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The Fertile Crescent/Mesopotamia
Location, Location, Location!
*Don’t write!!!!!!!!!!!
* FC Today: Iraq, Syria, Jordan
Lebanon, Israel,Turkey & Iran
*FC is horseshoe/crescent shaped
area of good farmland along
Tigris & Euphrates rivers that
stretches from W
Mediterranean to
Persian Gulf
Location!
• Don’t write!
• Tigris & Euphrates flow
from E. Turkey
to Persian Gulf.
• Area known
as Mesopotamia
(land btw rivers)
• Floods at least once a year,
leaving thick silt (mud). Very
fertile
• Flooding unpredictable
• Desert region
• No barriers
for protection
Sumerians!
• Don’t write: Settle 3300 BC
• Good soil, few resources, no
protection & flooding
Solution?
• Dug irrigation ditches
• Built city walls w/ mud
bricks
*trade tools for raw
materials
• By 3000 BC built city-states
-independent cities w/ own
govts & rulers,
& separate
gods
• Share culture
• Ex: Kish,
Lagash,
Ur, Uruk
*All CS’s had ziggurat (temple) in
middle
*Govt controlled by zig priests
• Farmers need blessings of gods
for crops & priests were go
betweens
• During war, led by commanders
(eventually became
full time leader)
• Creates a Dynasty- single family
rule
•
Don’t write!!!
• Built in receding tiers upon a rectangular, oval, or
square platform, the ziggurat was a pyramidal
structure with a flat top. Sun-baked bricks made up
the core of the ziggurat with facings of fired bricks
on the outside. The facings were often glazed in
different colors!
• C/S’s grew wealthy from
surplus food & start trading
• Cities spread & so does
cultural
diffusion- (new
idea/product
spreads from
one culture to
another)
Religion
*Polytheistic- many gods
• Gods all powerful
& immortal w/
humans as slaves,
fatalistic,
pessimistic
(build ziggarats, offer sacrifice
of animals,wine)
• Enlil- god of storms/air,
controls cosmos & man
Social class structure!
Kings, priests, landowners
Wealthy merchants
Field workers
Slaves (sold as kids or pows)
****Women had rights! Could own
property, be merchants, etc!!!***
Arches,
columns,
ramps, pyramid
shape design
Dev number
system base 60
(time, 360)
Inventions & ideas
develop from needs!!
Cuneiform
Invented wheel,
plow, sail and
use bronze
• At war from 3000-2000 bc.
• Never recover, but don’t die
out.
• Succeeding rulers use
Sumerian culture
Akkadians
Akkadians & Sargon
• 2350 BC: SARGON of AKKAD
(city-state in N) conquers citystates of Sumer
• Controls Meso & creates first
EMPIRE (brings together people,
nations, independent states
under 1 ruler) (From Med coast to Iran)
• Fell apart due to invasions,
fighting after 200 years
• 2000 BC nomad Ammorites
invade & est Babylon
• 1792-1750 BC- Hammurabi
of Babylon creates uniform
code of laws, carved in
stone, posted all over
To bring about the rule of
righteousness in the land, to
destroy the wicked and the
evil doers, so that the strong
should not harm the weak
• 282 specific laws listed
under headings: trade,
business, marriage, family
• Severe punishments apply
to all (but
different
for rich &
poor, men &
women)
Hittites
• 2000 BC Hittites appear
from Anatolia (high, rocky
platuea w/ minerals, timber
in Turkey)
• Indo-European speakers.
Separate city states create
empire (Hattusas capital)
• Invade T/E around 1600 BC
• Tactics:
• 1st to work iron into weapons
(had charcoal & iron ore)
• 2 wheeled chariots, wood
frame, leather
covered, 2-4 horses
• Stalemate w/
Egyptians
Phonecians
• Don’t’ write! 1100 BC- Lebanon today!
• Merchants, traders & seafarers
who built CS’s that competed
w/ each other (Byblos, Tyre,
Sidon) all over Med (sail as far as GB
& around Africa)
• Trade goods (wine, weapons,
metals), superb craftsmen
(red/purple dye, wood, ivory)
• Create alphabet: phonetic w/
one pic for one sound
• Introduced to trade partners
LYDIANS
• Mostly in Anatolia (Tur)
• 1st to coin money of gold &
silver btw 700 BC to 550 BC.
Traders (coins stamped w/ king’s symbol of lion
head & sunburst)
• Destroyed by
Persians
Assyrians
• 300 miles N Mesopotamia
• Aggressive, cruel, constant
warfare
to expand
*Defeat Syria,
Palestine, Egypt
Babylonia, Sumer
btw 1000 & 650 BC
Military Tactics
• Iron helmets/leather skirts w/
scales, iron swords & iron tipped
spears, shields
• span rivers w/
pontoons, floating
bridges
• Dig under walls
to weaken them
(sappers)
• March shoulder to shoulder,
shoot arrows, climb ladders.
