Transcript File

Mesopotamia:
“The Cradle of Civilization”
Earliest Civilization
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The earliest known civilization
developed along the Tigris and
Euphrates rivers
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Today, the land between the two
rivers is part of the country of Iraq
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In ancient times, the area was called
Mesopotamia, “the land between the
rivers.”
The Fertile Crescent
Civilization developed slowly in different
parts of the world. People began to settle
in areas with abundant natural resources.
A section of the Middle East is called the
Fertile Crescent.
 The Fertile Crescent is a rich food-growing
area in a part of the world where most of
the land is too dry for farming. The Fertile
Crescent is a crescent shaped region that
extends from the eastern shore of the
Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf
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The Fertile Crescent
Some of the best farmland of the Fertile
Crescent is on a narrow strip of land between
the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. The Greeks
later called this region Mesopotamia, which
means “between the rivers.”
 Many different civilizations developed in this
small region. First came the Sumerians, who
were replaced in turn by the Assyrians and the
Babylonians. Today this land is known as Iraq
and was ruled by a dictator named Saddam
Hussein until 2003
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Geographic Conditions
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Little rainfall for crops
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Hot and dry climate in the Summer
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Winter brought fierce windstorms leaving
muddy river valleys
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Spring brought catastrophic flooding
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Arid soil containing little minerals
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No stone or timber resources
Why live in Mesopotamia?
NATURAL LEVEES: embankments produced by build-up of sediment over
thousands of years of flooding
Natural Levee
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create a high and safe flood plain
make irrigation and canal construction easy
provide protection
the surrounding swamps were full of fish & waterfowl
reeds provided food for sheep / goats
reeds also were used as building resources
History of Mesopotamia
Over the centuries, many different people
lived in this area creating a collection of
independent states
 Sumer- southern part
 Akkad- northern part
 Babylonia- Sumer & Akkad were unified to
become Babylon
 Assyria- Assyrian Empire
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Sumerians
Lived in southern Mesopotamia, an area
known as Sumer
 Controlled the flooding by building up
levees and used the canals to irrigate their
crops
 Barley, wheat, sesame, flax, fruit trees,
date palms, etc.
 Made bricks for buildings out of mud and
baked them in the sun
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Sumerians
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The Sumerians moved to the Tigris and
Euphrates Rivers about 3500BC, but we
do not know where they came from. They
were probably nomads who discovered
the fertile land between the rivers.
Nomads travel in small groups until they
have eaten the food that grows wild and
hunted the animals in the area. When
food is no longer plentiful, they move to a
new area. Some people continue to live
like this in remote parts of the world to
this day.
Sumerians
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Eventually the Sumerians developed a
civilization. They learned that by planting
seeds and plowing their land, they were
able to grow crops. They learned to
domesticate or tame animals to help them
plow their lands. The Sumerians learned
to use irrigation, or a system of watering
crops, to grow more food. The Sumerians
also made a very important invention –
the wheel. The invention of the wheel
made it possible to pull heavy loads.
Sumerians
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Sumeria was composed of several citystates, or nations the size of cities. Walls
around each city-state protected the
citizens from outside invaders. Farmland
was usually outside the city walls and
people would seek protection from the
walls of the city when under attack.
Religion
The Sumerians were polytheistic, which means
they believed in many gods. They worshipped
their gods at huge temples they called ziggurats.
Each ziggurat was dedicated to a specific god,
whom the Sumerians believed ruled over their
city.
 When one city was conquered, the invaders
would force the conquered people to accept
their gods. Most people in the Western
Hemisphere today are monotheists, which
means that they believe in only one god.
Christianity, Islam, and Judaism are all
monotheistic faiths.
