

19. Mesopotamian empires:
 The Sumerians.
 The Akkadian Empire
 The Babylonian
Empire
 The Assyrian Empire
 The Persian Empire

20.  The Sumerians: city of Sumer. Controlled the territory
organized in different city-states during the 3rd millenium.
 Akkadian Empire: the city of Akkad controlled the cities of
Lower Mesopotamia between the year 2330 BC and the
year 2200 B.C. when the empire disappeared and a long
period of division started.
 Babylonian Empire: around 1800 the city of Babylon
founded an empire that was going to last until the 900 BC.
(Code of Hammurabi)
 Assyrian Empire: expanded from the Persian Gulf to the
Mediterranean sea. Main cities Asur and Ninive. From the
9th century BC to the 6th century whe it was conquered by
the Persians.

21. WHAT DID MESOPOTAMIANS DO FOR US?