Chapter 3River Valley Civilizations

Egypt

Egypt: Gift of the Nile

The Nile River spans the length of Egypt from south to north.

Provides natural irrigation along with man-made irrigation systems and has predictable, annual flooding

The land outside the Nile Valley is desert, which helped Egypt from invasion

These factors meant rule from indigenous governments

Organization of Egyptian History

Predynastic Period (Pleistocene-c. 3050 BCE)

Early Dynastic Period (c. 3050-2686 BCE)

Old Kingdom (2686-2181 BCE)

First Intermediate Period (2181-1991 BCE)

Middle Kingdom (2134-1690 BCE)

Second Intermediate Period (1674-1549 BCE)

New Kingdom (1549-1069 BCE)

Third Intermediate Period (1069-653 BCE)

Late Period (672-332 BCE)

Earliest Egypt: Before the Kings

Agriculture sustained life

12000 B.C.E. grasses ground into foods; 6000 B.C.E.

seeds ground into flour

Drought in the Sahara led to more Nile settlement

Strings of villages along Nile by 3600 BCE (Nagada I Period)

Cities dependent on cereal agriculture Linked by trade along the river but trade was not central to their

economy Little evidence of social stratification

Walled towns emerged by 3300 BCE in Upper Egypt

The Written Record Writing began early in Egypt (3500-3000 BCE)

Almost simultaneously with Sumerians May have learned cuneiform from Sumerians and

adopted their owns trop of hieroglyphics

Writing based on system of hieroglyphics written on stone, pottery, or papyrus

Writing used for business and government to

2400 BCE Provide lists of the earliest kings of Egypt

recorded by the nomes (administrative units) Manetho wrote the first Kings List

Unification and the Rule of Kings

Early Dynastic Period (3100-2686 BCE)

3100 BCE- unification established unified Egypt from peoples who came to the Nile and melded into a single ethnicity

Menes is often noted by historians as being the first king, but there is support for earlier kings

Kings grew in power with unification and were seen a gods

Responsible for keeping the forces of nature balanced and annual flooding of the Nile

National religious ideology, centralized control of political administration, and artistic productivity during this period

The Gods and Unification

Osiris = order (ma’at) and virtue

Seth = disorder and evil

Isis = sister/wife of Osiris, defeated Seth’s plot to destroy Osiris

Seth cut Osiris into fourteen pieces and scattered him across Egypt

Isis collected the pieces of Osiris (symbolizes unification of Egypt)

Isis conceived Horus

Horus defeated Seth in battle and made Osiris in charge of the underworld

Horus was the first Egyptian god to be worshipped nationally

Often depicted as a falcon

Kings believed that if they lived order lives, they would be united with Osiris after death

The Afterlife Belief in afterlife led to practice of

mummification of the dead

The pyramids were created for the burial places of the kings

As early as 3100 BCE, kings and members of the court were buried in tombs (mastabas)

Suggests social stratification

From Villages to Cities

Egypt has no record of independent city-states

Walled towns that emerged around 3300 BCE suggest new stratification

In early Dynastic Egypt, selected villages held administrative headquarters

Egypt’s cities had a religious base as well as an administrative one

Population in Egypt increased to 2.5 million by 1550-1200 BCE

The largest towns were the political capitals (Thebes administrative capital) Shaduf irrigation (bucket and wheel) carried water further

out from the Nile

Architecture: The Pyramids

In the third dynasty (2649-2575 BCE) the king’s architect elaborated the mastaba into the monumental pyramids

As power grew, the Old Kingdom rulers spent fortunes constructing pyramid tombs and mummification

The greatest pyramids were built during the fourth dynasty (2575-2465 BCE)

Disintegration of Old Kingdom

Central authority weakened and provincial officials (nomarchs) asserted their power

Collected taxes and built private armies

Death rates increased with famine and drought

In 2181 BCE, the Old Kingdom fell

Period of disunity, called First Intermediate Period, lasted a century

Nomarchs held local power Over time, two separate centers came to content for

power; Herakleopolis and Thebes

The Middle Kingdom About 2050 BCE, King Mentuhotpe of Thebes

defeated the north and reunited the kingdom (The Middle Kingdom)

Fine arts and literature flourished

Autobiography of Si-nuhe”,

More organization and power than before

Efficient administration spread power south to Nubia and into the Middle East

Egypt became an empire, ruling over distant, foreign people

Middle Kingdom ended in part because the Nubians drove out the Egyptians and the Hykos (Semitic-people form Sinai) invasion

Akhenaten Modern excavations unearthed the ruins of the

ancient capital, Akhetaten, created by King Amenhotep IV, known as Akhenaten (r. 1353-1335 BCE)

Challenged social order of Egypt

Adopted monotheistic religion devoted to Aten, god of the sun

Akhenaten moved his capital 200 miles north of Thebes to the desert

City was destroyed by later kings and the capital was moved back to Thebes

Former religious traditions restored

Indus Valley

Roots of Indus Valley Civilization

Not discovered until 19th century

The first city discovered was the 4500-year-old city of Harappa

Two years later, a second city 200 miles southwest was discovered at Mohenjo-Daro

Cities were both about 3 miles around,

large enough to hold populations of 40,000

Roots of Indus Valley Civilization

The region of the Bolan Pass yielded artifacts back to 7000 BCE

What was the relationship between this civilization and Mesopotamia??

Innovation; grown independently from

Mesopotamia

Written records scarce in Indus Valley

Mysteries of the Indus Valley

Urban settlements date to 7000 BCE

Goods traded by boat along Indus and

into the Persian Gulf and Mesopotamia

Crafts include pottery making, dying, bronze, and bead making

First known use of cotton for textiles occurred in the Indus Valley

Mysteries of the Indus Valley

By about 2500 BCE, a civilization of 1000 sites reached its apex

Extensive public baths and sewage systems

Regular plan suggests organization and bureaucracy

No monumental buildings

No evidence of social stratification

Legacy of Indus Valley

Artifacts suggest equality, efficiency and public conveniences that changed little over time

Sign of successful or stagnant civilization

No apparent central city

Cannot decipher language to answer historical questions

Was succeeded by and blended with the Aryan civilization

Some Harappan practices adopted by Aryans

Aryans learned farming from Harappans

Image of god similar to Aryan god Shiva

Review Questions

What kinds of information are available in the written records of Egypt and Mesopotamia, but not the Indus Valley? Why?

In light of the discovery and likely origins of the Indus Valley civilization in the foothills of the west, and its extension north and south, is it appropriate to call it the “Indus Valley civilization”? Why or why not? What other name might you give it?

What is the evidence that scholars use to argue that the Indus Valley civilization was more egalitarian than the civilizations of the Nile and Mesopotamia?

Compare/Contrast

Create a Venn diagram comparing and contrasting any two of these early civilizations:

Mesopotamia

Egypt

Indus Valley