Transcript Document

Mesopotamia
The Earliest Civilization?
Mesopotamia
Adler, chapter 2
“Land between the rivers”
Adler, chapter 2
Nature’s tenuous bounty
• The Tigris (right) and the
Euphrates
Adler, chapter 2
The Babylonian empire under
Nebuchadnezzar II
circa 600 BCE
Adler, chapter 2
The Persian empire
6th century BCE
Adler, chapter 2
Sumerian home
• The typical residence of a
well-to-do businessman
– windowless
– a central open-air courtyard
Adler, chapter 2
Monumental architecture
• The ziggurat of
Ur
Adler, chapter 2
Ur, city of the moon goddess
Adler, chapter 2
Even the Assyrians….
Adler, chapter 2
And the Neo-Babylonians
• Nebuchchadnezzar’s famous
Hanging Gardens of Babylon
– one of the seven wonders of the
world
– supposedly built for his Persian wife
Adler, chapter 2
Finally, the Achmenids
• Right: the ruins at
Persepolis
Adler, chapter 2
Religious life
•
•
Question: what sort of attitudes
might we associate with the
figures below?
Right: worshipping the mood
goddess
Adler, chapter 2
Warfare
• Below: the Standard of Ur
• Right: Assyrian “frightfulness”
Adler, chapter 2
Warfare (cont.)
• Right: Jewish war captives
• Below: favorite “sport”
Adler, chapter 2
Inventions
• Writing
– from the earliest (below) to the
very complex (far right)
Adler, chapter 2
Inventions (cont.)
• The plow
– surely one of history’s most important inventions
Adler, chapter 2
Inventions (cont.)
• New world peoples did not make
this discovery
Adler, chapter 2
Governing a troubled land
• Below: king Gudea of Lagesh
• Right: temple tribute
Adler, chapter 2
Hammurabi
• The “Lawgiver”
• From Adler:
– “How does the Hammurabi Code
show that property rights were
superior to human rights?”
Adler, chapter 2
Everyday life
Adler, chapter 2