Download Life in the Fertile Crescent

Life in the Fertile Crescent
The Fertile Crescent was a quarter moon shaped area
between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.
This rich land supported many farming villages. In the region
called Mesopotamia “ the land between two rivers” several
villages grew into cities.
The people of Sumer (Sumerians) built dikes and
dug canals to hold back the flood waters from
the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.
Life in the cities posed new problems for the
Sumerians, and they had to find creative
ways to solve them.
Mesopotamia’s earliest cities rose up in an
area called Sumer. People lived and worked
together and formed a complex society or
civilization.
A civilization is a culture with well
developed forms of government,
religion, and a written language.
These people used technology - (the use of tools
and skills) to build their cities.
One technological advancement made
by the Sumerians was the invention of
the wheel.
Wheel technology made other inventions possible,
including the wheeled cart.
They used domesticated oxen and donkeys to pull
heavy loads using the wheeled carts. Wheeled
carts were important in moving construction
materials.
They were able to build seven-story temples called
ziggurats. This is where they worshiped their
gods.
The Sumerians believed that each city had
a god to watch over and protect them. They
also believed that the gods controlled the
winds and the rain, the sun and every part
of nature important to agricultural society.
The Sumerians believed that large harvests were a
sign that the gods were pleased with them.
They also thought that floods and other natural
disasters were signs that the gods were very
angry with them.
When large numbers of people live and work
together, laws are needed to keep order. In large
societies this can be achieved through a system
of government.
A government is an organized system that groups
use to make laws and decisions.
Sumerian farms produced a surplus (extra supply)
of food. This meant they had enough to barter
or trade for things they needed.
Not everyone in Sumer, including the kings could
read or write. Those who could write were
called scribes. Often they kept records, wrote
letters for other people. They also copied down
stories and songs.
The needs of a large complex society led to new
ways of doing things, or innovations.
Acre (unit of
measuring land)
Cargo ships with
sails for trading
Quart to measure
wheat and barely
Cuneiforms (writing
system of wedge
shaped symbols)
The people of Phoenicia sailed the waters of the
Mediterranean Sea in search of goods they
needed. As a result they developed highly
advanced sailing techniques.
The Phoenicians borrowed ideas from the
different cultures with whom they came into
contact.
The earliest alphabet was developed by the
Phoenicians based on writing systems of other
ancient civilizations.
The Phoenician alphabet made writing easier
because their written symbols stood for
single sounds.
Citizens from another early civilization, the Lydian,
were the first to use coined money.
Their first coins were the size of red beans.
They were made from a mixture of gold and
silver.
These new coins were used and accepted in other
civilizations.
……. And they were not so heavy that they’d
sink the trading ships!
Hammurabi was the ruler
who chiefly established the
greatness of Babylon, the
world's first metropolis.
Hammurabi’s most important
innovation was a collection
of 282 laws called the Code
of Hammurabi.
Hammurabi improved each city-state of Babylon
under his rule by promoting trade and by
building and keeping up dikes and canals.
To pay for these projects Hammurabi charged
taxes to his citizens.
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People could pay taxes in crops or other
goods they produced.
Hammurabi appointed tax collectors to gather
taxes. If the tax collector could not get a
payment from a person, he was forced to pay it
HIMSELF.
Hammurabi wrote laws about marriage, divorce,
adoption, slaves, murder, stealing, military
service, land and business practices, loans,
prices and wages!
(Remember there were 282 of them)
The code of Hammurabi made people responsible
for their actions.
The code said that whoever cause an injury should
be punished by given the same injury.
The most famous of those laws was ….
“an eye for an eye”
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What do I need to remember about the
Fertile Crescent?

Mesopotamia

scribes

civilization

innovations

technology

Phoenicians

inventions

Lydians

ziggurats

Hammurabi

government

Code of Hammurabi

surplus

Cuneiform