Description
In this activity, you will identify and describe the features of complex civilizations. Keep in mind that the term complex can be defined as “a whole made up of complicated or interrelated parts.”
Review the materials listed on the Project Engagement page.
Download and complete the provided worksheet
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/world-histo…
Click here to access Acrobatiq.
Early European Colonial Expansion
The Gunpowder Empires
Interact with the following media:
Agricultural Surplus Video (4:19)
Traits of Civilization (6:54)
Khan Academy: Early Civilizations Article
Khan Academy: Social, political, and environmental characteristics of early civilizations
Mesoamerica: The Rise and Fall of Early City States (NLU Films on Demand, 26:18)
The Story of China with Michael Wood Pt. 2 (NLU Films on Demand, 55:24).
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NAME:
Instructions: Fill in the provided table, then answer the question about culture. In the What does it mean
column, provide a definition for the feature. In the Evidence column, provide a specific example of that feature
in a civilization. In the Page # (citation) column, provide information about where you found your information. If
you use Acrobatiq, you only need to provide a page number. If you decide to use other resources, you should
provide an APA formatted citation.
Note: The Egypt, India, or China modules and Acrobatiq may be particularly helpful.
Feature
Settled
Agriculture
Urbanization/
Cities
Art &
Architectural
Design
Writing &
Literature
What does it mean?
Evidence
Page # (citation)
Trade
Established
Government
Religious
Systems
Social
Structure/
Social
Classes
Job
Specialization
What kinds of things make up a civilization’s culture?
1
The building blocks of civilization—agriculture, social stratification, technology, commerce, and
writing—transformed South Asia in much the same way as in the Mediterranean basin. By 8000 BCE,
farming took hold in the Indus valley, a major river system and floodplain that straddles modern-day
Pakistan and India. There is some debate about whether agriculture developed independently or if it
was imported from Mesopotamia, but there is no doubt that the complex society that evolved in its
wake existed because of favorable environmental factors. From there, a unique culture took shape that
established relations with other parts of the known civilized world. But after the overexploitation of
resources and possible natural disasters and invasions, the Indus River civilizations dissolved.
The Indus River watershed is 1.1 million square kilometers in size, extending from the Himalaya
Mountains to the Arabian Sea.
By about 2500 BCE, all the signs of urban development, metallurgy, regional trade, and other elements
of civilization began to appear in the Indus valley. Historians refer to this civilization as the Harappan
civilization, named after one of its two major cities, Harappa (Mohenjo-daro was the other).
Unfortunately, our knowledge of this society is limited due to two major obstacles that prevent modern
scholars from learning about the area: (a) modern irrigation on this river system means that ground
water saturated the land, making it very difficult to unearth the millennia of accumulated layers of dirt,
and (b) the inability to decipher the ancient writings of the Harappans that have been recovered. This
is in great contrast to the abundance of translated written information from both Mesopotamia and
Egypt. With this dearth of evidence and without the ability to decode the Harappan writing system, our
conclusions about their beliefs, laws, literature, science, and everyday challenges are tentative.
Soil’s Impact on Civilizations
The ground beneath our feet has been a primary agent in the ascent and fall of innumerable
civilizations. Soil—the combination of organic and inorganic matter atop the Earth’s surface—is the
basis upon which all plant life (and therefore all animal life) exists. As historian Steven Stoll claims,
soil is “the tablecloth under the banquet of civilization,” the key ingredient for all progressive cultures.
But in most cases, people have depleted their soil resources, causing erosion, nutrient depletion, or
excessive salt to build up, which decreases agricultural output, and in some cases causes the collapse
of entire societies. When this tablecloth moves or is sapped of its nutrients, Stoll states that “all the
food and finery go crashing.”
Alternative Version
2
opens in new tab
Ancient River Valley Soils
●
Alternative Version
●
opens in new tab
●
1/4
In El Minya, a town on the banks of the Nile, irrigation water from the river has helped
farmers in the broad Nile valley grow crops in formerly desert soils.
3
The green area near the center of this photo shows that much of the silt from the Nile River
ultimately rested in a massive delta in the Mediterranean Sea. However, in the past century,
dams on the Nile have trapped sediments and significantly curtailed this natural phenomenon.
By Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC via Wikimedia Commons.
Good soil is why the Fertile Crescent was so named. It was also a fundamental factor behind the
Egyptian (see image), Harappan, and Yellow River (in China) civilizations, as portrayed throughout this
unit. But population pressures and a lack of scientific knowledge meant that all agricultural societies
were tenuous; they had no way of knowing the implications of erosion, or that nitrogen, phosphorous,
and potassium formed essential chemical building blocks for plants. These peoples only knew that
there were more mouths to feed, which meant more intensive plowing and irrigation, which only
exacerbated soil degradation. It was, and is, a vicious cycle.
