WHAT MAKES A CIVILIZATION?

• A human society with an advanced level of development in social and political organization and in the arts and sciences.

• Most historians believe the FIRST civilization rose about 3300 B.C. in Sumer, a city-state in southern Mesopotamia

DEFINITION OF A CIVILIZATION

1. Advanced Cities

2. Specialized Workers

3. Complex Institutions

4. Record Keeping

5. Advanced Technology

5 TRAITS OF A CIVILIZATION

1. Had a place to store surplus grain

2. Offered different jobs to its people

3.Offered temples to worship or pray

ADVANCED CITIES: ORGANIZED PLACES

1. Need a surplus of food before a civilization can develop

2. Some men can do other jobs for people besides farming

a. Sewing clothes

b. Making pottery

c. Making tools

d. Building houses

SPECIALIZED WORKERS

1. Religion

2. Education

3. An army

4. A government

a. All of the above exist within the city

b. Help meet the needs of the citizens

COMPLEX INSTITUTIONS NEED:

1. Societies needed to track things

2. Mesopotamians needed to keep track of food supplies

a) Used scribes (people who knew how to write)

b) Very few people were scribes and were very important to the society

RECORD KEEPING

Cuneiform: Mesopotamian writing

1. Societies advance when they invent and learn things in a better way.

2. Mesopotamians invented:

a. Canals

b. Bronze tools

c. The wheel and more

ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY