Download Section 2:ii The Fertile Crescent

The Fertile Crescent
Chapter 2:ii
The archaeologist
Sir Leonard
Woolley discovered
the city of Ur.
[Image Source: Biblical Archaeology Review, July/August 1996, p. 56.]
The Crown of
Queen Pu-Abi.
[Image source: National Geographic]
Woolley’s work showed that people had
lived in Mesopotamia for a long time.
[Image source: Biblical Archaeology Review, July/August 1996, p. 56.]
People from Arabia and the
highlands of Turkey migrated to the
Fertile Crescent ca. 5000 years B.C.
Clogged with deposits of silt, the
Tigris and Euphrates rivers often
overflowed, sometimes sweeping
entire villages away.
[Image source: http://members.tripod.com/jaydambrosio/mesopotamia.html]
Villages in early
Mesopotamia
built elaborate
systems to
control seasonal
flooding and
divert river
water to irrigate
their fields.
By 4000 B.C. Mesopotamian
farmers were producing an
abundance of grain crops.
[Image source:http://www.faculty.fairfield.edu/faculty/jmac/meso/meso.htm]
Circa 3500 B.C. the Sumerians
settled in the lower part of the
Tigris-Euphrates river valley.
The region
they settled in
Mesopotamia
became known
as Sumer.
A ziggurat, or temple, was at the
center of every Sumerian city.
[Image source: http://www.taisei.co.jp/cg_e/ancient_world/ur/aur.html]
Ziggurats were composed of a
series of terraces with a temple or
shrine on the top.
[Source:
http://www.jlc.net/~brian/art/fertile_crescent.html]
This is longer
than the line
at Disney
World!
[Image source: http://www.faculty.fairfield.edu/faculty/jmac/meso/meso.htm]
Only priests
and priestesses
were allowed
to enter the
shrine, which
was dedicated
to the citystate’s chief
deity.
Hey! Cold
hands!
[Image source: http://www.crystalinks.com/sumergods.html]
Every Sumerian city-state was
originally governed by a
council of nobles and an
assembly of wealthy citizens.
By 2700 B.C.
many of the
Sumerian citystates had become
hereditary
monarchies
governed by
kings.
[Image source: http://www.jlc.net/~brian/art/fertile_crescent.html]
Sumerian kings
also served as
the high priest,
representing the
city-state’s chief
deity.
[Image source:
http://members.tripod.com/jaydambrosio/mesopotamia.html]
[Image source: http://www.taisei.co.jp/cg_e/ancient_world/ur/aur.html1
Sumerian city-states were also
theocracies where much of the
land belonged to the local deity.
Game of Ur
[Image source: http://members.tripod.com/jaydambrosio/mesopotamia.html]
Roles of Men
and Women
Family life
and the roles
of men and
women was
regulated by
Sumerian
law.
[Image source:
http://www.taisei.co.jp/cg_e/ancient_world/ur/aur.html]
As heads of
households,
men exercised
great authority
over their wives
and children.
[Image source: http://home.korax.net/~websiter/postcards.html]
Sumerian law
allowed men to
sell family
members into
slavery in order
to retire a debt!
[Image source: http://arthistory.about.com/arts/arthistory/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwwwoi.uchicago.edu%2FOI%2FMUS%2FHIGH%2FOIM_A12332.html]
Women were
allowed to
buy and sell
property,
operate
businesses,
and own and
sell slaves.
[ http://www.upenn.edu/museum/Collections/royaltombsoverview.html]
Writing
on
Clay
Tablets
[Image source: http://early-cuneiform.humnet.ucla.edu/archaic/index.html]
By 3100 B.C. the Sumerians
developed a system of writing
known as cuneiform, or “wedgedshaped writing,” to keep records.
[Image source: http://www-oi.uchicago.edu/OI/PROJ/SUM/Sumerian_Tablet.html1]
Cuneiform began with pictograms or
pictures meant to represent the items
depicted.
[Image source: http://www.upenn.edu/museum/Games/cuneiform.html]
Sumerians
wanting to
become scribes
spent many
years studying
in schools
called eddudas.
[Image source: National Geographic]
The Epic of
Gilgamesh,
possibly the
oldest story in
the world, was
first written in
cuneiform
circa 1850 B.C.
