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The Revolving Door of
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia means: Mesopotamia means:
“land between two rivers”
 Civilization developed between The
Euphrates and Tigris Rivers
 By 3000 B.C. a number of civilizations
established by the Sumerians

Map of Mesopotamia
Role of the Environment
Rivers provided the basics for exsistance
• Water
• Food
• Sanitation
Role of the Environment

Problems with living hear a river valley?
- Destroyed by frequent floods that ravaged
entire cities
- Communication amongst the various isolated
cities was very difficult
Invention of Writing
Origins of Writing probably go back to te
ninth millennium B.C.
 4th millennium – realized that drawing
tokens was easier than making tokens
 Result was the development of cuneiform:
- “wedge-shaped”
- Pictographic system

Cuneiform
Sumerian Inventions
Wagon wheel
 Potter’s wheel (shape containers)
 Number system
 12 month calendar
 Metal plow
 Sail
 Some of the earliest known maps
 New architecture

Sumer, 3200-2350 B.C.
Sumerian Society

Sumer was different from all other earlier
civilizations
◦ Advanced cities
◦ Specialized workers
◦ Complex institutions
◦ record keeping
◦ Advanced technology
Developed city-states
Food surplus > increased population > expanded
trade > expansion of Sumerian society
Sumer Society
Polytheistic - believed in many gods
 Wrote myths (Epic of Gilgamesh)

◦ Priests and kings were at the top
◦ Slaves were at the bottom
Women probably couldn’t attend school
but had many other rights
 Advances in mathematics

◦ Number system based on 60 (60 seconds = 1
minute)
From Sumerians to Babylonians
The Sumerians city-states eventually fell
to foreign invaders (2000 B.C.)
 The Akkadians:

◦ Semites – nomaidc people from the Arabian
Peninsula that migrated to Mesopotamia
◦ Sargon I (2300-2200 B.C.E.) unites all
Mesopotamia (created first empire)
◦ Under Sargon I
 Akkadians adopted Sumerian religion and farming
Sargon’s Empire
Babylonian Empire
Located in modern day Syria
 Conquered many parts of old Sumer
(including Babylon)
 Hammurabi –created a law code with
harsh punishments
 Borrowed heavily from Sumerian culture
 After Hammurabi’s death Babylon
declined

Hammurabi of Babylon, 17921750 B.C.E
Hittites
A strong army with chariots
 Conquered Babylon in 1595 B.C.E.
 Borrowed from Mesopotamian and
Egyptian culture
 Had a law code less harsh than
Hammurabi’s
 Lasted until about 1200 B.C.E

Assyrians
Started to gain strength about 900 B.C.E
 Powerful army
 Treated conquered people cruelly
 Large empire with good roads
 Collapsed about 612 B.C.E

Chaldeans
Defeated the Assyrians in about 612
B.C.E
 Descended from Hammurabi’s
Babylonians
 At its height during the rule of
Nebuchadnezzar (605-562B.C.E)

◦ Spent a lot of money on Babylon
◦ Built Hanging Gardens

Empire collapsed in 539B.C.Wafter being
defeated by Persians
Hanging Gardens of Babylon
Persians
Cyrus (conquered from the Nile to the
Indus
 Darius I (son is Xerxes)

◦ Administered the empire using satrups
(governors)
◦ Tolerant of those who were conquered
◦ Increased trade and build roads
◦ Lost to the Greeks in 480 B.C.E