Transcript early civilizations

The Fertile Crescent
 H6.7.2 Describe the development of agricultural
techniques that permitted the production of
surplus goods and the emergence of cultures
centered in cities.
 6.7.4 Describe the social, political, and economic
developments, as well as the religious, intellectual,
and artistic achievements of early Mesopotamian
civilization.
 1. Review: what technology did the Sumerians
create to control the river and provide enough
water?
 2. What features do all civilizations have in
common?
Why did the ancient Mesopotamians
change their writing system from just
pictures (pictographs) to the cuneiform
shapes??
 3.
 4. What are some of the most
important inventions created by
the Mesopotamians?
 Review: What technology did
the Sumerians create to control
the river and provide enough
water?
 What do all civilizations have in
common?
 Check your notes.
 Civilization is first: an organized
society.
 Before any civilization can develop,
there must be a surplus of food.
 This makes all other things
possible.
 When all goes well, there will be a surplus of food that
is not immediately distributed.
 It is valuable, and must be managed and guarded.
 When a surplus exists, then people are free to choose
different jobs.
 Not all people had to farm. Some could become
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specialists in particular tasks:
–Potters
–Tool makers
–Metal workers (smiths)
–Bakers, butchers, etc.
–Government workers
Priests
 Remember: we are talking about a community
located on a river.
 Trade helped because people didn’t have to make
everything.
 Trade allowed for more specialization of Jobs
 New jobs for artisans, people who work a skilled
craft – weavers, metal workers, pottery makers
 Trade meant that people had to develop standard
weight systems to measure amounts traded,
agreed upon between communities or groups.
 People need rules to live by. Without rules, there is no
order. Crime increases.
 People need government for three basic reasons.
 First: to make rules and pass laws.
 Second: to protect people.
 Third: to build public works projects: things that the
public can use and benefit from. For example:
 Roads
 City Walls
 Irrigation
 Do this Assignment Now.
 Title: The Purpose of Government Web
 Draw a web
 Give at least three examples of each job and draw a
picture for each.
 Most have the following elements:
 A surplus of food. When people have more than enough
food, they begin to develop other needs.
 Division of Labor. When people have one job, they tend
to do that job very well. They are also more likely to choose
a job in a field they enjoy.
 Organized government and religion. When groups of
people live together, they need rules or laws. When they
have the same laws, it is easier to trade. People living
under the same government, or having the same religious
beliefs are likely to have the same values.
 Writing. This allowed societies to keep records and
communicate.
 FIRST CIVILIZATION IN FERTILE CRESENT
 INVENTED 1ST FORM
OF WRITING
 SETTLED IN SUMER
 MOST SUMERIANS
WERE FARMERS
 MAY HAVE BEEN 1ST
PEOPLE TO USE THE
WHEEL
 The Sumerians developed
one of the earliest
civilizations on earth, but
no one really knew about
them until the mid-19th
century.
 The Sumerian civilization
probably began around
5000 BCE. In the
beginning, they were an
agricultural community.
They grew crops and stored
food for times of need.
 Early Pioneers: One day, a group of early settlers
wandered into the land between two rivers.
 No one knows for sure, but there may have been a
small band of people already living in the area. If
so, the settlers quickly took over. They were real
pioneers.
 They built permanent homes of sun-dried bricks
made of mud and straw, and started a new life in
the southern region of ancient Mesopotamia.
 The ancient Sumerians
were very smart. They
invented, among other
things,
 the wheel
 the sailboat
 The first written
language.
 The largest building in most Sumerian cities was the
ziggurat.
 Builders made them in layers, kind of like a wedding
cake.
 Each layer was smaller than the one below.
 Each layer contained a shrine for the city’s special god.
 The Sumerians learned to control the Tigris and Euphrates
Rivers by constructing levees, dikes and irrigation canals.
 As a result, a stable food supply existed, and the Sumerian
villages evolved into self-governing city-states.
