Download Intro to Mesopotamia PowerPoint

Welcome to
Western Civilization!!
2015-2016
Ms. Thomas
Genesis: The Beginning of History
Cultural Mandate
• “And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and
multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and
have dominion over the fish of the sea and
over the birds of the heavens and over every
living thing that moves on the earth.’”
-Genesis 1:28
Cultural Mandate
• “Be fruitful and multiply, subdue it and have
dominion ”
– means to develop the social world (build families,
cities, churches, governments, laws)
• Our original purpose is to build cultures, build
civilizations
• This is the way God ordered the world
Man’s Rebellion
• Genesis 2:15-17 The Lord God took the man
and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it
and take care of it. And the Lord God
commanded the man, “You are free to eat
from any tree in the garden; but you must not
eat from the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil, for when you eat from it you will
certainly die.”
• Genesis 3:6-15: Then the woman saw that the fruit of the
tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also
desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.
She also gave some to her husband, who was with her,
and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were
opened, and they realized they were naked; so they
sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for
themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound
of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the
cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among
the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the
man, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the
garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I
hid.” And he said, “Who told you that you were naked?
Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not
to eat from? ”The man said, “The woman you put here
with me —she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate
it.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this
you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived
me, and I ate.”
The curse
• So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because
you have done this,
“Cursed are you above all livestock and all
wild animals! You will crawl on your
belly and you will eat dust
all the days of
your life. And I will put enmity between you
and the woman, and between your offspring
and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike
his heel.”
What do we study in history???
• The root of all the strife, conflict, wars, and other social
problems is sin.
• Politics, economics, laws, social customs are part of the
cultural mandate, given by God
• When we study art, literature, music, it is a reflection of man
trying to reach up to “higher things” that point to the reality
of God
• “And out of that hopeless attempt has come
nearly all that we call human history—
money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution,
classes, empires, slavery—the long terrible
story of man trying to find something other
than God which will make him happy.”
– C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
God’s Plan For History
• Colossians 1: 15-19
– He [Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all
creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and
that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions
or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and
for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And
He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the
firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the
preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness
should dwell, and by Him to RECONCILE all things to Himself, by Him,
whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace
through the blood of His cross. And you, who once were alienated and
enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in
the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and
blameless, and above reproach in His sight—if indeed you continue in
the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the
hope of the gospel which you heard…
As we consider history,
let’s not get caught up in
names, dates, places,
events, but in how we
see God’s redemptive
hand through it all.
Ultimate Goal
• “Give ear, O my people, to my teaching…I will
utter dark sayings from of old, things that we
have heard and known…we will not hide them
from their children, but tell to the coming
generation the glorious deeds of the Lord, and
His might, and the wonders that He has done.”
-Psalm 78: 1-4
Journal #1:
• Think about an important event in your life.
Write about what you remember of that event
in about a pargraph
Ancient Mesopotamia and the
Epic of Gilgamesh
Middle East and North Africa
Key Vocabulary:
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Civilization:
Fertile Crescent:
City-state:
Ziggurat:
Floodplain:
Polytheism:
Cuneiform:
Peoples of Ancient Mesopotamia
Akkadians
2340-2125
BC
Sumeria
3500-1800
BC
Mesopotamian
Civilization
Chaldeans
612-539 BC
Assyrians
1170-612 BC
Amorites
1800-1530
BC
Hittites
1600-717
BC
Kassites
15301170 BC
Mesopotamia, c. 4000-1000 B.C.
(Bronze Age)
The West’s first large-scale
civilization starts here
– Organized central
governments-city states
(political unit)
– Theories:
• Need for kings and bureaucracy to
keep order
– Make sure water, land, crops are
used to the most benefit for all
– The people in Mesopotamia had to
deal with The Tigris and Euphrates
rivers
– Flood control and irrigation
– This organization allowed for trade,
migration, movement of armies
– Writing
• Religion and Mythology
– Polytheism: religious
belief in many gods that
reflected war and struggle
with unpredictable
environment
• War-like gods who
possessed total control
over human lives
• Sacrifices, rituals,
temples (ziggurats)Tower of Babel
• Priests and priestesses
= power
Mesopotamian gods (In order of importance…)
1. An-god of the sky
2. Enlil-god of wind
3. Enki-god of the earth
4. Ninhurgasa-worship as “mother goddess” who gave
birth to kings. This will be the story of Gilgamesh’s
birth
• Belief that humans do the work the gods do not
want to do.
Sumer
– Earliest cities in
southern Mesopotamia
were Ur and Uruk
– Agriculture and trade
(as far away as India)
– Sumerians
• Developed the wheel
• Created first writing
system (cuneiform)
• Devised a
mathematical system
and astronomy
Sumerian Culture
• A. Society
1. Three social classes
a. Priests and royalty (kings)
b. Wealthy merchants
c. Ordinary workers
[Slaves] –were not free citizens and thus not
included in class system
PP Design of T. Loessin; Akins H.S.
Women
a. Had more rights than in many later
civilizations (could own property, join lower
ranks of priesthood)
b. But not allowed to attend schools (could not
read or write)
PP Design of T. Loessin; Akins H.S.
PP Design of T. Loessin; Akins H.S.