• Many early civilizations had one thing in common-all rose from farming settlements in river valleys
• Examples:  Nile Valley, Tigris and Euphrates Valley, and Indus River Valley
• People's labor was specialized (men and women did different jobs)
• depended on advanced technology (metalworking skills)
• irrigation systems
• values and beliefs systems

an abundance of crops (usually came after civilizations could better control flooding and drougth seasons and also use irrigation systems to their advantage)

• City center= goverment and religious buildings
• Nearby center= ruling class homes
• Next= houses of merchants
• Farther out= dwellings of artisans
• Outskirts of city= farmers, sailors, and fisherman
• Slaves lived all around city
• ***wealthy lived in city center; poorer people on outside

• helped explain how the world was formed, how people came into being, and what they owed their creator
• they tell us information about people's values and beliefs
• some said that evil would be punished

• first, trade was only within own communities
• merchants then set up expeditions on longer routes
• some trade moved by animal caravan
• some moved by water (rafts, boats, and ships)
• along with goods, IDEAS became shared
• sharing of goods and ideas with other cultures=cultural diffusion
• cultural diffusion improved the way of life for many (modern technological advances)