Transcript Slide 1

Geography of Mesopotamia
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Tigris and Euphrates
Fertile Crescent
Fresh water (mud)
Annual Floods
Modern Day Iraq
Began circa 3500 BC
Building materials like stone
and wood were not available –
what did the Mesopotamians
use?
Sumer, Akkad, and Babylon
• How did they adapt to
this harsh climate?
• In what ways did the
rivers’ flooding
provide advantages
and disadvantages?
Sumerian Religion
• Polytheistic
• Gods
controlled
different parts
of life
• Offerings and
prayers would
win favor
• Center of religious
activity
• Contained a shrine for
offerings
• Rose high above
other buildings
• Pyramid shape
Why did Sumerians make offerings to their
gods?
Why do you suppose the ziggurats were the
tallest, grandest buildings in the city?
Sumerian Inventions
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Transportation: Wheel and sail
Farming: Irrigation systems
Use of Clay: pottery, houses, bricks
Use of bronze: plows, weapons, jewelry
Writing: Cuneiform
Numbers: based on 60
Calendar and time
• Oldest written
language
• Started as
pictographs
• Scribes and their
tools
• Changed to wedgeshaped symbols
(cuneiform)
What were the first and final steps in the
development of writing?
Why do you think, only scribes could write?
• Helped explain
things
•Passed down
orally
•Later recorded
onto clay tablets
Civilization of Akkad
• Rose to power
after Sumer
• People of the
surrounding desert
• Borrowed many
Sumerian ideas
• Ruled from c. 2334
BC to 2279 BC
• War leader
• United all of
Mesopotamia
• First person to create
an empire
What is an empire?
Why do think Sargon is called “Great”?
Is there a country today that is considered
an empire?
Southern Mesopotamia
Euphrates River
Tremendous wealth,
power and size
The Glory of Babylon
• Borrowed Sumerian
technology
• Borrowed Sumerian
Cuneiform
• Lasted 1200 years
• Began with
Hammurabi and
ended with
Nebuchadnezzer
• Hanging Gardens
• In what ways were Sumer, Akkad and
Babylon similar?
• In what ways were they different?
LYRE
GATES OF ISTAR , GODDESS OF
BABYLON, CIRCA 600BCE
CIRCA 2,600 BCE
SUMER
SUMER, CIRCA 2,100BCE
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B
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C