Download Monarchy Irrigation system Social Structure Equal Justice Cuneiform

Civilization
Highly developed culture;
Centralized society with
developed forms of religion,
ways of governing, and
learning
Ziggurat
Ancient Mesopotamian temple
tower;
Large mud brick temple
located in the center of the
city-state
Scribe
Empire
Group of (city) states
A person who writes things for controlled by one ruler
others
Polytheism
Belief in many gods
Theocracy
Government controlled by
religious leaders
Monarchy
Irrigation system
Form of government where one
A controlled means of supplying
person has complete authority (king) land with water
Equal Justice
Fair treatment
Cuneiform
First written language developed by
the Sumerians. It comes from a
Latin word that means, “wedge”.
They used a wedge-shaped stylus
to etch their writing in clay tablets.
City-state
Small, independent villages
Each with its own ruler and
their own farmland
Code of Hammurabi
First written laws;
Collection of 282 laws that
governed the people of
Babylon; Laws dealt with
almost all areas of daily life:
marriage, divorce, slaves,
murder, stealing
Status
Importance- used with social
structure to indicate society
ranking
Social Structure
Complex organization, which
includes different jobs and social
levels.
Levees
A wall of earth built to prevent a
river from flooding its banks
Geography:
• Where was the Fertile Crescent (Mesopotamia) located?
- between the
Tigris
and
-stretched from the
Persian
Euphrates
Gulf to the
Rivers
Mediterranean
Sea.
• Why was it called the Fertile Crescent?
When the rivers flooded it left silt, which fertilized the soil making it excellent farmland
Land was shaped like a crescent
• Mesopotamia means
“ land between the rivers”
• Mesopotamia is located in modern day
Iraq on the continent of Asia.
• What geographic features helped civilizations develop in Mesopotamia?
Flat land
Rivers- flooding provided silt, which fertilized the soil
What inventions help create a stable food supply?
• Complex irrigation system- they built a network of dams, levees, canals, and reservoirs
• Plow (tool for tilling the soil to prepare it for planting)
Wheel- farm carts, domestication of animals
What is the importance of a scribe?
• Scribes kept records, wrote letters for other people, and copied down stories and songs
• recorded laws and taxes
Explain how having a stable food supply led to a complex division of labor (different people have different
jobs)
When people KNEW they had enough food for the community, they could afford to branch out and do different
jobs . They developed different skills such as skilled metalworkers, artisans and craftsmen. Others could serve
in the army. There were different classes of people.
TEAM- different roles on the team-all work together
List the social classes and the type of people found in each class.
• Upper Class (Nobles)- Priests, landowners, and government officials
(large two story homes near the center of the city-state)
• Middle Class (Common class)-Merchants, craftsman, farmers, fisherman, artisans
(Lived in mud brick houses at the edge of the city; farmers lived outside the city)
• Lower Class- Slaves, unskilled workers (lived with owners and had no property of their own)
Describe the ZIGGURAT.
Towers made from mud bricks
Believed that the gods lived in the ziggurat and they
built special temples at the top for them. Outside the
ziggurat, they attached a long staircase so the gods could
climb down to earth. King and priests stood inside the
tower to ask for the gods’ blessing.
Describe a Sumerian city-state.
Ziggurat located in the middle of the city
City surrounded by a mud brick wall and a moat
Farmland located outside the wall and moat and had a irrigation system from the river to the farmland
Upper class housing located near the center which were two story houses that were whitewashed
Middle class one-story houses were located near the edge of the city
Bronze gates allowed limited access in and out of the city
Describe the development of early writing.
Sumerian writingPictographs (simple pictures that represent real objects)
Ideographs- combination of pictographs to represent ideas or actions
Stylus writing (cuneiform) wedge shaped writing
Phonograms- symbols represent the sound or syllable
Phoenicians invented what we know as the alphabet about 1000 BCE
Explain Hammurabi’s most famous law: “ an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”.
These laws explained that whoever caused injury should be punished with that same injury.
Did the Code of Hammurabi offer equal justice? Why or why not?
• Equal Justice- Fair treatment
• Hammurabi’s laws applied to everyone, but the punishment depended on the person’s gender and
social class
Put the following empires in order in which they controlled the Mesopotamia area. List the
contribution/achievements of the civilizations in Mesopotamia
Empire
1.Sumerian
NOT an empire
Individual City
States
Current Day Location
Iraq
2.Akkadians
Iraq
3.Babylonians
Iraq
4.Phoenicians
Lebanon
Contribution/Achievement
Developed city-states
irrigation system
Plow
sailboat
Cuneiform (writing)
Wheel
-World’s first empire
- ruled by Sargon who became the first emperor
-Ruled by Hammurabi who united the empire with his codes
-Code of Hammurabi• claimed the gods had told him to create the laws.
• The laws were based on the gods’ will, the laws could
never be changed
• Written on stele and placed in a temple for all to see
Covered situations like stealing, causing injury, marriage,
divorce, trade, payment of work
First alphabet
The Mesopotamians were faced with four key problems as they tried to survive in a difficult environment. As
they solved a problem, it created a new problem that needed to be resolved. Complete the following flowchart
with the problems and the solution that Mesopotamia encountered.
Problem #1
Sumerians could not produce
enough food in the foothills of
the Zagros Mountains
Problem #2
Uncontrolled water supplyflooding in some seasons, and
not enough at other times
Problem #3
Irrigation system had to be
maintained
Problem #4
Cities fought over the right to
use water
Solution to Problem #1
People moved out of the
foothills and onto the plains
between the rivers
Solution to Problem #2
Sumerians developed irrigation
systems with levees, canals,
dams and reservoirs
Solution to Problem #3
People were forced to work
together. As they worked
together they formed larger
communities
Solution to Problem #4
Sumerians built walls and
moats around their cities
Write a characteristic of a civilization in each box and then give an example of how Sumer
demonstrated this characteristic.
• Technology
• Government
Example: Plow, wheel
Example: Laws, kings, military,
theocracy
• Stable Food Supply
Example: Plow, irrigation system,
clay tablet showing food
distribution, and domesticated
animals
• Religion
• Writing
Example: Cuneiform,
Code of Hammurabi,
scribes, Epic of
Gilgamesh
Characteristics
of a Civilization
Example: Ziggurat, priests,
statues of Gods, polytheism,
theocracy
Highly Developed
Culture (Arts)
• Social Structure
Example: classes of people, kings,
artisans, farmers, slaves, specialized
jobs, complex division of labor
•
Music
Example:
Lyre
•
Visual arts
Example: statues, Standard of Ur
•
Literature
Example: Epic of Gilgamesh, poetry
• Architecture
Example: Ziggurat, arch