 At the center of each city-state was a temple surrounded by
courts and public buildings.
 Radiating from the all-important city center were the twostory houses of the priests and merchants, or the upper
class; the one-story homes of government officials,
shopkeepers, and craftspeople; and the lower class homes
of farmers, unskilled workers, and fishermen. The citystate also included the fertile farming land outside the city
wall.
 Over time, people began to look at certain jobs as
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being “better” than others.
This resulted in the development of social classes.
Three major classes: Upper, Middle, and Low
Higher Class = More Power and Money
Different Classes had Different Jobs.
Upper Class = Nobles, Priests
Middle Class = Craftspeople, Merchants, Scribes, and
Artisans.
Lower Class = Farmers, and Slaves
King or Ruler was above everyone else.
 Over five thousand years ago, people
living in Mesopotamia developed a
form of writing to record and
communicate different types of
information.
 The earliest writing was based on
pictograms. Pictograms were used to
communicate basic information about
crops and taxes.
 Over time, the need for
writing changed and the
signs developed into a
script we call cuneiform.
 Over thousands of years,
Mesopotamian scribes
recorded daily events,
trade, astronomy, and
literature on clay tablets.
 Cuneiform was used by
people throughout the
ancient Near East to write
several different languages.
 The system began with
pictograms, pictures or
signs drawn on clay
tablets.
 The signs changed over
many years, and this is
the story of what
happened to just one of
the signs.
 Around 3100 B.C. people
began to record amounts of
different crops. Barley was
one of the most important
crops in southern
Mesopotamia and when it
was first drawn it looked
like this.
 Draw the sign for barley in
your notes.
 Scribes drew the sign on
soft clay tablets using a
pointed tool, probably
made out of a reed.
 The barley sign changed
shape when the scribes
used a writing tool with a
squared-off end instead
of a point.
 The end of this tool was
used to press wedge
shapes like these into
clay tablets.
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The barley sign had to be written using
several wedges. At this point it became
what we call cuneiform.
Although the signs had changed over the
centuries there were more changes to come.
Nobody can explain why the changes
happened.
The most ancient tablets have signs drawn in
boxes. Later, the signs were written in rows,
arranged in the order in which they were read.
The barley sign looked like this
 Look at page 94 in your book.
 Why did the ancient Mesopotamians decided to
change the writing system from just pictures
(pictographs) to the cuneiform shapes?
 How did the change from pictures (direct
representation) to cuneiform (abstract
representation) affect who could use the system?
 Scribes were very
important people. They
were trained to write
cuneiform and record
many of the languages
spoken in
Mesopotamia.
 Without scribes, letters
would not have been
written or read, royal
monuments would not
have been carved with
cuneiform, and stories
would have been told
and then forgotten.
 They invented a system
of mathematics based on
the number 60.
 Today, we divide an hour
into 60 minutes, and a
minute into 60 seconds.
 That comes from the
ancient Mesopotamians.
 Some Mesopotamian words are still in
use today.
 Words like crocus, which is a
flower, and saffron, which is a
spice, are words borrowed from the
ancient Mesopotamians.
 Cuneiform writing
 The wheel
 Potter’s wheel
Treasures from the Royal Tombs of Ur
 Sailing ship
 Pick-axe
 Brick mold
 Glass
 60-based counting system: 60 minutes
to an hour, 360 degrees to a circle
 Number positioning
 Beer
 Epic poetry
 WHAT ARE SOME IMPORTANT
CONTRIBUTIONS OF ANCIENT
CIVILIZATIONS IN THE FERTILE
CRESCENT?
 Groups:
 #1 - New Inventions and Innovations
 #2 - Architecture and Religious
Beliefs
 #3 - The Role of Government
 # 4 -Changing Economics
 #5 - Divisions in Society
 Review the section in your focus
groups.
 Return to your tables.
 Report what you have read to your
group.
 Make sure you have a complete set of
notes that addresses all of the areas in
Chapter 2.