Transcript The Ancient Near East-3

The Ancient Near East-2
Mrs. Cox
World History
Paisley IB
Vocabulary
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1. Fertile Crescent
2. Mesopotamia
3. ziggurat
4. city-state
5. polytheism
6. dynasty
7. cuneiform
8. Sargon
9. Hammurabi
Vocabulary
10. Indo-Europeans
 11. steppes
 12. Nebuchadnezzar II
 13. Judaism
 14. Torah
 15. Abraham
 16. covenant
 17. patriarch
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Vocabulary
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18. Moses
19. Exodus
20. Diaspora
21. monotheism
22. Cyrus the Great
23. Darius I
24. satraps
25. Xerxes
26. Zoroaster
27. dualism
Questions
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1. What problem did farmers face due to nearby
rivers?
2. What was the name of the religious beliefs of
the Sumerians and what does the word mean?
3. Name the areas in which Sumerians produced
cultural achievement.
4. How did social hierarchy develop in Sumer?
5. Why did Sumer’s city-states weaken? Who
were the rulers who came to power as a result?
Questions
6. What did the Indo-European tribes have in
common?
 7. How were the Assyrians different from the
Sumerians?
 8. Why did Nebuchadnezzar build the Hanging
Gardens of Babylon, according to legend?
 9. In what ways did many Phoenicians earn a
living? Why was this a good career for a
Phoenician?
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Questions
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10. What was the name of the people that
appeared in Southwest Asia sometime between
2000 and 1500 BC?
11. Where did the Hebrews move?
12. Why was Moses an important Hebrew
leader?
13. Name at least three Hebrew kings and which
one made Jerusalem the capital of his kingdom?
14. What are the beliefs of Judaism? Where
would someone find out what the beliefs mean?
Questions
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15. Who led the Persian revolt? What places did
he conquer?
16. How did Darius change the Persian Empire?
17. List the teachings of Zoroaster. What did he
think people should do?
18. Why did Zoroastrianism almost disappear?
19. Name the Persian emperors who encouraged
cultures to blend. How was this helpful to the
Persian empire?
Geography Promotes Civilization
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The Fertile Crescent is found between the
Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Gulf in
Southwest Asia. With the Fertile Crescent,
an area called Mesopotamia developed. It
was home to the world’s first civilization.
Geography Promotes Civilization
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As early as 3500 BC people farmed grains
in Mesopotamia’s silt, rich soil left behind
when the Tigris and Euphrates rivers
flooded every spring. In time, people
learned to control the rivers’ flooding and
store rainwater to use during the hot , dry
summers. As a result, food was plentiful.
Villages grew larger and governments
formed. Slowly, a civilization emerged.
Sumer
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Sumerians developed the first civilization.
Their first large cities began to appear by
4000 BC. Each Sumerian city had
structures made of mud bricks and large
pyramid-shaped temple called a ziggurat
to honor its chief god.
Sumer
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Sumerians developed the first civilization.
Their first large cities began to appear by
4000 BC. Each Sumerian city had
structures made of mud bricks and a large
pyramid-shaped temple called a ziggurat
to honor its chief god.
Sumer
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Over time, each Sumerian city and its land
formed a city-state, a political unit with its
own government. Polytheism, the worship
of many gods, shaped Sumerian life. The
Sumerians believed that they had to keep
the gods and goddesses happy so they
would bring the people rich harvests
instead of problems like flooding. As a
result, priests held a higher status in
society, often governing the city-states.
Sumer
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In time, the city-states started to fight
more for land and water. War chief’s
began to rule as kings. Often, a king
passed his leadership on to family
members, forming a dynasty.
Sumerian Culture
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The Sumerians produced great cultural
achievements. Scribes kept records, wrote
about laws and grammar, and created
works of literature in a writing system
called cuneiform. With the ability to record
events, humankind moved from prehistory
into the historical age.
Sumerian Culture
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Sumerians also made advancements in
math, science, and the arts. Their math
system was based on the number 60.
