Download Notes By Michelle Shen—Mod 7/8—Crowe SOURCE NUMBER

Notes
By Michelle Shen—Mod 7/8—Crowe
SOURCE NUMBER ONE
Notes P-Babylonia was located in what is now southern Iraq, between the
Tigris and Euphrates rivers and the Persian Gulf.
 P-The city of Babylon is about 60 miles south of today’s Baghdad.
 P-Babylonia was made of several kingdoms and empires rule by
dynasties from 2000 BC and 200 BC.
 P-Babylonia included political and cultural forms developed by the
Sumerian civilization before it.
 P-Babylonia produced law codes (the most famous being
Hammurabi’s law code), mathematical studies, astronomical
observations, and literary works in cuneiform.
 P-Rulers of Babylonia included Hammurabi, Nebuchadnezzar II, and
Alexander the Great.
 P-Babylonians lived in cities and villages and sometimes in tribal
groups.
 P-There were scholars.
 P-The urban society was based on membership in palaces and
temples and private households.
 P-A group of wealthy city-dwellers headed each household.
 P-The upper class includedA) government officials
B) priests
C) large landowners
D) wealthy traders
 P-Commoners wereA) Clerks
B) Craftworkers
C) Other skilled workers
 P-The lowest class was made up ofA) Slaves
B) Village framers
C) Animal Herders
 P-The economy depended mainly of the farming of grains such as
barley.
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P-Farmers also grew fruits and vegetables.
P-People ate some dairy products such as milk and cheese.
P-Meat was rare.
P-The amount of land owned by someone varied over time.
P-The land always included some estates that belonged to the king,
nobles, and urban temples.
P-People build canals to carry water from the rivers to the fields in
order to farm.
DQ- “Industry and trade were well developed during periods when
Babylonia was united under strong central rule.”
P-Babylonian exports includeA) Manufactured goods
B) Textiles
P-Babylonian imports includedA) Metal
B) Wood
C) Stone
D) Other materials that Babylonia lack
P-Babylonia traded with India, Bahrain, and Oman.
P-Mud bricks, a brick made of clay or mud, was the chief building
material for most buildings.
P-The Babylonians built ziggurats, which were temple towers that
stood in the most important cities. They were the most impressive
buildings.
DQ- “The Babylonians discovered many technical devices to erect
buildings. They paid careful attention to drainage, used slightly
curved lines in high walls to keep them from appearing top-heavy,
and developed mathematical measuring techniques.”
P-The Babylonians spoke different types of Akkadian, which is a
Semitic language, sort of like Hebrew.
P-The Babylonians wrote in cuneiform.
P-A total of half a million cuneiform tablets produced by
Babylonians have been discovered.
P-Most documents in cuneiform are private and institutional
business transactions as well as a sophisticated system of credit.
P-There was no money in Babylonia.
P-Babylonians weighted goods in silver and grain.
P-Babylonian writings usually were from the upper class.
 P-Babylonian literature includesA) Law codes
B) Accounts of military campaigns
C) Building projects
D) Songs praising royalty
E) Historical chronicles
 DQ- “Babylonian mythology combined old stories about Sumerian
deities with new Babylonian stories. The most famous of these
accounts are the Creation Story, which tells how the god Marduk
created the world, and the Epic of Gilgamesh, the tale of a great
hero who struggles with the problem of being mortal. The story of
Gilgamesh includes an account of a flood that resembles the story of
Noah’s ark in the Bible.”
 P-Babylonians had few religious and ritual texts, but they did give
clues about religious practices in temples.
 P-There are thousands of literary-scientific texts, which combine
science and ritual magic modes of knowledge.
 P-The Babylonians believed that everything in the visible world held
a specific meaning.
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Religious and ritual texts are relatively few, but they provide clues about
religious practices in the temples. More numerous are the thousands of
literary-scientific texts, which combine scientific and ritual-magical
modes of knowledge. The Babylonians believed that everything in the
visible world held a particular meaning.
Mathematical and astronomical texts show that the Babylonians
developed complex systems to compute algebraic and geometric
functions. They understood such ideas as fractions, squares, and square
roots. They could predict solar and lunar eclipses and the rising of planets
and stars.
Religion. The Babylonians adopted the major deities of ancient Sumer,
sometimes giving them new names. Eventually, they worshiped thousands
of major and minor gods. Various deities were associated with major
cities, natural forces, heavenly bodies, and a variety of professional arts.
It was important for kings to secure the support of individual city
temples, whose resident gods were said to bless them and justify their
rule.
