Aim: How do we understand Early River Civilization?

Aim: How do we understand Early River Civilization?
Do Now:
1. What major change in history leads to the creation of Early River Civilization?
Neolithic Revolution – hunting and gathering to herding and gathering.
2. What is a city state and what are the five key features it delivers to it’s inhabitants? Pg 30
(1) advanced cities, (2) specialized workers, (3) complex
institutions, (4) record keeping, and (5) improved technology.
3. What is cultural diffusion? Give examples.
is the process in which a new idea or a product
spreads from one culture to another.
4. What is Polytheism ? belief in many gods.
5. What are the Sumerian Scientific and Technological inventions and discoveries? the wheel, the sail, and the plow
Arithmetic and geometry In order to erect city walls and buildings, plan
irrigation systems, and survey flooded fields, Sumerians needed arithmetic
and geometry. They developed a number system in base 60, from which
stem the modern units for measuring time (60 seconds = 1 minute) and the
360 degrees of a circle.
• Architectural innovations Arches, columns, ramps, and the pyramid
shaped the design of the ziggurat and permanently influenced
Mesopotamian civilization.
• Cuneiform Sumerians created a system of writing. One of the first known
maps was made on a clay tablet in about 2300 B.C. Other tablets contain
some of the oldest written records of scientific investigations in the areas of
astronomy, chemistry, and medicine.

6. What was Hammurabi’s Code? Hammurabi recognized that a single, uniform code of laws
would help to unify the diverse groups within his empire. He collected existing
rules, judgments, and laws into the Code of Hammurabi. Hammurabi had the code
engraved in stone, and copies were placed all over his empire.