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Religion
gods were worshipped at
huge temples called
ZIGGURATS
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Position of King was
enhanced and supported
by religion
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Kingship believed to be
created by gods and the
king’s power was divinely
ordained
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Polytheistic religion consisting
of over 3600 gods and
demigods
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Shows diversity of religion
from different regions
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All of Mesopotamia shared
the same religion and the
same prominent gods
Prominent Mesopotamian gods
Enlil (supreme god & god of air)
Ishtar (goddess of fertility & life)
An (god of heaven)
Enki (god of water & underworld)
Shamash (god of sun and giver of law)
Ziggurats
“mountain of god” or “hill of heaven”
Cosmic mountain from Creation Myths
Bridge between heaven & earth
Ziggurat of Ur -2000BCE
Important for gods to be honoured by
religious ceremonies
Ceremonies performed by priests in
sacred temples on ziggurat
Temples created from mud bricks &
placed on platforms due to constant
flooding
Temples evolved to ziggurats- a stack
of 1-7 platforms decreasing in size from
bottom to top
Famous ziggurat: Tower of Babel
(100m+ above ground & 91m base)
Built 2200-500 BCE
City-States
Each was considered a state in itself, with
its own god and government
 Made up of the city and farmland around
it
 The city was surrounded by a wall for
protection
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Mesopotamian Art
 Political
structure an early form of
democracy
 Frequent
wars led to the emergence
of warriors as leaders
 Eventual
rise of monarchy
Nobles
King and his family, high-priests, high dignitaries
Free Clients (amelu)
government officials, professional soldiers and priests
Commoners (mushkinu)
Work for the king (tenant farmers)
Shopkeepers, farmers, merchants, labourers, enforce laws, collect
taxes
Own their own land (development)
Slaves
P.O.W.s, debt, born into slavery
~ wives & children could be sold
Could buy their freedom
Sumerians
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Established the social, economic & intellectual basis of Mesopotamia
First to develop writing in the form of CUNEIFORM
Sumerians are credited to have invented the wheel
Sumer became the first city of the world
Sumerians were not successful in uniting lower Mesopotamia
Women: not protected by law; men dominant over women; if husband died,
brother-in-law or father-in-law became her controller, could be sold into slavery
Akkadians
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Leader: Sargon I (the Great)
Sargon’s greatest achievement was conquering Sumer (2331 BCE) & then unifying
the 2 areas into Babylonia
Established capital at Akkad
Spread Mesopotamian culture throughout Fertile Crescent
dynasty established by Sargon was short-lived… Akkadians were conquered by
invading barbarians by 2200 BCE (Kassites)
Babylonians
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Babylonians reunited
Mesopotamia in 1830 BCE
Used their central location to
dominate trade and establish
control
KING HAMMURABI –
conquered Akkad and Assyria
and gained control of north
and south
Hammurabi’s Legacy: his law
code
Innovation: glazed bricks, units
to measure minutes & hours
(ca.1800)
KING NEBUCHEDNEZZAR II
– another important period
under his leadership (604-562)
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10th century BCE, Assyria
emerged as dominant force
reunited Mesopotamia and
established the first true empire
army was most feared due to their
brutal, bloodthirsty & terrorizing
tactics and use of iron weapons,
battering rams, chariots
Empire stretched from Persian Gulf north and West to Syria, Palestine and Egypt
By 539 BCE, Mesopotamia became part of the vast Persian Empire (led by Cyrus
the Great)
Persian Empire dominated for 200 years until Alexander the Great conquered (331
BCE)
Hammurabi
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Hammurabi was the king of the city-state
of Babylon. About 1800BC, Hammurabi
conquered the nearby city-states and
created the Kingdom of Babylonia. He
recorded a system of laws called the Code
of Hammurabi. The 282 laws were
engraved in stone and placed in a public
location for everyone to see.
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Hammurabi required that people be
responsible for their actions. Some of
Hammurabi’s laws were based on the
principle “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a
tooth.” This means that whoever commits
an injury should be punished in the same
manner as that injury. If someone put out
another person’s eye, their eye would be
put out in return. Hammurabi’s code may
seem cruel today, but it was an early
attempt at law. Laws are rules that are
known to people.
Code of Hammurabi
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Code of 282 laws inscribed on a stone pillar placed in
the public hall for all to see
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Hammurabi Stone depicts Hammurabi as receiving
his authority from god Shamash
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Set of divinely inspired laws; as well as societal laws
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Punishments were designed to fit the crimes as
people must be responsible for own actions
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Hammurabi Code was an origin to the concept of “eye
for an eye…” ie. If a son struck his father, the son’s
hand would be cut off
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Consequences for crimes depended on rank in
society (ie. only fines for nobility)
Development of Writing
•Sumerian writing
•Made up of hundred of
markings shaped like
wedges
•Developed because
people had to keep
track of business deals
•Scribes – worked for
the temple, palace,
government, or army
Writing
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Greatest contribution of
Mesopotamia to western civilization
was the invention of writing
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allowed the transmission of
knowledge, the codification of laws,
records to facilitate trade
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First written communication was
PICTOGRAMS (@ 3200 BCE)
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As society evolved, the first form of
writing was developed called
CUNEIFORM
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(meaning “wedge shaped”)
Cuneiform spread to Persia and
Egypt and became the vehicle for the
growth and spread of civilization
and the exchange of ideas among
cultures
Royal Tombs
of Ur
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City famed in Bible as the home of
patriarch Abraham
 many great discoveries such as
extravagant jewelry of gold, cups of
gold and silver, bowls of alabaster, and
extraordinary objects of art and culture
 opened the world's eyes to the full
glory of ancient Sumerian culture
Great Death Pit (at Ur)
 mass grave
 containing the bodies of 6 guards and
68 court ladies (servants of kings and
queens)
 servants walked down into the grave in
a great funeral procession
 they drank a poisoned drink and fell
asleep never to wake again, choosing
to accompany the kings and queens in
the afterlife
One of the Wonders of the
Ancient World
Hanging Gardens of Babylon
Legacies of Mesopotamia
Revolutionary innovations:
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codified laws
 concept of kingship and the city-state
 building of places of worship (ziggurats)
 birthplace of writing (cuneiform), astronomy
 Invention of the wheel
 Oldest written records of a Creation Story date back to
Mesopotamia
 First civilization to make a prosperous living based on large
scale agriculture
 One of the Wonders of the Ancient World: Hanging Gardens
of Babylon
 First Empire
Definitions
Levee: Earthen dams constructed to hold
back floodwaters
 Domestication: The taming of wild animals
to use for farming or to be kept as pets
 City-state: a self-governing state
consisting of a city and surrounding
territory
 Stylus: a hard, pointing writing tool cut
from a reed
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