A hierarchy of priests cared for deities believed to live in the temples. The
priests clothed and bathed statues of the deities and gave them food.
Temple priests distributed barley to hundreds and thousands of people,
making the temples centers of large economic communities. Some
temples also housed writing centers that produced literature and
scientific observations.
Art. The finest Babylonian artwork—jewel-encrusted statues of deities—
has not survived to the present day. Letters from several periods
document other lost craftworks, such as exotic wood furniture, gold and
silver decorative vessels, and jewelry. Business records indicate that
Babylonian textiles were commercially important, but no examples of
these textiles remain.
Babylonian pottery developed in several distinct styles over the centuries.
The production of carved cylindrical seals, used to seal documents and
storerooms, was another important craft. The Babylonians rolled the seals
in wet clay to produce an imprint.
History
The first settlers in southern Babylonia probably arrived about 5000 B.C.
They most likely came from communities of farmers and herders who had
lived in the surrounding foothills since around 9000 B.C.
Sumerian city-states. The Sumerians were among the earliest people of
the area later called Babylonia. Small, independent city-states (cities and
their surrounding territory) existed in the area as early as about 4000 B.C.
By 3300 B.C., these included several large cities that shared common
cultural elements, such as writing technologies and architecture. For the
next several hundred years, Uruk, Ur, Kish, Umma, Lagash, and other
cities waged local wars, each occasionally ruling neighboring areas.
Sometimes, they acted together for purposes of trade and mutual defense.
Lagash was perhaps the most aggressive in its local conquests. But it was
overthrown along with the other Sumerian cities around 2350 B.C. by the
new Semitic-speaking Akkadian dynasty.
The Akkadian and Neo-Sumerian periods. The first in a series of Semiticspeaking dynasties took over Babylonia when Sargon of Akkad conquered
the region in the 2300's B.C. Later legends celebrated Sargon's heroic
feats of leading his army north to Anatolia and west to the Mediterranean
Sea. The Akkadians controlled Babylonia for about 140 years, during
which time the Sumerian cities carried out many revolts against them.
The Akkadian empire collapsed sometime after 2200 B.C. Historians later
blamed its downfall on tribes of mountain people called Gutians. After
about 60 years, a new Sumerian-style dynasty arose at the city of Ur. It
controlled Sumer and lands to the east for a century.
The dynasties of Babylon. Ur collapsed in 2004 B.C. A series of Babylonian
dynasties and periods of disorder followed. The First Dynasty of Babylon
flourished from about 1900 to 1600 B.C. It reached its height under King
Hammurabi, who reigned from 1792 to 1750 B.C. The dynasty’s territory
had already been reduced to a fraction of its size when a Hittite army
conquered it in 1595 B.C. Sometime after 1595 B.C., a people called the
Kassites took control of Babylonia. After the Kassites, several kings ruled
Babylonia for short periods. During this time, the power of the monarchy
was limited.
Babylon, the capital of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, threw off Assyrian
domination in 626 B.C. By 539 B.C., Babylonia had taken over most
Assyrian lands. King Nebuchadnezzar II, who reigned from 605 to 562
B.C., rebuilt Babylon on a grand scale. Babylonia was part of the Persian
Empire from 539 B.C. until Alexander the Great took over the region in
331 B.C. Significant occupation of Babylon had ended by about 100 B.C.
CitationRichardson, Seth F. C. "Babylonia." World Book Advanced. World Book,
2013.Web. 21 Nov. 2013.
SOURCE NUMBER TWONotesBabylon,
«BAB uh luhn or BAB uh LAHN», was a great city of the
ancient world. It stood on the banks of the Euphrates River near presentday Al Hillah, Iraq. Babylon was the capital and a major religious center of
the ancient region of Babylonia.
The Old Babylonian period. Babylon was a minor administrative center in
the late 2000's B.C. The city gained new prominence about 1894 B.C.,
when the Amorite leader Sumu-abum founded a new dynasty of tribal
Amorite kings. This dynasty ruled Babylon for 300 years. For most of that
time, Babylon, like several competing small kingdoms, controlled a
handful of small cities nearby.
Little is known about Babylon during the Old Babylonian period because
most of the archaeological evidence lies beneath water underground.
However, Babylon probably resembled other, better-known cities of the
time, with a magnificent palace and a number of temples, including a
large temple complex for the god Marduk. Private houses lined the city's
narrow, twisting streets. A typical house had a central courtyard
surrounded by rooms. A large wall defended the city from invaders. The
wall had several gates, where merchants traded goods. Babylonian traders
traveled west to Syria and other countries, north to Assyria, and south to
kingdoms along the Persian Gulf. They often traded textiles and grain for
gold, silver, and precious stones.
