Ancient Civilizations

1. Shang

1.1. The first forms of writing in Shang are from Oracle Bones, which are animal bones or turtle shells with characters written on them. Kings used these to see or tell the future and record important events. They later devoloped a full writing system based off of characters.

1.2. Shang was one of the first Dynasties in China's history. A dynasty is when a kingdom passes down rule to family members, whether that brothers or sons. They attacked lands near by, and then expanded their territory.

1.3. Shang was built around the Yellow/Huang River, with small communities coming first, and then large kingdoms. China has a very rugged and mountanious landscape, so people greatly relied on the rivers to provide for resources they needed.

2. Egypt

2.1. Egypt may have had the first form of writing, which was hieroglyphics. This was a form of symbols that represented words and sounds. This form of writing was used to record, share, and preserve knowledge.

2.2. Egypt was first devided into two seperate governments, and was united in about 3000 BC, by Narmer who was then named the first of united Egypt. Farmers payed taxes to officials through surplus crops, and the officals then distributed some to themselves and the rest to priests, merchants, artisans, and the pharaoh.

2.3. Egypts communities rely on the Nile River, because without it, Egypt would just be miles of sun-baked desert. The Nile river supported growing populations of Egypt, and farmers started to grow steady crops because of the rich soil by the Nile River.

2.4. one unique thing about Egypt: Scribes were cherished and greatly appreciated because they were (most of the time) the only ones who knew how to write.

3. Conceptual Question

3.1. If the geography, writing, or government wouldv'e been different in any of these aincent civilizations, (even if it was just a small thing) would we still know about them today? Would they have lasted longer or had a greater impact?

4. Indus

4.1. Experts have not yet figured out the writing that the Indus Civilization used, but they have found markings on stones. However, there are too few example of these to form an idea of their writing.

4.2. Indus most likely had a stable government due to orginization and planning researchers found in the ancient civilizations. Although it's hard to determine, it's likely that Indus didn't have a royal ruling, or kings ruling the civilization.

4.3. The Indus River is located in modern day India, and was the center of Indias first civilizations. Around this river people formed farms, housing, governments, and communities. Farms were rich due to the water from the Indus River.

4.4. One unique thing about Indus: they were already using weights and measures, which shows how organized and developed their civilization was.

5. Sumeria

5.1. Sumeria's first writing was pictographs on clay, and was used by priests. Over time, they developed a new writing system called Cuneiform, which was based off of trianglur symbols and shapes.

5.2. The first leaders of sumeria were priests, not kings. If a city-state had a war, a priest picked a leader to lead the war, and some went back to a normal life afterwards, and some remained ruling as king.

5.3. The geography of sumeria is based off of the fertile crescent, which is a long crecent shape region/plain that stretches across the middle east. It lies between two rivers, which the name refers to. It also has very rich soil which is great for farming.

5.4. One unique thing about sumeria: they could possibly be the first civilization to use writing. Researchers are trying to determine whether Ancient Sumeria or Egypt used writing first.