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MESOPOTAMIA
The First of the Ancient Civilizations
FERTILE CRESCENT
VOCABULARY
• Mesopotamia : country between 2 rivers: the Tigris and Euphrates
• Embankments: build up of soil from river run offs that create very fertile soils
• Floods: rise in water levels
• Sediment: deposits left by water after flooding
• Civilization: Societies that share social, religious artistic and scientific
elements
• Cuneiform: wedge shaped writing
• Scribe: someone who writes
THE BIRTH OF CIVILIZATION
•
The first great Civilizations were
1) Mesopotamia
3500 BCE
2) Ancient Egypt
3000 BCE
3) Indus Valley(India)
2500 BCE
4) Chinese Civilization
2000 BCE
•
All of these civilizations had one thing in common, they were born in long valleys crossed
by major rivers
•
Every year these rivers would flood their shores and leave sediment that formed
embankments
•
These Civilizations are known as fertile valley civilizations
MESOPOTAMIA
• Often called the “cradle of civilization,” Mesopotamia is where civilization
began
• Uruk, Ur, Lagash and Nippur were some of the first cities in the world
• As societies developed their needs changed i.e.. Keeping track of rules,
calculations and stories became necessary
• Writing was created to aid in these things
THE BEGINNINGS OF WRITING
•
Writing emerged in the Sumer area
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Earliest writing was the drawing of real things and the use of tokens to count things
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As time went on they created symbols to represent these ideas and writing was invented
•
Over time the symbols began to represent sounds
•
The Mesopotamians used cuneiform writing
THE ALPHABET
•
In 1400 BCE the Ugarit system composed of letters emerged. This is the beginning of the Alphabet
•
Several centuries later the basis of this letter system was used by the Phoenicians to create their
alphabet of 22 letters
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Since the Phoenicians were great explorers and traders they spread this alphabet around the world
to other languages
•
It gradually replaced other forms of writing
•
The Phoenician alphabet gave birth to the Greek, Hebrew and Arabic alphabets
•
Later the Romans used the Greek alphabet to form the Latin alphabet
•
our present day 26 letter alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet