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Download Early River Civilizations - District 196 e
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MESOPOTAMIA MESOPOTAMIA • “Land between rivers” • Tigres and Euphrates flooded at least once a year • Left behind rich farming soil • Surpluses in food allowed growth in villages WORLDS FIRST CIVILIZATION WHAT DO YOU SEE? ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES • Desert lands • Irrigation ditches • Supply water to crops • No natural barriers • City walls with mud bricks • Scarce natural resources • Traded grain, cloth, and tools with mountain and desert people for stone, wood, and metal SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY • Astronomy • Invention of wheel, sail, and plow • Numbering system • 1 hour = 60 minutes • Circle = 360 degrees • Lead to Arithmetic and Geometry (Babylonians) • Architectural innovations • Arches, columns, ramps, pyramid shape • Cuneiform • First system of writing SUMERIAN RELIGION • Polytheistic – Many Gods • Ziggurat – Temple for the Gods • Also served as city hall • Afterlife • Epic of Gilgamesh – Collection of tails about a hero (possible king) • “a place where they live on dust, their food is mud…they see no light, living in blackness... WORLDS FIRST EMPIRE • Empire – brings together several people or nations under control of one ruler • Sargon defeats citystates of Sumer, controls northern and southern Mesopotamia. • Establishes capital at Babylon to become Babylonian Empire • Reached peak during reign of Hammurabi • 282 specific laws • Unifies diverse population of people OTHER EMPIRES • Hittites – Knowledge of Iron • Brought upon Iron Age as empire collapsed and spread knowledge across the world • Assyrians – Among most feared warriors in history • Rule through terror King Ashurbinipal "I built a pillar over against his city gate, and I flayed all the chief men who had revolted, and I covered the pillar with their skins; some I walled up within the pillar, some I impaled upon the pillar on stakes, and others I bound to stakes round the about the pillar; many within the border of my own land I flayed, and I spread their skins upon the walls; and I cut off the limbs of the officers, of the royal officers who had rebelled.” WAR TACTICS WAR TACTIC? WHAT? NEW BABYLON • Nebachadnezzar – Rebuilt Babylon • Surrounded with moat and 9 gates • Hanging Gardens PERSIANS • King Cyrus (The Great) • Destroy Babylon • Practice tolerance towards conquered subjects • Darius I • Broke empire in to provinces • Each ruled by a governor • Officials check in periodically • Adapted laws from Hammurabi • Built thousands of miles of roads • Royal Road - 1,677 miles • Common weights and measurements (coin) ROYAL ROAD - LET’S COMPARE • Minneapolis – ? Seattle! • 1,656 Miles • How long to drive? 24 hrs • Bike? 6 days • Walk? 22.5 days • Fly? 3.5 hrs • Susa – Sardis • 1,677 Miles • 3 months – Caravan • 7 Days – Messenger PERSIAN BATTLES – MARATHON AND THERMOPYLAE • Greek cities resisting Persian influence (governors) • Handful of failed attacks against Greece • Darius attacks mainland Greece for supporting rebels • Ends in Persian defeat • Darius makes full-scale conquest plan of Greece • Xerxes, son of Darius, puts plan in to play • Greeks defeated at Thermopylae • Persia ultimately defeated by Greeks PERSIAN IMMORTALS • Most known for Greco-Persian wars • Immediately replaceable • Well trained guards • Heavy infantry
