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Northern Mesopotamia is made up of hills and plains. The land is quite fertile due to seasonal rains, and the rivers and streams flowing from the mountains.

Southern Mesopotamia is made up of marshy areas and wide, flat, barren plains. Cities developed along the rivers which flow through the region.

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Mesopotamian civilization was made up of many independent city-states that never were able to unit. This made them weak and vulnerable to invasion.  However, sometimes the people had to unite to build irrigation canals for their agriculture.  They developed written laws, the Code of Hammurabi, which was probably made to give unity to an expanding empire.

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The people of Mesopotamia believed that their world was controlled by gods and goddesses, demons and monsters. Each city was protected by its own special god or goddess and their family.

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The Indus Valley Civilization was an ancient civilization located in what is Pakistan and northwest India today, on the fertile flood plain of the Indus River and its vicinity. Evidence of religious practices in this area date back approximately to 5500 BCE

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Egypt was protected by natural barriers on all sides.  The Nile provided the perfect waterway for trade. Also, the Nileflooded each year at about the same time, a fact that gave them a distinct sense of each year’s passing (they created the calendar to predict this). It also naturally fertilized the land and provided for abundant agriculture.  Many people attribute the Egyptians’ optimism (eternal life) on the good fortune of its geography

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China is geographically isolated.  Although the Shangtraded with other civilizations, their limited contact with others produced an ethnocentric outlook.  They called their land the Middle Kingdom, an assertion that implied that other people were on the periphery of the civilized world.  Their land was fertile and supported a surplus of agriculture without complex irrigations systems

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The Latest Discoveries at Harappa 1995-1998 include the earliest Indus writing, a 133 bead pot, 16 tablets, and more. By Richard H. Meadow and Jonathan Mark...

Mohenjo Daro, or "Mound of the Dead" is an ancient Indus Valley Civilization city that flourished between 2600 and 1900 BCE. The site was discovered in the...

A hitherto unknown box of 63 images in Sir Mortimer Wheeler's personal collection from excavations he led at Mohenjo-daro in 1950. With new captions by...

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Egypt was united under one central government.  Egyptians believed the king, or Pharaoh, was a god.  This helped keep order because people were more inclined to obey the king if he was a god. Religious myths reinforced this belief.  The government was strictly centralized and controlled the resources of the state

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Most rule was local, consisting of a network of walled towns whose leaders were loyal to the king.  These local leaders comprised the bureaucracy, a group of aristocratic chieftains who could be removed at the kings will.

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The Egyptians were polytheistic.  The lineage of the gods extended to the pharaoh himself who had absolute power and was revered as a god

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The honor and respect given to family elders was related to the worship of ancestors.  Dead ancestors were summoned for advice through oracle bones and other means.  Thus religion both drew from and reinforced patriarchy.

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The family was the most important social institution.  Men had most all of the authority.  As villages became more productive, social classes became more distinct

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The Code Of Hammurabireinforced patriarchy and social distinctions. A business class of people operated quite independent of government control. Like in Egypt, most people in Mesopotamia were farmers.  Certain cities traded and grew rich. We know they traded with Egypt and India

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Women had more rights than in most early civilizations. There were certain jobs, however, that women were not allowed to do. The vast majority of people in Egypt worked in agriculture. The Nileallowed Egyptians to trade with other civilizations and were in turn influenced by them.