History is replete with examples of poor soils contributing to the fall of civilizations. In addition to
Sumer and Harappa, intensive agriculture and its attending soil losses helped bring down the Greek,
Roman, Mayan, Incan, and Aztec civilizations. A discernible pattern emerges: cultures found fertile
land, devised ways to exploit it to feed the masses, then had neither the means nor the expertise to
prevent erosion (made worse by the cutting of nearby forests)—all of which led to food shortages,
malnutrition and disease outbreaks, and increased vulnerability to attack by rivals.
4
The Importance of the Indus River
As in the agrarian societies of Mesopotamia and Egypt, a river—in this case the Indus—played a major
role in the formation and existence of Harappan civilization. Like the Nile, Tigris, and Euphrates Rivers,
the floods of the Indus River deposited soil nutrients that were essential for intensive agriculture. And
like the Tigris and Euphrates, the Indus River was unpredictable and meandering (as opposed to the
far more predictable Nile) and could devastate floodplain settlements during particularly wet years.
The distinctive feature of the Indus was that its flooding usually occurred as the result of monsoons—
the heavy, wind-driven summer rains in South Asia. The destruction that resulted usually required
backbreaking work to repair the damage to farmland and irrigation networks. Given the complexity of
organizing extensive construction and repair, such projects seem unlikely to have been accomplished
without an organized government. Indeed, some scholars believe that the largest cities in the Indus
River valley may have been independent city-states that ruled the urban area and the farmland
surrounding it from a central location. However, archaeologists have found no evidence of a major
centralized government, such as large palaces or temples that might have served as administrative
centers. This has led other scholars to speculate that the Harappan rulers were probably like their
contemporaries in other parts of the world: influential chieftains, merchants, wealthy landlords, or
powerful priests. They may have gained control of a city for a short time, but never long enough to
establish a thoroughly centralized state.
Despite the tempestuous weather, the Harappans built a civilization based on controlling nature to suit
agriculture, urbanization, and contact with other cultures. Fragmentary evidence indicates that the
cities of Harappa, Mohenjo-daro, and other urban centers had thriving economies based on craft
technology, cotton textiles, pottery, agricultural goods, and trade with Egypt and Mesopotamia via the
Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf. The class structure, as in Mesopotamia and Egypt, was likely
divided along the lines of people’s professions, and the region was probably culturally united, as in
Egypt.
5
India’s Summer Monsoon
Between May and September, the summer monsoon brings torrential
rain to India.
●
Monsoon Winds
In the summer, moisture-laden winds blow across the
relatively cool Indian Ocean in a northeasterly direction
onto the hot South Asian land mass.
●
Clouds and Rain
As the moisture-laden monsoon winds cross India, they hit
highlands, first the Western Ghats and then the Himalayas,
causing the winds to cool and their moisture to condense
and fall as rain (and, in the mountains, as snow). The hot air
rising from the land also helps carry the moist air upward,
forming towering stormclouds.
●
Hot Tibetan Plateau
The elevated Tibetan Plateau remains hot and dry, because
6
the Himalayas are so high that they block the moist
monsoon winds. The heat radiating from the Tibetan
Plateau plays a role in creating the atmospheric conditions
conducive to the formation of the summer monsoon.
India’s Summer Monsoon
Between May and September, the summer monsoon brings torrential
rain to India.
Soil’s Impact on Civilizations
The ground beneath our feet has been a primary agent in the ascent and fall of innumerable
civilizations. Soil—the combination of organic and inorganic matter atop the Earth’s surface—is the
basis upon which all plant life (and therefore all animal life) exists. As historian Steven Stoll claims,
soil is “the tablecloth under the banquet of civilization,” the key ingredient for all progressive cultures.
But in most cases, people have depleted their soil resources, causing erosion, nutrient depletion, or
7
excessive salt to build up, which decreases agricultural output, and in some cases causes the collapse
of entire societies. When this tablecloth moves or is sapped of its nutrients, Stoll states that “all the
food and finery go crashing.”
Alternative Version
opens in new tab
Ancient River Valley Soils
8
●
Alternative Version
●
opens in new tab
●
1/4
In El Minya, a town on the banks of the Nile, irrigation water from the river has helped
farmers in the broad Nile valley grow crops in formerly desert soils.
