Download Mesopotamia Unit Studnet Notes for PPP

Mesopotamia Unit
Name : _______________________________
Period: _____________
Slide: Where did human society begin?
1.
2.
Slide: The Fertile Crescent
How does your environment impact your life?
All ___________________ ______________
are shaped in some way by the environment
around them.
The term Mesopotamia itself refers most often
to a geographical area, that of the “Land
Between the Rivers:” an area which covers
modern ______________________ and the
north and northeastern part of modern
______________________.
Slide: People of Mesopotamia
The term___________________ refers not only
to a ___________________ area, but also to a
period of history that lasted for more than
___________years.
This region is part of the __________________
____________________, a term describing the
arc of fertile land stretching from the top of the
Persian Gulf all the way to the Nile River of
Egypt.
Mesopotamia was a “___________________”
of cultures, social structures, religious
traditions, and at times, polities or political
groups.
Although we use these terms today,
remember, the actual Mesopotamians didn’t.
There was uniformity of things Mesopotamian
*the long-time use of the same
____________________ _____________, the
duration of the same city features, royal
_____________________, mythology and
literature, and so forth.
Just like highways in America make towns pop
up around off-ramps, two major rivers made
_______________________ a booming area.
“Mesopotamian” was a person who
participated in Mesopotamian religions,
__________________________, social
organizations, _____________, and culture.
Slide: Tigris and Euphrates
The _______________ and ________________
rivers provided good land for crops and easy
_________________________. The rivers
started in the north of Mesopotamia in modern
_____________________, flowing southward to
the Persian Gulf.
The rivers were vital for transporting
_______________and ____________________
and remained so even after the
____________________________ of the camel.
Slide: Canals and Irrigation
The term Fertile Crescent makes one think this
entire area was a ________________
_______________, but don’t forget that this
was also a desert region with widely different
environments.
Southern Mesopotamia did not receive enough
___________________________for rain-fed
agriculture and farming. The southern areas
depended completely upon successful
__________________________.
Irrigation allowed southern Mesopotamia to
become the agricultural center of the ancient
Near East; some scholars have even called it a
“_________________-_________________.”
Using the rivers to the fullest, the southern
Mesopotamians carved massive
____________________________ into the
landscape to channel river waters into their
huge farmlands.
Slide: Farming the Desert
Those who live near water, cringe when they
hear the “F” word— Flooding. Even though this
canal system allowed for the development of
Mesopotamian civilization, it was not without
big problems. The Tigris and Euphrates rivers
could be _______________________and
________________________, causing surprise
and disastrous floods.
Another problem was ____________________,
or the gradual deposit of ______________onto
fields. Over time, fields became too saline and
many types of crops would not be able to
absorb _____________________, failing to
grow.
Fields had to be left __________________ if
they were to recover.
The result of these disasters could be
devastating to communities and probably
contributed to the generally ________________
(or negative) outlook that the Mesopotamians
had.
Slide: International Trade
The _________________________and
__________________________Rivers served as
lifelines for Mesopotamia. They were vital for
getting ____________________ in and out of
the area.
The most notable products of Mesopotamian
economy were __________________ and
________________________.
*Wool was made into _________________,
which was often dyed and used as
_____________________ and a selection of
both practical and luxury items.
*Grain was used for feeding ______________
and _____________________________, for
whom it was made into breads and beer.
Both textiles and grains were exported out of
Mesopotamia to neighboring societies in
exchange for the _____________________that
Mesopotamia lacked: large, monumental
________________________,
precious____________________, and large,
sturdy ________________________.
Precious stones and metals had to be imported
to the ancient Mesopotamians.
*They were considered symbols of royal
__________________ and ________________.
Name: _________________________________
Period: _________________
Notes 2
Slide: Cities
Mesopotamian cities may not have had
subways, but they had ___________________
_________________ that kept them thriving.
In ancient Mesopotamia, cities were places of
_____________________, ______________,
and points of _______________________life.
Cities had many ________________________
located near, or even, inside the city walls.
They also housed craft _________________ and
______________________________.
Slide: Mud Bricks
Not only was there water, ________________
everywhere near Mesopotamian cities, but
there was _______________ in abundance.
Most cities had massive, mud-brick __________
with __________________________.
The walls did not necessarily define the
____________________ of the city, they
served a ___________________ and
___________________________purpose.
It has long been pointed out that these walls
symbolized the _____________________
__________________________among
Mesopotamian cities and foreign enemies.
As places of high _________________, gates
were also places of _______________activity
and sometimes markets.
Instead of meeting friends at a particular
building one might meet at a _____________or
____________________.
The walls were ___________________,
conspicuous ________________of the king’s
_______________________ over the city, and
they could be seen on the horizon from miles
away.
Slide: Ziggurats
All Mesopotamian cities owe their
_______________________ to the mud-brick.
The marshy banks of the rivers in Mesopotamia
provided ______________, which was used
throughout Mesopotamian history to make
___________-________________.
The bricks could be ___________________or
___________________, depending on their
purpose
Slide: Walls and Gates
With loads of bricks laying around,
Mesopotamian ___________________and
______________________could get creative.
Walls and gates weren’t the only massive
____________________________ structures in
town. In early Mesopotamia, monumental
buildings __________________ the inner part
of cities: _______________ sprawled the city
centers while _________________ governed
city skylines.
Ziggurats were ____________________________ structures built of mudbrick, which would have been painted or glazed
with bright colors.
They were usually located in the center of the
gods’ _____________________, and were
perhaps meant to symbolize
__________________, the birthplace of gods.
Ziggurats were ________________in the center
and did not contain interior rooms.
