Download Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia
Unit 4 Notes – Grade 7
UNIT 4 Kickoff
 Do Now:
 Get & paste in the Unit 4
Standards & Activity Log.
Date
10/29
 There will be SIX left side pages.
10/29
 Copy the left side questions in to
the next six left-side pages in your 11/4
notebook (even # pages).
 Update your table of contents: 
Title
Unit 4 Standards
Unit 4 Activity Log
Maps of Mesopotamia
Polytheism & religion
Aspects of daily life
Inventions
Achievements
Hammurabi’s Code
Simulation work
Page
54
55
56-57
58-59
60-61
62-63
64-65
66-67
68-71
Preview & Planning Unit 4
 Go over questions about the unit choices and topics.
 Copy in left side notes question template.
 How to plan your unit:

Read through all choices. Star or highlight choices that interest you.

Write these choices in PENCIL on your index card.
 Select other work to add up to AT LEAST 100 points.
 Make a list of materials or assistance you may need.
 Note the unit due dates. Plan your work to be finished BEFORE this time. Write
your personal due dates on your activity log.
 Book talks
Workshop Day 1
Turn in notebooks and projects for Unit 3!
Pick one Unit 4 project to work on first.
Read your own resources and the resources
posted on padlet
(http://www.padlet.com/larkea/meso)
 Take notes on your resources as you read. (Write
your notes in your own words!)
Use your notes to begin independent work on
your first project.
Maps of Mesopotamia
EQ: Why was the geography of the Fertile
Crescent ideal for a civilization to develop
there?
 Tigris & Euphrates Rivers, fertile farmland between and on either side of the
rivers (good soil for farming, easy access to water & transportation)
 Mountains to the north and east, Desert to the southwest (protection from
invaders)
 Mediterranean Sea to the west and Persian Gulf to the south east (access
to trade routes)
 Easy access to raw material/ natural resources such as iron, timber, fish, and
livestock. (tradeable and usable goods)
 Note AND COLOR on your map: Mediterranean Sea, Tigris River, Euphrates
River, Persian Gulf, Ur, Sumer, Babylon, Red Sea, Nile River. Draw in and
label mountains and deserts.
Polytheism & Mesopotamian religion
EQ: What were common religious beliefs and
practices in ancient Mesopotamia?
 Polytheism is the belief in more than one god. Most but not all polytheistic
religions believe in many gods. (“God” can mean a god or goddess.)
 Mesopotamian religion – Believed in many gods. Cities often had a
patron deity (god or goddess) that was specially worshipped.
Mesopotamians believed that if the gods were happy with people’s
prayers and offerings, they would bring good fortune to the city. If they
were displeased, they might send war, floods, and other disasters.
 Ziggurats were temples used to worship one specific god or goddess
each. There were places for grain storage, living quarters for priests, and
areas for rituals to worship the god or goddess.
Aspects of daily life – irrigation & slavery
EQ: How did irrigation and slavery impact daily life in
Mesopotamia?
 Irrigation – a system of ditches used to move water from a river (or other freshwater
source) to crop fields
 Being able to control water supply & delivery to the fields greatly increased crop
production and food surplus!
 All farmers maintained their own irrigation ditches, gates, etc and helped maintain
the overall system, especially in times of flood, when more help was needed.
 Slavery – was legal and accepted. Slaves were prisoners of war captured in battle,
sold or born into slavery, or enslaved for committing a crime. Slaves were used to work
the fields, households, and other low-ranked tasks.
 Slaves could be bought and sold.
Mesopotamian Inventions – Wheel, Sail, & Plow
EQ: How did the wheel, sail, and plow
contribute to Mesopotamian civilization?
 Wheel – invented around 3500 BCE by the Sumerians. First made out of
clay, rock, and mud. The original use of the wheel was to make pottery.
They eventually, over hundreds of years, Sumerians attached wheels
together and to carts called chariots.
 Sail – Mesopotamian boats were originally rowed by many people. Early
sails were made of papyrus, not cloth. Sailboats quickly increased
movement between cities and regions (as far away as India), making
Mesopotamia the center of trade and very wealthy.
 Plow – invented around 6000 BCE, shortly after humans began using
animals to help with work. The first plow was called an Ard. It was basically
a stick with handlebars and a place to hitch up an ox.
Achievements of the Mesopotamians
EQ: How has Mesopotamia contributed to the
advancement of civilization?
 Cuneiform – one of the first written languages. Symbols were originally
pictographs, then over time developed into triangle-based symbols for certain
sounds and ideas. These symbols were pressed into clay tablets with a wood or
reed stylus and used to keep records.
 Ziggurat – step-pyramid shaped temple. Ziggurats were the largest part of the
temple complex. They were originally made of mud-brick and old ziggurats were
often built over the foundations of an old one.
 Art – Mesopotamian art was mostly used to show the glory of gods and kings.
These were most often in the form of sculpture, relief frescoes, and cylinder seals.
 Cylinder seals – a small cylinder with writing or images engraved in it. When rolled onto
clay, it shows a full message or scene.
Hammurabi’s Code
EQ: Why is Hammurabi’s Code important to
modern laws?
 Hammurabi – a Babylonian ruler who expanded Babylonia’s influence throughout
Mesopotamia and wrote the first code of laws. The laws were written on 12 tablets
and displayed in the city so that they were well known to all.
 Hammurabi’s Code of Laws – The Code included crimes as well as punishments.
Many of the punishments depend on the victim’s social class (noble, commoner, or
slave). Many punishments include a specific method of execution (thrown into a fire
or the river, for example) or a specific amount of a fine.
 Some examples of laws in Hammurabi’s Code:
 § 15: If any one take a male or female slave of the court, or a male or female
slave of a freed man, outside the city gates, he shall be put to death.
 § 55 – If a man open his canal for irrigation and neglect it and the water
carry away an adjacent field, he shall measure out grain on the basis of the
adjacent fields.
 § 59 – If a man cut down a tree in a man's orchard, without the consent of
the owner of the orchard, he shall pay one-half mina of silver.
 § 195 – If a son strike his father, they shall cut off his fingers.