Transcript Fertile Crescent Mesopotamia

The Fertile
Crescent
Mesopotamia
. Sumer
: Canaan
DO NOWList several reasons as to
why people would decide
to settle along a river?
Mesopotamia’s
Legacy -what was left to us
by this civilization?
 The
Legacy of Mesopotamia
The
earliest existing set of
written laws, known as
Hammurabi’s Code,
established rules and
punishments for Babylonians.
 A one-God religion known as
Judaism
Government- formal
SUMER:
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To measure the passage of time
Calendar
Based on the phases of the moon

Crescent moon meant the begin of
the month
Sumerians year was short 11 days
which meant they couldn’t
accurately predict the flooding of
the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers or
when the crops should be
harvested. They eventually
learned to add an extra month.

Watches

The changing positions of the stars,
planets and moon

Astronomy-
stars
study of the
•
Learned to recognize
planets and
constellations
•
Learn to foresee
ECLIPSES

Thought to be a bad omen
Astrology – belief
that the movement of
the stars and planets
affect/influence the
lives of men and
women

and Astrology
Medicine
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
Physicians and
veterinarians
Potion and ointments
from natural
ingredients - Flowers


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Roots

Leaves

Nuts
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Snake skins’

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Turtle shells
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Recorded
temperature, pulse,
skin color
Promote proper
hygiene
3000 BC = invention of
soap
Cosmetics
*real cure of illness
was to please the
angry gods which
sent the demons to
invade the body
MATH

More Legacies
 The wheel-wagon was
believed to have been
made by the Sumerians.
It was made of planks of
wood joined together.
The picture below briefly
describes the stages of
development of the
wagon.
Base ten and decimals

- Place value

- Right angle

- Square

- Hypotenuse

Vocabulary
Drought
Famine
Surplus
Barter
Fertile
Crescent
Mesopotamia
Vocabulary
city-state
Ziggurat
Cuneiform
Code
of Hammurabi
Hammurabi
Sumer
Babylon
Empire
DO NOW:
On the last page of packet:
On
the chart, fill in
8 of Mesopotamia’s
legacies
What does
Mesopotamia mean?
It means:
Land between two
rivers.
The Euphrates and
the Tigris Rivers.
A Challenging
Environment
 the
overflow of the
Euphrates and the Tigris
rivers were
“UNPREDICTABLE!”
 These overflows caused
floods and destroyed
many villages.
Droughts
Quite
the opposite of an
overflow. This is when there
is a long period of dry
weather.

What can a drought do to a civilization?
1. Turn fertile soil to dust
2. Shrivel crops
3. Cause a widespread lack of food or
FAMINE!
Taming Rivers
They built CANALS and DIKES [DAMS].
 The flooding of the rivers left deposits
of silt which was excellent for crops.
 Silt – rocks, pebbles, minerals, from
the bottom- created fertile land –
 This is where historians
believe farming began
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Climate

DRY……little rain

Irrigation (trap water)….HOW?

leads to a SURPLUS: extra
supply of food
Mesopotamia’s Lively Trade
BARTER- to exchange goods or
services without using money.
..There was a NEED!!
caravans – groups of travelers
bazaars – markets selling
different kinds of goods
SumerWho

[city-state]
were the Sumerians?
earliest group to inhabit the Middle East region known as Mesopotamia
First
to create technology associated
with farming such as the wheel and
irrigation

NOMADS that settled in lower Mesopotamia.

Many of the things we take for granted today can
be traced back directly to the ingenuity and
creativity of the Sumerian culture.
City-State- VERY IMPORTANT!!!
A
self-governing city [had it’s own
leader] and the land surrounding
it.

Shared customs-ways of doing something

Shared religious beliefs

Worked together to meet their basic needs.

Army

Spoke the same language

BUT they don’t have…………….
City-State – cont’d
NO
CENTRAL
GOVERNMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Unlike the USA
Much conflict: Why? Because
no unity, separate rulers
Wars over lands, river use
DO NOW: in your notebook
LIST
6 traits of a
CITY-STATE
Temples for Gods
People
did not worship rulers
Built Ziggurats: temples for
gods and goddesses
Most important building in
the city
HIGH so they would be closer
to the gods
Stairs used for gods to
DESCEND-come to the earth
Examples of ziggurats
Sumerian Writing
 The
first to
create a
system of
writing  CUNEIFORM:
Sumerian
system of
writing – used
symbols
 Kept
records
Pictographs

What does picture writing do well?

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What advantages does picture writing have?
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Students may note that pictographs can represent nouns, small numbers,
and some prepositions—“Two men on horseback.”
Students may note that even those without specialized knowledge could
potentially understand it.
What are its weaknesses?

Students should note that pictographic images have a limited ability to
communicate such things as abstractions, sounds and certain parts of
speech.

Can a pictograph convey what the word it is depicting sounds
like?

Writing in ancient Mesopotamia arose from necessity—
specifically, the need to keep records. Gradually, civilization
in the Tigris-Euphrates River Valley became more urbanized.
Eventually, a number of complex systems developed:
political, military, religious, legal, and commercial. Writing
The First Writing:
Cuneiforms- on clay

Imagine that in an instant all knowledge
of alphabetic writing disappeared. Only
the drawing of simple pictures remained
as the means of written communication.