What the Mesopotamians did atop ziggurats
remains unclear, but they were certainly used
for ___________________rituals of some kind.
Slide: Palaces
Palaces served as private spaces for
the_________________ family, but were also
housed ________________, _______________,
and craft workshops.
One of the most famous and better-preserved
Mesopotamian _________________ comes
from the city of Mari.
It was a wonder of the world, decorated with
murals, statues, and even palm trees.
The palace had almost 300 rooms, including
_________________, workshops, storerooms,
____________, archive rooms, private
residential quarters, a _______________ room,
and more.
These rooms were oriented around two great
________________________, the larger of
which served an audience hall for the king
where he could __________________,
___________________, and impress his guests.
The palace was in fact so __________________
that rival kings ordered their messengers to
bring them reports about its splendor.
Slide: Uruk
Important in mythology and real life, the city of
___________________is one of the first cities
in Mesopotamia. It was a huge city with two
main areas or precincts.
Uruk’s size is still recognizable today even
though it’s in ruins and hidden by the desert.
One precinct was called ________________,
where there was a temple complex for the
goddess ________________ (who was the chief
goddess of Uruk) and a ziggurat.
These buildings were beautifully decorated with
painted ___________ _____________mosaics.
The other precinct, __________, also contained
large buildings and was named for the god____.
Also, notice that the name Uruk sounds almost
like the modern-day name ____________which
makes some believe that the term “Iraq” may
have come from “Uruk”.
Slide: Nineveh
Nineveh (modern Kuyunjik) is undoubtedly one
of the most ___________________ ancient
Mesopotamian cities. It was famous in the
ancient world as well as today.
It even appears in the _________
_____________ of the Bible.
Assurbanipal, the ________________ of the
great King Sennacherib, built the famous North
Palace at Nineveh, which was decorated with a
stone _______________ of a lion ___________
– a symbol of kingly ____________ and mastery
over ______________________.
Nineveh’s dominance and power was forever
destroyed when the _________________ and
_________________ conspired to end Assyrian
domination of northern Mesopotamia in the
late 600’s BCE.
The impressive palace reliefs and reconstructed
remains of the city’s walls still stand today.
Name : )________________________________
Period: _____________
Cuneiform
Slide: Writing Cuneiform
By the first millennium BCE, the signs are so
______________________that they no longer
_________________ objects or pictures.
Thanks to the Mesopotamians,
__________________________ was born.
One of the most important
__________________ to occur in ancient
Mesopotamia, and in human history in general,
is the invention of ___________________.
Writing systems are means by which
a__________________________is expressed.
The Mesopotamian writing system, cuneiform,
expressed language through signs from the
Sumerian and Akkadin language.
We have examples of the language in the form
of coins, tokens and tablets made of clay.
Slide: Writing Cuneiform #2
Cuneiform looks like a kind of ______________
________________________ writing system.
It was a writing system designed for
_________________; throughout the 3000
years of its use, cuneiform was written on clay
tablets with the use of a _____________ stylus.
The earliest signs in cuneiform were
___________________; that is, they looked like
the __________________ that they
represented.
They were in essence a form of _____________
figure artwork.
Over time, the signs became more
____________________ and ______________,
and at some point rotated 90 degrees on their
sides.
Slide: Early Accounting Texts
Just as today, ____________________and
_____________________ items in
Mesopotamia required paperwork.
The Mesopotamians invented writing to
address that field of the economy:
________________________.
Around 3300 BCE, people and institutions (such
as governments and schools) required ways to
________________and________________
information.
The first use of writing was for making
_______________________, records of
deliveries/accounts, ____________________,
donations, and so forth.
The numerical system that was used on these
accounting texts was so _________________
that modern ___________________ and
____________________ still struggle to
understand it completely.
Slide: Literature
Within a few hundred years of its invention,
scribes began to develop other uses for writing,
such as writing ______________________.
Some of the earliest works in literature, such as
stories about the legendary king
_________________________.
The Flood Story
Stories could be saved and added to by each
generation.
The ________________________ of literature
and ______________________ no longer
depended on ______________ traditions.
The “Babylonian map of the world” is probably
the earliest known map in history.
The scholarly text on the tablet explains that
the map is supposed to be of the entire
___________________, with the city of Babylon
as the ________________ and ______________
center of the world.
Slide: Writing in Royal Inscriptions
Kings understood the___________ writing had.
It is likely that most Mesopotamian kings could
not _____________or ___________themselves,
but they nonetheless _____________________
writing for royal inscriptions.
The kings treated writing as a marker of
_________________, a means for expressing
royal __________________, and even a venue
through which they could _________________
with the gods.
Writing on stone was strictly a _____________
prerogative in Mesopotamia, and many kings
had stones inscribed for building dedications,
such as Ur-Namma’s stone figurine and stone
tablet.
These objects were placed in the exposed
foundations of ________________ that were
being reconstructed. Since the writing would
have been ___________________, to human
eyes, it is clear that the
_____________inscriptions were meant for the
gods to read.
Slide: Literacy
Most people in ancient Mesopotamia were
__________________________and scribal
training was __________________exclusively
for a small elite.
The scribes were educated in ______________.
“School” began for the scribes when they were
____________________.
An instructor would make tablets with several
vertical ____________________ and
______________ the first column with a series
of cuneiform signs or phrases, the level of
difficulty depending on the student’s degree of
understanding and development.
The students would then copy the instructor’s
signs in the ________________, blank columns.
After on completion of this exercise, the
instructor _______________off the top layer of
clay, thus creating a ______________ slate, and
the student copied the signs again presumably
until they were _________________________.
When a student finished his
_________________training, he could either
work for everyday people in the
________________________ or for the
_____________________.