Ancient Civilizations

1. Sumeria

1.1. For a while priests ruled, but some people took over as kings after war.

1.2. Sumerians lived between two rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, in an area with rich farming soil.

1.3. Sumerian priests created the writing form cuneiform.

1.4. Out of these ancient civilizations, Sumeria is the only one settled by two rivers, not one.

2. Shang

2.1. This civilization was a dynasty, passing from father to son and brother to brother.

2.2. The river valleys on the Huang River had good soil for crops.

2.3. The setup for this civilization's language is characters and pictographs, and is used today in China.

2.4. The Shang dynasty made the biggest impact on its area out of these civilizations.

3. Are all successful ancient civilizations by a river or in a river valley?

4. Eygpt

4.1. Egyptians had a pharaoh, or king, ruling over them. These kings used a bureaucracy system.

4.2. Egypt formed next to the Nile River, in a valley with rich soil.

4.3. Egyptian scribes invented the writing form hieroglyphics.

4.4. Some modern governments are modeled after the Egyptian's bureaucracy system.

5. Indus

5.1. People are unsure what government Indus Valley had, but they think it was strong and didn't involve kings.

5.2. The Indus River provided rich soil for crops, as well as helped water them.

5.3. Although people in the Indus Valley did use some form of writing, there are too few examples to make out any meaning.

5.4. The Indus made a walled-in area for likely important but unknown reasons.

6. Do