To study history, you must first examine how people lived and what factors might have led them to live that way. Many people have to adapt their way of life based on their geographic location. This could include things like how they dress to the type of work they do. It is a fact that you will only be able to grow certain types of food in a specific type of soil. Even in today's society we still have to adapt to our environment, which is influenced by geographic location. This is no different from ancient civilizations and where they decided to settle. What does it mean to be an ancient civilization? Webster's Dictionary defines ancient as living long ago. Webster defines civilization as a relatively high level of culture and technology. So ancient civilization consists of people who lived a long time ago and had a high level of culture and technology. Trigger in his book Understanding Early Civilizations: A Comparative Study lists twelve different criteria for classification. Here are some of the characteristics that he believes a civilization must have skilled labor, divine power, a ruler, a writing system, and a government. In the beginning, most people were nomadic hunters and gatherers. They would travel following the direction their food and water went. So, those people had to be able to adapt rather quickly to the new environments they passed through. Then, as populations grew and technology increased, we started to see people become more sedimentary. People became farmers and herders to provide for their families. However, this raises some questions about where did the people settle? Why did people settle in those places? As they did… a paper medium… gives them transportation. Like anyone, you adapt to your surroundings so you can survive. Ancient civilizations were no different. They had to adapt to their surroundings. They used the flooding of the rivers to their advantage. People used the new land to grow crops that would work best in that area. Works Cited Hansen, Valerie, and Kenneth R. Curtis. Travels in world history. Boston: Wadsworth Pub, 2013. Print.McKay, John P., Bennett D. Hill, John Buckler, Patricia Buckley Ebrey, Roger B. Beck, Clare Haru Crowston, and Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks. Understanding global societies: a brief history. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2013. Print.Merriam-Websters Dictionary. Np, nd Web. May 5, 2014. .Trigger, Bruce G. Understanding Early Civilizations: A Comparative Study. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2003. Print.