Chapter 2

• Something New: The Emergence of Civilizations
• Civilization was a global phenomenon 1. seven major civilizations and some smaller manifestations
• scattered around world
• developed after 3500 B.C.E.

• Introducing the First Civilizations
• one of the earliest civilizations emerged in
• Sumer (in southern Mesopotamia) between 3500 and 3000 B.C.E.

• first written language
• appearance of Egyptian civilization in Nile River Valley (northeast Africa) and smaller Nubian civilization to its south at about the same time
• Norte Chico (central coastal Peru), emerged between 3000 and 1800 B.C.E.
• twenty-five urban centers
• Norte Chico differed in several ways from Mesopotamia and Egypt
• unusually self-contained; only import was maize, derived from Mesoamerica

1. Indus Valley civilization in Indus and Saraswati river valleys of present-day Pakistan arose between 3000 and 2000B.C.E.
• elaborately planned cities and standardized weights, measures, architectural styles, and brick sizes
• written script that to this day people are trying to translate it
• unlike other civilizations, it generated no palaces, temples, elaborate graves, kings, or warrior classes
• environmental degradation led to the collapse of this civilization by about 1700 B.C.E., but several aspects of its culture shaped later Indian societies
2. around 2200 B.C.E., a First Civilization took shape in China
• from the start, China was defined by the ideal of a centralized state
• the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties enlarged the Chinese state
• ruler was the “Son of Heaven,” an intermediary between heaven and earth
• China has maintained impressive cultural continuity into modern times