Download Chapter 4 The Fertile Crescent

The Fertile Crescent
Mesopotamia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1g60SSGmeY&
safe=active
. Sumer
: Canaan
Jan. 7:
DO NOW- on the lines next to
this slide
List several reasons as to
why people would decide
to settle along a river?
Mesopotamia’s
Legacy -what was left to us by this
civilization?
• The Legacy of Mesopotamia
• The earliest existing set of
written laws, known as
Hammurabi’s Code, established
rules and punishments for
Babylonians.
• A one-God religion known as
Judaism
• Government- formal
SUMER: To measure the passage of time
• Calendar• Based on the phases of the
moon
• Crescent moon meant the
begin of the month
• Sumerians year was short 11 days
which meant they couldn’t
accurately predict the flooding of the
Tigris and Euphrates Rivers or when
the crops should be harvested. They
eventually learned to add an extra
month.
• Watches
• The changing positions of
the stars, planets and
moon
• Astronomy- study of
the stars
• Learned to recognize
planets and
constellations
• Learn to foresee
ECLIPSES
• Thought to be a
bad omen
Astrology – belief that
the movement of the
stars and planets
affect/influence the
lives of men and
women
• and Astrology
Medicine
• Physicians and
veterinarians
• Potion and ointments from
natural ingredients Flowers
•
•
•
•
•
Roots
Leaves
Nuts
Snake skins’
Turtle shells
• Recorded temperature,
pulse, skin color
• Promote proper hygiene
• 3000 BC = invention of soap
• Cosmetics
• *real cure of illness was to
please the angry gods
which sent the demons to
invade the body
More Legacies
MATH
• Base ten and decimals
• - Place value
• - Right angle
• - Square
• - Hypotenuse
• The wheel-wagon was
believed to have been
made by the Sumerians. It
was made of planks of
wood joined together. The
picture below briefly
describes the stages of
development of the
wagon.
•
Vocabulary
•Drought
•Famine
•Surplus
•Barter
•Fertile Crescent
•Mesopotamia
Vocabulary
• city-state
• Ziggurat
• Cuneiform
• Code of Hammurabi
• Hammurabi
• Sumer
• Babylon
• Empire
DO NOW:
On the last page of packet:
•On the chart, fill in 8 of
Mesopotamia’s legacies
Fertile Crescent?
A fertile area of land that is
shaped like a crescent.
Mesopotamia is part of the Fertile
Crescent
Two
rivers
Caanan
Persian
Gulf
What does Mesopotamia
mean?
It means:
Land between two
rivers.
The Euphrates and
the Tigris Rivers.
A Challenging Environment
•the overflow of the Euphrates
and the Tigris rivers were
“UNPREDICTABLE!”
•These overflows caused floods
and destroyed many villages.
Droughts
• Quite the opposite of an overflow.
This is when there is a long period
of dry weather.
• What can a drought do to a civilization?
1. Turn fertile soil to dust
2. Shrivel crops
3. Cause a widespread lack of food or
FAMINE!
Taming Rivers
• They built CANALS and DIKES [DAMS].
• The flooding of the rivers left deposits
of silt which was excellent for crops.
• Silt – rocks, pebbles, minerals, from
the bottom- created fertile land –
• This is where historians
believe farming began
Climate
• DRY……little rain
• Irrigation (trap
water)….HOW?
• leads to a SURPLUS:
extra supply of food
Mesopotamia’s Lively Trade
BARTER- to exchange goods or
services without using money.
..There was a NEED!!
caravans – groups of travelers
bazaars – markets selling
different kinds of goods
Sumer- [city-state]
•Who were the Sumerians?
• earliest group to inhabit the Middle East region known
as Mesopotamia
• First to create technology associated with
farming such as the wheel and irrigation
• NOMADS that settled in lower Mesopotamia.
• Many of the things we take for granted today can
be traced back directly to the ingenuity and
creativity of the Sumerian culture.
City-State• A self-governing city [had it’s own leader] and
the land surrounding it.
• Shared customs-ways of doing something
• Shared religious beliefs
• Worked together to meet their basic needs.
• Army
• Spoke the same language
• BUT they don’t have…………….
City-State – cont’d
•NO CENTRAL
GOVERNMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Unlike
Egypt
•Much conflict: Why? Because
no unity, separate rulers
•Wars over lands, river use
DO NOW: in your notebook
•LIST 6 traits of a CITY-STATE
Temples for Gods
•People did not worship rulers
•Built Ziggurats: temples for
gods and goddesses
• Most important building in the
city
•HIGH so they would be closer to
the gods
•Stairs used for gods to come to
the earth
Examples of ziggurats
Sumerian Writing
• The first to
create a system
of writing • CUNEIFORM:
• Sumerian system
of writing – used
symbols
• Kept records
Babylon
• Upstream from Sumer
• Built an empire because they took from the
Sumerians
Hanging Gardens of
Babylon
• Garden = palace rooms
• Seventh Wonder of the World
• Had many levels
• Built by King Nebuchadnezzar as a
birthday present for the queen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLlroENeNHk&feature=play
er_embedded
DO NOW
-in your notebook
Written LAWS: Why do we
need them? Give good
reasons.
