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Mesopotamia
Warm up
 Where
did artisans and merchants in Ur
trade their goods?

What method of trade did they use?
 Money?
 What
Ur?

was the most important building in
Knowing this ,what can we infer about the
people of Ur?
Geography of the Fertile
Crescent
 Most
of the land between the Persian Gulf and
the Mediterranean Sea is dominated by desert.
 There
is a region around the Tigris and
Euphrates River known as The Fertile Crescent.
 The
Fertile Crescent includes a region known as
Mesopotamia. “Land between the rivers”.
 The
Tigris and the Euphrates flood
Mesopotamia at least once a year.
 The
floods leave behind a thick bed of
mud called silt.
 Farmers
would plant grain in the rich
silt and irrigated the fields with river
water.
 This
led to a surplus in Mesopotamia.
What
kinds of things will a food
surplus allow civilizations in
Mesopotamia to do?
Environmental Challenges
 The
Sumerians were the first people to settle and
farm the lands in Mesopotamia.
 Although the rivers provided rich soil, there were
three disadvantages to their new home.
1. Unpredictable flooding combined with a
period of little or no rain.
2. There were no natural barriers for protection.
Sumerian villages were almost defenseless.
3. Natural resources were limited. Building
materials and other necessary items were
scarce.
Come
up with a possible
solution for each of these
problems with a partner.
 Solutions:
 To
provide water, they dug irrigation
ditches to carry water to their fields.
 City
walls were constructed with mud
bricks.
 Sumerians
traded their grain with
other settlements to attain raw
materials.
Building
irrigation systems and city
walls required organization of
people.
Leaders
emerged and created
laws to settle disputes.
These
leaders were the beginning
of organized government.
Sumerians Create City-States
 By
3000 B.C.E., The Sumerians had
built a number of cities.
 Although these cities shared the
same culture, they developed
their own governments, and each
had their own rulers.
 Each
city and the land it controlled
formed a city-state.
 City-states
function just like an
independent country does today.
A
ziggurat stood in the middle of
every Sumerian city-state.
 The ziggurat was the center of
political and religious life in
Sumerian culture.
Priests and Rulers Share
Control
 Sumer’s
earliest governments were
controlled by the temple priests.
 Farmers believed that the success of
their crops depended upon the
blessings of the gods.
 In times of war, the men of the city chose
a tough fighter to command the city’s
soldiers.
At
first, the commander’s power
was temporary. He would return
power to the priests.
Eventually, some military leaders
became the full-time rulers.
 These
rulers usually passed their
power on to their sons, who passed it
on to their sons.
Dynasty
family.
– a series of rulers from a single
Spread of Cities
 Food
surplus allowed Sumerian city-states
to conduct long-distance trade.
 Influence of Sumer expanded through
the use of trade.
 Cultural diffusion.
Religion
 Sumerians
worshiped many gods that
controlled the various forces in nature.
 Polytheism – The belief in more than one
god.
 Sumerians described their gods as doing
many of the same things that humans do.
 Falling in love, having children, fighting.
They
offered the gods sacrifices in
the form of animals, food, wine,
and beer.
Sumerian afterlife = “land of no
return”.
A dismal, gloomy place.
There was no joy there and “dust
is their fare and clay their food”.
Epic
of Gilgamesh – long
Sumerian poem that outlines
many Sumerian myths and
legends.
Babylonian Empire
 In
2000 B.C.E., nomadic warriors invaded
Mesopotamia and overwhelmed the
Sumerians.
 They established their capital at Babylon.
A city on the Euphrates River.
 The Babylonian Empire reached its peak
during the reign of Hammurabi.
Hammurabi’s code
 Hammurabi
constructed a uniform code
of laws that could unify the legal system
within his empire.
 The code was engraved in various
stone tablets, and were placed all over
his empire.
Class Assignment
 Complete
the primary source activity
about Hammurabi’s Code.