Transcript Ancient Mesopotamia Presentation

August 15, 2016
Ancient Eastern Mediterranean Civilizations
• Standard: Analyze the origins, structures, and
interactions of complex societies in the ancient
Eastern Mediterranean from 3500 BCE to 500 BCE.
• Essential Question: What were the origins,
structures, and interactions of complex societies in
the ancient Eastern Mediterranean from 3500 BCE to
500 BCE?
Activator
• Have out World Map (in your notebook) where do you think civilization began?
Vocabulary Words Aug 15-19
1. Fertile Crescent
2. Mesopotamia
3. Ziggurat
4. Polytheism
5. Hammurabi’s Law Code
6. Hieroglyphics
7. Cuneiform
8. Phonetic Alphabet
9. Pharaoh
10. Theocracy
Geography
• Greek word meaning: “between the
rivers”
• Fertile Crescent
– Valley between the Tigris and Euphrates
Rivers
– Extended from the Mediterranean Sea to
the Persian Gulf
– Modern Day Iraq
Fertile Crescent
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84y2q4gi
ihY
Society
• cities formed
• as societies became advanced, social classes
developed
• broken into social classes
– highest were rulers and priest
– Middle class were merchants
– Lower class were laborers and slaves
Economics
• based on agriculture
• large-scale system of
water control, crops
could be grown on a
regular basis
• traded for stone, wood,
and metal from other
societies to build
empires
Innovations
• Inventions
– wagon wheel, potter’s wheel
– the sun dial ,the arch, and bronze
•
•
•
•
created system of writing (cuneiform)
developed a number system based on 60
Geometry to measure fields
charted constellations
Religion
• Polytheism
– poly = many
– theism = god belief
– believed many gods controlled different forces of
nature
• believed gods to do what humans do
• Worship in ziggurats
– Mesopotamian temple
– pyramid-shaped monument
Religion Continued
• wealth devoted to building temples
• houses for the priests and priestesses
• believed success of crops depended on the
gods
• believed Priest to be representative to the
gods
City-States
• city and the surrounding countryside under one
political and economic control
• Sumerians created first city-states in Mesopotamia
• Power passed from religious leaders to kings
• Kings led armies and organized the water control
projects necessary to sustain farming
Role of the City-States
• Many roles:
– Religious center (ziggurat)
– Political center (palace)
– Trading center (market)
– Storage for surplus food
– Walls served as defense for citizens
Leadership
• Rulers were the Priest
• Success of crops depended on the gods
• Believed Priest to be representative to the
gods
• Power passed from religious leaders to kings
Rise of the Empire
• a large political unit that controls many
peoples and territories
• Several city-states brought together
• the Akkadian Empire lead by Sargon became
the first in history
Activity- Primary Source Analysis
• Using the primary source analysis documents,
you will work in small groups to analyze
Ancient Mesopotamian primary sources.
Summarizer
• What were the origins, structures, and
interactions of complex societies in the
ancient Eastern Mediterranean?
• Your answer should be 2-3 sentences.