Transcript mesopotamia and beginning of civilization

MESOPOTAMIA AND
BEGINNING OF
CIVILIZATION
Ch.1
Pay Attention
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Write everything on each of the slides
unless….
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It says Remember at the top of the page
It says review at the top of the page
It is in Italics
Coach Alford says not to write it.
Beginning of civilizations.
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When civilizations began they had needs.
These needs included
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Water
Fertile land
Transportation
Rivers provided all of these needs.
Early Humans
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History is the study of humans in the past
and historians are the people who study and
write about humans of the past.
The early period of Human history is called
the Stone Age. The earliest part of the
Stone Age is called the Paleolithic period.
Paleolithic People
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Paleolithic people adapted to their
environment. Those in warm climates wore
little clothing and had little need for
shelter.
Those who lived in cold climates used
caves for shelters. Over time, they learned
to create shelters from animal hides and
wooden poles.
Neolithic People
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In the beginning of the Neolithic age,
people began to domesticate animals.
These domesticated animals carried
goods and provided meat, wool and
milk.
People in different parts of the world
began to grow crops at about the same
time. We call this the farming
revolution.
Neolithic life
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Because people needed to stay close to
their fields, people began to build
permanent homes in newly established
villages.
Permanent villages provided people
with security and steady food. The
surplus of food led to a larger
population.
Mesopotamia
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Mesopotamia is an area in modern day Iraq and
the Middle East.
Mesopotamia mean “between two rivers”
There are two main rivers in Mesopotamia
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Tigris
Euphrates
Modern day Baghdad is located in between the
two.
This area is thought to be where the Garden of
Eden is located
Genesis 2:10-14 (New King James Version)
10 Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there
it parted and became four riverheads. 11 The name of the first is
Pishon; it is the one which skirts the whole land of Havilah, where
there is gold. 12 And the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and the
onyx stone are there. 13 The name of the second river is Gihon; it is
the one which goes around the whole land of Cush. 14 The name of
the third river is Hiddekel;[a] it is the one which goes toward the east
of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates.
Mesopotamia Cont……
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This region was also called the “fertile
crescent”.
Farmers in this region used irrigation for
their crops.
The climate was hot and dry, but with
annual flooding during the rainy seasons.
The Fertile Crescent was an area of fertile
land where food for many people could be
grown very easily.
Cities in the Fertile Crescent
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One of the earliest inhabited areas in
Mesopotamia was Sumer.
Sumer was divided into city states.
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Each city state had its own government
They were independent
They often fought one another
Bad terrain made communication difficult
Sumerians Cont…..
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Sumerians made several technological
advances.
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Irrigation
Wagon wheel
Plow
Sailboat
60 minute hour, 60 second minute, 360
degree circle
Each
Sumerian City
State had its
own ruler.
They had all
power over
their area.
Sumerian built temples called
Ziggurats to worship their gods.
Some of these still survive.
Genesis 11:1-9 (King James Version)
1And the whole earth was of one language, and of one
speech.
2And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east,
that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they
dwelt there.
3And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick,
and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone,
and slime had they for morter.
4And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower,
whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a
name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the
whole earth.
5And the LORD came down to see the city and the
tower, which the children of men builded.
6And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and
they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and
now nothing will be restrained from them, which they
have imagined to do.
7Go to, let us go down, and there confound their
language, that they may not understand one another's
speech.
8So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon
the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
9Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the
LORD did there confound the language of all the earth:
and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon
the face of all the earth.
Cuneiform
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Sumerians invented a type of writing called
cuneiform.
This method of writing was accomplished
by pressing a stick (a.k.a. stylus) into clay
tablets to create a shape.
This is one of the first examples of writing
we have.
This writing was done by special people
called scribes.
Akkadians
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Eventually a king named Sargon conquered
much of Sumer.
He was the head of the Akkadian people
He setup the first empire (many different
lands under one ruler).
His empire lasted for 200 years.
Babylonians
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In the 1800s B.C. a new people came to
power.
The Babylonians had a capital at Babylon.
Their leader was named Hammurabi.
Hammurabi invented a code of laws known
as Hammurabi’s code.
It was one of the predecessors of our
modern code of law.
Assyrians
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About 1000 years after Hammurabi, a new
group of people came into existence in
Mesopotamia.
The Assyrians had a very strong military.
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They were very organized in their military
They were the firsts large army to use iron
weapons.
Their capitol city was at Nineveh
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Nineveh had one of the first large libraries ever
They had laws similar to Hammurabi’s Code
Chaldeans
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The Assyrians rough ways soon led their people
to revolt.
A group of people called the Chaldeans took over
Mesopotamia in 612 B.C.
Nebuchadnezzar was the leader that turned the
Chaldeans land into an empire.
This is the same Nebuchadnezzar from the Bible.
Many of the Chaldeans were descendants of
citizens of Hammurabi’s Babylon
Babylon once again became one of the most
prosperous cities on the planet
Hanging Gardens of Babylon
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Nebuchadnezzar built a huge garden to
please his wife who missed the mountains
of her childhood home.
Archeologist thought this was a legend for
years, until its remains were found.