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MESOPOTAMIA Source: Literature: World Masterpieces. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1995. The Origins of Mesopotamian Civilization (p. 4) - Civilization means cities, or high degree of social organization (temples, places, arts and crafts, technology and systems of writing) 4000 years ago: several civilizations developed in the river valleys of Southwest Asia One of the regions was between the Tigris and Euphrates (Modern Iraq) This land was known as Mesopotamia (Greek: land between the 2 rivers) - Sumer: The need to coordinate the digging of irrigation ditches resulted in . . . A large Sumerian Civilization. The Sumerians (pp. 4-5) - They influenced the Babylonian and Assyrian civilizations. - Their “firsts” include; o Region’s earliest system of writing o Schools, called edubbas o Developed a system of numeration based on sixty. This lead to our 60 second minute, 60 min hour and 360 degree circle. o Most famous first = creation of cities - Worshipped many Gods - Priest ruled city, until conflict when military leaders replaced the priests which later became kings. The Babylonians (p. 5) - In Mesopotamia, there was a constant shift of power. Sargon was their greatest king - Sargon lived in the Akkad region and spoke Akkadian - Many people spoke the Semitic language and the majority of people who did migrate to Mesopotamia - One of these groups, the Amorites, founded the village of Babylon along the Euphrates River. - The next great leader of Babylon, Hammurabi, created a famous legal code, containing 282 laws covering daily life. Describes as “eye for and eye” - Babylonians thought kindly of Sumerian culture and tried to preserve its language - They later re-wrote a group of Sumerian tales, that we know today as “The Epic of Gilgamesh” The Assyrians (p. 8) - Were a Semitic group - Built city of Assur in Northern Mesopotamia - Used iron weapons and cavalry to control land between two rivers - Recognized superiority of Babylonian and Sumerian culture - Assyrian king Assurbunipal (700 BC) assembled first great library of ancient world