Download The Epic of Gilgamesh

Mesopotamian Civilization
• Over thousands of years, some of the
early farming villages developed into
civilizations, or complex societies.
-advanced cities
-class divisions
-organized governments
-art
-religion
-writing systems
River Valley Civilizations
• The first civilizations arose in river valleys
because good farming conditions made it
easy to feed large numbers of people.
• Then rivers also made it easy to get from
one place to another and to trade.
• As cities took shape, so did the need for
organization.
• People formed governments to make
plans and decisions about matters of
common concern.
The Dawn of Civilization
Early Governments
• Government leaders took charge of food
supplies and building projects.
• They made laws to keep order and
assembled armies to fend off enemies.
• With fewer worries about meeting their
basic needs, people in the river valleys
had more time to think about other things.
Elements of Civilization
• They developed religions and the arts.
• To pass information, they invented ways of
writing.
• They also created calendars to tell time.
• Class structures developed with different
levels of society depending on what work
a person did and how much wealth or
power they had.
The Rise of Sumer
• The earliest-known civilization arose in
what is now southern Iraq, or a flat plain
bounded by the Tigris River and
Euphrates River.
• This area was called Mesopotamia, which
is Greek for “the land between two rivers.”
• Mesopotamia lay in the eastern part of the
Fertile Crescent, a curving strip of land
that extends from the Mediterranean Sea
to the Persian Gulf.
“Land Between Two Rivers”
Unpredictable Flooding
• Mesopotamia had a hot, dry climate.
• In the spring, the rivers often flooded,
leaving behind rich soil for farming.
• The problem was that the flooding was
very unpredictable.
• It might flood one year, but not the next.
• Every year, farmers worried about their
crops and came to believe they needed
their gods to bless their efforts.
Irrigation Systems
• Over time, the farmers learned to build
dams and channels to control the
seasonal floods.
• They also built walls, waterways, and
ditches to bring water to their fields.
• This way of watering crops is called
irrigation.
• Irrigation allowed the farmers to grow
plenty of food and support a large
population.
Flooding & Irrigation
Sumer’s City-States
• Sumerian cities were isolated from each
other by geography.
• Beyond the areas of settlement lay
mudflats and patches of scorching desert.
• This terrain made travel and
communication difficult, so each Sumerian
city and the land surrounding it became a
separate city-state.
• It had its own government and was not
part of any larger unit.
Sumerian City-States
City Walls
• Sumerian city-states often went to war
with one another, fighting for glory and the
control of more territory.
• For protection, each city-state surrounded
itself with a wall.
• Because stone and wood were in short
supply, the Sumerians used river mud as
their main building material.
• They mixed the mud with crushed reeds,
formed bricks, and left them in the sun to
dry.
Gods & Rules
• The Sumerians believed in many gods.
• Each was thought to have power over a
natural force or a human activity—flooding
or basket weaving.
• The Sumerians tried hard to please the
gods. They built a grand temple called a
Ziggurat to the chief god.
Mountain of God
Ziggurats
• With tiers like a giant wedding cake, the
ziggurat dominated the city.
• At the top was a shrine, or place of
worship that only priests and priestesses
could enter.
• The priest and priestesses were powerful
and controlled much of the land.
• They may have even ruled at one time.
Religious Beliefs
Sumerian Kings
• Later, kings ran the government.
• They led armies and organized building
projects.
• The first kings were probably war heroes.
• Their position became hereditary.
Life in Sumeria
• While Sumerian kings lived in large
palaces, ordinary people lived in small
mud-brick houses.
• Most people in Sumer farmed, but some
were artisans.
• Other people worked as merchants and
traders. They traveled to other cities
trading, tools, wheat, and barley, for things
that they did not have like copper, tin, and
timber.
Social Class System
• People in Sumer were divided into 3 social
classes.
• The upper class was made up of kings,
priests, and government officials.
• The middle classes were artisans,
merchants, farmers, and fishers.
• The lower class included enslaved people
who worked on farms or in the temples.
Class Divisions
Roles of Men & Women
• In Sumer, women and men had separate
roles.
• Men headed the households and only men
could go to school.
• Women did have rights. They could buy
and sell property and run businesses.
Sumerian Writing System
• Sumer’s greatest invention was writing.
• It helped people keep records and pass on
their ideas to others.
• They developed writing to keep track of
business deal and other events.
• Their writing was called cuneiform.
• It consisted of hundreds of wedge-shaped
marks cut into damp clay tablets.
Sumerian Scribes
• Only a few people—mostly boys from
wealthy families—learned how to write.
• After years of training they became
scribes, or record keepers.
• Scribes held honored positions in society
and often became judges and political
leaders.
Cuneiform
The Epic of Gilgamesh
• The world’s oldest known story comes
from Sumer.
• An epic is a long poem that tells the story
of a hero.
• The hero Gilgamesh is a king who travels
around the world with a friend and
performs great deeds.
• When his friend dies, Gilgamesh searches
for immortality. He learns that this is
possible only through the gods.
Gilgamesh
Advances in Science & Math
• Sumerian Inventions and Ideas included..
-wagon wheel
-plow
-sailboat
-geometry to measure fields
-number system based on 60
-recorded position of stars and planets.
-12 month lunar calendar
Sumerian Inventions
Sargon of Akkad
• Constant conflicts began to weaken
Sumer’s city-states and they became
vulnerable to attacks by outside groups.
• The king of the Akkadians was named
Sargon.
• In 2340 BC, he conquered all of
Mesopotamia and created the world’s first
empire.
• The empire lasted for 200 years before
falling to invaders.
Babylonians
• In the 1800’s BC, a new group of people
became powerful in Mesopotamia.
• They built the city of Babylon by the
Euphrates River, and it quickly became a
center of trade.
• In 1792 BC, the Babylonia king,
Hammurabi, began conquering cities to
the north and south and created the
Babylonian Empire.
Code of Hammurabi
• Hammurabi is best known for his law
code.
• He took laws for most of the city-states
and put them into one code.
• It covered crimes, farming and business
activities, marriage and the family.
• Although his punishments were cruel, his
laws mark an important step toward a fair
system of justice.
Sumerian Trade