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Ancient Mesopotamia
I. The Fertile Crescent
Main Idea- The Sumerians organized the
first city-states, which consisted of a city
and the area around it that the city
governed.
 A. Mesopotamia means “land between the
rivers” in Greek
 B. Mesopotamia covers the same area as
modern day Iraq, northeast Syria and
southeast Turkey

C. This region is often called the “Fertile
Crescent” because of its shape and
fertile soil
 D. Around 3000 BC the Sumerians, the
first inhabitants of the area, began to
organize into city-states
 E. A city-state is a city and the area it
controls

II. The Mesopotamian City-State

A. 3 major challenges influenced the
development of city-states.
i. One was the threat of hostile invaders.
To protect themselves the Sumerians
surrounded their cities with strong,
high walls
ii. The 2nd challenge was a lack of water.
There was very little rainfall in the region.
City-states built and maintained irrigation
canals for local use, like the Egyptians
iii. The 3rd challenge involved trade. The
Sumerians lacked stones, metals and
timer for building and had to import
these materials.
 B. The Sumerians wanted to export grain,
dates and cloth but trade was risky
because of bandits, pirates and wild
animals.
C. Mesopotamian city-states were center
for religious worship
 D. The Sumerians believed in many gods,
the most important were Enlil and Utu,
Enlil controlled the rain and Utu
controlled the sun
 E. Each city-state built a temple to a
specific god. The people believed this
god was the city’s special guardian

F. The temple was built on a pyramid
shaped tower called a ziggurat
 G. From the winding terraces people
could watch celebrations honoring
their god

III. Government by Priests & Kings
A. Temple priests were the first governors
of Mesopotamian city-states
 B. Later on kings would rule city-states,
the kings would choose who would
lead the city-state after the king died
 C. From then on priests ruled over
religious and economic life
 D. Kings ruled over political and military
life

E. Occasionally kings would conquer
other city-states, many kings built
empires from the land that they
conquered.
 F. An empire is a group of countries
under one ruler’s control.
 G. These emperors demanded that their
people worship them as living gods.

IV. Class System
A. Mesopotamia had a class system
 B. A class system means that society was
divided into different social groups
 C. Each group or class possessed certain
rights and was protected by the law
 D. The more favored classes enjoyed
more rights that anyone else

Kings, Priests,
Wealthy Land
Owners
Skilled workers,
merchants and
farmers
Enslaved workers

E. Some slaves were captured in wars but
some had to sell themselves into slavery
to pay off debts. Once they had worked
enough to pay off the debt, they were no
longer slaves.
V. A culture based on Writing
A. The Sumerians developed one of the
first systems writing called cuneiform
 B. The Sumerians recorded their history,
their religious beliefs and their
knowledge of medicine, mathematics
and astronomy
 C. These records were recorded on clay
tablets


D.Very few people in Mesopotamia ever
learned to read or write
VI. Educating Scribes
A. The only people who learned to read
and write in Mesopotamia were called
scribes
 B. Scribes were children of the extremely
wealthy that were sent to schools to
learn to read and write
 C. Most scribes were children of wealthy
merchants, government officials or
priests

D. The school day lasted from sunrise to
sunset and the students had to
memorize 600 different characters
 E. Students who misbehaved were
punished by the man in charge of the
whip