The green area near the center of this photo shows that much of the silt from the Nile River
ultimately rested in a massive delta in the Mediterranean Sea. However, in the past century,
dams on the Nile have trapped sediments and significantly curtailed this natural phenomenon.
By Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC via Wikimedia Commons.
9
Good soil is why the Fertile Crescent was so named. It was also a fundamental factor behind the
Egyptian (see image), Harappan, and Yellow River (in China) civilizations, as portrayed throughout this
unit. But population pressures and a lack of scientific knowledge meant that all agricultural societies
were tenuous; they had no way of knowing the implications of erosion, or that nitrogen, phosphorous,
and potassium formed essential chemical building blocks for plants. These peoples only knew that
there were more mouths to feed, which meant more intensive plowing and irrigation, which only
exacerbated soil degradation. It was, and is, a vicious cycle.
History is replete with examples of poor soils contributing to the fall of civilizations. In addition to
Sumer and Harappa, intensive agriculture and its attending soil losses helped bring down the Greek,
Roman, Mayan, Incan, and Aztec civilizations. A discernible pattern emerges: cultures found fertile
land, devised ways to exploit it to feed the masses, then had neither the means nor the expertise to
prevent erosion (made worse by the cutting of nearby forests)—all of which led to food shortages,
malnutrition and disease outbreaks, and increased vulnerability to attack by rivals.
Amara’s Action Plan
Student’s name
Institution affiliation
Professor’s name
Course name
Date
10
Amara’s Action Plan
Amara should first overview the course she is taking and the one she wishes to undertake.
She should evaluate the criteria for withdrawing from the current major (education and business)
and consider the current and expected major’s shortcomings, challenges, and opportunities.
Amara should not decide the changing of her course on her own. She should consult the
University counseling officers, career advisors, and the academic support team.
Additionally, she should consult the career development officers to further evaluate the
proposed change. These teams will help her assess the current performance and consider the
timing aspect, expectations, and current and proposed major opportunities. Suppose these teams
are satisfied with Amara’s reasons for withdrawal and consider them sound and valid. In that
case, Amara should proceed to the new faculty, follow the inter-faculty transfer guidelines and
apply for the new major. She should also visit the Information Communication Technology
(ICT) offices to successfully transfer her details from the Education and Business faculty to the
faculty with the course she proposed to undertake. Once the transfer is successful, she should
enroll in the new faculty platforms to understand the policies, lessons, leaders, and other
essential entities.
NLU provides reliable resources that students can use for self-advocacy and clarification
of procedures they should employ to handle and settle their issues. These resources guide the
student-administration relationship, academic experience, counseling, support, and other
additional services.
1
The building blocks of civilization—agriculture, social stratification, technology, commerce, and
writing—transformed South Asia in much the same way as in the Mediterranean basin. By 8000 BCE,
farming took hold in the Indus valley, a major river system and floodplain that straddles modern-day
Pakistan and India. There is some debate about whether agriculture developed independently or if it
was imported from Mesopotamia, but there is no doubt that the complex society that evolved in its
wake existed because of favorable environmental factors. From there, a unique culture took shape that
established relations with other parts of the known civilized world. But after the overexploitation of
resources and possible natural disasters and invasions, the Indus River civilizations dissolved.
The Indus River watershed is 1.1 million square kilometers in size, extending from the Himalaya
Mountains to the Arabian Sea.
By about 2500 BCE, all the signs of urban development, metallurgy, regional trade, and other elements
of civilization began to appear in the Indus valley. Historians refer to this civilization as the Harappan
civilization, named after one of its two major cities, Harappa (Mohenjo-daro was the other).
Unfortunately, our knowledge of this society is limited due to two major obstacles that prevent modern
scholars from learning about the area: (a) modern irrigation on this river system means that ground
water saturated the land, making it very difficult to unearth the millennia of accumulated layers of dirt,
and (b) the inability to decipher the ancient writings of the Harappans that have been recovered. This
is in great contrast to the abundance of translated written information from both Mesopotamia and
Egypt. With this dearth of evidence and without the ability to decode the Harappan writing system, our
conclusions about their beliefs, laws, literature, science, and everyday challenges are tentative.
Soil’s Impact on Civilizations
The ground beneath our feet has been a primary agent in the ascent and fall of innumerable
civilizations. Soil—the combination of organic and inorganic matter atop the Earth’s surface—is the
basis upon which all plant life (and therefore all animal life) exists. As historian Steven Stoll claims,
soil is “the tablecloth under the banquet of civilization,” the key ingredient for all progressive cultures.
