Download Middle East

Chapter 2:
Ancient
Middle East & Egypt
3200 B.C.- 500 B.C.
Sumer,
World's First
Civilization
Section 1: City-States
of Ancient Sumer
• Fertile Crescent curves from the
Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean
Sea
• Mesopotamia
– It lies between
the Tigris
and Euphrates
Rivers
Sumer:
World’s 1st civilization developed in
southeastern Mesopotamia ~3300bc
• Regular catastrophic floods
– Need cooperation
• Few resources
– Used clay to build cities like
Ur & Uruk
• Trade brought riches
• In Sumerian society,
women held a higher
social standing.
However, women
were still not treated
equally.
Sumerian
Religion
• Polytheistic
– God’s & goddesses controlled every
aspect of life
Viewed afterlife as grim
underworld, no escape
– Especially nature
• Highest duty was to keep Gods happy
• Ziggurat
– Large stepped platform topped by a
temple dedicated to city’s main god
or goddess
Sumerian Writing
• Cuneiform
– Earliest form of known
writing
– Grew out of system of
pictographs
• A stylus was used on a clay
tablet.
– Myths, prayers, laws,
contracts, and monetary
exchanges
Cuneiform
• How was ancient
Sumerian writing (the
earliest known writing
system) similar to English?
• How was it different?
• Would you have liked to
have been a scribe in
Sumerian times?
– Why or why not?
• Beginning around 2500 B.C., armies of
conquering peoples swept across
Mesopotamia and overwhelmed the
Sumerian city-states. By 1900 B.C., the
Sumerian civilization had been replaced by
other civilizations and empires
Sumer Legacy
• Akkadians, Babylonians,
& Assyrians adapt
cuneiform to use with
their own languages
• Astronomy &
mathematics
• Sumerian knowledge
passed on to Greeks &
Romans
The Epic of Gilgamesh
• ~2000 bc
– First great work of
literature
• Sumerian king of Uruk
• Great flood
First great work
of literature
Epic of Gilgamesh
~ 2000 bc
Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, sought eternal life and obtained the plant of youth.
However, a snake ate it, which, according to the legend, is why people do not
live forever.
Fertile
Crescent
today