Counting the Grain Harvest: The Birth of Writing

Activator #3

• What do the following have in common?– Indus– Nile– Tigris– Euphrates– Huang He

(Yellow)

• What do the following have in common? • They are all rivers where Neolithic civilizations developed started by plans to

control flooding in order to farm.• Indus

– China, India, Pakistan

• Nile– Uganda, Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt

• Tigris– Iran, Iraq, Turkey

• Euphrates– Iraq, Syria, Turkey

• Huang He (Yellow)– China

The Rise of City-States

• Approximately 5000 years ago the first complex, politically centralized civilizations began to appear independently along a number of river valleys throughout the southern half of Asia, the Middle East, and northern Africa .

Why did the first complex, politically centralized civilizations materialize along rivers?

• Because rivers supplied a continuous if not always dependable flow and supply of water for farming and human consumption.

• These rivers along with climate, vegetation, geography, and topography shaped the development of the early river valley civilizations.

• While people of these civilizations were dependent on the rivers, the rivers also inspired new technological, economic, institutional, and organizational innovations and developments.

• Between 3000 and 2000 B.C.E. such river valley civilizations formed independently of each other along the Indus, the Nile, the Tigris and Euphrates, and the Yellow Rivers. These civilizations shared certain characteristics that distinguished them from the collections of Neolithic communities that preceded them.

Summary

– Farming revolutionized life by creating a stable food source that could produce surpluses

– People could stay in one place– Villages organized in order to controlling flooding

and harvest silt for their crops.– Not everyone was needed to produce food– The first city-states developed next to great rivers.

ISN – Page 27 Glue or Tape under Vocabulary Tabs foldableColor and label the bodies of water. Use your book atlas if you need help.Color code each River Civilization a different color

ISN – Page 27 Glue or Tape under Vocabulary Tabs foldableColor and label the bodies of waterColor the Fertile Crescent and Sumer following the color code from the screen.Make sure you can read all the labelsBook resource map on Page 17

ISN Page 27Page 27 ISN –Vocabulary and Flow Chart

(layered)Create a modified vocabulary book with tabs

from a sheet of your own college ruled loose leaf paper.

1. Fold in half hot-dog style.2. Draw a line down the fold to divide the

book.3. Fold each outside edge in to the middle

on the fold line. 4. Trim the plain white top off. 5. Flip over.6. Divide the book the following ways.7. draw a line after the first line8. Now draw a line every two lines to the

bottom of page. You should have 17 lines for vocabulary and one line for labels.

Word Ill./Example

fertile

silt

annual

levee

channel

archeology

anthropology

artifact

irrigation

city-state

empire

civilization

specialization

historian

artisan

scribe

Trim off Trim Off

fold

Use Vocabulary Word in a Sentence Vocabulary Definition

Inside Vocabulary Foldable for Pg 27

• Fertile– bearing, producing, or capable of producing vegetation, crops, etc., abundantly

• Silt– earthy matter, fine sand, or the like carried by moving or running water and

deposited as a sediment • Annual

– occurring, done, etc., once a year or every year; yearly• Levee

– an embankment designed to prevent the flooding of a river.– a natural deposit of sand or mud built up along the side of a river or stream.– one of the small continuous ridges surrounding fields that are to be irrigated.

• Channel– the bed or course of a river, stream, or canal– a course into which something can be directed or moved

• Reservoir– a natural or artificial lake or large tank used for collecting and storing water,

especially for community water supplies or irrigation

Tuesday 10/1 Starter

• archeology• anthropology• artifact• irrigation• city-state

Starter Wednesday 10/2

• empire• civilization• specialization• historian• artisan• scribe

Starter Thursday 10/3

What do you observe in this picture? Discuss your observations quietly with your group.

Cities – The Heart of Early Civilizations

• The surplus of food provided by farming made it possible for large numbers of people to live in cities where they specialized in the jobs that created civilization.

• To allow this to happen, further management was required from organized governments. – Since the people in the cities were not farmers they depended

on the farmers to produce and provide the food which made life in the city possible.

– To do this, the government of the city would tax by force the farmers a substantial portion of their crops. City governments did this through an armed military—one of the specialized jobs created by cities.

– Because it was necessary to do this for the city to survive, the city needed to be in control of large amounts of farm land which surrounded the city. That is why all ancient cities were city-states.

Temple and Palaces Government Centers

Defensive Walls

Reservoir

Channels

Moat

Farmland

The Challenge

• Organized governments faced their second major challenge (the first being the control of rivers) which was to create a tool which would aid human memory and allow them to know precisely the amount of grain under their control. The city’s survival depended upon the solution of this problem.

• The grain taken from the farmers would be brought into the city and stored. It was vital that the city keep accurate records of the food it was storing and then distributing to the members of the city. If they could not keep track of what they had and what they were giving out, it is very likely that the inhabitants of the city would run out of food and starve.

• Ancient governments employed priests and scribes to undertake this immensely important task. But the amount of food coming in and out was very difficult to remember. The priests and scribes working at the grain warehouses needed a tool in order to do their job accurately. If they could not do this job accurately there was the very likely consequence that the city would fail.

Counting the Grain HarvestWheat

Student #1

Maize

Student #2

Rice

Student #3

Barley

Student #4

Oats

Student #5

Total Difference

Assyrians

Hittites

Medes

Phoenicians

Babylonians

Persians

Number

Rise of City States

• Each tribe is responsible for one of the cities’ warehouses. Wagonloads of grains will be brought into the city and unloaded at your tribe’s warehouse. It is your job, as priests in charge of the warehouse to keep accurate count of the grain as it comes in Your city could face starvation and ruin if you do not do your job accurately.

