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
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