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I.E.S. Llanes Sevilla Departamento de Ciencias Sociales FIRST HISTORICAL CIVILIZATIONS MAIN IDEAS Six thousand years ago (in the beginning of the 4th millenium before Christ) some people chose big rivers to settle. Some valleys were very rich, for example, the Nile, Tigris and Eufrates’ valley. This area is called The Fertile Crescent (lecture on page 7). So the people who settled there got big crops. Lots of people began to settle in these areas. Some villages grew and then we had the first cities. When farmers got a big crop, they exchanged a part of it, so trade appeared. Trade became very important and they needed to build boats, roads and channels. They were the first public works. Kings were very powerful. They built big monuments to show their power. The great temples, palaces and graves are some examples. The King paid for these works and he also paid for the army. He got the money from the people. This obligatory payment is called tax. Some people began to write symbols on bricks or stones to follow the accounts. History and Writing were born. VOCABULARY: To choose ( past chose): elegir / to settle: asentarse / valley : valle / crop: cosecha / to grow ( past grew ) : crecer / farmer: agricultor / to exchange : intercambiar / to appear : aparecer / to build ( past built) : construir / channel: canal / powerful : poderoso / grave : tumba / tax: impuesto / brick: ladrillo / account : contabilidad / symbol: símbolo EXERCISES Fill in the gaps with the correct words: ________________ and __________________ are the main first civilizations. Both of them appear in the _____________________ millennium BC. When the villages grow the ____________________ appear. The ________________ appear when people exchange a part of their crop. When trade increases, people need to build public works like ___________, _____________ and ___________ The amount of money that people must pay the king is called ____________ I.E.S. Llanes Sevilla Departamento de Ciencias Sociales Some people write the accounts on ________________ and _______________ SELF-ASSESSMENT FIRST HISTORICAL CIVILIZATIONS 1. I know the meaning of these words: To settle Valley Crop Farmer to exchange to build Powerful Grave Channel Valley Tax Account Brick Symbol 2. I have a basic idea of the following concepts: How the first cities appeared. How trade appeared. Why the first public works were built. Why the first big monuments were built. When, how and why History and writing were born. 3. I can write a short composition describing when, how, where and why the first historical civilizations appeared. I.E.S. Llanes Sevilla Departamento de Ciencias Sociales MAIN IDEAS ABOUT MESOPOTAMIA Six thousand years ago (4 milleniums before Christ) farmers began to settle in the area between the Eufrates and Tigris rivers. This area was called Mesopotamia by the ancient Greeks. It means “between two rivers”. It is the area where Irak is at the moment. It is situated in the middle of the desert: The Arabian desert in the West Side and the Persian desert in the East side. The weather is hot and dry there, but the rivers bring a lot of water and the land is fertile. When people work the fields properly they cropped big harvests. Very soon, a great civilization called the Sumer was born in the South. Later, another civilisation called Akkad was born in the middle part. Assyrian people lived in the Northern mountains. The Sumerians built canals to water the fields. So they got bigger harvests and built houses with sun-dried mud bricks. VOCABULARY: To settle: asentarse / desert: desierto / side: parte / dry: seco / to bring: traer / properly: adecuadamente / field: campo / to crop: cosechar / harvest: cosecha / to grow ( Grew) : crecer / to build : construir / to water. Regar / sun-dried mud bricks : ladrillos hechos de barro secado al sol / I.E.S. Llanes Sevilla Departamento de Ciencias Sociales There were a lot of towns. Every town had its own king and its own laws. Every town was protected by a god or goddess who lived in a temple. The temple was situated in the middle of the city and the priests were very powerful. Every temple had a big tower called a “Zigurat”. Every town was independent, so they were called “city states”. The main buildings in the city were the palaces and the temples. Sumerian God Vocabulary: Law: ley / to protect: proteger / god: dios / goddess: diosa / priest: sacerdote: / powerful: poderosa / city-state: ciudad-estado / Sumerian Temple and zigurat ect: proteger I.E.S. Llanes Sevilla Departamento de Ciencias Sociales SOCIETY Vocabulary: Underneath. debajo / leader: lider / trader: comerciante / shopkeeper : vendedor / craftsman: artesano / free: libre/ to belong: pertenecer / tablet: tablilla / clay: arcilla / wedgeshaped: forma de cuña / code: código / guilty: culpable / to punish: castigar/ punishment: castigo / commoners: gente corriente / The most powerful person in these societies was the king. He made the laws, but he wasn’t considered a god. Underneath the king, the most important people were the priests and the leaders of the Army. The great traders and the great owners of the fields were very important too. The farmers, shopkeepers and craftsmen were free people, who were called commoners in the Mesopotamic society. The slaves belonged to other people or establishments such as the king or the temple. They had to work hard and they didn’t have any rights. CULTURE Sumerians wrote on tablets of clay. Their writing was called “cuneiform”. It means “wedgeshaped” because their letters were like a wedge. They had a lot of libraries. Every palace and every temple had a library of clay tablets. The most important book was the Hammurabi code. It was a penal code of the king Hammurabi . It stated that every guilty person must have exactly the same punishment that he caused. I.E.S. Llanes Sevilla Departamento de Ciencias Sociales EXERCISES 1. Mesopotamia is a Greek word that means a) abundant natural resources b) fertile crescent c) great pottery d) between the rivers 2. The Tigris and Euphrates are (or were) a) city-states b) mountains c) rivers d) gods 3. The Sumerians wrote on a) paper b) clay tablets c) stone c) wood e) papyrus 4. The most important people in Sumer were a) slaves b) scribes c) farmers d) priests 5. Circle either true or false: a) Sumerian writting is called hieroglyphics. TRUE FALSE b) The Sumerians trusted in many gods TRUE FALSE c) Sumerian temples were called Ziggurats TRUE FALSE d) Hammurabi was an important priest TRUE FALSE e) Hammurabi’s Code is based on the principle “An eye for an eye, A tooth for a tooth” TRUE FALSE 6. In addition to inventing the first written language and the penal code – a written set of laws- the Mesopotamians invented many other things we use today. Look up in your dictionary the meening of the following Mesopotamian inventions: Wheel__________ Chariot________ Sailboat____________ Plough__________ Irrigation________ Hoe_______________ I.E.S. Llanes Sevilla Departamento de Ciencias Sociales 7.- Draw the Mesopotamia’s social pyramid MR DOWLING’S LECTURE The Fertile Crescent Civilization developed slowly in different parts of the world. People began to settle in areas with abundant natural resources. A section of the Middle East is called the Fertile Crescent. The Fertile Crescent is a rich food-growing area in a part of the world where most of the land is too dry for farming. The Fertile Crescent is a quarter-moon shaped region that extends from the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. Some of the best farmland of the Fertile Crescent is on a narrow strip of land between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. The Greeks later called this area Mesopotamia, which means “between the rivers.” Many different civilizations developed in this small region. First came the Sumerians, who were replaced in turn by the Assyrians and the Babylonians. Today this land is known as Iraq. MR. DOWLING To know more about Mesopotamia click here: http://www.mesopotamia.co.uk/