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Mesopotamia/Egypt
Mesopotamia
Chapter 2
Geography
Geographic Challenges
 “Fertile Crescent”
 unpredictable flooding
 “land between the rivers”
 no natural barriers
 Tigris and Euphrates
Solutions
Problems
Floods
Effect
Result
 irrigation ditches
 mud brick walls
Long periods without rain
No natural defenses
Few natural resources
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 first great civilization
Sumerians
 city-states
 Ur, Urek
Religion
 polytheistic – belief in many gods
 Enlil – god of clouds and air
 ziggurats
 pyramid shaped temples
 Wicked Udugs – demons who caused misfortune
Class System
Technology
priests and
kings
 invented the wheel (for pottery)
 writing – cuneiform
 number system – base 60
merchants
farmers
slaves
(conquered
peoples)
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Code of Hammurabi
Babylonian Empire
 different punishments for rich/poor, men/women
 stressed punishment and retaliation
 “eye for an eye”
 Key component:
 made government accountable for what occurred in society
Egypt
Geography
 regular Nile flooding
 natural barriers for protection
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Pharaohs
 Upper and Lower Egypt
 considered representatives of the gods
 absolute rulers
 leader of government and religion
 theocracy
Technology
 pyramids, mummification
 Writing
 hieroglyphics
 Rosetta Stone
 Calendar
 to keep track of time b/t floods
 Medicine
 splints for broken bones
 surgery
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Egyptian art analysis
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