Download 2.1 Meso and Sumer Notes

Section 1- Mesopotamia and Sumer
I.
Geography Challenged the People of Mesopotamia
A. Fertile Crescent
- This includes much of the Middle East; this area is a horseshoe
crescent shaped area of good farmland.
- This area starts in the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and
runs along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea as far as Egypt.
This was another part of the crossroads of ancient times.
B. Mesopotamia
- Mesopotamia, means land between the rivers. The water of the Tigris
and Euphrates rivers made irrigation farming possible in this dry land.
- Rivers were also an important way for transportation and
communication in the area.
- Mesopotamia depended on the flooding of the Tigris and Euphrates
rivers, just like Egypt depended on the Nile. These rivers left good
fertile soil, which allowed farming to be done easily.
Problem- The Tigris and Euphrates rivers' flooding was not nearly as
predictable as the Nile. This meant that much more often, violent
flooding wiped out homes and farms.
Climate of Mesopotamia- was much harsher than that of Egypt.
Blazing summer heat gave way to harsh winter storms.
C. Invasions of Mesopotamia
- Mesopotamia did not have the good natural geographic defenses and
thus was not a challenge for invaders.
- An invasion from mountain areas (primarily in the North) was easy.
The reason people invaded was to capture the wealth and many
splendors of the civilizations in the area.
Several different groups controlled Mesopotamia at different times
and the next portion of the section will look at these.
II. A Series of Rulers Controlled Mesopotamia
A. Sumerians
- Were around as early as 4000 B.C.
- Lived in small independent cities.
- They used the wheel and made copper tools and weapons.
They decorated objects with gold and silver.
- Cuneiform was developed by the Sumerians, and was the earliest form
of writing.
- Polytheism was the religion of the people. They believed that a
separate god ruled each city.
- Ziggurats, huge pyramid shaped towers, served as homes for the gods
as well as temples.
- The temple priests, nobles, and kings of each city held most of the
land, which was worked by free men as well as slaves.
- Sumerians were not united and many times they would be at war with
other Sumerian cities.
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B. Sargon I
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These wars weakened the Sumerians, whose enemies eventually
conquered them.
Around 2500 B.C. conquered the Sumerians. He and his people came
form Akkad, an area in northern Mesopotamia. These people were not
nearly as advanced as the Sumerians.
The people of Akkad adopted many Sumerian ways and under Sargon,
the two peoples united and strong kingdom called Sumer.
He extended his kingdom west to the Mediterranean Sea as well as
north and east to other parts of the Middle East.
C. Hammurabi
- Around 1800 B.C. Hammurabi conquered the Kingdom of Sumer.
- Built the Kingdom of Babylonia and its capital Babylon.
His most important gift is his code of laws. This was a written code f
laws that explains the legal system of Babylonia. Archaeologists
discovered this code of laws in 1901. It was written on a huge piece of
black stone.
- The Hittites, the Kassites, and the Assyrians defeated Babylonia.
Babylonia would not become unified again until 600 B.C.
D. The Fierce Hittites
- Hittites were a warlike people who appear in Turkey around 2000 B.C.
- Around 1600 B.C. they began to invade Mesopotamia, and were
successful, because they rode horses, and other did not.
- They made weapons of iron. The advanced weapons and horses made
the Hittites very feared.
- They started the Iron Age in western Asia. Hittitites invaded Syria, an
Egyptian province, during the time of Ikhnaton, who was busy with
religious matters.
In 1280 B.C. the Hittites and Egyptians, under Ramses II, made a
peace treaty. Around this time the Hittites seem to just disappear.
E. The Assyrians
- Were from an area 300 miles north of Babylon.
- They were aggressive warriors and cruel conquerors.
- Assyrians moved entire groups of people to weaken their sense of
unity.
- In battle they were almost invincible because of their copper, iron, and
bronze weapons.
- They also rode horse drawn chariots.
- The Assyrian Empire was the largest the world had ever seen.
- Between 1100 B.C. to 612 B.C. the Assyrians conquered Babylonia,
Palestine, and Syria, Phoenicia, Sumer, and Egypt.
- The Chaldeans defeated the Assyrians in 612 B.C. and ended their
empire.
F. The Chaldean Empire
- This empire lasted for 74 years, 612 B.C. to 538 B.C. It has been called
the Neo-Babylonian Empire, because Babylonia became powerful
again.
- King Nebuchadnezzar ruled. He made Babylon the most splendid city
of the ancient world. This was the time of the Hanging Gardens, one of
the ancient wonders of the world.
