Egypt

• Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of eastern North Africa,

concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River.
• Its history is divided into old kingdom, middle kingdom and new
kingdom.
• Stunning advances in architecture, art, and technology were made
during the Old Kingdom.
• The pharaohs of the Middle Kingdom restored the country's
prosperity and stability, thereby stimulating a resurgence of art,
literature, and monumental building projects.
• The New Kingdom pharaohs established a period of unprecedented
prosperity by securing their borders and strengthening diplomatic ties
with their neighbors.
• In Predynastic and Early Dynastic times, the Egyptian climate was
much less arid than it is today.
• The head of the legal system was officially the pharaoh, who was
responsible for enacting laws, delivering justice, and maintaining law
and order, a concept the ancient Egyptians referred to as Ma'at.
• The civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political
unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh, and it
developed over the next three millennia.
• Its history occurred in a series of stable Kingdoms, separated by
periods of relative instability known as Intermediate Periods.
• Ancient Egypt reached its pinnacle during the New Kingdom, after
which it entered a period of slow decline.
• Egypt was conquered by a succession of foreign powers in this late
period, and the rule of the pharaohs officially ended in 31 BC .
• When the early Roman Empire conquered Egypt and made it a
province.
• The success of ancient Egyptian civilization stemmed partly from
its ability to adapt to the conditions of the Nile River Valley.
• The predictable flooding and controlled irrigation of the fertile
valley produced surplus crops, which fueled social development and
culture.
• With resources to spare, the administration sponsored mineral
exploitation of the valley and surrounding desert regions.
• They developed an independent writing system and also the
organization of collective construction and agricultural projects.
 • The many achievements of the ancient Egyptians include the
quarrying, surveying and construction techniques that facilitated the
building of monumental pyramids, temples, and obelisk.
• Egypt left a lasting legacy.
• Its art and architecture were widely copied, and its antiquities
carried off to far corners of the world.
• Its monumental ruins have inspired the imaginations of travelers
and writers for centuries.
• A newfound respect for antiquities and excavations in the early
modern period led to the scientific investigation of Egyptian civilization
and a greater appreciation of its cultural legacy, for Egypt and the
world.
Sumer
• Sumer "Land of the Lords of Brightness", Akkadian: Šumeru;
possibly Biblical Shinar was a civilization and historical region in
southern Mesopotamia, modern Iraq.
• The term "Sumerian" is the common name given to the ancient
inhabitants of southern Mesopotamia, Sumer, by their successors,
the Semitic Akkadians.
• It is the earliest known civilization in the world and is known as
the Cradle of Civilization.
• By the late 4th millennium BC, Sumer was divided into about a
dozen independent city-states, whose limits were defined by canals
and boundary stones.
• The Sumerian city states rose to power during
the prehistorical Ubaid and Uruk periods.
• The Ubaid period is marked by a distinctive style of fine quality
painted pottery which spread throughout Mesopotamia and the Persian
Gulf.
• The Sumerian civilization spanned over 3000 years and began with
the first settlement of Eridu in the Ubaid period (mid 6th millennium
BC) through the Uruk period (4th millennium BC).
• There was no organized set of gods; each city-state had its own
patrons, temples, and priest-kings.
• The cities of Sumer were the first civilization to practice intensive,
year-round agriculture, (from ca. 5300 BC).
• The archaeological transition from the Ubaid period to
the Uruk period is marked by a gradual shift from painted pottery
domestically produced on a slow wheel, to a great variety of unpainted
pottery mass-produced by specialists on fast wheels.
• The Sumerians had developed core agricultural techniques
including large-scale intensive cultivation of land, mono-cropping,
organized irrigation, and the use of a specialized labor force.
• In spite of the importance of this region, genetic studies on the
Sumerians are limited and generally restricted to analysis of classical
markers due to Iraq's modern political instability.
• The Dynastic period begins ca. 2900 BC and includes such
legendary figures as Enmerkar and Gilgamesh.
• The Epic of Gilgamesh refers to trade with far lands for goods such
as wood that were scarce in Mesopotamia.
• The most important archaeological discoveries in Sumer are a
large number of tablets written in Sumerian.
• The Tigris-Euphrates plain lacked minerals and trees. Sumerian
structures were made of plano-convex mudbrick, not fixed
with mortar or cement.
• The Sumerians developed a complex system of metrology c. 4000
BC.
• The surplus of storable food created by this economy allowed the
population to settle in one place instead of migrating after crops and
grazing land.
• Most authorities credit the Sumerians with the invention of
the wheel, initially in the form of the potter's wheel.
• They invented and developed arithmetic by doing several different
number systems including a mixed radix system with an alternating
base 10 and base 6.
• It also allowed for a much greater population density, and in turn
required an extensive labor force and division of labor. This
organization led to the development of writing (ca. 3500 BC).