The Beginning Of The River Valley Civilizations - 1999 Words

â€Å"Around 5000 BCE, things slowly began to change. For the first time, humans started to settle down in one place.† As people began to switch from hunter-gathering and moving from one place to the next in search of food, to farming and depending on agriculture in order to survive, early ancient river valley civilizations began to emerge. With the emergence of these civilizations came political, environmental, religious, social, economic, technological and architecture developments that resulted in the significance in each. These early river valley civilizations are what set the stage for not only modern day but helped with the development of another. Among the several early civilizations stood, Mesopotamia, established between the Tigris†¦show more content†¦As the government evolved, kings were granted absolute power with a throne that was hereditary. When society began to become more military based, things like heavy taxes were imposed and mass deportation of con quered people occurred. This hold on society called for a caste system to exist. This system was composed of nobility (people like kings and priest), free citizens (a combination of a modern middle and lower class; including people like merchants, craftsmen, those in trade, and hunters), and slaves (prisoners of war). People of Mesopotamia, otherwise known as Sumerians, thought very highly of their religious figures, including priests. Following their polytheistic religion, they worshipped several gods and felt as though pyramid temples connected the Heaven and Earth. In addition, people believed in divine order, meaning everything that occurred was preplanned. Those other than these priest, nobility and kings depended on agriculture in order to make a living; this is because the economy was based upon a bartering system, which is where people exchange goods and services in return for other goods or services. Sumerians were known for their trading of goods such as copper, tin and ti mber for things like fish, woolen textiles, metal goods, as well as crops. The Sumerians achieved many technological advances, one in