- In 539 B.C. the Persians conquered Babylon and the Chaldean Empire
ended.
G. The Persians
1. Darius I
- Lived from 550 B.C. to 486 B.C.; the Persians conquered almost the
entire civilized world.
- Empire extended from the Indus River to the Mediterranean Sea.
Mesopotamia is just one part of the Empire.
2. Persian Government
- Persia is credited with a highly effective form of government.
- The Empire was divided into provinces ruled in the king's name.
- Persian kings listened to their advisors, although they had ultimate
power.
Persian people felt that they were treated fairly. Conquered people
were allowed to practice their own religion and keep their own
language. Each province was also able to keep its own customs and
leaders.
3. Persian Accomplishments.
- Persians improved communication with the Royal Road (page 57).
- This road ran from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean, which was
1600 miles long.
- It took someone about 10 days to go from one end of the empire to the
other.
Persians made metal coins of equal size and weight.
- This meant that you could travel throughout the Persian Empire and
use the same coinage with a standard value.
4. Religious Change
- a man named Zoroaster wrote a religious book in 600 B.C.
- Zoroastrianism was a religion that believed there was a battle between
good and evil, light and dark.
- Zoroaster believed that a person should always fight for the good.
I. Babylonians Developed an Organized Society
- When looking at the Babylonian Civilization, most would not be known without the work of
Henry Rawlinson. He risked his life, by climbing a cliff many times, to figure out the language of
the Babylonians. There was a rock, similar to the Rosetta Stone known as the Behistun Rock.
A. Class Lines
- A strong ruler led Babylonia.
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There was a very set class system between the rich and the poor.
The educated scribes became leading citizens and the rich owned all the land and used
slaves for the work.
Free people were crafts workers, clerks, and farmers.
Slaves were the lowest class.
B. Role of Women
- Women had many duties.
- Number one job was having and raising children.
- Women had same rights as men. They could own, buy, and sell property. They could pass
on their property to their children. They could be educated and work outside the home.
C. Religious Influence
- Babylonians practiced polytheism, or the worship of many gods.
They prayed to statues representing nature gods.
- Their two biggest gods were Marduk and Any.
- Marduk was the god of the earth and Any was the god of the heavens.
Magic was believed to protect the Babylonians and the priests received great gifts for
protecting the people from evil.
D. Work and the Economy
- Most people were farmers.
- They stored grains, fruits nuts, and dates, as well as water, in clay pots.
- They irrigated their crops with water from the rivers.
- Babylonian businesses included manufacturing and trading.
Manufacturing included clothing, bricks, and a thriving metal industry.
Babylonian kings developed strict rules about trade and pricing, and heavy taxes were
placed on merchants trading in Babylonia.
Silver was the coinage, not gold, and it was used in the lending and borrowing of money.
II. Babylonians Wrote a Code of Laws
A. Hammurabi
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Ruled around 1750 B.C. He wrote a code of laws that was revolutionary for the day. This
was the first written code of laws and it included all the laws the Babylonians had to
obey.
These laws show us how the Babylonians were supposed to live and how they were
governed
B. The Laws- Made up of 285 laws.
- Classified under real estate, trade, and business.
- "Eye for an Eye", which meant that the punishment should fit the crime. City would
pay for a robbery victim if the criminal was not found.
- Politics of the Laws- the eye for an eye held true only if you were of the same class as
the other. If a nobleman killed a slave or worker, then he would only have to pay a
fine. But, if a slave killed a slave, then he would die.
- All in all this was a very early attempt to establish a code of laws for people to live by.
It also told the people of the punishment, in writing, before they committed the crime.
III. Civilization Owes Much to the Babylonians
A. Writing- They had a system of writing based on the Cuneiform of the Sumerians. They used a
stylus, or a sharp tool used to cut wedge shaped marks in to damp clay.
B. Language- Had more than 300 characters, which stood for a syllable.
C. Schools- In schools, students studied mathematics, writing, and religion.
D. Arithmetic- Since business was a key in the Babylonian Empire, you needed a number system.
- Arithmetic was based on the unit of 60, which is important to life. This idea is still
around today with 60 seconds, 60 minutes, and 360 degrees.
E. Astronomy- Like the Egyptians, the Babylonians had a calendar.
- - Priests could accurately predict eclipses, and the calendar had 354 days. A month was
added periodically to catch up with the actual 365.25 days we really have.