Because of this, even today we divide an
hour into 60 minutes and a circle into 360
degrees. The Sumerians also invented the
wheel and the plow and learned to use
bronze to make stronger tools and
weapons. They even built sewer systems
and performed medical surgeries.
Sumerian Culture
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In addition to architecture and sculpture,
Sumerian artists created engraved stone
cylinders that when rolled over wet clay
created a seal to serve as a signature or to
show ownership. They traded with other
groups to obtain materials. It was through
trade that a social hierarchy, or ranking,
developed.
Sumerian Culture
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At the top were the kings, priests, and
their principal agents. Then came large
landowners and wealthy merchants,
followed by the majority of Sumerians who
worked as craftspeople, farmers, and
laborers. At the bottom of the ranking
system were the slaves, many of whom
had been captured during battles.
Sumerian Culture
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Men held political power and made laws
while women took care of the home and
children. Some upper-class women
received educations and served as
priestesses in the temples.
Empires in Mesopotamia
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Frequent warfare weakened Sumer’s citystates. Sargon, ruler of the Akkadians,
was the first to use a permanent army.
This army helped him to create the world’s
first empire, a land that includes different
kingdoms and people under one rule. The
Akkadian Empire stretched from the
Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf.
Empires in Mesopotamia
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After Sargon’s empire fell, one hundred
years of disorder followed. As several
tribes battles for Mesopotamia, one tribe,
the Amorites, settled in Babylon.
Hammurabi, their leader, was a brilliant
warrior. He brought all of Mesopotamia
into his Babylonian Empire. During his
rule, he wrote Hammurabi’s Code.
Empires in Mesopotamia
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The code contains 282 laws dealing with a
variety of crimes. Now people knew what
kind of behavior was considered criminal.
Upon his death, Babylonian power
declined. With two centuries the empire
had ended.
2-3 The Hittites
After the fall of the Babylonian Empire, IndoEuropean tribes invaded Mesopotamia. Speaking
related languages, the tribes likely traveled from
the steppes, or arid grasslands, north of the
Black Sea.
 One of these tribes was the Hittites. Around
2000 BC, they conquered the surrounding
people to build a strong empire in Asia Minor,
which is now Turkey.
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The Hittites
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They used iron, not bronze, to make
better weapons, becoming the first people
in the region to master iron making
techniques. They also improved the horsedrawn war chariot, making it lighter,
quicker, and able to hold an extra man.
Their culture was a blend of their own and
those around them.
The Hittites
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For example, they used Sumerian
cuneiform to write their own language.
The Hittites sacked Babylon around 1595
BC. The empire lasted until about 1200
BC, when it fell to powerful raiders known
as the Sea Peoples.
The Assyrians and the Chaldeans
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The next group to rise to power was the
Assyrians. A fierce warrior society, the
Assyrians had chariots and iron tools, plus
a well armed cavalry. They briefly gained
power in the 1300s BC, lost it, then
regained their strength when they built an
empire around 900 BC. In time, the
Assyrians used their military might to
control all of Mesopotamia and parts of
Asia Minor and Egypt.
The Assyrians and The Chaldeans
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They used siege warfare to take over
cities by digging beneath city walls to
weaken them or suing battering rams to
pound through them. To keep conquered
people from rebelling, the Assyrians
spread fear by killing or maiming their
captives. In some cases, however, they
kept groups from rebelling by splitting
them up and resettling them.
The Assyrians and The Chaldeans
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Roads linked the vast Assyrian empire.
Kings ruled through local leadership and
harsh punishment for rebels. In spite of
this brutality, Assyrian culture produced
great achievements such as the library in
the capital city of Nineveh, which housed
more than 20,000 cuneiform tablets.
The Assyrians and The Chaldeans
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As the Assyrians power declined, the
Chaldeans formed an empire with the old
city of Babylon as its capital. King
Nebuchadnezzar II built a grand palace
there. It is said to have housed the
Hanging Gardens, one of the seven
wonders of the ancient world. According
to legend, he built this magnificent
structure for his wife, who missed the
mountains and forests of her birthplace.