Brainstorm: What would be some of the
most essential things for which you would
need signs? Which objects and ideas are
the ones you would make sure were
standardized and learned right away?
Babylon

Upstream from Sumer

Built an empire because they took from the Sumerians
Hanging Gardens
of Babylon
Garden
= palace rooms
Seventh Wonder of the World
Had many levels
Built by King Nebuchadnezzar as
a birthday present for the queen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLlroENeNHk&feature=play
er_embedded
DO NOW
-on this page
Written LAWS: Why do we
need them? Give good
reasons.
LAWS
 First
to write down the laws
 First lawgiver – HAMMURABI
 Code of Hammurabi –first law
recorded- 282 laws- 44 columns
 Harsh punishments
 “Eye for an Eye” codes # 196-223
 Code written on stone in the center
of town.
Hammurabi’s
Code

The carving on the stone on
which the code is written
depicts Hammurabi receiving
the divine laws from the sun
god, the god most often
associated with justice.

code protecting all classes of
Babylonian society, including
women and slaves.

protection of the weak from
the powerful

the poor from the rich.
Code #8

“If any one steal cattle or sheep, or
an ass, or a pig or a goat, if it
belonged to a god or to the court,
the thief shall pay thirty fold; if
they belonged to a freed man of the
king he shall pay tenfold; if the
thief has nothing with which to pay
he shall be put to death.”

With an example such as this,
students are able to see the ways
that the Code worked to reinforce
class distinctions as it also
established specific punitive rules
for social order.
If a builder builds a house for someone, and
does not construct it properly, and the house
which he built falls in and kills its owner, then
the builder shall be put to death. (Another
variant of this is, If the owner's son dies, then
the builder's son shall be put to death.)
If a son strikes his father, his hands shall be
hewn off.
If anyone steals the minor son of another, he
shall be put to death.
If anyone brings an accusation against a man,
and the accused goes to the river and leaps
into the river, if he sinks in the river his
accuser shall take possession of his house. But
if the river proves that the accused is not
guilty, and he escapes unhurt, then he who had
brought the accusation shall be put to death,
while he who leaped into the river shall take
possession of the house that had belonged to
his accuser.
If anyone brings an accusation of any crime
before the elders, and does not prove what he
has charged, he shall, if a capital offense is
charged, be put to death.
If a man puts out the eye of an equal, his eye shall be put out.
If a man knocks the teeth out of another man, his own teeth
will be knocked out.
If anyone strikes the body of a man higher in rank than he, he
shall receive sixty blows with an ox-whip in public.
If anyone opens his ditches to water his crop, but is careless,
and the water floods his neighbor's field, he shall pay his
neighbor corn for his loss.
If a judge tries a case, reaches a decision, and presents his
judgment in writing; and later it is discovered that his decision
was in error, and it was his own fault, he shall pay twelve times
the fine set by him in the case and be removed from the judge's
bench.
Do Now: on this page
 Yesterday,
we discussed several of
Hammurabi’s codes.
Would you have wanted to live
under the Codes of Hammurabi?
Why or why not?
DO NOW: on this page
What
3 facts about
JUDAISM do you recall
learning, when we did
Religions of the World?
Birth of Judaism
Ancient Hebrews
From
the Bible,
lived in
Mesopotamia
Judaism: religion,
today 17 million
people
Origins of Judaism
Leader: Abraham,
led
across the Fertile Crescent
Canaan: area reached by
Abraham between the
Jordan River and the
Mediterranean Sea
Canaan
Captivity in Egypt
 Famine
strikes Canaan
 Move to Egypt…enslaved
 Moses: raised by Pharaoh
Led Hebrew out of
slavery- PASSOVER
Ten Commandments
Mount
Sinai:
where
the Hebrews lived, where
God gave Moses the Ten
Commandments:
basis of laws for the
Hebrews
* Answers may be Writing Laws/
used more than
Gov’t
once
Sumerians
Babylonians
Hebrews
Religion
Idea of one God
Polytheism:
Worship
many gods
Popular at
this time
 Monotheism:
belief in one
god
 Hebrews were
the first groupin their area- to
worship one god
 They saw God as
just and allimportant
Judaism
The
religion practiced by the
Israelites was very different
from other religions practiced
in the ancient world.
The Ten Commandments are
the core beliefs of Judaism.
Judaism has influenced other
major religions of the world.
Wisdom of Solomon
Solomon:
leader- name
means “peace”
Organized the kingdom of
Israel
He had lots of wisdom
Story of the baby
 Review
song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=c1g60SSGmeY&safe=active

Although Solomon was young, he
soon became known for his
________. The first and most
famous incident of his cleverness
as a judge was when two women
came to his court with a baby
whom both women claimed as
their own. Solomon threatened to
___________________.

One woman was prepared to
accept the decision, but the
other woman
_____________________________
__________. Solomon then knew
the _________ woman was the
mother.