Transcript Ancient Mesopotamia

Ancient Mesopotamia
3100 B.C. to 1600 B.C.
Building a Civilization
• 4 Problems:
– Food shortage
4 Solutions:
Move to fertile
land between
Tigris & Euphrates
Rivers
– Uncontrolled water supply; Build levees &
unpredictable flooding
irrigation ditches
– Lack of labor to build
Cooperation
& maintain irrigation systems
– Attacks by neighboring
Build wall of
communities b/c no natural defense
defenses
Overview
• Invented 1st writing system called
cuneiform for business records
– Based on syllables & words written with a
stylus on clay tablets & baked
• State & society are one
• Gods & nature = violent, unpredictable, so not
much enjoyment (few arts, etc.)
– Anthropomorphic (Like a human), wrathful,
natural disaster-causing, human-hating gods
– Humans’ goal: try to please them
• Temple (ziggurat) was center of
learning, trade, prostitution
Social Hierarchy
King
Priests &
Nobles
Free
Commoners
Slaves
• Very rigid &
fixed by law
• Women could
hold property &
engage in
business
• Slaves (captured
through war or
debt) provided
labor force to
build brick
temples & other
monuments
Political Development
• Sumer: valley between the Tigris &
Euphrates
– Several city-states (city &
surrounding territory)
governed by kings
– Place of commerce
– Center of worship (ziggurats)
• Ex. of city-states: Uruk, Langesh, Ur,
Eredu
• City-states sometimes formed alliances
to create empires
Akkadian Empire
• “Cultural Approach”: 2300-2150 B.C.E.
– Sargon conquered Sumer with large
standing army
– Looked after welfare of lower classes
– Aided a rising class of private merchants
– Collapsed b/c successors were unable to
fend off semibarbaric highlanders, or
overcome the desire for independence of
priests who dominated Sumerian cities
Babylonian Empire
• “Legal Approach”: 2000-1600 B.C.E.
– Hammurabi’s goal to “cause justice to
prevail…to destroy the wicked and evil, to
prevent the strong from oppressing the
weak…and to further the welfare of the
people.” (Eye for an eye)
– Punishments graded in severity—
the lower the culprit in the social
scale, the more severe the penalty
– Basis for modern law systems
– Empire broken by internal disorder & weak
leadership after Hammurabi
Assyrian Empire
• “Conquest Approach”: 900-600 B.C.E.
– “Nazis of the Ancient World”; based power on
fear, terror, & superior military skill
– Problem: conquered people resent rulers, acquire
new technology, & REBEL
Chaldean Empire
• “Restoration Approach,” A.K.A.
“NeoBabylonians”: 600-550 B.C.E.
– Conquered a bit, built, & spent a lot
– Israelites taken as slaves
– Built the Hanging Gardens
(one of the Seven Wonders
of the Ancient World)
– very successful, until overthrown by the Persian
Empire
Persian Empire
• “Tolerant/Benevolent Approach”: 550-325
B.C.E. (1st international empire!)
– Local customs & officials allowed to remain
– Jews released with money to rebuild
– Introduced uniformity/standardization of
measurement (trade purposes)
– Zoroastrianism = monotheistic religion
based on the teachings of the prophet
Zoroaster; Good Thoughts, Good Words,
Good Deeds
• 200 years later…Alexander the Great
Great Discoveries
• Lack of natural barriers + constant warfare =
constant innovation (but art & literature
limited; exception: Epic of Gilgamesh)
– Plow & use of oxen to pull it
– Wheel & cart
– Bronze tools
– Calendar (to help farmers)
– Cuneiform (to help traders)
– Math based on scales of 12