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Warm-up Activity: Get out a blank piece
of paper
 Write your name at the top
 Reread the letter that complains about the
gardeners. You can find this letter on page 8 of
your reading packet at the top of the page.
1. Write a law that relates to the gardeners
who stole the dates.
2. What should be their punishment?
3. What should happen to the people who
didn’t tell about the theft?
 Turn this in on the front table
 Pick up a note sheet and complete the
vocabulary section… use your reading packet to
help
Fertile Crescent
Unit 3
Legacy of Mesopotamia
Section 3
Jordan Cotten
6th Grade Social Studies
Vocabulary
Code
___________
= organized list of laws or
rules
Cuneiform = form of writing that uses
___________
groups of wedges and lines; used to write
several languages of the Fertile Crescent
King Hammurabi
Hailed from Babylonia
Ruled from 1792 B.C. – 1750 B.C.
Died 1750 B.C.
Very successful leader
Won numerous conquests
throughout Mesopotamia
Hammurabi’s Code
First code of laws _________
written down
Believed laws should apply fairly
Instructed Babylonians how to settle
conflicts in all areas of life
282 laws organized into categories
Trade, labor, property, family,
adopting children, practicing medicine,
hiring wagons or boats, controlling
dangerous animals, etc.
Stela = stone slab
Clay Tablet
I got to see it….
“eye for an eye”
A man who blinded another person would
have his eye pulled out.
Not equal for everyone
Refer to page 6 in reading packet
Read the passage at the beginning of
section
What does this mean?
“If a man destroyed the eye of a man of the
class of gentlemen, they shall destroy his
eye. If he has broken a gentleman’s bone,
they shall break his bone. If he has
destroyed the eye of a commoner or
broken a bone of a commoner, he shall
pay one mina of silver. If he has destroyed
the eye of a gentleman’s slave, or broken
a bone of a gentleman’s slave, he shall
pay half [the slave’s] price. If a gentleman,
they shall cut off [the slave’s] ear.”
What about women?
Women were to be obedient to husbands
and fathers
A man could sell his wife or
children into slavery to pay
off a debt.
Not So Equal…
 Higher class victim = harsher penalty
 Accidentally breaking rules just as
guilty as someone doing it on purpose
Ex: “If a surgeon performed a
major operation on a citizen
with a bronze lancet [knife]
and has caused the death of this
citizen…his hand shall be cut off.”
Why was Hammurabi’s Code so
important?
They were written down
Everyone knew the rules
Everyone knew the
punishments
Activity: Hammurabi’s Code
In groups of 3:
Read each scenario from Hammurabi’s
Code
Write what you think would/should happen
for each one
5 minutes to complete
Get your group laptop when you are done
Log onto laptops
Activity Continued: Hammurabi’s Code
 Go to www.rock.k12.nc.us
 At the top, click on down arrow and select Rockingham
County Middle School
 Click on Staff Websites
 Click on Mrs. Cotten’s website
 Click on the link for Hammurabi’s Code under Daily
Updates
 Compare your answers on your paper to what King
Hammurabi really did
 Explore the site and learn more about the harshness of
his Code
 http://www.phillipmartin.info/hammurabi/hammurabi_situation_index.htm
Debate:
The People
Vs.
King Hammurabi
Debate: Continued
Read about King Hammurabi and his
Code
Argue on behalf of Hammurabi
Argue on behalf of poor people/slaves
Prepare your arguments as a group
Be ready to defend your position and also
illustrate how your opposition’s reasons
are “wrong”
Journal Entry
 Title: Writing
Date: Today’s Date
 Answer the following in a minimum of 10
sentences
 15 minutes to complete
How different would our lives be without
writing? Consider how little we would
know about the achievements and
mistakes of people in history. How
would we communicate over long
distances, keep records, or understand
the laws of our country? What would
day-to-day life be like?
The Art of Writing
Developed 3500 B.C.
Sumerians began writing
Sumerians kept records
Record keepers VERY important
Very few writers
Positions held by
________
scribes
I got to see this…
What did the scribes do?
Recorded:
 Sales and trade
 Tax payments
 Gifts for the gods
 Marriages
 Deaths
 Calculated military supplies and food
 Calculated need for workers on
government projects
“Pages” of Hard Clay
Scribes wrote on clay
Provided by Tigris and
Euphrates Rivers
Shaped soft, wet clay
into tablets
Used a stylus to mark in
wet clay
Set clay out in sun to dry
Made permanent record
What’s in a shape?
Shape and size of tablet depended on
purpose:
Large = reference
Small = letters or postcards, personal
messages
Letter about gardeners
From Pictures to Writing…
Writing developed over time
People drew pictures… each important
object would have its own symbol
Symbols changed over time
Scribes combined symbols to make
wedges and lines known as cuneiform
Cuneiform used to represent different
languages… very useful in a land
of many peoples
Shows how pictures turned into words
(symbols) over time
HEAD
Try These:
 http://www.penn.museum/cgi/cuneiform.cgi
 http://www.hu.mtu.edu/~scmarkve/2910Su11/Wr
Sys/evolofcuneiform3100-600BC.htm