Early River Valley Civilizations notes

• • existed between 3500 B.C- 450 B.C
  • Hammurabi's code holds people responsible for their actions
  • someone who steals from the temple must repay 30 times the cost of the stolen item
  • the regions curved shape and richness of its land led to scholars to call it fertile crescent
  • Mesopotamia in Greek mean "land between the rivers"
  • rivers framing Mesopotamia are the Tigris and Euphrates
  • the two rivers flooded the area once a year leaving silt which later planted with grain
  Disadvantages
  • unpredictable flooding with little to no rain
  • no natural barriers
  • natural resources of Sumer were limited
  Solutions
  • advanced cities
  • specialized workers
  • complex institutions 
  • record keeping
  • improved technology
  
  
  • A city- state functioned much as an independent country does today
  • Sumerian city states include Uruk, Kish, Lagash, Ummah, and Ur
  • all Sumerian cities had a walled temple with a ziggurat in the middle
  • Ziggurat was a place to worship and a city hall
  • priest demanded a portion of every farmer's crop as taxes
  • priest did not lead the city in war, chosen fighters did
  • a series of rulers from a single family is called a dynasty
  Timeline:
  • 3000 BC- city states form in Sumer and Mesopotamia
  • 2500 BC Egypt’s old kingdom develops 
  • 1792 BC- Hammurabi develops code of laws for Babylonia empire
  • 1750 BC- Indus valley civilization declines
  •  1027 BC- Zhou dynasty forms in China