Transcript Civilization Begins in Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia and Egypt
• Objective:
• The student will be able to
demonstrate knowledge of ancient
river valley civilizations, including
Mesopotamia, by:
• Locating the civilization in time and
place
• Describing the development of
social, political, and economic
patterns, including slavery
• Explaining the development of
religious traditions
• Explaining the development of
language and writing
• Essential Questions:
• Why did Ancient Civilizations
develop in river valleys?
• Where were the earliest
civilizations located?
• When did these civilizations exist?
• What were the social, political,
and economic characteristics of
early civilizations
• What religious traditions
developed in ancient civilizations?
• What forms of language and
writing existed in early
civilizations?
• Locate and label the following places on your map:
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Asia
Euphrates River
Tigris River
Mediterranean Sea
Persian Gulf
Caspian Sea
- Arabian Peninsula
- Zagros Mountains
- Sumer
- Ur
- Kish
- Eridu
• Shade in the location of the following early civilization:
• Mesopotamia
• Fertile Crescent :
arc of land from Mediterranean sea
to Persian Gulf
- rich soil and abundant crops
• The first civilization in the Fertile
Crescent was discovered in
Mesopotamia, which means “land
between the rivers.”
• The first Sumerian cities emerged in
southern Mesopotamia around
3200 B.C.
• Terrain
• Northern part hilly
• received rain
• Southern part had low plains, or
flat land
• Little rain
• Very hot
• Flooding was unpredictable
• Little rain, but a lot of silt.
• Silt: material deposited by rivers,
good for crops
• Small region
• Villages clustered in open plains
• No natural barriers for protection
• Irrigation difficult to build
• Natural resources were limited
• Food
• 5000 B.C.E. Mesopotamia
resources were running out
• People moved to the plains,
established Sumer
• Movement from small villages
to cities
• Protection
• Sumerians built a defense by
using mud bricks to build a
city wall
• To get natural resources
Sumerians traded their grain,
cloth, and crafted tools for the
stone, wood, and metal they
needed
• Called barter
• To make sure there was
enough silt, farmers had to
control the water supply.
• Irrigation ditches
• Carried water to the fields,
Allowed for surplus of crops
• Took cooperation to build,
leaders to plan project
• Needs labors and supervisors
• Projects created a need for
laws to settle disputes over how
land and water should be
distributed
• Arose 3,000 B.C.
• First cities:
• Eridu
• Ur
• Uruk
• Each city was surrounded
by barley and wheat
• As cities grew, so did the
cities control of the
surrounding land.
• Called city-states
• Surrounded by walls, built
with sun-dried bricks
• Houses, large government
buildings
• Used mud bricks
• Cities grew prosperous from
food surpluses which allowed
them to trade
• Led to cultural diffusion
• Process of new idea or product
spreading from one culture to
another
• Trade expanded territory
GOVERNMENT
Theocracy –
Government by divine
authority.
Kings received their
power from gods.
City-states with
hereditary rulers.
Ruler led army in war
and enforced laws.
Complex government
with scribes to collect
taxes
and keep records.
ECONOMY &
SOCIETY
Economy based on farming,
industry, and trade.
Each state had distinct
social hierarchy, or system
of ranks.
Three major social groups:
Nobles, Commoners, &
Slaves.
Most people were peasant
farmers.
Women had legal rights;
some engaged in trade and
owned property.
RELIGION
Worshiped many gods.
Believed gods
controlled every
aspect of life.
Saw afterlife as a grim
place. Everybody
would go into darkness
and eat dust.
To keep the gods
happy,
each city built a
ziggurat, or pyramid
temple.
• Belief in several gods
• Hierarchy of gods
• Roughly 3,000
• Characteristics
• Immortal and all-powerful
• Humans were servants
• Built ziggurats and gave
sacrifices to please the gods
• Souls of dead went to
“land of no return”
• Gloomy place between
earth’s crust and sea
• Epic of Gilgamesh
• One of earliest works
• Heroic tale
• Quest for immortality
• Common theme in ancient
cultures
• Influences other cultures
• King named Gilgamesh
• Wise, strong, perfect
• Part man / Part God
• Friends with beast names
• Enkidu
• Friend dies, King tries
to find immortality
• Story of “everlasting” life
for the gods
• Wheel, sail, plow
• One of 1st known maps
• 2300 B.C.E.
• 1st to use bronze
• 1st to create writing system
• cuneiform
• Number system based on
60
• Akkadians: Semitic people
• 2350 B.C. leader Sargon
• Strong king, skilled general
• Assembled large army
• Taught soldiers to fight in formations
• Spoke Semitic language
• Invaded Sumerians, created
world’s first empire
• Once he conquered Sumer, knocked
down cities walls to make it harder
for people to rebel
• Empire: large political unit or
state, under a single leadership,
controls large areas of land
• Demanded Tributes, goods or money
collected from people he conquered
• Semitic
• Spoke a language related to
Arabic and Hebrew
• Adopted Sumerian Culture
• Farming techniques, cuneiform,
religion
• Own culture
• Language, art
• Dynasty only lasted 200
years
• Internal fighting, invasions,
severe famine
• 1792 B.C.E. a new empire
controls Mesopotamia
• Established by Amorites
• Capital on Euphrates
• Empire reached peaked
under Hammurabi
• Reigned from 1792- 1750
B.C.E.
• Promotes ONE law code
• Promotes ONE language
• A collection of 282 laws
• Based on strict justice
• Penalties were severe, and
varied by social class
• Officials were held
accountable (didn’t catch
murderer, had to pay
family)
• Marriage and family laws
• Retaliation was important
part of system
• “eye for an eye”
• Reinforced principle that
government had a
responsibility for what
occurred in society
• Model for future law cades
• Objective:
• The student will be able to
demonstrate knowledge of ancient
river valley civilizations, including
Mesopotamia, by:
• Locating the civilization in time and
place
• Describing the development of
social, political, and economic
patterns, including slavery
• Explaining the development of
religious traditions
• Explaining the development of
language and writing
• Essential Questions:
• Why did Ancient Civilizations
develop in river valleys?
• Where were the earliest
civilizations located?
• When did these civilizations exist?
• What were the social, political,
and economic characteristics of
early civilizations
• What religious traditions
developed in ancient civilizations?
• What forms of language and
writing existed in early
civilizations?