Transcript River Valley Civilizations

River Valley
Civilizations
The Birth of Organized Humanity
Unit Preview – Essential
Vocabulary
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Beginning of the Unit
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Hierarchy
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Ziggurat
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Cuneiform
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Mesopotamia
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Fertile Crescent
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Epic of Gilgamesh
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Sargon, Ruler of Akkad
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Hammurabi, The Lawgiver
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Hammurabi’s Code *
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Codify
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Criminal vs civil law
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Assyrians
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Essential Vocabulary
Continued
Rating Scale - CONTINUED
1= I have never seen or heard of the term.
2= I have heard of the term, but I really don’t know what it means.
3= I have some idea of what the term is, but I need to know more to apply it in
my work and on an exam.
4= I have a good understanding of the term and feel confident that I can apply it
to my work and feel confident I could handle it on an exam.
Beginning of the Unit
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Nebuchadnezzar
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Emperor Darius
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Satrap
End of the Unit
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Criteria for Success
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Map of the Fertile Crescent
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Map of Ancient Egypt
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The City-States of Ancient Sumer
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------Location- Mesopotamia (Fertile Crescent) – Map on page 5
- Questions to Consider:
~ What role did geography play in the development of the first cities?
~ What features of Sumerian civilization qualify it as a civilization?
~ What major advancements did Sumerians give to future humans?
Mesopotamia – Literally means “Land between the Rivers”
A. Two Main Rivers
-Tigris & Euphrates
B. Controlling the flood patterns of these rivers was essential
to the success of the civilization.
- Floodwaters would make the land fertile.
C. However, the floods were dangerous and unpredictable.
- To much flooding would destroy crops and people.
- To little flooding would not properly water the
crops.
D. In response, irrigation methods were used to control the
rivers.
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Sickle sword, Middle Assyrian
Reign of Adad-nirari I; 1307–1275 B.C.
Mesopotamia, northern region
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The Features of Sumerian Civilization
Insert Sumerian Page 8
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Sumerian Advancements!
Ziggurat
Cuneiform
Sumerian Calendar
Gold Necklace
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The Kingdoms of the Nile River
(Egypt – North Africa) Map on Page 6
Questions to Consider:
~ How did geography (particularly the Nile) influence ancient Egypt?
~What were the main achievements of each of the Three Kingdoms?
~ What examples in its government system show Egypt is a theocracy?
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Egypt 1
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Egypt 2
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Egypt 3
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Egypt 4
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Egypt 5
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Egypt 6
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Egypt 7
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Egypt 8
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Insert Osiris Story
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The Features of Egyptian
Civilization
 Organized Religion
 See Osiris/Set story
 Pharaoh Akhenaton – “He who serves Aton”. Attempted to
remove worship of all other gods except Aton. Very
unpopular.
 Role of the Afterlife - Very important to Egyptian society.
Mummification – a way to prepare a corpse so that it
does not quickly decay.
The Book of the Dead – a book of magical spells that
a person’s spirit would have to recite to receive passage
to the Happy Field of Food (the Afterlife).
 Social Classes
Pharaoh > Priests > Nobles > Merchants/Scribes >
Peasants > Slaves
Women had considerable rights in Egypt. They could own
property and take part in business. They could also obtain a
divorce. Still, could not hold government positions.
 Pharaoh Hatshepsut – Only woman pharaoh. She sent out
trade expeditions with other African kingdoms. Because
Egyptian rulers were expected to be male, she wore a fake
beard as a symbol of her power.
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The Rosetta Stone
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The Rosetta Stone - Continued
• The Rosetta Stone is the key to how we unlocked the code
of the written Egyptian language.
• The most well known form of Egyptian writing today are
hieroglyphics.
• These are similar to cuneiform, except that they also
have pictures that convey emotions and ideas, not just
physical objects and people. This type of picture writing
are known as ideograms.
• However, hieroglyphics were a sacred form of writing,
reserved only to priests and scribes in religious uses
(included historical accounts).
• In day to day use, a form of writing called demotic was
used. It was a simpler form of ideograms than hieroglyphics.
• Typically, demotic was written on parchment scrolls, made
from the stems of the papyrus plant which grows in
northern Egypt.
• The Rosetta Stone had the same message written three
times upon it. Once it hieroglyphics, once in demotic and
once in ancient Greek.
• Since scholars at the time of discovery could read ancient
Greek, the other two languages could be translated by
basing the ideograms on the Greek words.
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Other Egyptian Achievements
• Medicine
• Egyptian doctors performed the first surgeries
• Astronomy
• Egyptians studied and charted the stars and like the
Sumerians, created an accurate calendar. This ancient calendar
is the basis for our modern one.
• Architecture and Art
• The Pyramids are an obvious example, but so were statues,
coffins, obelisks, temples and more.
• Literature
• Egyptians recorded history, but also had different types
of literature. See Instruction of Ptah-hotep on page 962
The Sphinx
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Insert Karnak Slide
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Invaders, Traders and Empire Builders of
Mesopotamia
Questions to Consider:
1) What important achievements did the Empire Builders contribute to history?
2) If you had to select the one most important achievement of Persia, what would it be?
3) How did an alphabet help the Phoenicians carry out their profession?
• Sargon I
• 2300 BC – Conquered the Fertile Crescent and created
the Akkadian Empire, first Empire of history.
