1.1. To record the number of fish given to a temple, for example, Sumerian priests drew a fish. Then they added marks to represent the number of fish. In time, this way of keeping records developed into one of the world’s first systems of writing. By 3400 B.C.
1.2. After the war was over, this leader was expected to give up his power and return to normal life. But some of these military leaders kept control of the city- states even after war ended. These military leaders became the first kings of Sumeria.
1.3. The Fertile Crescent is a region of the Middle East that stretches in a large, crescent-shaped curve from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea. The Fertile Crescent includes Mesopotamia, a wide, flat plain in present-day Iraq.
2. Indus
2.1. Chinese civilization arose along the Huang River, also called the Yellow River. By around 5000 B.C.farmers had settled in a number of villages in this river valley. Over time, powerful rulers united these villages to create large kingdoms
2.2. Scholars have not yet discovered how to read the symbols found on the stone seals and pottery of the Indus Valley. There are too few examples of each symbol to be sure of its meaning.
2.3. Scholars are not sure, but the citadel may have been a center of government, religion, or both.
3. Egypt
3.1. Like the Fertile Crescent, Egypt was home to one of the world’s first great civilizations. As in the Fertile Crescent, Egypt’s civilization developed in a river valley with rich soil. However, Egypt’s geography and culture differed in many ways from those of the Fertile Crescent.
3.2. Ancient Egyptians developed early forms of writing by 3200 B.C. At around the same time, Sumerians were developing their own system of writing. Scholars aren’t sure who developed writing first. Egyptian writing used hieroglyphics. A Hieroglyphic is a drawing or symbol that represents a word or a sound.
3.3. During the 3000s B.C., two kingdoms developed in Egypt. Legends say that Narmer united the two kingdoms in about 3000 B.C.The bureaucracy took some of this surplus for itself. It distributed the rest to priests, to the pharaoh, and to artisans and merchants who worked for the pharaoh.
4. Huang
4.1. By around 5000 B.C.farmers had settled in a number of villages in this river valley. Over time, powerful rulers united these villages to create large kingdoms.
4.2. At times, the Chinese also used oracle bones to record important events related to their questions.The Shang did not use an alphabet for their written words, which are called Characters. Instead, some characters were Pictographs, that is, pictures that represent words or ideas.
4.3. From the early settlements along the Huang River, the Shang kingdom rose to dominate a large part of the region to become the first documented Chinese Dynasty. A dynasty is a ruling family that holds power for many years. Rule passed from brother to brother and from the youngest brother to his oldest son.
