Download Babylonian Empire - Spring Branch ISD

• Polytheistic, worshiping
many gods.
• The gods controlled natural
forces.
• Nature was
uncertain and
harsh, so the
gods were
unpredictable
and mean.
Enki
Innana
• They devoted a lot of effort and wealth to constructing
monumental architecture that was religious. Ziggurats,”
large stepped pyramids with temple on top.
•
•
They believed that people were caught in an inherently
disorderly world without much hope of a blessed life beyond.
The dead simply turned to dust.
• They created the
worlds first writing
system, called
“cuneiform.”
• The development
of writing allowed
governments to
become more
formal and
bureaucratic.
• One purpose that
writing served
was to keep track
of who paid their
taxes to the
state.
• Sumerian
civilization was
the first to
produce written
law code.
• Writing also led to history and myths.
• The Epic of Gilgamesh, king of Uruk and his quest for
immortality. Oldest written story.
• When Enkidu tells Gilgamesh about a dream he had
featuring “the house whose people sit in darkness; dust is
their food and clay their meat” he is describing the
afterlife.
• Created a number system based on units of 60.
• An agricultural surplus led to a
“division of labor” where many
engaged in work other than
producing food.
• Traded extensively, not only throughout the region of
Mesopotamia but transregionally with other civilizations.
• Over land with Egypt and by sea with the Indus valley.
Map Showing
interaction of the Early
River Valley
Civilizations
Nobles
Middle Class
Hired Workers
Slaves
• Specialized labor and wealth
led to distinctions between
classes.
• “Social stratification” a social
hierarchy.
• The emergence of largescale warfare with
professionally led armies is
one reason for the
development of a patriarchal
society, male dominated.
• Women were defined
largely by their
relationship to a man.
• Women from the upper
classes were expected
to stay at home, while
women from the lower
classes had to go out in
public to work.
• One expression of
patriarchy was that
females were regulated
sexuality.
• Babylonians conquer
Mesopotamia (1900
B.C.E.).
• Babylon was capital
city.
• First empire,
controlling entire
Fertile Crescent.
• Hammurabi, most power
king.
• Code of
Hammurabi; first
written laws in the
history.
• Based on concept
that the
punishment should
fit the crime
• The Code stipulated different punishments for the same
crime based on the perpetrator’s social standing in
relation to the victim.
• Hammurabi claimed that
his law code was
inspired by Marduk, the
chief god of Babylon,
showing the relationship
between religion and
government
• Devised a lunar calendar with 12 months of 28 days.
• Astronomy, the study of objects outside the Earth’s atmosphere,
was linked to religious practices of fortune-telling and astrology,
predicting the future by studying movements of the stars and
planets.
• Created the twelve
zodiac symbols.
• Occupied parts of present-day Lebanon, Israel, and Jordon (3000 B.C.E.).
• Developed trade network across the Mediterranean Sea.
• Creating the city of Carthage, in North Africa.
• Developed an
alphabetic script, a
system of symbols
(letters) that
represent the sounds
of speech.
• The 22-letter
alphabet was later
modified by the
Greeks and Romans.
• Lived in the
region of
Canaan,
present-day
Israel and
Palestine.
• Judaism was inspired by
Abraham who left
Mesopotamia to settle in
Canaan (2000 B.C.E.).
• Monotheistic religion (belief
in one God).
• An understanding of God
as engaged in history and
demanding social justice is
a feature of Judaism's’
conception of the divine.
• Migrate to Egypt where
they were enslaved for
several centuries.
• Led out of Egypt by
Moses and returned to
Canaan (1300 B.C.E.).
• Moses introduced the
Ten Commandments, a
code of conduct.
• Judaism emphasized
the power and
abstraction of God.
• Divided into two
separate
kingdoms.
• They were
conquered by the
Assyrians and
the Babylonians,
and enslaved
again.
• Starts the Jewish diaspora, the spreading of Jews
throughout the known world.
• Returned to Jerusalem, their capital city, only after the
Persians conquered the Babylonian Empire (539 B.C.E.).
That concludes Mesopotamia.
Any questions before the quiz on the next
slide?