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The amazing building structures that the Harappans were once known for had declined dramatically in around 1750 B.C.. The cities ultimately decayed . At first it was unknown what had happened to the fall of the Indus Valley civilization. Until in the 1970's when it was discovered that the tectonics plates had shifted and caused great natural disasters on the cities such as floods, earthquakes, and changed the whole flow of the Indus River as well as dried up the Sarawati which cut off all trade from that route completely . Some cities survived the massive shift but others perished. The Aryans (nomads from the Hindu Kush mountains) had invaded the Indus in around the 1500's B.C.. The Indian civilizaation then grew under the Aryans rule.

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The city-states were constantly at war with each other, and this weakened them against attacks from surrounding people. In 2350 B.C., Sargon from Akkad defeated the city-states in Sumer. This continued to spread culture, and created an empire. It only lasted for about 200 years though.

In 2000 B.C., the Amorite warriors invaded Mesopotamia. They defeated the Sumerians too and made their capital, Babylon, on the Euphrates River. This empire's peak was during the reign of Hammurabi, who created a code of laws for everyone to live by. Although the laws differed by social class, they were consistent, so you knew the consequences of any action, and that was an improvement.

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Like most people at that time, the Sumerians were polytheistic. The gods did many things that the humans did, but they were immortal and all powerful. To keep them happy, people offered animals and food as sacrifices at the ziggurat. After death though, they would only go to a gloomy, dismal place.

The Sumerians had different social classes that affected what people were allowed to do. Women had more rights than women in other societies, but there were still things that they weren't allowed to do.

Sumerians invented many forms of technology, including the wheel, the sail, and the plow. They also advanced arithmetic, and made many architectural innovations. Cuneiform was the system of writing that they developed.

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The Sumerians were some of the first people to create a civilization. Each city was surrounded by fields of wheat and barley. Although most cities shared the same culture, they had different governments, so each city and the surrounding land it controlled were called "city-states".

The first governments they had were mainly the temple priests, who could talk to the gods for people. During war however, a fighter was chosen to oversee all the soldiers. As wars became more frequent, priests gave commanders full power, and they eventually ruled through dynasties.

The Sumerians were able to produce surpluses of food, so that allowed them to do more long distance trading. This game them materials they needed to keep advancing and encouraged cultural diffusion.

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The Yellow River

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A person’s chief loyalty throughout life was to the family. The most important virtue was respect for one’s parents. Men were in control of everything, since women were inferior.

The society was divided between nobles and peasants. Noble families owned the land.

Next to family was religion. The Chinese believed that the spirits of family ancestors had the power to bring good fortune or disaster to living members of the family. The spirits were viewed more as either a troublesome or a helpful neighbour, demanding attention and respect.

In the Chinese method of writing, each character generally stands for one syllable or unit of language. The disadvantage of the Chinese system was the enormous number of writtencharacters to be memorised. To be a true scholar, one needed to know at least 10,000 characters, but a normal person will need to know 1,500 characters to be barely literate. As a general rule, a nobleperson’s children learned to write, but peasant children did not.

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Research proved it was 500,000 years ago when people were settling at the river valley.

According to legend, the first Chinese dynasty, the Xia (shyah) Dynasty, emerged about 2000 B.C., when early Chinese cultures were building farming settlements along the Huang He. When the Huang He flooded, it was the reason why settlements could grow. Shang Dynasty was the first family to have left written records.

Shang peoples built cities to surround themselves in protection because war kept occurring.

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Pharaohs lost power in 2180 BC marking the end of the old kingdom. They regained control again in 2040 BC - 1640 BC, which became known as the middle age. Hyksos took control from 1630 - 1523 BC. Then the new kingdom rose to power.

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Egyptians were Polytheistic, they believed in many Gods. Most important were Re (The sun God), Isis (Death God) and Osiris (The ideal woman). Overall, Egyptians believed in over 2000 Gods.

People of all classes plan for their burials so that they can safely get to the other world. Kings and Queens have great tombs like pyramids but other Egyptians build smaller tombs. Royal and elites have their body preserved through a long process called mummification.

Scribes developed a flexible writing system called hieroglyphics. Egyptians also invented a calender and priests observed the stars. Egyptians also made the first 'paper', Papyrus. They also developed medicine and had great mathematical knowledge to engineer such great buildings

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Early Settlement and Building in the Indus: 

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Early Settlement and Building in the Indus: 

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The reason for the Indus settling in the Indian subcontinent is still a mystery, but when they arrived in 2500 B.C. they had began to make a very large impact. They began to build earthen (dirt) walls with strong levees around their cities to protect from floods. The whole city was built on a mud brick platform so it would rise whenever a flood would approach. Over 100 settlements had been made on the Indus (which is now modern day Pakistan). the three largest cities of the Indus were; Kalibangan, Mohenjo-Daro, and Harappa.

The Indus had one of the most constructed and thought out cities at the time. Buildings were standard size, built with oven-baked bricks. There were sophisticated sewage and plumping systems, and had the first drainage system before the 19th century. The streets were thought out and were not all winding alleys.

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Trade began to become a very large part of Harappans life, such as gold, silver, jewels. The Indus had very sufficient transportation for trading goods. The Harrapans did much trading with Mesopotamia at the time. The great Indus River provided a perfect connection to the sea, therefore trading started in early 2600 B.C. and went till 1800 B.C..