The Assyrians and The Chaldeans
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Nebuchadnezzar also built numerous
palaces and temples, including an
immense multistoried ziggurat, in Babylon
in 539, the Chaldean empire ended, less
than 100 years after rising to power.
The Phoenicians
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While great empires rose and fell, smaller
states emerged in Phoenicia in western
Asia at the western end of the Fertile
Crescent along the Mediterranean Sea in
present-day Lebanon. Wealthy city-states
such as Sidon and Tyre become centers
for trade.
The Phoenicians
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Phoenicians could not easily farm the
rugged hills and mountains of their
homeland, so they turned to trade for
their livelihood. Many became expert
sailors who traveled to faraway ports.
Along the way, they founded colonies such
as Carthage, which became a powerful
city on the Mediterranean coast of north
Africa.
The Phoenicians
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While exporting valuable goods brought
the city-states wealth, the Phoenicians’
greatest achievement was their alphabet.
As traders traveled from port to port, more
people began to use the alphabet. The
Greeks modified the Phoenician alphabet
for their own alphabet, which is the
ancestor of the one we use to write
English today.
2-3 The Early Hebrews
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The Hebrews ancestors of the people
called Jews, appeared in Southwest Asia
between 2000 and 1500 BC. Judaism is
the religion of the Hebrews. Accounts of
their early history form the Torah, the
most sacred text of Judaism. The Torah
and other writings became the Hebrew
Bible, which also appears as the Old
Testament within the Christian Bible.
The Early Hebrews
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The Torah tells about a man named Abraham.
According to the Torah, God made a covenant,
or promise, to lead Abraham and the rest of the
Hebrews to a new land where his people would
form a mighty nation. Later Hebrews considered
Abraham their patriarch, or ancestral “father”
because in Canaan, his grandson Jacob had 12
sons. Each of them established a tribe. Later, all
Hebrews could trace their roots to one of these
tribes.
The Early Hebrews
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Still later, some Hebrews moved to Egypt, where
the pharaoh made them slaves. According to the
Torah, God told a Hebrew leader named Moses
to demand the Hebrews’ freedom. Around 1200
BC, after a series of plagues struck Egypt, the
pharaoh finally agreed. The journey of the
Hebrews out of Egypt led by Moses is called the
Exodus. Jews today still celebrate the Exodus
during the Passover holiday in the Spring.
The Early Hebrews
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After the Exodus, the Hebrews wandered
through the desert for 40 years. According to
the Torah, God gave Moses two stone tablets
that contained the Ten Commandments. Over
time, the commandments greatly influenced the
laws and values of Western Civilization. When
the people reached Canaan, which later became
known as Israel, the Hebrews renamed
themselves the Israelites.
The Kingdom of Israel
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At first the Twelve Tribes did not have a
central government. They lived in
communities scattered in Canaan, where
they farmed and raised livestock. Each
community had judges to enforce laws
and settle problems between people. This
system worked until the Philistines
invaded in the mid-1000s BC.
The Kingdom of Israel
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To get rid of the Philistines, the Israelites
made Saul their first king. He had some
military success but never won full support
from the people. The next king, David, did
have the tribes’ backing. He was able to
unite the kingdom, which grew strong as
he conquered new territory. He also made
Jerusalem the capital of his kingdom.
David’s son Solomon later built a great
temple there when he became king.
The Kingdom of Israel
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After Solomon’s death around 931 BC,
Israel could not agree on who would be
the next king. So it became two
kingdoms: Israel and Judah. Within a
few centuries, both had fallen. In 722 BC,
Israel was conquered by the Assyrians,
who scattered the people of Israel
throughout their empire.
The Kingdom of Israel
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Judah, the other Hebrew kingdom, fell to
the Chaldeans, who destroyed Solomon’s
Temple and enslaved the Jews in Babylon.
These events marked the start of the
Diaspora, the scattering of the Jews
outside Judah. After fifty years of
enslavement, the Persian Empire
conquered the Chaldeans and let the Jews
return to Jerusalem.
The Kingdom of Israel
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They were allowed to rebuild Solomon’s
Temple, renaming it the Second Temple.
