Download Early Civilizations Mesopotamia: The Sumerians

 Attempt to answer the following
riddle in your notes:
 What building do you enter blind
and come out seeing?
Today’s LEQs: Why did humans transition from hunting and gathering to
settled agriculture? Was this humanity’s biggest mistake?
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First known agricultural
villages c. 10,000 BCE
First known cities c.
5,000BCE
Eastern portion =
Mesopotamia
Let’s SCLARGE…
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Settled in the lower part of Fertile Crescent –
a.k.a. Sumer
 Created 12 city-states
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Birthplace of cities (500,000 people by
2500BCE with 80% in cities!)
Shared a common culture
Complex social hierarchy with kings and
priests at the top / Slaves at the bottom
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Men: could sell wife and
children to pay a debt;
could divorce easily
Women: could buy and
sell property; operate own
businesses; own slaves
Patriarchal but women
more privileged than later
cultures
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Rituals suggested significance of religion
 i.e. New Years tradition – King of Ur symbolically
married goddess of fertility each year
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Royals buried in elaborate tombs; often
buried with sacrificed attendants
Commoners buried under their house or in
cemeteries outside city walls
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Semitic
Sumerians invented writing c. 3500BCE; first
used for record keeping, later for literature &
gov’t decrees
 Pictograms first
 Cuneiform by 3,000BCE
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Epic of Gilgamesh & Code of Hammurabi =
kind of a BIG DEAL…
Invented first wheels – wagon wheel,
pottery wheel
 12 month lunar calendar (helped with
agriculture)
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Creativity flourished! Took pride in elegant
cities & monuments
 Sculptures, mosaics, murals, stone bas reliefs
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Arches, vaults, domes found in tombs = new
skill
Walls for protection
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Practiced polytheism
Had one chief god for each city-state
Gods were unpredictable, angry, & selfish
Priests had power & prestige
 Survival depended on will of gods
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Built great temples called ziggurats
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Competition for land and water rights with
foreign invaders led to the development of a
monarchy (king)
King was a religious & political leader
King enforced law and set penalties (usually a
fine)
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Key Leaders:
Sargon I – built the Akkadian Empire by
uniting all of the Mesopotamian city-states
(first empire!)
Hammurabi – created a code of law
 (we’ll discuss this more later!!!)
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Trade central to urban life
 Merchandise by land, river, & sea
 Evidence of far off trade: shells from
Mediterranean
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Rich in agricultural goods but poor in raw
materials; traded with North for wood, stone,
and metal
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You completed independent research for
homework
Now, collaborate with your groups to create a
presentation on your assigned early
civilization
You are responsible for teaching your
assigned civilization to the rest of the class –
be clear and concise when going through the
SCLARGE categories