The best-known king of the dynasty founded by Sumu-abum was
Hammurabi, who ruled from 1792 to 1750 B.C. Hammurabi conquered
nearly every competing kingdom during the 1760's B.C. and greatly
expanded Babylonian territory. For about 25 years, Hammurabi and his
son Samsuiluna controlled an area that extended south to the Persian
Gulf and north along the Euphrates.
Hammurabi is famous for a collection of laws that he assembled.
Historians now believe this Code of Hammurabi to be a set of examples of
wise decisions made by the king rather than absolute laws. The code
provides a picture of Babylonian society. Babylon’s population consisted
of classes of free citizens, partially free dependents, and slaves. Men and
women of all classes enjoyed some degree of legal rights regarding their
property, credit, and families, as well as protections from crime and false
testimony. Under the code, slaves could buy their freedom, and free
women could own property and conduct business on their own behalf.
Most citizens were involved in agriculture, but the code also mentions
merchants, craftworkers, soldiers, priestesses, and royal officials.
The dynasty founded by Sumu-abum lost most of its territory about 15
years after Hammurabi's death. Babylon returned to being a small state
about 1725 B.C. In 1595 B.C., a Hittite raid destroyed the city. Historians
know little about Babylon during the 150 years following this raid.
Babylon reemerged about 1450 B.C. as an important political and cultural
center under the Kassite dynasty, which lasted until about 1155 B.C.
About 850 B.C., the Assyrians began interfering in the royal succession at
Babylon. The Assyrian Empire took direct control of Babylon several
times from 745 to 650 B.C., but the city resisted Assyrian rule. In 689
B.C., King Sennacherib of Assyria destroyed Babylon in revenge for the
murder of his son, who had been serving as king of the city. Another son,
Esarhaddon, rebuilt Babylon soon after becoming king in 680 B.C.
Print "The Old Babylonian period" subsection
The Neo-Babylonian Empire began in 626 B.C., when the military leader
Nabopolassar, probably a Chaldean, became king of Babylon. Nabopolassar
won control of Babylonia from the Assyrians. Then, from 612 to 609 B.C.,
he aggressively attacked Assyria with the aid of allies from Media. These
attacks resulted in the end of the Assyrian Empire, and Nabopolassar
gained control of Assyrian territory in present-day Syria, Israel, Lebanon,
and Egypt. He ruled until his death in 605 B.C.
Babylon achieved its greatest glory under Nabopolassar and his son
Nebuchadnezzar II, who rebuilt the city on a grand scale. During the reign
of Nebuchadnezzar (605-562 B.C.), workers constructed thick defensive
walls and a moat around Babylon. People entered and left the city through
eight bronze gates in the walls. The grandest of these, the Ishtar Gate,
was on the north side of the city. Figures of dragons, lions, and bulls
made of glazed colored brick decorated the gate and nearby walls.
The Euphrates River flowed from north to south through the center of
Babylon, which was shaped like a rectangle. The city’s major structures
stood east of the river. They included a royal palace, two fortresses, the
Temple of Marduk, and a ziggurat (pyramid-shaped tower). A paved
avenue called the Processional Street, parallel to and east of the river, led
from the Temple of Marduk to the site of a great religious festival north of
the city. It passed out of the city through the Ishtar Gate. The ancient
Greeks wrote about elevated gardens they called the Hanging Gardens of
Babylon. However, evidence of the gardens has never been found in
Babylon's ruins.
As many as 200,000 people may have lived in Babylon and its suburban
communities. Agriculture and manufacturing flourished in the city.
During this period, Babylon developed investment and banking markets
which became the most important in the world.
Print "The Neo-Babylonian Empire" subsection
The fall of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar's successors were unpopular, and
quarrels over the royal succession weakened the empire. In 539 B.C.,
Persian invaders captured Babylon and overthrew the Neo-Babylonian
Empire. Babylonia then became the wealthiest province of the Persian
Empire. In 331 B.C., the Macedonian military leader Alexander the Great
gained control of Babylon. When Alexander died in 323 B.C., one of his
generals, Seleucus, became king of Babylonia and lands around it.
Seleucus founded Seleucia, a new capital, on the Tigris River. Gradually,
Babylon became deserted.
Print "The fall of Babylon" subsection
The ruins of Babylon. Medieval Arab geographers preserved some
knowledge of Babylon. From A.D. 1899 to 1917, German archaeologists
uncovered much of Babylon's ruined palace and temple areas, a
residential area, and the city walls. Most of the remains dated from the
Neo-Babylonian period. In the 1980’s, Iraq’s government began restoring
some Babylonian structures, but wars interrupted the restoration.
