Transcript Cities and Civilizations

Neolithic Revolution
Warm-up
Imagine life before villages,
towns and cities existed.
What do you think was
different about human life
back then?
What invention / discovery
resulted in people starting to
settle down and build
houses, towns, cities and led
to city life as we know it
today?
Farming
(Agriculture)
Cities and Civilizations Seminar
At about 8,000 BC village life
began as a result of what has
come to be known as the
Neolithic Revolution.
What is the REVOLUTION?
A TOTALLY new way of living:
From
Hunter-Gatherers
to Agriculture
Click on words and pictures for web links.
The invention of Agriculture
changed the way people lived.
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Agriculture (Farming)
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Growth of Cities
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Division of Labor
(Specialization)
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Trade
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Writing and Mathematics
Mesopotamia – Fertile Crescent
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Sumer – The
Earliest of the River
Valley Civilizations
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Sumerian
Civilization grew up
along the Tigris and
Euphrates Rivers in
what is now Kuwait.
The Fertile Crescent
Define “Fertile Crescent”
A well-watered and fertile area,
the fertile crescent arcs across the
northern part of the Syrian desert. It is
flanked on the west by the
Mediterranean and on the east by the
Euphrates and Tigris rivers, and
includes all or parts of Israel, the West
Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq.
From antiquity this region was the site
of sophisticated settlements.
Greeks called the northern part of the
Fertile Crescent
Mesopotamia
“Between Two Rivers”
(Tigris River and Euphrates River)
The southern part of Mesopotamia was
called Babylonia, originally Sumer.
Which country is Mesopotamia today?
(Iraq)
Sumer - Sumerians (Kuwait)
ca. 3500 to 3000 BC.
(ca. = circa)
Sumer gave us the city-state.
Define: city-state
Political unit made up of a city and
the surrounding lands. Each city
state has its own government,
even when it shares a culture with
neighboring city states.
Sumerian Writing: cuneiform
Click on the
picture for more
information about
cuneiform.
Click here to write
like a Babylonian.
Cuneiform is created by pressing a
pointed stylus into a clay tablet.
Sumerians invented:
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Brick technology
Wheel
Base 60 – using the circle . . . 360 degrees
Time – 60 minutes in an hour, 60 seconds in
a minute
12 month lunar calendar
arch
ramp
ziggurat
Ziggurat – Holy Mountain
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Click on the pictures for more information on ziggurats.
Babylon
Gave us the first know written law code
and was the first civilization where the
citizens live by the “Rule of Law”
Define “rule of law”
Government by law. The rule of law
implies that government authority
may only be exercised in accordance
with written laws, which were adopted
through an established procedure.
Hammurabi’s Code - 1792 BC
Hammurabi’s Code
was this law code.
Hammurabi ruled the
Babylonian Empire for 42 years.
At the end of his long
reign, Hammurabi’s legal
decisions were collected and
inscribed on a stone tablet
in a Babylonian temple. The 282
laws of the Code of Hammurabi
represent one of the earliest
known legal systems.
For more information about Hammurabi’s Code, click here and on the picture.
“If a man stole the property of church or state,
that man shall be put to death;
also the one who received the stolen goods
from his hand shall be put to
death.”
The laws governed such
things as lying, stealing,
assault, debt, business
partnerships, marriage,
and divorce. In seeking
protection for all
members of Babylonian
society, Hammurabi
relied on the
philosophy of equal
retaliation, otherwise
known as “an eye for an
eye.”
EGYPT
“The Gift of the Nile”
(Herodotus)
Look at the map and
answer the following
question:
What did Herodotus mean
when he said that Egypt
is the “gift of the Nile?”
Because of the
geography of the area,
without the Nile River,
there would be no Egypt.
Nile River
Sahara Desert
Egyptians invented:
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Hieroglyphics
Pyramids
Geometry
Advances in medicine and surgery
Hieroglyphics
Early Egyptian writing found on
tombs was indecipherable.
Hieroglyphics
Sacred
Carving
No one could read these sacred carvings
until Napoleon invaded Egypt and his
archaeologists found the Rosetta Stone.
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Click on the picture to see your name in hieroglyphics.
Video: Write a short summary of
the finding, translation, and
importance of the Rosetta Stone.
For more information on the
Rosetta Stone, log on to one
of the following web sites.
http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk
/writing/rosetta.html
OR
http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseu
m/prehistory/egypt/hieroglyph
ics/rosettastone.html
Papyrus is one of the first
examples of paper. It is created
from reeds growing along the Nile
River.
Papyrus