WORLD HISTORY
Ancient world: down to
500 AD
Bronze Age civilizations
SI. NO
|
NAME OF THE CIVILIZATION
|
MODERN AREA
|
RIVER VALLEY
|
1
|
Mesopotamian civilization(4000 BC -6th cen. BC)
|
Iraq
|
Tigris and Euphrates
|
2
|
Egyptian civilization
|
Egypt
|
Nile
|
3
|
Harappan civilization (2500 BC – 1750BC)
|
India and Pakistan
|
Indus
|
4
|
Chinese civilization (1765 BC – 250 BC )
|
China
|
Hwang – ho
|
Mesopotamian civilization: the oldest
civilization of the world
·
Mesopotamia means ‘land between the rivers’.
Mesopotamia is the land between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.
·
Mesopotamia comprises four regions: summer (southernmost
region ), Babylonia and Akkad (middle region ) and Assyria (northernmost
region.)
·
Hammurabi (C.2100 BC), the greatest Babylonian
ruler united the whole of what is now called Iraq into a single kingdom.
Hammurabi gave his people a code of laws. His code covered every aspect of
life. His code was based on the law of ‘eye for eye’ and Assyria (northernmost
region).
·
Hammurabi (C.2100 BC), the greatest Babylonian
ruler, united the whole of what is now called Iraq into a single kingdom,
Hammurabi gave his people a code flaw. his code covered every aspect of life.
His code was based on the law of ‘eye for eye’ and ‘tooth’ i.e., the law of
‘tit for tat’.
·
Hittites, who came from Asia Minor (now turkey)
and destroyed the Babylonian kingdom, were the first to make regular use of
horses for war chariots and to make iron implements.
·
The potter’s wheel was perhaps first used in
Mesopotamia.
·
The potter’s wheel was perhaps first used in
Mesopotamia.
·
The Mesopotamians also seem to leave been the
first to make glass ware.
·
The Sumerians were the first to evolve a proper
system of writing. This system is called cuneiform. The cuneiform script was
deciphered by Henry Rawlinson.
·
The Mesopotamian system of counting is known as
sexagesimal because the mespotanimian people counted by sixties as we count by
tens (decimal system) . Theirs xagedesimal system is not longest in use but we
still use it as the basis of division of time into minutes and seconds and of a
circle into 360 degrees.
·
In geometry, the Mesopotamians had discovered
what was later called the Pythagoras’ theorem.
·
In astronomy, the Mesopotamians made astonishing
progress. They could calculate the length of the day and the night. They
divided the whole day into 24 houses. They divided the sky into 12 parts, each
assigned a name. this has come down to us as the 12 signs of zodiac or rashes
as we call them in India. Another
remarkable achievement of the Mesopotamians was the invention of a lunar
calendar, based on the moon.