Transcript Mesopotamia - Cobb Learning

• Pick up a copy of each paper on the
rolling cart and put them in you
notebook according to the directions
on the board.
• Get your materials ready for class
– Pen or pencil
– Notebook
– Papers (syllabus)
• Turn off and put away ALL electronic
devices. Do not get them back out
during class.
AGENDA
Thursday, January 8, 2013
Warm Up:
What geographic features did nomads look for when
they were ready to settle down in to villages?
Essential
Question(s):
Lesson
Activities:
What were the major features of Mesopotamian
civilization?
Review of Five Features of a Civilization WS
Mesopotamia Notes and Activities
Work on Unit 1 Vocabulary
To be turned
Page 2 of your syllabus
in:
Homework: Complete Vocabulary Worksheet and study for Quiz
Upcoming:
Vocabulary Quiz MONDAY, January 12. 2015
Unit Test NEXT FRIDAY January 16
Copyright © Clara Kim 2007. All rights reserved.
Why River Valleys?
1. Offered rich soils for
agriculture
2. Provided water for crops.
The Fertile Crescent
• Arc of land
between the
Persian Gulf
and the
Mediterranean
Sea in
Southwest Asia
One land…Two Rivers
• Mesopotamia means =
“land between the rivers”
– Tigris River and
Euphrates River
• Both rivers flooded once a
year and left thick bed of
silt.
– Silt: rich, new soil
farmers could plant and
harvest enormous
quantities of wheat and
barley
Environmental Challenges
• Floods are unpredictable. Between the
floods there was often little or no rain.
• There are no natural barriers to protect
villages from invaders.
• Mesopotamia had limited natural
resources.
Environmental Challenges
Floods were unpredictable.
Between the floods there was
often little or no rain.
There were no natural
berries to protect villages
from invasion.
Mesopotamia had limited
natural resources.
How the Sumerians solved
They dug irrigation ditches
They built city walls out of
mud bricks.
They traded their surplus
agricultural products for
needed raw materials.
Formation of City States
• Sumerians stand out in history as one of the first
groups of people to form a civilization
• Later peoples built upon the innovations of the
Sumerian culture. The process in which a new
idea or a product spreads from one culture to
another is called cultural diffusion.
• City-State: A city, usually surrounded by
farmland, that developed their own governments
and rulers. (Functioned much like a
independent country does today.)
Political
Power of the Priests
• Sumer’s earliest
governments were
controlled by temple priests
– Farmers believed they
needed blessings for
success of their crops
– Priests were the middle
man for the gods
– Priests demanded portion
of farmer’s crops as tax
• Later followed Hereditary rulers: when
the power is passed down to family
members
• A series of rulers from a single family is
called a dynasty.
Economy
• Metal tools and weapons
(bronze, iron)
• Increasing agricultural
surplus (better tools, plows,
irrigation)
• Increasing trade along
rivers – traded with Egypt
• Development of the
world’s first cities
• Specialization of labor
Religion
• Polytheistic: Belief in
many gods (3,000!!!)
• Gods could be angered
at any moment and to
keep them happy
Sumerians:
– Built impressive
ziggurats or temples
to sacrifice food, wine
and animals
MORE
ZIGGURATS!!!
Sumerian Society
Kings and Priests
Wealthy merchants
Ordinary Sumerian people
Slaves
Women
• Could hold property
• Women could join the
priesthood
• Some women were
scribes
Intellectual
Epic of Gilgamesh
• Myths and
legends recorded
in this long poem
• One of the
earliest works of
literature in the
world
“Gilgamesh, whither
are you wandering?
Life, which you look
for, you will never
find.
For when the gods
created man, they
let
Death be his share,
and withheld life
In their own hands”
Achievements
Science and
Technology
• Invented the wheel,
the sail, the plow
• First to use bronze.
• Developed system of
writing
• Built irrigation
systems, buildings,
surveyed flooded
fields.
First Empire Builders
• Early city-states were almost
constantly at war with one another,
weakening the city-states and making
them vulnerable to attacks from
outsiders.
• About 2350 BCE
Sargon of Akkad
defeated the city
states and formed an
empire (An empire
brings together
several peoples,
nations or
independent states
under the control of
one ruler.)
Babylonian Empire
• Nomadic warriors invaded Mesopotamia.
• Gradually the nomadic warriors
overwhelmed the Sumerians and
established their capital at Babylon.
• The Babylonian Empire reached its peak
during the reign of Hammurabi (about
1792 BCE – 1750 BCE)
Hammurabi’s Code
• Hammurabi recognized that a single,
uniform code of laws would help to unify
the diverse groups within his empire.
• He collected existing rules, judgments,
and laws into the Code of Hammurabi.
• Hammurabi had the code engraved in
stone, and copies were placed all over his
empire.
• Vocabulary Terms
• Mummification - A process of embalming
and drying corpses to prevent them from
decaying
• Dynastic Cycle - In Chinese history, the
divine approval thought to be the basis or
royal authority
• Mesopotamia – The broad, flat, fertile plain
lying between the Tigris and Euphrates
Rivers (the “land between the rivers)
• Hammurabi – King of the Babylonian
Empire at it’s peak, Hammurabi’s most
enduring legacy is his code of laws
• Namer – The king who united upper and
lower Egypt