Procedures• 15 wagons will drop off a certain

amount of each grain. This is represented by me telling you how much of each grain is on the wagons.

• Priest will keep track of the grain they are assigned.

• Once one wagon has been read out, the process will continue until all fifteen wagons have visited their warehouse.

• Priests may NOT use pencils, paper, or calculators.

• Priests must keep their count in their heads

Counting the Grain HarvestReport #1 Period 1

Wheat

Student #1

Maize

Student #2

Rice

Student #3

Barley

Student #4

Oats

Student #5

Total Difference

Assyrians 350 (268) 409 (346) 679 (32) 355 (319) 530 (41) 1006/5 = 201.2

Hittites 685 (67) 420 (335) 565 (109) 615 (44) 555/4 = 138.75

Medes 578 (40) 812 (57) 635 (76) 660 (14) 528 (43) 230/5 = 46

Phoenicians 693 (75) 688 (67) 638 (73) 680 (6) 380 (191) 412/5 = 82.4

Babylonians 522 (101) 582 (173) 706 (5) 673 (1) 507 (64) 344/5 = 68.8

Persians 623 (5) 708 (47) 704 (7) 672 (2) 569 (2) 63/5 =12.6

Number 618 755 711 674 571

Counting the Grain HarvestReport #1 – Period 5

Wheat

Student #1

Maize

Student #2

Rice

Student #3

Barley

Student #4

Oats

Student #5

Total Difference

Assyrians 549 (69) 597 (158) 654 (57) 203 (471) 755/4 = 188.75

Hittites 334 (284) 723 (32) 325 (386) 502 (172) 874/4 = 218.5

Medes 516 (102) 470 (285) 572 (139) 522 (152) 524 (47) 725/5 = 145

Phoenicians 580 (38) 647 (108) 751 (40) 463 (211) 592 (21) 418/5 = 83.6

Babylonians 580 (38) 357 (398) 789 (78) 467 (207) 450 (121) 842/5 = 168.4

Persians 652 (34) 646 (109) 648 (63) 520 (154) 550 (21) 381/5 = 76.2

Number 618 755 711 674 571

Counting the Grain HarvestReport #1 Period 7

Wheat

Student #1

Maize

Student #2

Rice

Student #3

Barley

Student #4

Oats

Student #5

Total Difference

Assyrians 583 (35) 731 (24) 523 (135)

609 (38) 232/4 = 58

Hittites 517 (101)

523 (232)

510 (212)

516 (158)

520 (51) 754/5 = 150.8

Medes 525 (93) 552 (203)

523 (188)

527 (147)

631/4 = 157.75

Phoenicians 623 (5) 700 (55) 607 (104)

559 (115)

624 (53) 332/5 = 66.4

Babylonians 520 (98) 596 (159)

522 (189)

652 (22) 468/4 = 117

Persians 525 (93) 590 (165)

694 (17) 500 (174)

523 (48) 497/5 = 99.4

Number 618 755 711 674 571

Counting the Grain HarvestReport #2 Period 1

Wheat

Student #1

Maize

Student #2

Rice

Student #3

Barley

Student #4

Oats

Student #5

Total Difference

Assyrians 633 (0) 889 (20) 497 (0) 730 (0) 516 (6) 26/5 = 5.2Hittites 633 (0) 869 (0) 497 (0) 522 (0) 0/4 = 0Medes 633 (0) 848 (21) 497 (0) 730 (0) 522 (0) 21/5 = 4.25Phoenicians 632 (1) 859 (10) 519 (22) 720 (10) 492 (30) 73/5 = 14.6Babylonians 613 (20) 842 (27) 497 (0) 720 (10) 522 (0) 57/5 = 11.4Persians 633 (0) 869 (0) 497 (0) 640 (90) 522 (0) 90/5 = 18

Number 633 869 497 730 522

Counting the Grain HarvestReport #2 Period 7

Wheat

Student #1

Maize

Student #2

Rice

Student #3

Barley

Student #4

Oats

Student #5

Total Difference

Assyrians 633 921 (52) 497 740 (10) 62/4 = 15.5

Hittites 640 (7) 869 497 731 (1) 8/4 = 2

Medes 633 786 (83) 497 662 (68) 522 151/5 = 30.20

Phoenicians 633 869 497 730 511 (11) 11/5 = 2.2

Babylonians 633 908 (39) 497 740 (10) 522 49/5 = 9.8

Persians 733 (100)

869 497 730 531 (9) 109/5 =21.8

Number 633 869 497 730 522

Counting the Grain HarvestReport #2 Period 7

Wheat

Student #1

Maize

Student #2

Rice

Student #3

Barley

Student #4

Oats

Student #5

Total Difference

Assyrians 623 (10) 869 730 450 (72) 82/4 = 20.5

Hittites 593 (40) 755 (114) 481 (16) 730 515 (7) 177/5 = 35.4

Medes 610 (23) 753 (116) 619 (122) 730 261/4 = 65.25

Phoenicians 623 (10) 869 497 730 520 (2) 12/5 = 2.4

Babylonians 633 822 (47) 477 (20) 730 67/4 = 16.75

Persians 633 876 (7) 497 730 519 (3) 10/5 = 2

Number 633 869 497 730 522

Debrief Activator #3

• Compare your groups first and second reports. How were they different?

• What would be the consequences of using Report #1 for your city?

• What would be the consequences of using Report #2 for your city?

• Why were accurate counts so important to the first civilizations?

• How did these civilizations generalize (apply) writing in other areas of their city?