Download World History: Explore Ancient Mesopotamia

Start here:
http://www.mesopotamia.co.uk/menu.html
World History: Explore Ancient Mesopotamia
Please respond to all these prompts --you will get a chance to explore the following topics on
the website about Ancient Mesopotamia presented by the British Museum. Please complete
every task…
What does the pictographic symbol of barley look like? (Use words to describe.)
How much is a gur?
What is the symbol for 10 gur?
How were cuneiform wedges made?
What English word is the same as the Sumerian pronunciation of their word for Barley?
Name five different things recorded in cuneiform.
On a separate piece of paper use the pictographs and/or cuneiform from one specific time
period to communicate something—you must use a minimum of four “signs or cuneiform
wedges”. (You can complete the sentence with some English helping words, articles, etc…)
What does it mean to be a hero? Who was the famous hero of the ancient Sumerians?
Basically what does he do to gain the status of a hero?
What is a ziggurat? What have archeologists discovered about what ziggurats were?
What did ancient Sumerians believe the world was made up of? What did they think happened
to spirits after death? What did they believe about the sun, moon, and the planet Venus?
What kinds of things would people or kings leave in the temples and why?
What was the temple at Nippur called? Meaning…?
Were the ziggurats used continuously throughout world history?
What was important about the job of “astrologer” in Ancient Mesopotamia?
What kinds of things could be interpreted by watching the stars and planets of the night sky?
Who were some of the people involved in the deciphering of cuneiform tablets?
What kinds of things have we learned through their work?
Who were the Sasanians? When did they control Mesopotamia?
When did Ashurnasipal II rule Assyria? Where was his capital?
Start here:
http://www.mesopotamia.co.uk/menu.html
Where is the ancient city of Agade (Akkad)? When were Sumerian cities united by the leader
King Sargon there?
How many graves were found at the large cemetery at Ur.
When did modern people begin studying about ancient Mesopotamia?
Why did people begin to explore the areas of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers?
What kept people from knowing all about the Mesopotamian cultures when they first started to
find ancient cuneiform tablets?
What role did a man called “Herodotus” play in uncovering the past of Mesopotamia?
How has map-making changed since the time of Claudius James Rich?
What was found at the palace of the Assyrian King Sargon II?
When was Nimrud the capital of Assyria?
How do we know that people in England in the 19th century liked Assyrian art?
What is the claim to fame of British archeologist Henry Rawlinson?
Describe the scene carved into the “relief” found at Bisitun?
What made it possible for the excavation at Babylon to accomplish so much work?
Which came first? Ur becomes the capital of a new empire OR Hammurabi unites much of
Mesopotamia under his leadership?
Which came first? Assyrians conquer much of Mesopotamia OR the Royal Tombs of Ur were
constructed?
Which came first? The development of pictographic record keeping or cuneiform develops
from signs?
When were the first clay envelopes developed?
When was cuneiform used to write Uratian language?
When was the last dateable cuneiform text “written”?
When were long poems first written?
How long did it take for temple platforms to be built “higher”. How much later for the building
of the first “ziggurat”? How much later for ziggurats to be build in north Mesopotamia? How
much longer for ziggurats to go out of use?
When was the first written account of war?
Start here:
http://www.mesopotamia.co.uk/menu.html
Make at least 10 “trading cards” of the gods, goddesses, demons, and monsters important to the
people of Ancient Mesopotamia.
Read the passage above. Study the website sections about Mesopotamian Gods, Goddesses,
Demons, and Monsters.
Write a five paragraph story telling about a “supernatural” occurrence between a scribe and one
or more of the beings.
Scribes in ancient Mesopotamia
Literacy was not widespread in Mesopotamia. Scribes, nearly always men, had to undergo
training, and having successfully completed a curriculum became entitled to call
themselves dubsar, which means 'scribe'. They became members of a privileged élite who might
look with contempt upon their fellow citizens.
Understanding of life in Babylonian schools is based on a group of Sumerian texts of the Old
Babylonian period. These texts became part of the curriculum and were still being copied a
thousand years later. Schooling began at an early age in the é-dubba, the 'tablet house'.
Although the house had a headmaster, his assistant and a clerk, much of the initial instruction
and discipline seems to have been in the hands of an elder student; the scholar's 'big brother'.
All these had to be flattered or bribed with gifts from time to time to avoid a beating.
Apart from mathematics, the Babylonian scribal education concentrated on learning to write
Sumerian and Akkadian using cuneiform and on learning the conventions for writing letters,
contracts and accounts. Scribes were under the patronage of the Sumerian goddess Nisaba. In
later times her place was taken by the god Nabu whose symbol was the stylus (a cut reed used
to make signs in damp clay).