Download Chapter 1-3

AUGUST 25, 2015
What
do you know about
Mesopotamia, if anything?
Think about it and be ready
to share anything you know.
CHAPTER 1-3
MESOPOTAMIA
MAIN IDEA & WHY IT MATTERS NOW

Main Idea:


The earliest civilization in Asia arose in Mesopotamia
and organized into city-states.
Why It Matters Now:

The development of this civilization reflects a pattern
that has occurred repeatedly throughout history.
GEOGRAPHY OF THE FERTILE CRESCENT
 Desert
climate
between the Persian
Gulf and the
Mediterranean Sea
 Within the dry
region lies an arc of
land that provides
some of the best
farming in
Southwest Asia –
known as the
Fertile Crescent
 Eastern

part:
Tigris and
Euphrates
Rivers flow to
Persian Gulf
 Between
them
lies a plain

Mesopotamia –
means “land
between the
rivers” in Greek
Rivers flooded once a year
 As the water receded, it left a thick bed of mud
called silt

Where farmers could plant and harvest enormous
quantities of wheat and barley
 Allowed villagers to grow

People started to settle and farm in southern
Mesopotamia – known as Sumer
 Swampy lands produced good soil

ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES

1) Flooding was unpredictable
Sun dried out the mud
 Land became a desert


2) Small region
Size of Massachusetts
 Lived in little huts
 No natural barriers for protection


3) The natural resources of Sumer were
extremely limited
CREATING SOLUTIONS
1) Dug irrigation – ditches that carried river
water to their fields and allowed them to produce
a surplus of crops
 2) For defense, they built city walls with mud
bricks
 3) Sumerians traded with the peoples of the
mountains and desert for the products they
lacked


These activities required:
1) Organization
 2) Cooperation
 3) Leadership

Created a need for laws to settle disputes over
how land and water would be distributed
 Beginning of organized government

SUMERIANS CREATE CITY-STATES

Sumerians:
First groups of people to form a civilization
 Built a number of cities, surrounded by fields
 Cities shared same culture
 But, they developed their own governments


Each city and the surrounding land it controlled
formed a city-state

Functioned much like an independent country
CITY-STATE OF SUMER: UR
THE POWER OF PRIESTS
Earliest governments were controlled by the
temple priests
 Farmers believed the success of crops depended
upon the blessings of the gods



The priests acted as the go-between with the gods
Ziggurat was a city hall
Managed irrigation
system
 Demanded crops
for taxes

MONARCHS TAKE CONTROL

War:
Priests did not lead the city
 The men chose a tough fighter who could command
the city’s soldiers


Some military leaders became full-time rulers, or
monarchs
Passed power onto their sons, who passed it on to
their own heir
 The series of rulers from a single family is known as
a dynasty

THE SPREAD OF CITIES

City-states grew prosperous from the surplus
food produced on their farms


Increased long-distance trade
As trade expanded:
Sumerians came into contact with others
 Ideas spread
 New cities were arising
 Ideas were absorbed


Process of a new idea or a product spreading from
one culture to another is called cultural
diffusion
A RELIGION OF MANY GODS
Believed that many different gods controlled the
various forces in nature – known as polytheism
 Sumerians believed:

Their gods were immortal and all-powerful
 Humans were nothing but servants
 They needed to keep the gods happy
 They had to offer rich sacrifices

Sumerians worked hard to earn the gods’
protections in this life
 Expected little help from the gods after death
 Believed the souls of dead went to the “land of no
return” where no joy awaited any souls
 Epic of Gilgamesh – one of the
earliest works of literature in the
world


Legendary king, Gilgamesh, of
Mesopotamia whose adventures
were detailed
LIFE IN SUMERIAN SOCIETY

With civilization came great differences between
groups in society, the beginning of social classes
1) Priests and kings
 2) Wealthy merchants
 3) Ordinary Sumerian people – field workers and
shop workers
 4) Slaves

Affected life of both men and women
 Women could:

pursue most occupations
 hold property in their own name
 join lower ranks of priesthood


Women could not:

attend schools where upper-class boys learned to
read and write
SUMERIAN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Invented: wheel, sail, plow
 First to use bronze
 Developed first system of writing, cuneiform
 Developed number system in base 60



Time (60 seconds = 1 minute)
Geometry (360 degrees of a circle)
Used all resources available
 Permanently influenced Mesopotamian
civilization

SARGON OF AKKAD
Defeated city-state in Sumer
 Led his army from Akkad


North of Sumer
Adopted most aspects of Sumerian
culture
 Conquests spread culture even further
 Created the first empire – which brings together
several peoples, nations, or previously
independent states under the control of one ruler

BABYLONIAN EMPIRE
Nomadic warriors, known as
Amorites invaded Mesopotamia in
2000 B.C.
 Overwhelmed the Sumerians and
established their capital at
Babylon on the Euphrates River
 Reached its peak during the reign
of Hammurabi – who is known
best for the code of laws he put
together

TODAY’S ASSIGNMENT:
Using
the notes, please
complete worksheet 1-3 on
the back of the note packet.
When you are finished,
please turn it in to my tray
and find something else to do
quietly until everyone
finishes.