Download In the Land of Sumer - White Plains Public Schools

Do Now
• Read “The First Written Records”
and complete questions 1-6 when
you are finished
**Use reading strategies you are
familiar with**
Early River Valley
Civilizations
• Complete the Early River Valley
Civilizations as a class on the map
provided using 4 different colored
pencils
• Create a key when you are finished
Timeline
• Review the timeline with your partner
• Using the map and the timeline as
resources complete the questions
below:
1. Which civilization was the first
to form?
2. Why do you think the first
civilizations developed where
they did?
SWBAT
• Explain features of Sumer and
the civilization’s contributions
Mesopotamia
• Mesopotamia is Greek meaning,
“land between the rivers”
• Present day Iraq
Geography
• Located in a larger region known
as the Fertile Crescent – between
the Tigris and Euphrates rivers
• First settlers built small villages
along the banks of the rivers –
where they flooded & had the
most fertile soil to farm
Geography
• Flooding
–Tigris and Euphrates
commonly flooded & wiped
away settlements
–The two rivers were
unpredictable in their
flooding
»People banded together
to build canals & dikes
»Moved settlements uphill
Geography
• Sumer never developed into one single
unified country, but the Sumerians were
the first people to develop a civilization
(3500 BC)
• Sumer was a collection of wide spread
city-states: Uruk, Ur, Kish, Larsa, Lagash,
Nippur, Akkad, Eridu
–United under Sargon the Great
City-states warred over water & food
Geography
Cities
• Sumerians had few natural
resources  had to build with clay
& water = bricks
Government
• Sargon the Great
– The Legend
• His mother placed him in a reed basket
and sent him down the Euphrates
• A farmer found him and raised him
• Became kings cupbearer (most trusted
servant)
• Overthrew the king & united Sumerian
city-states
• Established the Akkadian Empire (2300
BC)
Mesopotamia
(continued)
Do Now
• Read “The Epic of Gilgamesh” (don’t
forget to read the intro, and I
suggest you read it twice)
• Discuss questions 1-3 with your
partner.
• Strategically highlight the text and
jot responses at the bottom of the
page
Government
• The Babylonians (2000 BC)
– The Babylonians were the next major
empire to control Mesopotamia
– Babylon was the economic center of
Mesopotamia, and Hammurabi becomes
king
– Achievements
• Gate of Ishtar (Nebuchadnezzar)
• Number system based on 60
(hours/minutes/seconds)
• Figured out the solar year of 365 ¼ days
Gate of Ishtar
Social Classes:
Very strict hierarchy
Merchants,
artisans &
farmers
King, priests,
nobles &
government
officials
Peasant
Farmers,
Slaves
Religion
• Polytheistic – worshipped
many gods
• Believed in the afterlife
• Gods & goddesses ruled natural
elements on which the
Sumerians depended on
Ziggurat
•
Both religious & administrative
temples, built to honor the gods
Religion
• Religion & politics were intertwined
• Kings were the chief priest & considered semidivine
• Center of activity revolved around the ziggurat
– Ziggurat  step-like pyramids
– Education, trade, religious ceremonies, the
mandating of laws
• City-states of Sumer shared deities, but each
city-state worshipped a unique god
DBQ Practice
• On your own, examine, then
complete the “DBQ: Examining
Primary Sources” questions
Trade
• Along with farming – Sumerian
city-states became dependent on
trade
• Began trade with people from
Egypt & India
• Traded for raw materials: wood,
stone & metals
• First wheeled vehicles?
Contributions
• Developed pictographs too
complicated to create so they simplified
it
 Cuneiform: (3200 BC) Simplified
pictographs that represented sounds
instead of objects
- Wedge-shaped characters were
pressed into clay tablets to keep
records
•
•
•
•
Sumer- Middle East
5000s-2000s BCE
Probable cause of demise: Invasion
Pictured: U.S. Soldiers climb the steps of the
Ziggurat of Ur, a Sumerian monument built
during the Early Bronze Age (21st century BC).
Wrap Up
• Describe Sumer’s contributions to
civilization and how those
contributions influenced other
civilizations.
Code of
Hammurabi
SWBAT
Evaluate evidence and explain what
we can learn about Babylonia from
Hammurabi’s Code
Do Now
• How did cuneiform benefit
Sumerian civilization?
Evaluation of Evidence
• We must evaluate all evidence
• To evaluate evidence, we ask:
–Why is a document useful?
–What are its limitations?
–What other information do we
need?
Who was Hammurabi?
• Member of the
Amorite dynasty
• King of Babylon
from 1792-1750
BCE
• United all of
Mesopotamia under
the Babylonian
Empire
Relief of Hammurabi and the
god Shamash
Hammurabi’s Code
• First written law code
• Laws for Babylonian society (300)
• Tool to unify expanding empire
• “That the strong might not injure
the weak”
• Allowed everyone to know the rules
• Most well known
surviving copy of the
code is an inscription on
a stone slab called a
stela
• 7 feet high, 2.5 feet wide
• Laws were written
vertically from right to
left
Loss and Unearthing
Central Historical
Question:
What can we learn about Babylonia
from Hammurabi’s Code?
Group Activity!
• Listen to reading of Document A as
a model for how you should be
reading closely to documents.
• Divide into groups.
• Read Documents A-C, one at a time,
completing the “Guiding Questions”
as you finish each document as a
group.
Summary
• Complete the “Summary” page on
your own
• This will be collected for a grade
A Mesopotamian Acrostic
• To review Mesopotamian
civilizations, for each letter of
MESOPOTAMIA, you will
“write, draw, and explain” a
piece of the civilization starting
with that letter.