All civilizations
depend on available water, but not all depend on rivers. Rivers also provided
ancient societies with access to trade -- not only of products, but ideas,
including language, writing, and technology. River-based irrigation permitted
communities to specialize and develop, even in areas lacking adequate rainfall.
For those cultures that depended on them, rivers were the life blood.
A river civilization or
river culture is an agricultural nation or civilization at a river. River
civilizations are civilizations based around rivers. Some common examples are
Ancient Egypt (Nile), the fertile crescent (Tigris/Euphrates), Ancient China
(Yellow River) and Ancient India (Indus).
Rivers provide a steady
supply of drinking water. It also makes the land fertile for growing crops.
Moreover, goods and people could be transported easily, and the people in these
civilizations could hunt the animals that came to drink water. Also, they could
catch fish in the rivers.
In addition, survival
techniques call for those lost in the wilderness to return to civilization by
travelling downstream, where centers of human population tend to concentrate.
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