Ancient River Valley Civilizations

Students will be able to:

• Locate Mesopotamia, The Fertile Crescent, and Tigris & Euphrates Rivers

• Evaluate the effects of flooding and irrigation on agriculture

• Evaluate their group’s civilization geography in relationship to Mesopotamia

• Recognize Mesopotamian contributions to civilization:

  • Cuneiform

  • Trade and barter systems

  • Early legal system development - Hammurabi’s Code

• Understand how Judaism, the first religion based on ethical monotheism, originated and influenced the development of Christianity and Islam, and had a major influence on Western civilization.

Students will be able to:

• Locate Egypt and the Nile River - both its source and its delta.

• Analyze why Egypt is referred to as the Gift of the Nile and its effect on agriculture and settlement

• Analyze how Egyptian society formed and developed

  • Describe and explain the social class system

  • Describe and explain the role of the pharaoh

  • Describe and explain life in Egyptian society

• Identify and analyze the major achievements of the Old, Middle and New Kingdoms.

  • hieroglyphics

  • papyrus

  • trade networks (ie. the Land of Punt)

  • mathematics

  • architecture/pyramids