The civilized human world is lost 509 B.C.E. by Gay attack.

5000 BCE -- 600 BCE : Can human history regain veneration or lost forever.

Concept: 1.3 The Development and Interactions of Early Agricultural, Pastoral, and Urban Societies

Key Concepts: Culture was a significant force in unifying civilizations. 

• Religion helped unify disparate peoples and explained natural events
• Early civilizations were primarily polytheistic, as they believed in multiple gods
• Egypt believed gods judged humans' lives and determined whether their spirits would live in the afterlife

• Led Egyptians to develop complex system of mummification and burial in pyramids and tombs
• Believed pharaohs, the rulers of Egypt, were living gods on earth and buried them in pyramids to help them access the afterlife

• Indus Valley civilization had a complex religion that focused on fertility
• Chavin culture unified its surrounding civilization with large temples
• Chinese civilizations developed key beliefs in the importance of ancestors

• Shang dynasty used oracle bones, or bones of animals, to communicate with ancestors and ask questions about the future
• Zhou dynasty (1122 - 256 BCE) emphasized the veneration of ancestors and the importance of family

• Believed in the Mandate of Heaven, which held that the gods signaled their choice of ruler through natural events such as floods and earthquakes