Objectives
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Chapter 3: River Valley Civilizations: 7000 B.C.E. - 750 B.C.E. Objectives |
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This chapter focuses on the civilizations which developed in the Nile valley of Egypt and the Indus River valley of India/Pakistan. In addition to discussing the major features of the two civilizations and how we know what we know, this chapter makes many comparisons between the two regions. In short we know a great deal about Egyptian government as well as its culture but for the Indus valley we know nothing about the government. In addition, this chapter compares both cultures with the characteristics of civilization in Sumer.
Egyptian civilization was shaped and unified by the Nile River; settlements were never far from the river's banks. Egypt possessed the characteristics of early cultural complexity including a national religious ideology, centralized control of political administration and even of artistic production. Economic life was more localized within villages as well as in the major cities. The belief that the pharaohs were also gods helps to explain why the artifacts of government are the basis of much of our understanding of the civilization.
The civilization of the Indus valley--often called Harappan after the city of Harappa--represents, in contrast, one of the most widely dispersed of the early cultures with sites covering 400,000 square miles. Although there are a lot of cultural artifacts, we have not yet located any indication of the type of government developed here. Much of the culture developed by the Harappans was absorbed into the practices of the invading Aryan people who entered the area around 1500 B. C. E.
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