Download Mesopotamia *Land Between Two Rivers*

Neolithic Age
Neolithic Age
Neolithic Advances
Farming Revolution allows people to settle in one place.
They no longer have to be nomads.
1. People began to form villages and live in permanent homes.
a) Jericho and Catal Huyuk some of the oldest neolithic villages
2. Steady food supplies = more healthy and growing populations
3. As the population grows, there are more workers for crops.
a) Eventually more food is grown than people need to eat, so
they began to trade with people from other communities.
b)The food surplus also allowed people to specialize in their jobs.
Everyone was not needed to farm anymore.
1. craftspeople such as potters, toolmakers
4. Neolithic people eventually heated rocks to melt the copper inside and
form tools
a) eventually copper and tin were mixed to form bronze.
- bronze age was 3000 B.C. to 1200 B.C.
Ancient Neolithic Cities
Catalhoyuk
Catalhoyuk is an
example of a
Neolithic
settlement
currently under
excavation in
Anatolia
(Turkey).
Aleppo & Jericho
Aleppo and
Jericho are
examples of
early cities in
the Fertile
Crescent
studied by
Archaeologists.
Farming – the most important
development if Neolithic times
Antler and Bone Sickles / Early Shelter
Paleolithic VS Neolithic
Food: Hunting and
gathering
Food: Farming,
domesticated animals
Dwellings: Caves, nomadic
people
Dwellings: Permanent
villages, stone houses
Technology: Digging sticks,
spears, axes, & spoken
language
Technology: Stone tools,
polished ax heads,
arrowheads, weaving cloth,
calendar, wheel
Religion & Art: Cave
paintings, religious statues,
belief in afterlife
Religion & Art: Jewelry,
buried dead in earthen
tombs
Mesopotamia
“Land Between Two
Rivers”
Civilizations around the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers
Geography
Tigris and Euphrates Rivers
Fertile soil = farming/agriculture
Tigris and Euphrates flood – spreads nutrients
from river bed
Flooding was unpredictable – could wipe out
crops
Outside River Valleys, Mesopotamia is hot and dry
Ch. 3 Vocabulary Words
 Paleolithic
Relating to the earliest period of the Stone Age
 Nomads
People who moved from place to place as a group to find food for
themselves.
 Technology
An ability gained by the practical use of knowledge
 Ice Age
A time when glaciers covered much of the land
 Domesticate
To adapt an animal to living with humans for the advantage of humans
 Neolithic Age
Relating to the latest period of the Stone Age
 Systematic Agriculture
The organized growing of food on a regular schedule
Ch. 3 Vocabulary Words (continued)
 Shrine
A place where people worship
 Specialization
The act of training for a particular job
 Bronze Age
The period in ancient human culture when people began to make and
use bronze
 Monarchy
A government whose ruler, a king or queen, inherits the position from a
parent
Ancient Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia – Greek “mesos” = between “potamos” – rivers
Mesopotamia translated from Old Persian Miyanrudan means "the
fertile cresent"
Mesopotamia stretched from the
Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea.
Mesopotamia – Current Political
Boundaries
Government/Leaders
Each Sumerian city & surrounding land
became a “city-state.”
Geography made CS isolated.
Each CS had its own govt. – not part of a
bigger country.
CS went to war w/each other.
Eventually ruled by king
282 Laws – written for 1st time
Religion
Polytheistic= many gods
Each god thought to have power over a natural
force or human activity.
Built grand temple called a ziggurat for chief god
Only priests/priestesses could go to top of
ziggurat
Priests/priestesses controlled land and some even
ruled
Life in Sumer
Only men are educated
Women had rights – own businesses
Small mud-brick houses
Most people farmed
Some were artisans – skilled workers (pottery, cloth,
etc.)
Merchants traded wheat, barley, timber
3 social classes
• Upper: priests, kings, govt. officials
• Middle: Artisans, merchants, farmers
• Lower: Slaves
Language
Writing – helps keep records, pass on ideas
Cuneiform: sharp reeds used to cut marks into
clay tablets.
Boys from wealthy families learned to write.
Boys could become scribes: record keepers
Oldest known epic (story) Epic of Gilgamesh
Gilgamesh does great deeds – immortality only
for gods
Education/Technology
Irrigation system
Wagon wheel
Plow
Sailboat
Geometry
# system based on 60 (60 min. hour, 360 degree circle)
12-month calendar based on moon cycles
Recorded positions of stars/planets
Organization/Leaders
Sargon, king of Akkadians (N. Meso)
Sargon conquered all of Meso. – world’s 1st empire
New group conquers Akkadians – builds city of
Babylon
Hammurabi creates Babyolonian Empire
Hammurabi best known for 282 laws “Hammurabi’s
Code.”
Code covered all areas of life (crime, farming,
business, marriage).
Assyrians
1000 yrs. after Hammurabi
Army 1st to use iron weapons (heated and cooled
rapidly for strength
• Foot soldiers armed with spears & daggers or bows
and arrows
• Also chariots & horsemen
• Fierce warriors
Cruel rulers
• Organized empire into provinces (political districts)
• Each province had a governor
• Built roads
Chaldeans
Captured Assyrian capital – Ninevah
Descendants of Babylonians
Rebuilt Babylon into wealthiest city on world
King Nebuchadnezzar built the “Hanging Gardens”
• Large trees, flowering vines, plants, irrigated from river
• Could be seen from any point in Bablyon
Babylon became major trade center b/n Persian Gulf and
Mediterranean
Caravans or traveling merchants passed through selling
goods
Astronomers studied and mapped stars
Nebuchadnezzar’s
Hanging Gardens of Babylon
Babylon & Hanging Gardens