Page 92 - ABCTE Study Guide_Neat

The Old School: Civilized Ancients

Ancient civilizations often relied on the fertile climate of river
valleys for their survival. The development of farming in 8500 BC
made it possible for once-nomadic cultures to settle in permanent
communities. Civilizations withinEgypt, Mesopotamia, India,
and China settled respectively along the Nile, Tigris and
Euphrates, the Indus, and the Yellow rivers.

Mesopotamia

Much of what we know today as basic tenets of civilization started
with the Mesopotamians. Originating in the mountains of Turkey,
the Tigris and Euphrates rivers join in southern Iraq and empty into
the Persian Gulf near the modern-day city of Basra. The region
dependent on these two rivers came to be known
as Mesopotamia, a word that means "the land between two
rivers." Mesopotamia is important, in part, because its first major
civilization, Sumer, was so culturally powerful. Sumer's cuneiform
writing influenced later writing systems across the Mediterranean
basin; moreover, as a result of its early development of
writing, Sumer is the first culture to enter written history.

The region is also significant because the Mesopotamian city
of Jericho is the world's first known city, having been settled as far
Cunieform tablet back as 8000 BCE.

Sumer is often regarded as the earliest human civilization. It flourished from around 3200–2360 BCE and
was characterized by city-states. These were cities (and the land surrounding them) ruled by a sovereign
priest or king. Some of the major city-states included Lagash, Uruk, Ur, Kish, and Nippur. Based on the
Sumerian king list (a detailed account of the successive Sumerian dynasties) we know that the King of
Kish, Enmebaragesi, would later unite the twelve city-states under one rule. The Epic of
Gilgamesh (written in the later Babylonian era) portrays the siege of Uruk by Agga, Enmebaragesi’s son.

The Sumerian culture was succeeded by Mesopotamian civilizations, including the Hittites,
the Akkadians, and the Assyrians.

China

Shang Dynasty