But in most cases, people have depleted their soil resources, causing erosion, nutrient depletion, or
excessive salt to build up, which decreases agricultural output, and in some cases causes the collapse
of entire societies. When this tablecloth moves or is sapped of its nutrients, Stoll states that “all the
food and finery go crashing.”
Alternative Version
2
opens in new tab
Ancient River Valley Soils
●
Alternative Version
●
opens in new tab
●
1/4
In El Minya, a town on the banks of the Nile, irrigation water from the river has helped
farmers in the broad Nile valley grow crops in formerly desert soils.
3
The green area near the center of this photo shows that much of the silt from the Nile River
ultimately rested in a massive delta in the Mediterranean Sea. However, in the past century,
dams on the Nile have trapped sediments and significantly curtailed this natural phenomenon.
By Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC via Wikimedia Commons.
Good soil is why the Fertile Crescent was so named. It was also a fundamental factor behind the
Egyptian (see image), Harappan, and Yellow River (in China) civilizations, as portrayed throughout this
unit. But population pressures and a lack of scientific knowledge meant that all agricultural societies
were tenuous; they had no way of knowing the implications of erosion, or that nitrogen, phosphorous,
and potassium formed essential chemical building blocks for plants. These peoples only knew that
there were more mouths to feed, which meant more intensive plowing and irrigation, which only
exacerbated soil degradation. It was, and is, a vicious cycle.
History is replete with examples of poor soils contributing to the fall of civilizations. In addition to
Sumer and Harappa, intensive agriculture and its attending soil losses helped bring down the Greek,
Roman, Mayan, Incan, and Aztec civilizations. A discernible pattern emerges: cultures found fertile
land, devised ways to exploit it to feed the masses, then had neither the means nor the expertise to
prevent erosion (made worse by the cutting of nearby forests)—all of which led to food shortages,
malnutrition and disease outbreaks, and increased vulnerability to attack by rivals.
4
The Importance of the Indus River
As in the agrarian societies of Mesopotamia and Egypt, a river—in this case the Indus—played a major
role in the formation and existence of Harappan civilization. Like the Nile, Tigris, and Euphrates Rivers,
the floods of the Indus River deposited soil nutrients that were essential for intensive agriculture. And
like the Tigris and Euphrates, the Indus River was unpredictable and meandering (as opposed to the
far more predictable Nile) and could devastate floodplain settlements during particularly wet years.
The distinctive feature of the Indus was that its flooding usually occurred as the result of monsoons—
the heavy, wind-driven summer rains in South Asia. The destruction that resulted usually required
backbreaking work to repair the damage to farmland and irrigation networks. Given the complexity of
organizing extensive construction and repair, such projects seem unlikely to have been accomplished
without an organized government. Indeed, some scholars believe that the largest cities in the Indus
River valley may have been independent city-states that ruled the urban area and the farmland
surrounding it from a central location. However, archaeologists have found no evidence of a major
centralized government, such as large palaces or temples that might have served as administrative
centers. This has led other scholars to speculate that the Harappan rulers were probably like their
contemporaries in other parts of the world: influential chieftains, merchants, wealthy landlords, or
powerful priests. They may have gained control of a city for a short time, but never long enough to
establish a thoroughly centralized state.
Despite the tempestuous weather, the Harappans built a civilization based on controlling nature to suit
agriculture, urbanization, and contact with other cultures. Fragmentary evidence indicates that the
cities of Harappa, Mohenjo-daro, and other urban centers had thriving economies based on craft
technology, cotton textiles, pottery, agricultural goods, and trade with Egypt and Mesopotamia via the
Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf. The class structure, as in Mesopotamia and Egypt, was likely
divided along the lines of people’s professions, and the region was probably culturally united, as in
Egypt.
5
India’s Summer Monsoon
Between May and September, the summer monsoon brings torrential
rain to India.
●
Monsoon Winds
In the summer, moisture-laden winds blow across the
relatively cool Indian Ocean in a northeasterly direction
onto the hot South Asian land mass.
●
Clouds and Rain
As the moisture-laden monsoon winds cross India, they hit
highlands, first the Western Ghats and then the Himalayas,
causing the winds to cool and their moisture to condense
and fall as rain (and, in the mountains, as snow). The hot air
rising from the land also helps carry the moist air upward,
forming towering stormclouds.
●
Hot Tibetan Plateau
The elevated Tibetan Plateau remains hot and dry, because
6
the Himalayas are so high that they block the moist
monsoon winds. The heat radiating from the Tibetan
Plateau plays a role in creating the atmospheric conditions
conducive to the formation of the summer monsoon.
