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Unit III, Section 1
Section Overview
This section will allow students to develop a basic
understanding of one of the World’s earliest
civilization, Mesopotamia.
We will look at physical features, historical events, and
artistic attributes. Through this foundation we will
develop further into the region as we look at the
Middle East & North Africa as a whole in Unit III,
Section 2.
Section Objectives
 Define the geographic make up of the Fertile Crescent
region.
 Analyze the cultural significance of the peoples of the
region.
 Understand how the region is a cradle of agriculture,
learning, and civilization.
Geographic Features
 Known as the Fertile Crescent
 Between Tigris & Euphrates Rivers
 Arable lands on flood plains
 Dangerous & unpredictable floods
 Southern Border
 Persian Gulf
 Northern Border
 Zagros Mountains
Urban Centers
 Babylon
 Uruk
 Ur
 Excavated by Sir C. Leonard
Woolley
 Discovered over 1800 graves
and 16 royal tombs



Vast wealth
Gold, silver, electrum, lapis
lazuli, & carnelian
Animal and human sacrifice
Art
 Royal tombs gave insight into Mesopotamian artistic
features
 Highlights
 Bearded Bulls
 Big eyes
 Curly hair
 Clasped hands
 Fringed garments
 Votive figures
“Ram Caught in a
Thicket”
Women’s Headdresses
Jewelry of Queen Puabi
Bull-headed
Harp
Silver Lions Head
Gold Vessels
The Standard of Ur
Ceremonial
Dagger
Sumerians
 3000 B.C.E.
 1st Civilization
 City-States
 Central administrative city
 Smaller surrounding villages
 Farm/pasture lands
 Developed arch & architecture
 Ziggurats


City Center
Tombs, temples, & storehouses
Development of Writing
 Pictograms- Pictures
 Ideograms- Ideas
 Phonogram- Sound
 Cuneiform
 Wedge shaped
 Stylus used to make markings



Pressed into wet clay
Baked to become permanent
Library of Nineveh
 Cylinder Seals
 Form of formal signature
…Continued
 Used practically and
decoratively
 Scribes
 Highly trained
 Read and write for a
fee
 Henry C. Rawlinson
 Translated cuneiform
in 1835
 Rock of Behistun
Edubbas
 School for boys ages 5-15
 Memorized law, poetry, & history
 Other Classes: Divination, medicine, mathematics, &
astronomy

Math based on 60, used decimals, spheres/cubes used
 Year round schooling
 25 days a month
 Extremely strict
Religion
 Polytheistic
 Pantheon of gods, demons, and monsters
 Patron gods/goddesses of cities, trades,
and natural aspects
 Major deities
 Enlil- god of wind, ruler of heaven and
Earth’s people
 Ishtar- goddess of fertility, love, and war
 Nabu- god of wisdom and learning
 Ereshkigal- goddess of the underworld
Daily Life
 Male dominated society
 Women’s place was in the home

Own property and obtain a divorce
 Farming vital part of life
 Onions, barley, turnips, grapes
 Beer and wine widely available
 Highly trained class of artisans, priests, and craftsmen
 Caste of slaves
 Homes built of sun-dried mud brick
 System of credit and loans (banking)
Intermittent Periods
 2500 B.C.E. Sumer falls to
Akkad’s King Sargon
 2050 B.C.E. Immigration
 Indo-Europeans (Southern
Russia)
 Amorites & Semites
(Arabia)
 Hittites (Turkey)


Introduced horse drawn
two-wheel chariots
Replaced donkey/oxen
driven four-wheeled wagons
Hammurabi
 Babylonian king
 Ruled from 1792-1750 B.C.E.
 Code of Hammurabi
 Written on a stele
 282 laws
 “Eye for an Eye” policy
Assyria
 Founded around 2000 B.C.E.
 City-states under multiple imperial
rulers through early history
 Begins expanding outward in 1392
B.C.E.
 Grew into great military power
throughout known world
 Ruthless warriors and leaders
 Unmerciful and severe rulers
 Deport/importation of people groups
throughout expansion periods
Post-Assyrian World
 Destroy in 612 B.C.E.
 Nebuchadnezzar of the
Chaldeans
 Re-established Babylon
(Neo-Babylonian Empire)
 Ishtar Gate/Hanging
Gardens
 King of the Book of Daniel
 Neo-Babylonians fall under
Belshazzar’s control
 Persia takes power
Ishtar Gate
Hanging
Gardens of
Babylon
Persia
 Rose in 539 B.C.E.
 Cyrus the Great
 Expanded empire
 Largest world empire to date
 Bureaucratic system
 Four capitals




Ecbatana
Susa
Babylon
Persepolis