Print "The ruins of Babylon" subsection
Citation-
Richardson, Seth F. C. "Babylon." World Book Advanced. World Book,
2013.Web. 21 Nov. 2013.
SOURCE NUMBER THREENotesZiggurat was a stepped, pyramid-shaped structure first built in Sumer in
southern Mesopotamia (now southeastern Iraq). Archaeologists have
identified about 25 ziggurats, all located in Sumer, Babylonia (now
southern Iraq), Assyria (now northern Iraq), and Elam (now western Iran).
Most of them date from about 2200 to 500 B.C.
A ziggurat was part of a temple complex that was built in the center of a
city and served as the heart of religious life. Probably only priests were
allowed to enter a ziggurat. They climbed a staircase or ramp on the
outside of the structure to the top, where a temple or shrine probably
stood.
Ziggurats had as many as seven levels. Their exteriors possibly were
decorated with paint and with elaborate patterns of colored and plain
bricks. The impressive structures symbolized the power and wealth of the
area’s rulers, as well as glorifying the gods. In addition, ziggurats were
believed to be bridges between heaven and earth, where human beings
could meet with their gods.
Ziggurats were built with sun-dried bricks, which are not highly durable
materials. As a result, no complete example of a ziggurat survives today,
though some ruins still stand.
A famous ziggurat was built in Ur, an ancient city in Sumer, which later
became part of Babylonia. Built around 2050 B.C., it was dedicated to
Nanna, the god of the moon and the patron deity of Ur. The structure
stood perhaps 70 feet (20 meters) above ground level. It would have been
the highest point in the city and visible for miles.
Another famous ziggurat, known in the Bible (Gen. 11: 1-9) as the Tower
of Babel, is the Etemenanki ziggurat. It stood in the city of Babylon (north
of Ur). The ziggurat was destroyed and rebuilt several times. Nothing of
the structure remains today.
CitationVan De Mieroop, De Mieroop, Marc. "Ziggurat." World Book Advanced. World
Book, 2013.Web. 21 Nov. 2013.
SOURCE NUMBER FOURNotesMesopotamia,
«MEHS uh puh TAY mee uh», was an ancient region in
which the world's earliest civilization developed. Mesopotamia included
the area that is now Iraq, eastern Syria, and southeastern Turkey. It
extended from the Taurus Mountains in the north to the Persian Gulf in
the south, and from the Zagros Mountains in the east to the Syrian Desert
in the west. The heart of the region was the land between the Tigris and
Euphrates rivers. The name Mesopotamia comes from a later Greek word
meaning between rivers.
Northern Mesopotamia was a plateau with a mild climate. Parts of it
received enough rain for crops to grow. In southern Mesopotamia, a plain
of fertile soil left by floodwaters of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers
provided rich farmland. But the long, hot summers and little rain in this
area made irrigation necessary for agriculture.
The oldest known communities in northern Mesopotamia were villages
established in the Zagros foothills between 9000 and 7000 B.C. By about
5000 B.C., village settlement had spread to the lower flood plain and
southern marshlands. The cultural groups that formed these early
settlements were probably the indigenous (native) ancestors of the
Sumerian civilization. About 3500 B.C., people living in southern
Mesopotamia built the world’s first cities. They invented the first system
of writing about 3300 B.C. The term Sumerian came to refer to these
people, and the region they inhabited was later called Sumer. However,
there is no clear evidence that the Sumerians were a distinct ethnic
group.
During the 2300's B.C., people originally from the west called Akkadians
conquered Sumer. The invaders spoke a Semitic language called
Akkadian, which was related to Arabic and Hebrew. The Akkadians and
other groups that spoke Semitic languages helped form states and
empires that ruled Mesopotamia for much of the period between 2300 and
539 B.C.
In 539 B.C., Mesopotamia became part of the Persian Empire. The
Macedonian ruler Alexander the Great conquered the Persians in 331 B.C.
Later, the Seleucids, Parthians, Romans, Sasanians, Arabs, and Mongols
ruled different parts of Mesopotamia. In the A.D. 1500's, the Ottoman
Empire began to take control of the region. The Ottomans ruled
Mesopotamia until the British occupied the area during World War I
(1914-1918). In 1921, most of Mesopotamia became part of the newly
created nation of Iraq.
CitationRichardson, Seth F. C. "Mesopotamia." World Book Advanced. World
Book, 2013.Web. 21 Nov. 2013