Download Document Practice Set #1 Mesopotamia

Document 1
Sumerians created cuneiform script over 5000 years ago. It was the world’s first written language. Sumerians invented
this writing system to keep track of business dealings because they traded with people who loved in lands that were
hundreds and even thousands of miles away. Writing was a giant leap forward in the development of civilization. People
kept records and new ideas were able to be passed easily from generation to generation. Cuneiform was written on clay
tablets, and then baked hard in a kiln.
1. What was cuneiform and who invented it? (2)
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2. List three way the Sumerians made use of cuneiform. (3)
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How was cuneiform an important part of Ancient Sumerian society? Why you think
communication without written language would be more difficult today?
Document 2
In 1754 B.C., Hammurabi conquered and united all the cities of Mesopotamia under his rule. Although he was a brutal
warrior, his greatest achievement was his code of laws, which he had engraved on a towering stone monument.
Hammurabi’s Code was the first most complete set of laws to survive. It is important because it created a set of rules that
helped to govern a civilization while trying to protect people even if they had little political power. It called for different
punishments based on the class of the lawbreaker and the victim of the crime. In the Code, punishments often fit the
crime by demanding an “eye for an eye” or a “tooth for a tooth”. The following are three of the 282 laws in the Code of
Hammurabi.
229. If a builder built a house for someone, and does not construct it properly, and the house which he built falls in
and kills its owner, than that builder shall be put to death.
230. If it kills the son of the owner the son of that builder shall be put to death.
231. If it kills a slave of the owner, than he shall pay slave for slave to the owner of the house.
1. What is the most important idea created by Hammurabi’s Code? (1)
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2. How were punishments different between people under Hammurabi’s Code? (1)
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We know about the pharaohs of ancient Egypt because of the written records that were left. These records were kept
in hieroglyphics, a system of writing that was based on pictures. Unlike the Sumerian cuneiform writing, hieroglyphics
represented ideas or objects but could also stand for sounds. They could be carved into clay or stone but could also
be written onto papyrus, the first paper which was developed by the Egyptians which made it easier to keep records.
1. What was hieroglyphics and who invented it? (2)
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2. How was hieroglyphics different from cuneiform? (1)
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3. What invention did the Egyptians develop which made keeping records in hieroglyphics easier? (1)
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Document 3- An account of early Sumerian Agriculture
"The raw materials of the Sumerian diet were barley, wheat, and millet; chick peas, lentils, and beans;
onions, garlic, and leeks; cucumbers, cress, mustard, and fresh green lettuce. Everyday meals probably
consisted of barley paste or barley cake, accompanied by onions or a handful of beans and washed down
with barley ale. The fish that swarmed in the rivers of Mesopotamia were also a luxury. Meat was more
common in the cities than in the less populated countryside, since it spoiled so quickly in the heat, but beef
and veal were popular with people who could afford them. Beef was, however, more likely to have been
tough and stringy, and cattle were not usually slaughtered until the end of their working lives. Probably
more tender and certainly more common was mutton, which is the flesh of sheep that is used for food. The
settlers who had first put the Sumerian state on its feet were originally sheep herders."
Food in History, Reay Tannahill [Three Rivers:New York] 1988 (p. 47)
6. Explain how Sumerians chose what crops to domesticate. When did they eat certain foods, and what
circumstances led them to chose these foods?
Document 6 - Why We Choose
Settled farming civilizations first appeared in river valleys, but were quickly overtaken by mid – latitude
civilizations. Various authors have found, that even today, it is far more likely for countries located in
humid continental climates to have sustainable agriculture than other areas of the world, including many of
the original sites of human cultivation. Furthermore, forensic botanists have found that both in ancient and
modern agriculture, high yield grains were selected because of the characteristics that allowed them to
survive in a given climate, and their ability to feed an ever growing population.
Excerpted from Origins of Agriculture, University of California Los Angeles, 9 September 2010.
11. Why do you think early agriculture first appeared in river valleys?
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12. Why do you think there was a transition in agricultural regions from river valleys to humid continental,
mid - latitude areas?
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Egyptian Trade Route
“Egypt had only partial success in controlling the flow of goods from Africa to Europe and the
Near East. The cheapest and fastest way of transporting merchandise was by ship, despite
the cataracts of the Nile and the storms on the Mediterranean and Red Sea and the difficulty
and expense of keeping the canal connecting the Nile and the Red Sea in good repair.
Because of the limitations of the ships' rigging which prevented them from sailing into the
wind, the prevailing winds dictated the seasons when departure and return journeys took
place.”
“The alternatives were the routes crossing the Eastern and Western Desert. These caravan
routes through the Negev and the Libyan Desert were impossible to interrupt and difficult to
administer. Even during the times when Egypt was nominally in power in these regions and
sent officials there, their very distance from the central authority gave them an
independence they often abused.”
http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/trade/index.html
Major trade routes in north-east Africa and the Middle East.
The direct overseas route to India was opened up by a Greek named Hippalus ca. 100 BCE.
Before that traders had been hugging the coast line.
Question (1 point) Describe a major result of the development of civilization in ancient Egypt
Babylonian Numerals
“Sumer (a region of Mesopotamia, modern-day Iraq) was the birthplace of writing, the wheel,
agriculture, the arch, the plow, irrigation and many other innovations, and is often referred to as
the Cradle of Civilization.“
“Mathematics proper initially developed largely as a response to bureaucratic needs when
civilizations settled and developed agriculture - for the measurement of plots of land, the
taxation of individuals, etc - and this first occurred in the Sumerian and Babylonian civilizations
of Mesopotamia (roughly, modern Iraq) and in ancient Egypt. In addition, the Sumerians and
Babylonians needed to describe quite large numbers as they attempted to chart the course of
the night sky and develop their sophisticated lunar calendar.”
“Sumerian and Babylonian mathematics was based on a sexegesimal, or base 60, numeric
system, which could be counted physically using the twelve knuckles on one hand the five
fingers on the other hand. Unlike those of the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, Babylonian
numbers used a true place-value system, where digits written in the left column represented
larger values. Also, to represent the numbers 1 - 59 within each place value, two distinct
symbols were used, a unit symbol (Roman numerals (e.g. 23 would be shown as
http://www.storyofmathematics.com/prehistoric.html
1) Mathematics plays an important role in modern society. Name two ways the Sumerian and
Babylonian civilizations used mathematics for practical reasons?
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2) The counting system that the Babylonians developed is similar to the modern day counting
system that we use in what respect?