Many Jews, however, moved other places
in Persia instead of returning to
Jerusalem.
The Teachings of Judaism
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Ancient Hebrew society was based on
religion, just as it was later for Jews. The
most important belief in Judaism is that
only one God exists. This belief is called
monotheism. Because most other ancient
peoples worshipped many gods, the Jews’
monotheism set them apart. Other central
beliefs are obedience to the law, justice,
and righteousness.
The Teachings of Judaism
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The most important laws of Judaism are
the Ten Commandments, but a whole
system of laws guides many areas of
Jewish life such as how to pray, when to
worship, and what to eat. This system of
laws is called Mosaic Law. These beliefs
are recorded in scared texts such as the
Torah and the Talmud. The Talmud
contains explanations and interpretations
of the other sacred texts.
2-4 Growth and Organization
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The Medes were another Indo-European
tribe that came to power. They settled in
Media, on the plateaus of what is now
Iran. Among the neighboring groups the
Medes conquered were the Persians. In
559 BC, Cyrus the Great led a Persian
revolt that united Persia and Medes under
his rule.
Growth and Organization
Cyrus then conquered the wealthy
kingdom of Lydia, several Greek cities in
Ionia, and Babylon. Cyrus also freed the
Jews from slavery and allowed them to
return to Jerusalem and rebuild their
temple there.
 At the time of Cyrus’s death in 530 BC, he
ruled the largest empire in the world.
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Growth and Organization
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His son Cambyses became emperor, but unlike
his father, he was described as a tyrant and a
madman. After Cambyses’s death, Darius I
became leader of Persia. He strengthened the
empire by creating a permanent army of paid,
trained soldiers. Some soldiers were even more
skilled and they served as bodyguards for the
emperor. Darius gained new lands in the east,
although he was unable to conquer Greece.
Growth and Organization
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To help rule his vast empire, Darius had
satraps govern different regions. Even
though they were in charge, the satraps
still had to obey Darius’s orders. Darius
also built roads and minted the first
Persian coins. Trade made Persia very rich,
and most historians consider Darius’s reign
the high point of Persian culture.
Growth and Organization
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His son Xerxes was the last strong leader
of Persian. Later emperors faced rebellion
and a decline of trade until around 330
BC, when the Greek king Alexander the
Great conquered Persia.
Zoroastrianism
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During the reigns of Cyrus and Darius, a
religion called Zoroastrianism took hold in
Persia. Based on the teachings of
Zoroaster, it was one of the first religions
to teach dualism, the belief that the world
is controlled by two opposing forces, good
and evil, or Ahura Mazda and Ahriman.
Zoroastrianism
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The Avesta, Zoroastrianism’s sacred text,
told people to live good lives in the service
of Ahura Mazda so that they could go to
heaven. Zoroastrianism almost
disappeared when the Persian Empire fell
to the Greeks, but gradually, Zoroaster’s
teachings spread again in Persia and other
parts of the world.
Persian Achievements
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The Persian Empire stretched across most
of Asia. Because it was huge, it contained
dozens of peoples with their own customs
and traditions. Emperors like Cyrus and
Darius encouraged their cultures to blend
because Persia built unity. The people
lived at peace with each other, so instead
of fighting, they were able to work
together to improve the empire.
Persian Achievements
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To ensure that leaders in the capital
stayed aware of what was happening
throughout the empire, a network of high
quality roads was built. Messengers
traveled the Royal Road, more than 1500
miles ling, that was the world’s first long
highway. Urgent messages were carried by
a series of messengers who worked like
runners in a relay race.
Persian Achievements
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The Persians were also widely admired for
their art, especially delicate drinking
vessels made of gold and set with
precious gems. These were used in the
royal court, Animals were common Persian
decorations, appearing on the walls,
gates, and columns of the empire’s cities.
Persian Achievement
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Architectural achievements are another
part of Persia’s culture. Persepolis was a
city designed by Darius I to be a
monument to Persia’s glory. At its center
was a huge, highly decorated hall. There
was nothing else like it in the ancient Near
East.