Culture of Early Civilizations: c. 5000 BCE - 600 BCE
AP Concept: 1.3 The Development and Interactions of Early Agricultural, Pastoral, and Urban Societies
Key Concepts
Religion
Writing
Social Structure
Key Concepts
- Culture was a significant force in unifying civilizations
- Religion helped unify disparate peoples and explained natural events
- Early civilizations were primarily polytheistic, as they believed in multiple gods
- Egypt believed gods judged humans' lives and determined whether their spirits would live in the afterlife
- Led Egyptians to develop complex system of mummification and burial in pyramids and tombs
- Believed pharaohs, the rulers of Egypt, were living gods on earth and buried them in pyramids to help them access the afterlife
- Indus Valley civilization had a complex religion that focused on fertility
- Chavin culture unified its surrounding civilization with large temples
- Chinese civilizations developed key beliefs in the importance of ancestors
- Shang dynasty used oracle bones, or bones of animals, to communicate with ancestors and ask questions about the future
- Zhou dynasty (1122 - 256 BCE) emphasized the veneration of ancestors and the importance of family
- Believed in the Mandate of Heaven, which held that the gods signaled their choice of ruler through natural events such as floods and earthquakes
- Most early writing began as pictographs, or images that reflected their meaning, and later developed into more symbolic characters
- Writing typically developed as a means of communication over long distances
- In most early civilizations, only a specialized class of scribes could learn to write, primarily because written language was so complex
- Sumer (c. 3000 BCE) developed cuneiform, which later Mesopotamian civilizations adopted
- The Epic of Gilgamesh, written in cuneiform, is one of the earliest surviving works of literature
- Egypt developed a written language made up of pictographs, called hieroglyphics, around 3100 BCE
- Shang dynasty in China developed a written language of pictograph characters, which later evolved into ideographs (symbols)
- Indus civilization developed a still un-deciphered writing system that used around 400 symbols
- The Phoenicians developed the first alphabet (c. 1100 BCE), which used letters to represent sounds rather than ideas or images
- In the Americas, the Maya civilization (250 - 950 CE) developed writing much later, around 250 CE
- Civilizations typically used social structure to divide their peoples
- Social structures gave people a sense of belonging and order
- Aryan civilization (1700 BCE) developed a rigid social structure that later became the basis for India's caste system
- People were divided into 4 varnas depending on occupation, with scholars and priests at the top and a class of servants at the bottom
- Zhou dynasty operated under a feudal-like system, where peasants farmed lands for lords, who owed service and loyalty to the Zhou ruler
- The ruling class was primarily connected through kinship ties
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Related Links: AP World History Quizzes AP World History AP World History Notes Codification of Traditions: c. 600 BCE - 600 CE |