Transcript Civilizations of Mesopotamia

Civilizations of Mesopotamia
The Ancient Fertile Crescent Area:
“The Cradle of Civilization”
Mesopotamia
 Greek meaning “Land Between two rivers”
 What two rivers?
 Tigris and Euphrates Rivers
 This is the area that is now modern day Iraq
 A desert climate dominated the area between the Persian
Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea in Southwest Asia.Yet within
this dry region lies an arc of land that provided some of the
best farming in Southwest Asia.
 The regions curved shape and the richness of its land led
scholars to call it the Fertile Crescent
Economy
* barter
 long distance trade
 traded agriculture surplus: wheat, barley, dates, veggies
 imported what they didn’t have:
 stone
 wood
Crossroads of Three Continents
•Unpredictable flooding
•No natural barriers for protection
•Limited natural resources
•Building materials and other
necessary items were scarce
The Sumerians
Political Organization
 Sumerian Civilization was not united, but divided into warring
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city-states.
city-states - cities with own individual governments
Sumerian city-states rivaled each other which led to the
emergence of warrior-kings to provide protection.
warrior kings eventually passed on leadership to sons, who
eventually passed it on to their heirs. Such a series of rulers is
known as a dynasty
ruler seen as chief servant to the gods and led ceremonies meant
to please them.
Sumerian city-states were eventually captured and unified into the
Akkadian and then Babylonian Empires
Sumerian Political Organization
 Priests with religious and power
 Success of crops
 irrigation
 Warrior kings
 Defense
 Dynasties
 City-states - Ur
 Laws & Taxes
 Public Works
 Ziggurats
 Walled cities
Economy
 Agriculture
 Catastrophic floods
 Irrigation
 Canals
 Date Palms, grains such as barley and wheat
 Trade
 Traded—grain, cloth, crafted tools
 Received—stone, wood, metal
Sumerian Religion
 Polytheistic - believed that many different gods
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controlled the various forces of nature
Humans are servants to gods, at any moment a
god might send a flood or set a fire if he was
angered
Each city-state worshipped its own primary
deity and offered tributes (grain, jewelry,
pottery, wine or animals at the ziggurat)
People worked hard to earn the gods’
protection in this life
They had a bleak/grim afterlife, not paradise.
“Dust is their fare and clay is their food”
Innana
Enki
Sumerian Social Hierarchy
 Kings, land of holders, and some priests made up the
highest level in Sumerian society.
 Wealthy merchants ranked next
 The vast majority ordinary Sumerians people worked
with their hands in fields and workshops.
 At the lowest level of Sumerian society were the slaves
Sumerian Scribes
Innovations
 Cuneiform
 Canals, dams, irrigation
 Mud bricked walls
 Wheeled vehicles, sail, plow??
 Number system based on 60
 Arches, columns, ramps
 Ziggurat
Deciphering Cuneiform
Metallurgy Skills
Traded for wood or stone to make
wheel
 Trade was enhanced by the introduction of the wheel.
 Reduced the time it took to transport goods.
Arithmetic and Geometry
 In order to build city walls
and buildings, plan irrigation
systems, and survey flooded
fields, Sumerians needed
arithmetic and geometry.
 They developed a number
system based on 60
 60 secs= 1 min)
 360 degrees of a circle.
 They also developed a 12
month calendar
Sumerian Art
Statues with large eyes (focus on god)
Art and Architecture
Sumerian Architecture
Ziggurat
 tiered pyramid
 center of religious ceremonies and government
 “Mountain to God”
 Made of clay found all around them…no wood or stone in
this desert climate
Literature – Epic of Gilgamesh
(similar to Hercules)
Board Game From Ur
The Akkadians
2334 BC–2154 BC
Worlds First Empire
 Sargon brought both northern and southern Mesopotamia
together
 An empire brings together several peoples, nations, or
previously independent states under the control of one ruler.
 Sargon’s empire lasted 200 yrs
Akkadians
The Babylonians
Babylon
 In about 2000 B.C. nomadic warriors known as Amorites
invaded Mesopotamia.
 They established their capital in Babylon
 The Babylonian empire reached it’s peak during the reign of
Hammurabi
 Hammurabi’s most enduring legacy is the code of laws he put
together
Hammurabi’s Code 1792-1750 B. C. E.
Hammurabi’s Code
 Cause: Hammurabi recognized that a single, uniform code of
laws would help to unify the diverse groups within his
empire.
 Effect: He collected existing rules, judgments, and laws into
the Code of Hammurabi
 Most of the laws focused on heavy fines & severe punishment
What do you think would happen?
 False or unproven accusation
 Theft
 Help an escaped slave
 Breaking & entering
 A slave talks back to his master
 A son hits his father
 You steal another man’s slave
 Incest with daughter
 Hit someone from a higher class
 Incest with mother
 A man hits a woman & she loses
 Infidelity
her baby
 If she dies
 If a woman leaves her husband
after being disobedient
 Two people having an affair
kill their mates
 A man has sex with his son’s
wife