Download Mesopotamia`s examples of social hierarchy

Name: _________________________
Date: _________________
Mesopotamia Takes the Wheel
Mesopotamia’s examples of social hierarchy (how can you tell if one person has more
power or money than another?):

Private homes (all houses are not the same size, they’re not shared, etc…)

Status symbols (jewelry, houses, jobs all show how some people richer than
others, ex: if someone has a diamond necklace and others don’t, a lot
wealthier).

Social Classes (Lower, Middle, and High Classes)

Inequality now, we even have slaves (h/g’s didn’t have this b/c they were all
EQUAL, all had the same jobs)
Mesopotamia’s examples of advanced technology (What did Mesopotamia have that
hunting and gathering groups didn’t?):

Bronze tools (nobody had the opportunity to make metal in h/g societies)

Boats (h/g’s moved on foot, always finding food)

Wheel (free time to develop technology and used for trade, moving sacrifices to
the ziggurat, transportation, etc…)

Irrigation (moving water from one place to another) helped them farm and have
clean drinking water
Mesopotamia’s examples of writing and record keeping:

Cuneiform (symbols or pictograms, only scribes learned it)

Wrote on clay tablets,(needed writing for laws, keeping track of trade,
communication, money)

World’s first written story, Epic of Gilgamesh, h/g’s didn’t have time (or
writing) to get to this level
Mesopotamia’s examples of central government and written laws:

Hammurabi’s Code (“Eye for an Eye”), needed to strict laws with
farming/civilization, everyone knew each other with h/g, so they didn’t need a
gov’t. With farming, thousands of strangers living all in one place, it’d be
chaotic.

Priest-king at top of hierarchy, both religious and gov’t leader
Mesopotamia’s examples of advanced cities (what did city-states look like or have?):

Irrigation system (moves water from river to the fields)

City walls (for protection against enemies, shows permanent settlement)

Private homes

Tax payment (thousands of people staying in one place, have to pay for army,
schools, clean streets, etc).
Mesopotamia’s examples of common culture, including religion:

Polytheistic (believe in more than one god, 3,000 to be exact); most gods were
based on nature because rely on weather for FARMING

Ziggurat-place where the gods lived, Mesopotamians left sacrifices (crops,
animals) to have good luck, had holydays

Epic of Gilgamesh, myths/legends
Mesopotamia’s examples of specialized workers (what jobs were needed in
Mesopotamia? What artifacts could be evidence for specialized workers?):

Farmers-created civilization, but low on social hierarchy b/c didn’t have much
education

Priest-King most important job, metalworker, gov’t officials, shepherds,
dressmakers, pottery makers, hunters, slaves, scribes all existed because of
FREE TIME
Think and bullet: Why was Mesopotamia the birthplace of civilization? (Hint: Think
of what its name means!)
LAND BETWEEN TWO RIVERS! Those TWO rivers are Euphrates and the Tigris.
Mesopotamia is an ARVC. (Ancient River Valley Civilization).
You’ll also need to answer:
1) Why was Hammurabi’s Code necessary in Mesopotamia? (Why didn’t huntergatherers need something like Hammurabi’s Code?)
2) What’s the difference between polytheism and monotheism?