THE EARLY CIVILIZATION

By Allan R. Almasco

I. MESOPOTAMIA AND THE FERTILE CRESCENT

a. Geography
 Land between two rivers – Tigres and Euprates
 The present-day Iraq, Syria, Kuwait, and Turkey.
 From the words ‘ Meso’ - in the middle of, and ‘potamos’ - river.
 With fertile soil and arid climate – flood and drought is unpredictable that is why
system irrigation was developed.
 A land of few resources
b. The Rise of Civilization
 Traits of Civilization
 Advance cities
 Specialized workers
 Complex institution
 Record keeping
 Improved technology
c. TTHE SUMERIANS (4500 – 4000 BC)
 The earliest developed civilization
 They are the pioneer of;
 The first city-state
o Ziggurat is the center of the City-state
o Democracy is being practiced
o Priest become leaders
 Created a kingdom
o To protect ffrom attack the need new leader
o King – the new leader and later control the city-state
 Empire
o The kingdom was expanded and become empire
 Democracy
o Rulers are elected by the people
o Women have more right in this early period
 Autocracy
 Writing (3000 BC)
o Pictograph
o Cuneiform
 o The people who specialized in writing are the Scribes
 Schools
 Organized religion
o Polytheism
o There are four main gods –the sky, the wind, the hills, and thefresh
water
o Each city state worship its main god
 Literature
 Social classes
 Literature
 Mathematics
o Developed arithmetic
 Agricultural society
 Invented the first agricultural technology
o Plow
o Wheel (3500 BC)
 Highly religious
 Emphasized culture, art. Work, and written works

d. THE AKKADIAN EMPIRE (3000-2000 BC)
 Bring togethr many different lands and people
 Created an empire
 Sargon- the first emperor
e. THE BABYLONIAN EMPIRE AND HAMMURABI (200 years after the Akkadians)
 Amorites people
 Hammurabi (1792-1750)
 Code of law
 Justice
 The center was Babylon
f. THE ASSYRIANS AND THE CHALDEANS
a. A powerful empire
THE HEBREW KINGDOM