Download Mesopotamian civs

Mesopotamian Civilizations
Mesopotamian Civilizations
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Sumerians
Amorites (Old Babylonians)
Assyrians
Chaldeans (New Babylonians)
Sumerians
• Earliest Mesopotamian
civilization
• Lived in Southern
Mesopotamia (modern day
Kuwait)
• Formed Large City-States
• Constantly at war with
themselves and others
(Akkadians)
The writing beneath the
figures is cuneiform
Artist’s vision of Ur
Sumerians/Akkadians
• Akkadians migrate from
Arabian Peninsula
• Akkadians were Semetic
• Abandoned much of their
Culture and absorbed into
Sumerian civilization
• Sumerians had the first
monarchy – divine
selection (Theocracy)
Amorites
• Amorites take control of
area circa 1900 B.C.
• Centralized their gov’t at
the city of Babylon
• Called the old
Babylonians
• Ruled by a monarchy –
divine selection
(theocracy)
• Controlled an empire not
city-states, so they needed
unified laws
• Code of Hammurabi
Assyrians
• Semetic group, lived in
northern Mesopotamia
• Extremely warlike and
introduced psychological
warfare
• Built empire from conquering
other people
• First to enslave and relocate the
Jews
• Founded capital at Nineveh
after destroying Babylon
• Later rebuilt Babylon because
they feared the Babylonian god
Marduk
• Eventually weakened and were
replaced by Babylonians
Assyrians
spearing Judeans
Chaldeans
• New Babylonians
• Rose up and burned
Nineveh
• Enslaved the Jews
• Rebuilt the city of
Babylon to previous status
• Nebuchadnezzer was
famous ruler built the
hanging gardens for his
wife Amytas, from the
Area Medes
The Ishtar
Gate at the
Berlin
Museum of
Art