[Image source: http://members.tripod.com/jaydambrosio/mesopotamia.html]
Sumerians used cylinder seals
to “sign” legal documents.
[Image source: http://members.tripod.com/jaydambrosio/mesopotamia.html]
Sumerian Religion
[Image source: http://www.faculty.fairfield.edu/faculty/jmac/meso/meso.htm]
Each Sumerian
deity presided
over a specific
natural force or
human activity.
An, the
highest
Sumerian
deity, was
responsible for
the seasons.
Oh, Great
God An....
I’m his Ho,
ho, ho!
Enlil, god
of winds
and
agriculture
created the
hoe (ho?).
Each city-state had a
patron god or goddess to
whom they prayed.
[Image source: http://crystalinks.com/sumerart.html]
Sumarians
pictured their
deities as
unpredictable,
selfish beings who
had little regard
for human life.
Sumerian priests and priestesses
performed religious ceremonies
and rituals in an effort to appease
their tempermental dieties.
[Image source: http://crystalinks.com/sumerart.html]
Sumerians viewed the
afterlife as a grim
underworld devoid of
light or air.
Sumerian Inventions
[Image source: Scientific American]
Wagon wheel
[Image source:http://www.faculty.fairfield.edu/faculty/jmac/meso/meso.htm]
Arch
[Image source: http://www.nps.gov/jeff/arch-ov.htm]
Potter’s
wheel
[Image source: http://billtom.home.mindspring.com/dgates/wheel.html]
Sun
Dial
[Image source: http://www.floridaplants.com/store/sundials.htm]
The Sumerians developed a
number system based on 60
and a 12-month calendar.
First to make bronze
out of copper
and tin.
{image source: Scientific American]
The Sumerians
produced an
abundance of
finely crafted
metal work,
some of which
was recovered
in the Royal
Cemetery at Ur.
[Image source: http://www.upenn.edu/museum/Collections/royaltombsoverview.html]
The First
Mesopotamian
Empires
The first
empirebuilder in
Mesopotamia
was Sargon I
of Akkad.
[Image source: http://www.hp.uab.edu/image_archive/ue/ueg.html]
Sargon I conquered all the citystates of Mesopotamia and united
them in one empire.
[Image source: http://www.crystalinks.com/sumermilitary.html]
Akkadian empire
circa 2200 B.C.
Under
Sargon, the
people of
Mesopotamia
began to use
the Akkadian
language.
[Image source: http://www.crystalinks.com/akkadia.html]
The citystate of
Ebla was
located
northwest
of the
kingdom
of Akkad.
[Images source: National Geographic]
Control of the overland trade routes
between Egypt and Mesopotamia
made Ebla a wealthy city.
[Image source: National Geographic]
Sargon’s
grandson
Naram-Sin
captured and
burned the
city of Ebla.
[Image source: National Geographic]
The destruction of Ebla had
the effect of preserving a vast
library of cuneiform texts.
[Image source: http://www.mazzaroth.com/ChapterFour/Ebla.htm]
The Amorites, a Semitic people
from western Syria, poured into
Mesopotamia and overran many
Sumerian cities circa 2000 B.C..
Hammurabi, a scion of the
dynasty founded at Babylon,
brought the entire region
under his control.
Hammurabi
organized a
strong
government
and worked to
increase the
prosperity of
his people.
[Image source: http://members.tripod.com/jaydambrosio/mesopotamia.html]
Hammurabi
created a
unified code
of law that
regulated
most aspects
of daily life.
Source: Biblical Archaeological Review, March/April 1995, p. 49.
Hammurabi’s Code clearly stated
which actions were considered
violations and assigned specific
punishments for each.
Hammurabi’s
purpose was
“to make justice
appear in the
land.”
[Image source: http://www.getnet.com/~labores/babylonia.html]
Hammurabi’s code consisted of
282 sections, some of which dealt
with:
• property of married women
• adoption and inheritance
• interest rates on loans
• damage to fields by cattle
Source: Biblical Archaeological Review, March/April 1995, p. 53.
Hammurabi’s Code divided
society into three social classes:
kings,
priests, &
nobles
artisans,
merchants,
scribes, & farmers
slaves
The Babylonians borrowed
heavily from Sumerian culture.
• Why? Duh! Same people,
same place, different
government.
The Hittites conquered Babylon
circa 1600 B.C.