India’s Summer Monsoon
Between May and September, the summer monsoon brings torrential
rain to India.
Soil’s Impact on Civilizations
The ground beneath our feet has been a primary agent in the ascent and fall of innumerable
civilizations. Soil—the combination of organic and inorganic matter atop the Earth’s surface—is the
basis upon which all plant life (and therefore all animal life) exists. As historian Steven Stoll claims,
soil is “the tablecloth under the banquet of civilization,” the key ingredient for all progressive cultures.
But in most cases, people have depleted their soil resources, causing erosion, nutrient depletion, or
7
excessive salt to build up, which decreases agricultural output, and in some cases causes the collapse
of entire societies. When this tablecloth moves or is sapped of its nutrients, Stoll states that “all the
food and finery go crashing.”
Alternative Version
opens in new tab
Ancient River Valley Soils
8
●
Alternative Version
●
opens in new tab
●
1/4
In El Minya, a town on the banks of the Nile, irrigation water from the river has helped
farmers in the broad Nile valley grow crops in formerly desert soils.
The green area near the center of this photo shows that much of the silt from the Nile River
ultimately rested in a massive delta in the Mediterranean Sea. However, in the past century,
dams on the Nile have trapped sediments and significantly curtailed this natural phenomenon.
By Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC via Wikimedia Commons.
9
Good soil is why the Fertile Crescent was so named. It was also a fundamental factor behind the
Egyptian (see image), Harappan, and Yellow River (in China) civilizations, as portrayed throughout this
unit. But population pressures and a lack of scientific knowledge meant that all agricultural societies
were tenuous; they had no way of knowing the implications of erosion, or that nitrogen, phosphorous,
and potassium formed essential chemical building blocks for plants. These peoples only knew that
there were more mouths to feed, which meant more intensive plowing and irrigation, which only
exacerbated soil degradation. It was, and is, a vicious cycle.
History is replete with examples of poor soils contributing to the fall of civilizations. In addition to
Sumer and Harappa, intensive agriculture and its attending soil losses helped bring down the Greek,
Roman, Mayan, Incan, and Aztec civilizations. A discernible pattern emerges: cultures found fertile
land, devised ways to exploit it to feed the masses, then had neither the means nor the expertise to
prevent erosion (made worse by the cutting of nearby forests)—all of which led to food shortages,
malnutrition and disease outbreaks, and increased vulnerability to attack by rivals.
Amara’s Action Plan
Student’s name
Institution affiliation
Professor’s name
Course name
Date
10
Amara’s Action Plan
Amara should first overview the course she is taking and the one she wishes to undertake.
She should evaluate the criteria for withdrawing from the current major (education and business)
and consider the current and expected major’s shortcomings, challenges, and opportunities.
Amara should not decide the changing of her course on her own. She should consult the
University counseling officers, career advisors, and the academic support team.
Additionally, she should consult the career development officers to further evaluate the
proposed change. These teams will help her assess the current performance and consider the
timing aspect, expectations, and current and proposed major opportunities. Suppose these teams
are satisfied with Amara’s reasons for withdrawal and consider them sound and valid. In that
case, Amara should proceed to the new faculty, follow the inter-faculty transfer guidelines and
apply for the new major. She should also visit the Information Communication Technology
(ICT) offices to successfully transfer her details from the Education and Business faculty to the
faculty with the course she proposed to undertake. Once the transfer is successful, she should
enroll in the new faculty platforms to understand the policies, lessons, leaders, and other
essential entities.
NLU provides reliable resources that students can use for self-advocacy and clarification
of procedures they should employ to handle and settle their issues. These resources guide the
student-administration relationship, academic experience, counseling, support, and other
additional services.
NAME:
Instructions: Fill in the provided table, then answer the question about culture. In the What does it mean
column, provide a definition for the feature. In the Evidence column, provide a specific example of that feature
in a civilization. In the Page # (citation) column, provide information about where you found your information. If
you use Acrobatiq, you only need to provide a page number. If you decide to use other resources, you should
provide an APA formatted citation.
Note: The Egypt, India, or China modules and Acrobatiq may be particularly helpful.
Feature
Settled
Agriculture
Urbanization/
Cities
Art &
Architectural
Design
Writing &
Literature
What does it mean?
Evidence
Page # (citation)
Trade
Established
Government
Religious
Systems
Social
Structure/
Social
Classes
Job
Specialization
What kinds of things make up a civilization’s culture?
Purchase answer to see full
attachment
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history
tradition
culture
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