The River Valley Civilisations: Egyptian, Mesopotamian and Chinese Civilisations
ICSE Class 6 · History & Civics · Chapter 4
What this chapter covers
- Four great river valleys
- The Mesopotamian civilisation
- The Egyptian civilisation
- The Chinese civilisation
- Occupations, trade and art
- Religious beliefs
- Comparison with the Indus Valley
Key points
- Mesopotamia, Egypt and China, like the Indus Valley, grew beside rivers that gave water, fertile soil and transport.
- Mesopotamia lay between the Tigris and Euphrates, in present-day Iraq.
- The Mesopotamians wrote in cuneiform on clay tablets and built ziggurats for their city gods.
- Egypt grew along the Nile, whose yearly flood left fertile black silt.
- The Egyptians were ruled by pharaohs, built pyramids as tombs, made mummies and wrote in hieroglyphics.
- Chinese civilisation began in the Huang Ho valley, also called the Yellow River valley.
- The Shang dynasty is known for bronze work and oracle bones, which carry the oldest Chinese writing.
- Most people in these civilisations were farmers, trade was mostly by barter, and art included pottery, statues, bronze and silk.
- All three peoples worshipped many gods; the Egyptians believed in life after death and the Shang honoured their ancestors.
- The Indus Valley had the best town planning and drains, but its script, unlike the others, has not yet been read.
Questions answered
Name the two rivers of Mesopotamia.
The Tigris and the Euphrates.
What is cuneiform, and what did the Mesopotamians write it on?
It was wedge-shaped writing, pressed into soft clay tablets with a pointed reed.
Why was Egypt called "the gift of the Nile"?
Without the Nile, Egypt would be desert. Its yearly flood left fertile black silt in which farmers grew their crops.
Why did the Egyptians make mummies?
They believed a person needed his or her body in the life after death, so they dried and wrapped it to keep it safe.
What was a ziggurat? Give one city that had one.
A ziggurat was a tall, stepped tower of mud bricks with a temple at the top. The city of Ur had one.
Why is the Huang Ho called "China's Sorrow"?
It flooded often and without warning, destroying villages and killing many people.
How did Shang priests use oracle bones?
They carved a question on a bone or turtle shell, heated it until it cracked, and read the answer from the cracks.
Give two ways in which the Indus cities were different from the cities of Egypt and Mesopotamia.
The Indus cities had a much better drainage system for ordinary houses. They had no giant pyramids or ziggurats, and their script still cannot be read.