• Hammurabi – King of Babylon. 1790 BC
• Through military conquest, brought Mesopotamia under
his control to create the Babylonian Empire
• He had a code of laws created called Hammurabi’s Code.
• Hammurabi’s Code
• Most of the laws were old ones, but no one had ever had
them written down. He had the laws, ‘set in stone’, literally
having them carved into a stone pillar for all to see.
• He divided his laws into two sections. One dealt with
criminal law and the other with civil law.
• It followed the principle of, “an eye for an eye and a life for
a life” in matters of justice. However, this often did NOT
always apply!
• Social rank was VERY important. A person of lower social
rank would not be considered as important as someone of
higher social rank.
• The code also secured the rights of women (for its time).
• In general, the presence of written law benefits the poor
more than the rich and powerful.
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Hammurabi’s Code - Excerpts
14. If any one steal the minor son of another, he shall be put to death.
15. If any one take a male or female slave of the court, or a male or
female slave of a freed man, outside the city gates, he shall be put to
death.
16. If any one break a hole into a house (break in to steal), he shall be
put to death before that hole and be buried.
17. If any one is committing a
robbery and is caught, then he shall
be put to death.
218. If a physician make a large
incision with the operating knife, and
kill him, or open a tumor with the
operating knife, and cut out the eye,
his hands shall be cut off.
219. If a physician make a large
incision in the slave of a freed man,
and kill him, he shall replace the
slave with another slave
-------------------------------------------------Questions (answer on the back):
1. In law 15, what is the punishment
for taking a slave of the king outside
of the city walls?
2. Why are the punishments in laws
218 and 219 different when the crime
committed is the same?
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Empire Builders - continued
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• The Hittites – 1400 BC
• Though their civilization was less advanced than the people of
Mesopotamia, they still managed to conquer them.
• Their secret was….iron weapons.
• Iron was far superior to the weapons of bronze that other
cultures of the time used.
• Around 1200BC, the Hittite Empire collapsed and the secret
of forging iron spread out throughout the Middle East as
Hittite ironsmiths scattered.
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• The Assyrians – 1100BC
• One of the most feared groups of warriors in history.
• Using Hittite iron technology, they cut a bloody empire
through Mesopotamia.
• Assyrian rulers boasted about the damage their armies had
caused.
• However, they were also ran an orderly society once in power.
• Rules existed even for the royal household and how they
should live their lives.
• King Assurbanipal founded one of the first libraries, whose
collection consisted of cuneiform tablets.
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• The New Babylonian Empire
• King Nebuchadnezzar
• built the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven
Wonders of the Ancient World.
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The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
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The Persian Empire: 539 – circa 320 BC
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• First established by Cyrus the Great when in 539 he
conquered Babylon and the Empire of Nebuchadnezzar.
• Darius, Emperor of Persia : 522- 486 BC
• Created an effective system of government.
• Served as a model for later rulers.
Lydian Coin
• He divided his empire into provinces.
• Each province was controlled by a governor called a
satrap.
• Each province paid taxes to the Emperor.
• To keep his satraps loyal, Darius had royal spies who
would check on them.
• Darius also:
• Built hundreds of miles of roads to ease travel, trade
and communication.
• Made a single code of laws (ala Hammurabi)
• Moved himself from one city to the next, making
sure he was seen by his entire empire.
• Economics:
• Darius used a single system of weights and measures (I
will explain in detail).
• He also adopted the practice of using coins from the
Lydians, the first makers and users of coins.
• Barter economies rely on a trade of goods (my goat for
your chicken)
• Money economies rely on a trade of goods for money.
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Sea Traders of Phoenicia
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Phoenician Sea Traders
• Throughout the ancient world, trade between various
cultures and civilization occurred.
• One of the chief trading cultures were the Phoenicians.
• They produced several goods for which they were known:
• Glass, purple dye, books (not paper).
• Their most important contribution though, was something
they made for themselves.
• To make sea trade easier to keep track of, they created an
alphabet.
• In an alphabet, symbols represent sounds, rather than
objects or ideas.
• This makes it possible to express very complex ideas with
a only a few symbols.
• The Greeks would use this alphabet as the basis for their
own and our modern alphabet is based on the Greek one.
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The Roots of Judaism – (BELIEF SYSTEM)
Questions:
1)What is the primary difference between Judaism and the religions
of the Egyptians and the Sumerians?
2)What moral and ethical ideas does Judaism teach?
Origins of the Religion
• Judaism is the native religion of the Hebrews (today called
Israelites).
• Its founding, and that of the Hebrew people, is credited to
Abraham a resident of the Mesopotamian city of Ur around
2000 BC.
• Kingdom of Israel is formed around 1000BC but is later
conquered by the Assyrians and the Babylonians.
• King Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the Temple of Solomon and
enslaved many Jews. This was known as the Babylonian
Captivity.
• Later, Cyrus the Great of Persia would free the Jews from their
captivity.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Judaism as a religion
• Judaism is a monotheistic religion – They believe in ONLY one
god.
• Jews believe that God made a covenant, or agreement with
Abraham to protect the Hebrews in exchange for their worship.
• Judaism teaches moral and ethical behavior. All people, for
instance, are equal in Judaism. The poor and weak should be
protected, not exploited.
• Also, the Ten Commandments used by Christians is originally
(and still) part of Judaism.
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