• Impale/ behead
those not killed
in battle,
*women, kids
murdered
sold into slavery
Ruling Power
• Officials govern land closest to
Assyria as provinces, made
dependent & chose their rulers
(governors report to central
authority)
• Pay taxes & tribute, destroyed
if don’t
• Don’t Write! Ninevah:
• Walled city 3 miles
wide, 1 mi long
• Carvings of military campaigns
• King Ashurbanipal created
library w/ 20,000 tablets from
FC
• (organized by room,
subject matter)
• destroyed by Chaldeans
• 612 BC-538 BC Chaldeans (aka
Neo-Babylonians) invade Assyria
destroy Nineveh
• Made Babylon capital (1000 yrs
after Hammurabi) & restore city
• Nebuchadnezzar built Hanging
Gardens of Babylon
• study astronomy (chart star
positions) from ziggurat
• Destroyed by Persians
Built garden to please his wife Amytis of Media, who longed for the trees and fragrant plants of her
homeland.[1] Gardens destroyed by earthquakes. 100 feet ( long by 100 ft wide & built in tiers so
that it resembled a theatre. Vaults constructed under the terraces carried weight of the planted
garden; Highest part garden, (75 feet) was on the same level as the city walls. Roofs of vaults
supported the garden made of stone beams 16 ft long,. Laid over these were a layer of reeds set
in thick tar, then two courses of baked brick bonded by cement, & finally a covering of lead to
prevent the moisture in the soil penetrating the roof.. The earth was levelled off & t planted w/
every kind of tree. Galleries were sunlit, & contained conduits for the water which was raised by
pumps from the river, though no one outside could see it being done
*Today:
Persians
Iran (Caspian Sea to
Persian Gulf)
*fertile
farmland
w/ many
minerals
(gold, silver,
copper, lead
lapis lazuli)
• 550 BC Cyrus the Great
conquers from Indus to Anatolia
• Kind, tolerant, honors local
customs traditions, religions,
• Allowed Jews to return to Israel
• Don’t Write! 530 BC Son Cyrus’ Cambyses conquers
Egypt & is cruel,dies. Brother Smerdis (fake, tries to
take over) Darius knows he is a fake
• Darius, (522 BC) noble in
king’s body guard, seized
throne w/ help of elite
soldiers & puts down
revolts
• Conquest!! Conquers
& controls 2500 miles
(Afghanistan into India)
*Persia
div into 20 provinces,
using homelands, keep their
religion, languages & laws
• Use satrap - gov to rule
locally, plus a mili leader &
tax collector & use spies
• Royal Road 1677 miles
(messenger relays)
• METAL coins
•
•
•
•
Zoroastrianism
Religion started by Zoroaster
(600 BC. Prophet)
Earth is battleground btw spirit
of good (light) & evil (darkness)
Each person part of struggle
Ahura Mazda judges everyone
at end of time on how well you
fought
Hebrews, Israel and Judaism
• Palestine east
end of Med Sea
• Hebrews lived
in Canaan (btw
Jordan R &
Med Sea)
• Crossroadsseaports on Red
& Med Seas
• Torah tells story of Hebrews
(1st 5 books of
Heb/Christian bible
*1800 BC Abraham chosen by
God to lead/be the “father”
of Hebrews, wanders for
for years.
*Don’t write!!
*believe in 1 god Yaweh,
(Monotheism)
*had power over all people
*God looked after Hebrews &
get homeland (Canaan) if
they obeyed (covenant:
mutual
promise)
Don’t write! Grandson Jacob (aka Israel) had 12 sons, each was leader of 12 tribes
of Israel. 1600 BC Joseph led them to Egypt, enslaved
• 1230 BC? Moses led them
out of Egypt, (the Exodus)
wandered for 40 years.
• Given 10 commandments
(social &
religious behavior,
new covenant)
• Return to
promised land
• Don’t Write!!
• God’s mercy
• Live justly
with one
another
• Moral life in
god’s laws
• Worship 1 god
• no one above
law 62 old
• Hebrews return to Canaan
1020-922 Israel unites
under 3 kings
• 1025 BC: Saul drives out
Philistines (1st king of
Israelites)
• King David- unite tribes, est
Jerusalem
• King Solomon- built trade
empire on Med & big Temple
in Jerusalem for the Ark of
the Covenant
• (holds 10
commandments)
• Solomon's
projects raised
taxes, strain all
• Jews in N
revolt after
Solomon dies &
divides in half:
Judah in S &
Israel in N
Judah & Israel Fall (DON”T WRITE)
• 783 BC: tribute to Assyria
• 722 BC: Israel falls
• 586 BC: Neb destroys Judah
& Jerusalem.
• Jews exiled
to Babylon
(Babylonian
Captivity)
• 539 BC: Cyrus the Great
(Persia) conquers Babylon &
allows Jews to return
• Jerusalem
rebuilt 445 BC,
but later
taken
by Greeks,
then Romans