Transcript Chapter 4 The Fertile Crescent

The Fertile
Crescent
Mesopotamia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
c1g60SSGmeY&safe=active
. Sumer
: Canaan
DO NOW-on pkt
back
List 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
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- study of the stars
• 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
 Physicians and






veterinarians
Potion and ointments
from natural ingredients
- Flowers
Roots
Leaves
Nuts
Snake skins’
Turtle shells
 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
More Legacies
MATH
 Base ten and decimals
 - Place value
 - Right angle
 - Square
 - Hypotenuse
 The wheel 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 wheel.

Vocabulary
Drought
Famine
Surplus
Barter
Fertile Crescent
Mesopotamia
Vocabulary
city-state
Ziggurat
Cuneiform
Code of Hammurabi
Hammurabi
Sumer
Babylon
Empire
Fertile Crescent?
A fertile area of land
that is shaped like a
crescent.
Mesopotamia is part of the
Two
Fertile Crescent
rivers
Caanan
Persian
Gulf
What does
Mesopotamia mean?
It means:
Land between
two rivers.
The Euphrates
and the Tigris
Rivers.
DO NOW:
On the last page of packet:
On the chart, fill in 8 of
Mesopotamia’s legacies
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.
 The flooding of the rivers left deposits of
silt which was excellent for crops.
 Silt – created fertile land –
 This is where historians
believe farming began
Climate
DRY……little rain
Irrigation (trap
water)….leads to a
SURPLUS: extra
supply of food
Mesopotamia’s Lively Trade
BARTER- to trade one of a
kind products for another
without the exchange of money.
..There was a NEED!!
caravans – groups of travelers
bazaars – markets selling
different kinds of goods
Sumer- [city-state]
Who were the Sumerians?
– No one knows
• First to create technology
associated with farming such as
the wheel and irrigation
 NOMADS that settled in lower
Mesopotamia.
City-State A self-governing city 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 Egypt
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 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
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
-in your notebook
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: in your notebook
 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: in notebook
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
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
 Although Solomon was young,
he soon became known for his
wisdom. 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 split the baby in
half.
 One woman was prepared to
accept the decision, but the
other begged the King to give
the live baby to the other
woman. Solomon then knew
the second woman was the
mother.
DO NOW: in your notebooks
 What does this psalm mean:
Blessed is the one who does not
walk in step with the wicked, or
stand in the way that sinners take,
or sit in the company of mockers,
but whose delight is in the law of
the Lord.