Ancient River Valley Civilization

The earliest forms of civilizations were said to be located on the three river valleys of the Tigris-Euphrates River in ancient Mesopotamia, the Nile River in ancient Egypt and the Huang He and Indus River in ancient India and China. These three river valley civilizations had many differences yet still lived common life styles. Although the civilizations are located on different continents, they share similar social, political, and economic beliefs from their intellectual developments to types of government to religious beliefs and trading systems.

The ancient Chinese river valley civilization was engaged in military activity since the dawn of warfare. They are one of the worlds oldest and largest civilizations forming around 6000 BC. It is also the longest continuing civilization on Earth. Villages formed in the Northern part of China along the Yellow and Yangtze rivers. Eventuly they formed cities and began to conquer one another. However, recorded military activity was first recorded by the Xia Dynasty (2200 BCE-1600 BCE) when writing was developed based of Sumerian script. The ancient Chinese where involved in frequent wars of unification, expansion and defense of their territories. They developed warfare on a sophisticated level to meet these demands. China produced massive infantry

Although early river valley civilizations developed in four separate places, they seem to have more similarities than differences. This essay will compare and contrast the ancient Egyptian, Harappan, Chinese, and Sumerian civilizations.

The two ancient river valley civilizations of Mesopotamia and the Indus River valley civilization, prior to 600 BCE had many things that remained stagnant in terms of their cultures but also they had just as many changes. Due to New advances and by influence from other civilizations such as the Indus over Mesopotamia and vice versa this increased the amount of change a lot.

The Mesopotamians were overall a complex and smart civilization. There were qualities and specific traits that the Mesopotamian developed that helped make this civilization as important as is. Different mathematical, scientific, and agricultural methods were developed that people still use to this day. Without this civilization, society today could possibly be a different place

The civilizations in river valleys both had communities that were forced to work together due to the lack of agricultural resources. They each had to focus on maintaining canals, dikes, weirs, and other structures related to the valleys. Floods were constantly a threat, and so each civilization had a different view on nature’s aspects. Mesopotamians tried their best to please the kings and queens of nature, while Egyptians trusted supernatural powers. The difference in religious thoughts led to contrasting attitudes towards life after death and therefore burials. Egyptians displayed the majority of their wealth on their tombstones. Rulers of Egypt had several rooms dedicated to their passing, so as to provide a better afterlife. Mesopotamians built new cities, walls, palaces, and religious buildings, as final exhibitions of their existence. River valley civilizations had different opinions on the role of women. Mesopotamians women in the second millennium had little freedom, but Egyptians women had a high level of respect, as referred to in poems and books.

All of the Early River Valley Civilization have contributed in a good variety of ways. The three empires (Egypt,Sumer,and Indus) are similar in their own contributions. The biggest similarity the three civilizations had were record keeping. Sumer had created a system called cuneiform.

Cuneiform is a development of the early civilizations that has had, and continues to have, the greatest impact. The ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia had very defective ways of tracking events. Everyone, varying from farmers attempting to keep crop dates, to priests tracking ziggurat activity, struggled to remember important information. “The business activities of the ziggurat required the keeping of accurate records.” (Howe, H. & Howe, R., 1992). With no way to record important information, it was chaos. The Mesopotamians needed a way to fix this problem, a way to record information. An additional problem was communication; the Mesopotamians did not have a solid way of communicating ideas or stories. All stories needed to be passed down by word of mouth, this form of storytelling made it

The Neolithic Revolution was the major change in human life caused by the beginnings of farming. This revolution changed people’s lives in several ways. It changed the way people lived because before the Neolithic Revolution they relied on hunting and gathering food. It also changed the way they settled, because of this revolution they were able to live in villages for a long time, unlike before; they had to relocate often because their food source would become scarce.  The way civilizations lived changed because of the Neolithic Revolution. A civilization is a form of culture that consists of cities, advanced technology, specialized workers, complex institutions, and record keeping. The early river valley civilizations; which developed in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Indus, and China, had more similarities than differences. The river valley civilizations were similar when it came to their writing systems, inventions, and geography. However, they were also different when it came to writing systems and inventions.

Now that we have a starting point, the first question that comes to mind is, “What ideas were created in Mesopotamia?”One of the most fundamental inventions of Mesopotamia was Cuneiform. Cuneiform is the first recorded use of writing down symbols or words to mark history or make records. Something so basic could be overlooked but it is an astonishingly important invention. Everything that revolves around modern history, learning, etc. is based on Cuneiform. Why did the Mesopotamians use Cuneiform and why do we use it now? It makes it much easier to transmit information and ideas than by repeating by word of mouth. Repeating by word of mouth may have mis-communication along the way as people misinterpret or simply forget what was being said. The Greeks and Romans would modify Cuneiform and move from symbols into letters. Being able to read and right allows for much progress for a civilization by allowing people to not have to ask another person for information. This frees up time and labor to use on other

Ancient Egyptians used their inventions and technologies to help them live their daily lives and work. They used clocks and calendars to live a productive life. For example, the Ancient Egyptians invented the calendar. It consisted of 365 days. There were twelve months with thirty days in each. The Egyptians calendar correlated with the flood of the Nile river. This was so the Egyptians knew the right time to plant and reap their crops. They also invented the water clock. Water clocks were bowl-shaped containers designed to slowly fill with water. Markings on the inside surfaces measured the passage of hours as the water reached them. These clocks were used to determine hours at night. The Ancient Egyptians used a shadow clock in the day. It

In the beginnings of civilization, the first ones that rose were the river valley civilizations near the Nile, Indus, Huanghe, Tigris, and Euphrates rivers. As these civilizations developed, they had many similarities due to the similar environments and problems they faced when they inhabited the area near the rivers, even though there was little to no contact between the civilizations. The striking similarities between the Huanghe, Mesopotamian, Indus, and Nile civilizations include a complex writing system, some type of government, and had some religion with a god or with multiple gods or goddesses.

Discovery of clay tablets inscribed with cuneiform proved that the Mesopotamian civilization were able to communicate through written pictures and stylized signs, this was used for purpose of record keeping and schools to teach cuneiform.

Many civilizations arose near rivers before the common era. Two civilizations that were started near Rivers were Egypt and Sumer. Sumer was colonized near the Tigris and Euphrates, and Egypt was settled near the Nile River. It was even stated in Ellis Esler’s textbook “World History” , “The world’s first civilizations arose independently in a number of river valleys. These River Valley Civilizations include Sumer, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the Middle East; Egypt, along the Nile river.” Sumer is located in Mesopotamia, which is located in between the Tigris and Euphrates. The Greeks called this location “between two rivers.” This location was wonderful for farming

Through the development of writing, mathematics, metalworking, detailed law codes, and the wheel, Mesopotamians have shown their ingenuity with many different achievements. The world as we know it could not survive without writing. I am writing right now in order to do this paper, and the economy and so much of our lives is dependent on writing. Although it goes hand-in-hand with writing, mathematics is also a very important achievement of the Mesopotamians. Mesopotamians based their math system on sixty, but it is just as important and influential regardless. Metal work is another great achievement