Download 6th Chapter 3 notes Mesopotamia

Chapter 3
Mesopotamia and the Fertile Crescent
Mesopotamia - "land between rivers"
-Tigris and Euphrates rivers (today Iraq)
-yearly flooding left silt (very fine, rich soil
-Fertile Crescent - Large arce of rich(fertile) farmland from Mesopotamia to Mediterranean Sea.
Sumerians - first to settle Mesopotamia (first civilization) -around 3600 BC
-City State government -each city was like a country
-fought with each other
- Polytheistic (believed in many gods) - Ziggurat -religious temples
- Priests - much status and power in society (2nd to king)
- Men held power while women took care of home and children
-Enheduanna (priestess wrote hymns) -first female writer in history
Contributions: Invention, idea or product which helped life and whose form is still used today
1. Cuneiform - wedge shaped writing on clay tablets - stylus was writing instrument
-used pictographs(picture symbols)
- Scribe -witers
- used in business, record keeping, government and eventually entertainment
2. Epics - long poems that tell stories of heros "Gilgamesh"
3.Wheel - wheeled vehicles (carts and wagons)
- potter's wheel
4 Plow - broke card clay soil
5. Clock - used falling water
6. Sewers - plumbing in houses
7. Art - Make up and glass jewelry
- stone cylinder seals used to roll over wet clay
8. Math - system based on 60
9. Science - tablets with lists of animals, plants, and minerals
10. Medicine - healing drugs, categorized
11. Architecture - Ziggurats(Temples) , well planned organized and sometimes elaborate homes
12. Music - reed pipes, drums, tambourines and lyre(stringed instrument)
Cultural Diffusion - Elements of your culture are shared with other cultures
Akkadians - Conquered the Sumerians
Sargon -KIng who established the world's first empire(Land with different territories and peoples under
a single rule) - From Persian gulf to Mediterranean Sea (map page 61)
- ruled for more than 50 years
Babylonians - conquered the peoples of Mesopotamia
Hammurabi - great war leader
Code of Laws
Hittites – (Asia Minor – Turkey today)
- First to have iron weapons
- Chariots
Assyrians – Invade and conquer – rule by violence and force
- used iron weapons and chariots like Hittites(cultural diffusion)
-Psychological warfare – make enemies afraid to attack
- conquered people pay tribute( taxes)
- Capital was Nineveh
- Administration
- Roads
- Postal Service
Chaldeans – (2nd Babylonians) - Conquer the Assyrians
- Rebuild Babylon (famous Hanging Gardens) – trees and flowers growing on roof
- copied much from Sumerians
- Astronomy – charted stars – predicted eclipses
- very accurate calendar
- Geometry
Phoenicians – Along Mediterranean Sea (few resources except for cedar trees)
-Excellent shipbuilders (narrow powered by sail and galley slaves
- Depended on Trade (glass, pottery, needlework, purple die, cedars for ivory tin and silver)
- established trading colonies throughout the Mediterranean Sea (Carthage)
- Alphabet (letters used to form words instead of pictures)
-made writing much easier – our alphabet is modelled after
Israelites(Hebrews) – Along Mediterranean Sea just to the south of Phoenicia ( was also called Palestine)
- God’s Chosen people
– religion of Judaism (root for Christianity)
Torah – 1st 5 books of the old testament
Prophets – messengers of God
Monotheism – Belief in one God
- Law – (10 commandments)
- Slavery in Egypt until leader Moses led them to “Promised Land” -(Exodus)
-Diaspora – Scattering of Jews around the world
- Zionism – the bringing back of Jews to Israel
Persians – Conquer the entire Fertile Crescent
- Kings: Cyrus the Great, Darius, Xerxes
- Organization (improved roads and communication)
- divided into Satrapies(provinces) – Satraps - governors
- Uniform Coins & weights and measures
- Aramaic Language (trade)
- Zoroastrianism religion