RIVER VALLEY CIVILISATIONS AROUND THE WORLD

A surplus of agricultural production led to the rise of complex human societies, or

civilizations. With the need of agricultural societies to irrigate, it is not surprising that many
civilizations emerged in river valleys. The River Valley civilizations that emerged on the Yellow
River (China), the Indus River (India), the Nile River (Egypt), and between
the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers (Mesopotamia) made lasting contributions to civilizations. The
following chart compares the important features of a few of these river valley civilizations.

NILE VALLEY CIVILISATION

Geography

Egypt was protected by natural barriers on all sides. The Nile provided the perfect waterway for
trade. Also, the Nile flooded each year at about the same time, a fact that gave them a distinct
sense of each year’s passing (they created the calendar to predict this). It also naturally fertilized
the land and provided for abundant agriculture. Many people attribute the Egyptians’ optimism
(eternal life) on the good fortune of its geography.

Political

Egypt was united under one central government. Egyptians believed the king, or Pharaoh, was a
god. This helped keep order because people were more inclined to obey the king if he was a god.
Religious myths reinforced this belief. The government was strictly centralized and controlled
the resources of the state.

Society and Economics

Women had more rights than in most early civilizations. There were certain jobs, however, that
women were not allowed to do. The vast majority of people in Egypt worked in agriculture. The
Nile allowed Egyptians to trade with other civilizations and were in turn influenced by them.

Religion

The Egyptians were polytheistic. The lineage of the gods extended to the pharaoh himself who
had absolute power and was revered as a god.

MESOPOTAMIAN CIVILISATION

Overview
 Mesopotamian civilizations formed on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in

what is today Iraq and Kuwait.

 Early civilizations began to form around the time of the Neolithic Revolution—12000

BCE.

 Some of the major Mesopotamian civilizations include the Sumerian, Assyrian,

Akkadian, and Babylonian civilizations.

 Evidence shows extensive use of technology, literature, legal codes, philosophy, religion,

and architecture in these societies.

The Tigris and EuphratesRivers flooded randomly and violently without much warning, a

condition that probably contributed to their pessimistic view of the gods and fatalistic view of

life. Also, Mesopotamia had no natural barriers protecting them from enemy neighbors. They

were subject to constant invasion. The rivers facilitated trade and allowed some of the cities to

grow quite wealthy.

Mesopotamian civilization was made up of many independent city-states that never were able to

unit. This made them weak and vulnerable to invasion. However, sometimes the people had to

unite to build irrigation canals for their agriculture. They developed written laws, the Code

of Hammurabi, which was probably made to give unity to an expanding empire.

The Code Of Hammurabireinforced patriarchy and social distinctions. A business class of people

operated quite independent of government control. Like in Egypt, most people

in Mesopotamia were farmers. Certain cities traded and grew rich. We know they traded

with Egypt and India.

The Mesopotamians were polytheistic. Each city-state had its own set of god that it worshipped

along with a set of wider known gods. They built monuments called ziggurats to their

gods. Their gods were often different manifestations of nature and were invoked to help in good

harvests.