Social life in the Indus was different from most social classes back then. There were not very many, if at all, dramatically different social divisions.

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Pharaohs ruled as gods. Egypt was a theocracy. Egyptians believed that Pharaohs held full responsibility for the kingdoms well being. It was the Pharaohs who made the sunrise, Nile floods, and crops to grow. They believed that Pharaohs even ruled after death so they built great pyramids for them. These pyramids were more important than their palaces.

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Egypt was divided into two very different regions because cataracts made it impossible for boats to go upstream to the 'Upper' Egypt. 'Upper' Egypt is called this because of its higher elevation but it is actually south of 'Lower' Egypt but 'Lower' Egypt is also called that because of its elevation.

Eventually the two kingdoms were united. Solid evidence points to king Narmer. (even though some historians believe that King Scorpion united the kingdom)

Narmer made the double crown and joined the two kingdoms. He settled his capital 'Memphis' where Lower and Upper Egypt met. He also started the first dynasty.

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The Harappan civilization had much religion in their lives. It is found to be that the Indus has a theocracy which is when the government revolves around religion. Although no temples have been found, artifacts of Hindu culture has been discovered such as 'Shiva' (a major Hindu God). Priests were so respected the Harapans would see them as rulers.

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Every year the Nile will flood its banks providing the village farmers with a layer of silt. Silt is very good for crops. Unlike the Tigris and the Euphrates river that randomly flood, the Nile works like a regular clockwork but even so the Nile had its flaws.

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The Indus Valley had amazing barriers protected from any invasions. The Indus Valley was protected by large mountains to the north, and scorching deserts to the west. T he large mountains also protect a very large flat fertile plain formed by the Indus and Ganges Rivers.

The Indus river flows South West from the Himalayas to the Arabian Sea. Lower Indus Valley is mostly all Thar desert. Together, the Indus and Ganges river made up a large flat and very fertile plain called the Indo-Gangetic plain that took up 1,700 miles across Northern India. These two rivers are essential to the Harappans because not only do they carry water for irrigation but also rich soil and silt for agricultural purposes.

The Ganges River flows to the east going across northern India. Then southern part of the subcontinent, just right under the Indo-Gangetic Plain becomes a peninsula that is dead-on with the Indian Ocean. The Peninsula is mostly made up of plateaus and many swerving rivers.

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Subcontinent: India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh are referred to as the Indian Subcontinent.

Monsoons: Seasonal winds which most of India's climate is made up of. From...

Oct - Feb winter monsoons blow wind from NW westward.

June - Oct = Winds blow eastward from SW carrying humidity from the ocean created rain clouds.

Harappan Civilization: Indus Valley is sometimes called Harappan civilization, because of the many archaeological discoveries made at that site.

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Mesopotamia was situated between two rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates. This provided the people there the water needed to begin a civilization.

At least once a year, the rivers would flood Mesopotamia, leaving it with a layer of silt, which made the soil extremely fertile and ideal for farming.

The rivers were very helpful in setting up a settlement, but there were also some disadvantages that came with them. First of all, flooding was unpredictable, so it was hard to plan around it, and sometimes there wouldn't be enough rain to get good crops. Also, there were no natural barriers surrounding them, so they were very vulnerable to attacks. There was also a lack of natural resources, so creating new products was much more difficult.

To overcome these difficulties, people dug irrigation canals to water their crops even if there wasn't much rain. They built walls around the city out of mud bricks. They were also able to trade with nearby cities to get materials needed to build things.

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There are two major systems. The Huang He (or known as the Yellow river) and the second is Chang Jiang.

Three main challenges in China were the floods in the villages, they didn't trade with the outsiders, and had invasions continuously occurring.

Almost 10% of the land in China is fitting for farming.

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Fertile Crescent - An arc of land that is very rich and provides some of the best farming in Southwest Asia.

Mesopotamia - A plain facing the Mediterranean Sea. The name means "land between the rivers"

City-state - Each city and the surrounding land. They functioned like an independent country.

Dynasty - A series of rulers from a single family.

Cultural Diffusion - The process by which a new idea or a product spreads from one culture to another.

Polytheism - Belief in more than one god.

Empire - Several peoples, nations, and previously independent states under the control of one ruler.

Hammurabi - Babylonian emperor from 1792-1750 B.C. who put together a uniform code of laws

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Loess is when fertile soil is blown by the wind from desert to the west and north.

Oracle bones are animal bones and tortoise shells on which priests had scratched questions for the gods.

Mandate of Heaven is a just ruler with divine approval.

Dynastic cycle is the what the historians described to be the pattern of rise, decline, and replacement of dynasties.

Feudalism is the control over different regions to members of the royal family and other trusted nobles.

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Section three: Planned Cities on the Indus

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Section three: Planned Cities on the Indus

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Delta - broad, marshy,

triangular area of land

formed by deposit of

silt at the mouth of the river.

Narmer- The king who united

Egypt as one whole around one

whole around 3000 B.C.

Pharaohs - Egyptian kings (treated

like gods).

Theocracy - A type of government

based on religious authority.

Pyramid - A resting place

after death for kings of the

old kingdom.

Mummification - Embalming

and drying the corpse to

prevent it from decaying.

Hieroglyphics - A more

flexible writing system.

Cuneiform was the earliest

form of writing used

by Sumerians.

Papyrus - reeds split into strips and

woven as a writing surface