Transcript Inquiry 2 Emergence of a Civilization

Homework for Unit 2
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Page 30 # 1, 2, 3, 5
Page 34 # 1
Page 35 # 2, 3, 4 (skip a)
Page 38 # 1, 2, 3
Page 39 # 5
Page 42 # 1, 3, 4
Page 45 # 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
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It is a means of communicating.
Plays a big part of our lives!
It has the following:
 People living together in a territory
 Government to make laws
 Systems of government: democracy vs. dictatorship
 School system (literacy)
 Mathematics and science
 Religion
 Medicine
 Technology
 Traditions and culture
 Entertainment and sports
 Currency
 Infrastructure (roads, bridges, highways, sewers,
running water)
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Nile Valley
Mesopotamian
Indus Valley
Chinese
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All 4 civilizations developed on fertile land and near
rivers.
Each spring, the water levels rose and spilled over
the banks and flooded the area for several months.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki8S5I83Ccc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RP2KfewiJA
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Water levels eventually receded (went back down)
and left behind silt (fertile mud) on the ground.
Farmers now had fertile soil to grow crops.
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Because it only flooded once a year, how would farmers
get water to the crops once the dry season began?
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IRRIGATION! It involves capturing water and sending it
across the crop fields on a daily basis.
1. Building canals to get water to fields.
2. Ditches carried the water from the canal directly to
the crop fields.
 A ditch is a narrow channel dug in the ground.
3. Building dikes to retain water in canal.
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It allowed more people to be fed and families to
grow in numbers (population increase)
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Villages grew into cities.
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A chief ruled and passed laws which everyone had to
follow.
Written laws were formal, permanent and
undisputable (incontestable: not open to question).
These cities became organized…this is what a
civilization is!
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They needed to record and communicate
information to others.
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Keeping track of food surpluses (leftover)
would be impossible without recording
quantities.
What is a trade group?
 People belonging to the same type of occupation.
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Needed and relied on each other.
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Provided each other with goods and services.
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They produced food (ex: wheat, barley, sesame, and
millet)
They raised livestock.
Majority of civilians were peasants.
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Made tools, pots, weapons, bricks, etc.
Built houses, public buildings, boats and wagons.
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Bartered (traded) with other Mesopotamian cities and
with people living outside of Mesopotamia.
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Protected the goods and
territory from thieves.
Protected roads travelled by
merchants.
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Merchants travelled long distances to trade.
Mesopotamia traded food surpluses for products that
they did not have.
What products did other civilizations give to
Mesopotamia?
1. Hittites offered copper, lead, silver, iron
2. Canaanites offered copper, bronze, tin, gold.
3. People from the Zagros mountains offered
iron and steel.
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People began writing around 3,500 BC.
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They started by drawing objects, and engraved their
drawings (called pictograms) on moist clay tablets.
The writing system first started in the
form of pictures, technically known as
pictograms. In Egypt, the first
pictogram dates back to around 6000
BCE.
CLAY
A stiff, sticky fine-grained earth, typically yellow, red, or bluish-gray in color and often forming an
impermeable layer in the soil. It can be molded when wet, and is dried and baked to make bricks,
pottery, and ceramics.
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System of writing whereby ideas are passed on
through drawing.
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Used worldwide since around 9000 BC.
What about detailed ideas? Emotions?
Figures of speech? Sarcasm?
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Pictograms were simple and quite limited in what
they could describe.
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Cuneiform script is one of the earliest known
systems of writing (Sumerians)
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A stylus (twig) was used to make wedge-shaped
marks on damp clay tablets .
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“Cuneiform” means "wedge-shaped”
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Cuneiform writing began in Sumer (3800 BC).
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It was a hierarchical society.
`A person’s hierarchical
position depended wealth,
type of job and who he knew.
Ex: Artisans were skilled and
harder to replace than
farmers. Therefore, they
were more valued than
farmers.
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This region had 10 major cities.
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Located between Euphrates & Tigris Rivers
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Each city was independent, built near rivers and
surrounded by protective walls.
Higher city:
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Inhabited by all the important people
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Harder to get to because it was built on a mound.
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All the important institutions & buildings were located
(temples, the ziggurat, the royal palace and
food/supply warehouses etc.).
Lower city:
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Inhabited by the peasants
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This part of the city would be quickly overtaken
by the enemy.
Higher city:
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All the important people lived here.
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Difficult to reach because its on a hill
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All the important institutions & buildings were
located here:
i.
Temples
Ziggurat
Royal palace
Food warehouses.
ii.
iii.
iv.
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Higher city was safer than lower city because it is
velevated than the lower city.
The king (inherited
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power):
Supreme ruler of all major
Mesopotamian cities.
Managed the army,
irrigation projects and
food supplies.
Represented the Gods on
Earth
A powerful king called Gilgamesh
ruled the city of Uruk.
The Elite:
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High priests
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Army commanders
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Rich merchants.
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Advised the king and
carried out his orders
File:CMOC Treasures of Ancient China exhibit
- tri-coloured figure of a civil official.jpg
The Free people:
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Priests
Artisans
Farmers (peasants)
Hard-working merchants
Soldiers
Civil servants
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Farmers gave crops to the king (tax payment)
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The slaves:
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Prisoners of war.
Had no rights.
Received no wages ($) for their work.
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The king`s authority ensured stability and unity.
Written laws ensured that justice was served!
Anyone caught violating/breaking laws were
punished.
These laws applied to everyone.
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Oldest written law code that exists.
Hammurabi had these laws engraved on a stele.
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King Hammurabi,
standing with his
hand raised
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Man sitting:
Shamash, God of
the Sun and
Justice
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The 282 laws of
the Code of
Hammurabi
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No. The punishment for breaking the law was not the
same for everyone.
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What you did for a living, who you knew and what
you owned played (called social status) a big part on
the severity of the punishment for breaking a law.
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The punishment was harsher for a peasant than a
member of the elite.
For crimes against persons:
 The code applied the law of retaliation (an eye for an
eye!) which meant that the criminal would receive the
same damage he had inflicted onto his victim.
Family issues:
 The code sought to protect women and children.