LAWS
• First to write down the laws
• First lawgiver – HAMMURABI
• Code of Hammurabi –first law
recorded- 282 laws- 44 columns
• Harsh punishments
• “Eye for an Eye” codes # 196-223
• Code written on stone in the center of
town.
Hammurabi’s
Code
• The carving on the stone on
which the code is written
depicts Hammurabi receiving
the divine laws from the sun
god, the god most often
associated with justice.
• code protecting all classes of
Babylonian society, including
women and slaves.
• protection of the weak from
the powerful
• the poor from the rich.
Code #8
• “If any one steal cattle or sheep, or an ass, or a pig
or a goat, if it belonged to a god or to the court, the
thief shall pay thirty fold; if they belonged to a
freed man of the king he shall pay tenfold; if the
thief has nothing with which to pay he shall be put
to death.”
• With an example such as this, students are able to
see the ways that the Code worked to reinforce
class distinctions as it also established specific
punitive rules for social order.
If a builder builds a house for someone, and
does not construct it properly, and the house
which he built falls in and kills its owner, then
the builder shall be put to death. (Another
variant of this is, If the owner's son dies, then
the builder's son shall be put to death.)
If a son strikes his father, his hands shall be
hewn off.
If anyone steals the minor son of another, he
shall be put to death.
If anyone brings an accusation against a man, and the
accused goes to the river and leaps into the river, if he
sinks in the river his accuser shall take possession of
his house. But if the river proves that the accused is
not guilty, and he escapes unhurt, then he who had
brought the accusation shall be put to death, while he
who leaped into the river shall take possession of the
house that had belonged to his accuser.
If anyone brings an accusation of any crime before the
elders, and does not prove what he has charged, he
shall, if a capital offense is charged, be put to death.
If a man puts out the eye of an equal, his eye shall be put out.
If a man knocks the teeth out of another man, his own teeth
will be knocked out.
If anyone strikes the body of a man higher in rank than he, he
shall receive sixty blows with an ox-whip in public.
If anyone opens his ditches to water his crop, but is careless,
and the water floods his neighbor's field, he shall pay his
neighbor corn for his loss.
If a judge tries a case, reaches a decision, and presents his
judgment in writing; and later it is discovered that his decision
was in error, and it was his own fault, he shall pay twelve times
the fine set by him in the case and be removed from the judge's
bench.
Do Now: in your notebook
• Yesterday, we discussed several of
Hammurabi’s codes.
• Would you have wanted to live under
the Codes of Hammurabi?
• Why or why not?
DO NOW: in notebook
• What 3 facts about JUDAISM do
you recall learning, when we did
Religions of the World?
Birth of Judaism
Ancient Hebrews
•From the Bible, lived in
Mesopotamia
•Judaism: religion, today
17 million people
Origins of Judaism
•Leader: Abraham, led across
the Fertile Crescent
•Canaan: area reached by
Abraham between the Jordan
River and the Mediterranean
Sea
Canaan
Captivity in Egypt
•Famine strikes Canaan
•Move to Egypt…enslaved
•Moses: raised by Pharaoh
•Led Hebrew out of
slavery- PASSOVER
Ten Commandments
•Mount Sinai:
where the
Hebrews lived, where God
gave Moses the Ten
Commandments: basis
of laws for the Hebrews
* Answers may be Writing Laws/
used more than
Gov’t
once
Sumerians
Babylonians
Hebrews
Religion
Idea of one God
•Polytheism:
Worship
many gods
•Popular at
this time
• Monotheism:
belief in one god
• Hebrews were
the first group-in
their area- to
worship one god
• They saw God as
just and allimportant
• Judaism
• The religion practiced by the
Israelites was very different from
other religions practiced in the
ancient world.
• The Ten Commandments are the
core beliefs of Judaism.
• Judaism has influenced other
major religions of the world.
Wisdom of Solomon
•Solomon: leader- name
means “peace”
•Organized the kingdom of
Israel
•He had lots of wisdom
•Story of the baby
• Although Solomon was
young, he soon became
known for his wisdom.
The first and most
famous incident of his
cleverness as a judge
was when two women
came to his court with a
baby whom both women
claimed as their own.
Solomon threatened to
split the baby in half.
• One woman was
prepared to accept the
decision, but the other
begged the King to give
the live baby to the
other woman. Solomon
then knew the second
woman was the mother.
DO NOW: on your packet
• What does this psalm mean:
Blessed is the one who does
not walk in step with the wicked,
or stand in the way that sinners
take, or sit in the company of
mockers, but whose delight is in
the law of the Lord.