 The Indus Valley Civilization (also known as the Harappan Civilization) was a Bronze
Age society extending from modern northeast Afghanistan to Pakistan and northwest
India.
 The civilization developed in three phases: Early Harappan Phase (3300 BCE-2600
BCE), Mature Harappan Phase (2600 BCE-1900 BCE), and Late Harappan Phase (1900
BCE-1300 BCE).
 Inhabitants of the ancient Indus River valley developed new techniques in handicraft,
including Carnelian products and seal carving, and metallurgy with copper, bronze, lead,
and tin.
 Sir John Hubert Marshall led an excavation campaign in 1921-1922, during which he
discovered the ruins of the city of Harappa. By 1931, the Mohenjo-daro site had been
mostly excavated by Marshall and Sir Mortimer Wheeler. By 1999, over 1,056 cities and
settlements of the Indus Civilization were located.
Infrastructure
Harappa, Mohenjo-daro, and the recently, partially-excavated Rakhigarhi demonstrate the
world’s first known urban sanitation systems. The ancient Indus systems of sewerage and
drainage developed and used in cities throughout the Indus region were far more advanced than
any found in contemporary urban sites in the Middle East, and even more efficient than those in
many areas of Pakistan and India today. Individual homes drew water from wells, while waste
water was directed to covered drains on the main streets. Houses opened only to inner courtyards
and smaller lanes, and even the smallest homes on the city outskirts were believed to have been
connected to the system, further supporting the conclusion that cleanliness was a matter of great
importance.
Architecture
Harappans demonstrated advanced architecture with dockyards, granaries, warehouses, brick
platforms, and protective walls. These massive walls likely protected the Harappans from floods
and may have dissuaded military conflicts. Unlike Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt, the
inhabitants of the Indus Valley Civilization did not build large, monumental structures. There is
no conclusive evidence of palaces or temples (or even of kings, armies, or priests), and the
largest structures may be granaries. The city of Mohenjo-daro contains the “Great Bath,” which
may have been a large, public bathing and social area.
Technology
The people of the Indus Valley, also known as Harappan (Harappa was the first city in the region
found by archaeologists), achieved many notable advances in technology, including great
accuracy in their systems and tools for measuring length and mass.
Harappans were among the first to develop a system of uniform weights and measures that
conformed to a successive scale. The smallest division, approximately 1.6 mm, was marked on
an ivory scale found in Lothal, a prominent Indus Valley city in the modern Indian state of
Gujarat. It stands as the smallest division ever recorded on a Bronze Age scale. Another
indication of an advanced measurement system is the fact that the bricks used to build Indus
cities were uniform in size.
Harappans demonstrated advanced architecture with dockyards, granaries, warehouses, brick
platforms, and protective walls. The ancient Indus systems of sewerage and drainage developed
and used in cities throughout the region were far more advanced than any found in contemporary
urban sites in the Middle East, and even more efficient than those in many areas of Pakistan and
India today.
Harappans were thought to have been proficient in seal carving, the cutting of patterns into the
bottom face of a seal, and used distinctive seals for the identification of property and to stamp
clay on trade goods. Seals have been one of the most commonly discovered artifacts in Indus
Valley cities, decorated with animal figures, such as elephants, tigers, and water buffalos.
Harappans also developed new techniques in metallurgy—the science of working with copper,
bronze, lead, and tin—and performed intricate handicraft using products made of the semi-
precious gemstone, Carnelian.
Art
Indus Valley excavation sites have revealed a number of distinct examples of the culture’s art,
including sculptures, seals, pottery, gold jewelry, and anatomically detailed figurines in
terracotta, bronze, and steatite—more commonly known as Soapstone.
Among the various gold, terracotta, and stone figurines found, a figure of a “Priest-King”
displayed a beard and patterned robe. Another figurine in bronze, known as the “Dancing Girl,”
is only 11 cm. high and shows a female figure in a pose that suggests the presence of some
choreographed dance form enjoyed by members of the civilization. Terracotta works also
included cows, bears, monkeys, and dogs. In addition to figurines, the Indus River Valley people
are believed to have created necklaces, bangles, and other ornaments.
Miniature Votive Images or Toy Models from Harappa, c. 2500 BCE: The Indus River Valley
Civilization created figurines from terracotta, as well as bronze and steatite. It is still unknown
whether these figurines have religious significance.
Trade and Transportation
The civilization’s economy appears to have depended significantly on trade, which was
facilitated by major advances in transport technology. The Harappan Civilization may have been
the first to use wheeled transport, in the form of bullock carts that are identical to those seen
throughout South Asia today. It also appears they built boats and watercraft—a claim supported
by archaeological discoveries of a massive, dredged canal, and what is regarded as a docking
facility at the coastal city of Lothal.
Religion
The Harappan religion remains a topic of speculation. It has been widely suggested that the
Harappans worshipped a mother goddess who symbolized fertility. In contrast to Egyptian and
Mesopotamian civilizations, the Indus Valley Civilization seems to have lacked any temples or
palaces that would give clear evidence of religious rites or specific deities. Some Indus Valley
seals show a swastika symbol, which was included in later Indian religions including Hinduism,
Buddhism, and Jainism.
Many Indus Valley seals also include the forms of animals, with some depicting them being
carried in processions, while others showing chimeric creations, leading scholars to speculate
about the role of animals in Indus Valley religions. One seal from Mohenjo-daro shows a half-
human, half-buffalo monster attacking a tiger. This may be a reference to the Sumerian myth of a
monster created by Aruru, the Sumerian earth and fertility goddess, to fight Gilgamesh, the hero
of an ancient Mesopotamian epic poem. This is a further suggestion of international trade in
Harappan culture.
The “Shiva Pashupati” seal: This seal was excavated in Mohenjo-daro and depicts a seated and
possibly ithyphallic figure, surrounded by animals.

China is geographically isolated. Although the Shangtraded with other civilizations, their limited
contact with others produced an ethnocentric outlook. They called their land the Middle
Kingdom, an assertion that implied that other people were on the periphery of the civilized
world. Their land was fertile and supported a surplus of agriculture without complex irrigations
systems.
Most rule was local, consisting of a network of walled towns whose leaders were loyal to the
king. These local leaders comprised the bureaucracy, a group of aristocratic chieftains who
could be removed at the kings will.

The family was the most important social institution. Men had most all of the authority. As
villages became more productive, social classes became more distinct.

The honor and respect given to family elders was related to the worship of ancestors. Dead
ancestors were summoned for advice through oracle bones and other means. Thus religion both
drew from and reinforced patriarchy.