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Geography of Mesopotamia • • • • • • Tigris and Euphrates Fertile Crescent Fresh water (mud) Annual Floods Modern Day Iraq Began circa 3500 BC Building materials like stone and wood were not available – what did the Mesopotamians use? Sumer, Akkad, and Babylon • How did they adapt to this harsh climate? • In what ways did the rivers’ flooding provide advantages and disadvantages? Sumerian Religion • Polytheistic • Gods controlled different parts of life • Offerings and prayers would win favor • Center of religious activity • Contained a shrine for offerings • Rose high above other buildings • Pyramid shape Why did Sumerians make offerings to their gods? Why do you suppose the ziggurats were the tallest, grandest buildings in the city? Sumerian Inventions • • • • • • • Transportation: Wheel and sail Farming: Irrigation systems Use of Clay: pottery, houses, bricks Use of bronze: plows, weapons, jewelry Writing: Cuneiform Numbers: based on 60 Calendar and time • Oldest written language • Started as pictographs • Scribes and their tools • Changed to wedgeshaped symbols (cuneiform) What were the first and final steps in the development of writing? Why do you think, only scribes could write? • Helped explain things •Passed down orally •Later recorded onto clay tablets Civilization of Akkad • Rose to power after Sumer • People of the surrounding desert • Borrowed many Sumerian ideas • Ruled from c. 2334 BC to 2279 BC • War leader • United all of Mesopotamia • First person to create an empire What is an empire? Why do think Sargon is called “Great”? Is there a country today that is considered an empire? Southern Mesopotamia Euphrates River Tremendous wealth, power and size The Glory of Babylon • Borrowed Sumerian technology • Borrowed Sumerian Cuneiform • Lasted 1200 years • Began with Hammurabi and ended with Nebuchadnezzer • Hanging Gardens • In what ways were Sumer, Akkad and Babylon similar? • In what ways were they different? LYRE GATES OF ISTAR , GODDESS OF BABYLON, CIRCA 600BCE CIRCA 2,600 BCE SUMER SUMER, CIRCA 2,100BCE A B XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX C