Download Mesopotamia - Sumerians

Mesopotamia Rap Challenge Questions:
How did the Sumerian people divide their territory?
Who built the Akkadian Empire?
Who invented the code that demanded an eye for an eye?
What type of educational facility did the Assyrians build?
Which civilization did the Assyrians defeat with their powerful
army?
Which ruler built the Hanging Gardens of Babylon for his wife?
Which civilization do we get our alphabet from?
What was the important activity that helped the Phoenician
civilization stand strong?
Ancient Mesopotamia
Emergence of Civilization
1. Setting the Scene: Geography
• Mesopotamia= “land between 2 rivers.”
• Tigris and Euphrates River Valleys –
Fertile Crescent
• Flooding of rivers caused fertile silt for
farming (once a year and left a thick bed
of silt)
• Silt: rich, new soil farmers could plant
and harvest enormous quantities of
wheat and barley
• Agriculture drew people to settle in the
river plains
The Fertile Crescent
• Arc of land
between the
Persian Gulf
and the
Mediterranean
Sea in
Southwest Asia
2. Emergence of Civilization
● Necessity for irrigation prompts development of
governments-man made canals built
● New inventions enable job specialization and
population growth
oPottery wheel – 6000 BCE
oWheel 4000 BCE
oAdvancing technology moves into the Bronze
Age
● Development of metal hoes, plows, and
weapons
3. Sumerians
● Migrated to the fertile crescent from the north about
4000 BCE
● Developed town centers of religion, pilgrimage and
worship
Ziggurat—center of city
Sumerians:
Built impressive
ziggurats or temples
to sacrifice food,
wine and animals
Souls of the dead
wandered in the land
of no return
MORE
ZIGGURATS!!!
4. Sumerian Political and Social
Organization
●Political – city-states formed independent
governments
oCity-states provided boundaries, markets,
religion, retained armies and system of
justice
oAdded to political stability with written
language for record keeping
oPopulations reached upwards of 70,000
Political Continued
•
•
•
•
•
Power of the Priests
Sumer’s earliest governments
were controlled by temple
priests
Farmers believed they
needed blessings for success
of their crops
Priests were the middle man
for the Gods
Priests demanded portion of
farmer crops as tax
Sumerian Society
Kings and Priests
Wealthy merchants
Ordinary Sumerian people
Slaves
Sumerian Political and Social
Organization
rulers,
priests
merchants,
artists,
scribes
peasant
farmers
slaves
5. Sumerian Economics
● Farming – barley, wheat, vegetables
● Artisans – jewelry, textiles, leatherworking
● Cities hosted markets
By 2000 BCE – traded as far away as Egypt and
India! Metal tools and weapons (bronze, iron)
• Increasing agricultural surplus (better tools,
plows, irrigation)
• Increasing trade along rivers – traded with Egypt
• Development of the world’s first cities
• Specialization of labor
6. Sumerian Culture and Religion
●Writing invented around 3500
BCE
o Needed for commercial, property, and
political records
●Helps spread Sumerian
culture and religion
●Epic of Gilgamesh - early
poem
●Polytheistic-belief in many
gods who controlled nature
(3,000!); Gods could be
angered
Origins of Cuneiform
Cuneiform
7. Science and Technology:
●Writing
oDeveloped writing system called cuneiform.
oWrote on clay tablets
oScribes learned to write
●basic math, geometry
obased on 60
ohour = 60 min, circle = 360 degrees
Achievements
• Science and
Technology
• Invented the wheel,
the sail, the plow
• First to use bronze.
• Developed system
of writing
• Built irrigation
systems, buildings,
surveyed flooded
fields.
Intellectual
• Epic of
Gilgamesh
• Myths and
legends recorded
in this long poem
• One of the
earliest works of
literature in the
world
“Gilgamesh, whither
are you wandering?
Life, which you look
for, you will never
find.
For when the gods
created man, they
let
Death be his share,
and withheld life
In their own hands”
8. Decline
●Overuse of soil, leads to
decreased fertility
●Too much salt gets in the fertile
land
●INVASIONS!
INVASIONS
●2350- Sargon from Akkad invades
●Maintains Sumerian culture
●Creates the first empire:
oEmpire includes people from Sumer and
Akkad
●Declines because of infighting and famine
Invasions!
●Amorites take over- 2000 BCE
o Hammurabi unites Sumer and creates code of laws
 Harsh penalties were based on social class
 An “eye for an eye”, but only if a peasant took the
eye of nobility.
Invasions and Change
●Assyrian Empire
oWarrior people
oGlorified Military Strength –
 Advanced planning and engineering Skill –
bridges and walls
●Later, the Phoenicians and Hebrews would
maintain the land as well as Sumerian culture.