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Name: Date: Humanities 6-C Ancient Mesopotamia: Laws, Empire, Government, and Society (L.E.G.S.) Essential Question: In order to maintain order and stability, how have past civilizations arranged different groups and their responsibilities (society), organized power to control their populations (government and law), and extended power over other territories (empire)? Society Based upon a careful reading of pages 55, 56, 58, 59, 60, 61 of the Our World textbook, we can come to certain conclusions about the different parts of Mesopotamian society and their different jobs. On page 55 of Our World, we learn that there were people whose job it was to bring water from artificial lakes to irrigate and grow crops. Such people who grow domesticated crops are called farmers. Some of the crops that this group of people specialized in growing, according to page 56 of Our World, were wheat, barley, beans, onions, and lettuce. Another group in Mesopotamian society, described on page 56 of Our World is a group whose job it was to protect and herd sheep and goats that were raised for their for their milk and wool. These people were called shepherds. On page 59 of Our World we learn about yet another social group in Mesopotamia. There was a group of people, made up mostly of boys, who went to school to learn to make clay tablets, to make “pens” from river reeds, to write and read cuneiform letters, and to learn mathematics. This group of trained writers were called scribe. There were other social groups in Mesopotamia. On page 60 of Our World we learn that, “People entered and exited the city through large gates in [the city] walls.” Because Sumerian city-states had walls around them, we can logically infer that there were workers—or social groups—whose job it was to make bricks that were used to build or construct the walls that guarded or enclosed a city. “The king’s palace could be seen from almost any point in the city. The king ruled the city-state from his palace, operated the courts and the army, and planned canals and other needed projects.” (Our World, page 60) 1 Based on the quote above, we can infer not only that there was a king, but also builders of the king’s palace, clerks who worked in the courts, soldiers who served in the army, and engineers who planned and designed the all-important irrigation canals and other projects. Furthermore, a careful reading of page 61 of Our World indicates that in Sumer a vast variety of people were employed in—worked in—the temples. Not only were there priests and priestesses, but weavers who wove cloth for temple workers and for the statutes, and also musicians, barbers, bakers, craft workers and scribes. And if there were statues of gods or goddesses, we can assume that there were sculptors who sculpted them. Perhaps the lowest social group in Sumer are discussed on page 62 of Our World. These were people who were prisoners of war. They were called slaves, and they were sold by merchants. The list of social groups, or workers, in Mesopotamia includes at least 17 separate social groups: farmers; shepherds; scribes; craft-makers; construction workers; court clerks; army soldiers; designers, engineers or construction workers; priests and priestesses; clothing makers; sculptors of statues; musicians; craft workers; bakers; barbers; slaves who were prisoners of war; and merchants. Some of these social groups can be seen on the “Peace” side of the Standard of Ur, on page 58 and 59 of Our World. This is an ancient artifact that archeologists unearthed from a king’s grave in the city-state of Ur. On the lowest level of the Standard of Ur, we may see either slaves or farmers carrying the grain that they have grown; on the middle level, we can see the farmers herding or leading their cattle, goats, and sheep. On the top row, on the top right side, we can see musicians playing a hand harp or a lute. We see six seated men in “skirts” holding goblets. They are facing a tall, seated man in a throne, whom we can assume is the king. Perhaps these seated men who are raising wine goblets in a toast to the king are the king’s scribes or court clerks. Government On page 60 of Our World, we learn that life and government in Sumer centered around a unit of political organization called a city-state. A citystate is a self governing city, that also lived by nearby villages. The ruler of each city-state was the king, who ruled his city-state from his palace. The responsibilities of the king included running the courts and the kingdom, and planned huge public projects like irrigation canals. Law 2 On page 68 of Our World, we learn that Babylonian King Hammurabi’s jobs included directing the building and repairing of canals and acting as a judge to make decisions about legal matters. A code of laws is a written collection of the laws that apply to the people ruled by one government. History’s very first code of laws was the Code of Hammurabi. Hammurabi’s laws numbered about 200 laws in all. They were written on six-foot stone pillar with a picture of King Hammurabi receiving the laws from Shamash, the Sumerian Sun god. (See page 68 of Our World.) Because copies of Hammurabi’s laws were found all over his empire, we can conclude that all citizens were expected to obey the laws. Some people today might view Hammurabi’s Code of Laws as harsh. The expression, “An eye for an eye; a tooth for a tooth,” which means that the punishment must exactly repay the crime, comes to us from Hammurabi. For example, on page 68, we learn that if a free person blinds another free person, then they shall put out his eye; that if a free person breaks another free person’s bone, then they shall break his bone. Moreover, the Code of Hammurabi also gives us a clue that poor people and slaves were not as highly ranked or valued in Mesopotamian society as that of free people. We can infer this, because on page 68 of Our World, we learn that according to the Code of Hammurabi, if a poor man is blinded or his bone is broken, then the person who committed the injury must pay with silver, not with his own eye or leg. Empire and Warfare On page 67 of Our World, we learn that the by the year 1750 B.C., the powerful city-state of Assyria in southern Mesopotamia, began to reunite [rejoin] the city-states of Sumer. According to the map on page 67, by 1750 B.C., the Babylonian Empire controlled the five following city-states: Asher, Nineveh, Nimrid, UR, and Babylon. The powerful king of this city-state, whose name was King Hammurabi, gained power by controlling the flow of water from the Cooprate River. Because many important trade goods, such as silver, timber [wood], copper, and wine had to pass through Babylon, Babylonia became the center of a Babylon empire. Even before King Hammurabi built the powerful empire of Babylonia, there had been another powerful empire builder. On page 61 of Our World, we learn that in 2300 B.C. King Saragon of the city-state of Kish had built the first great empire in history. An empire is a land that is ruled by a king 3 one government. In order to rule his 900-mile empire, Sargon relied on weinform writing in order to send messages and laws across the empire. The “War” side of the Standard of Ur, above, gives us a pretty good idea of how Sumerian armies might have fought wars. According to the British Museum website, the war side shows “chariots, each pulled by four donkeys, trampling] enemies; infantry [foot soldiers] with cloaks carry[ing] spears; enemy soldiers [being] killed with axes, [while] others are paraded naked and presented to the king who holds a spear.” On page 69 of Our World we learn that after Hammurabi’s death, the Babylonian Empire began to weaken and was eventually replaced, by the year 600 B.C., by the Assyria Empire as the dominant power. Its empire ranged from what is today modern turkey in the north to the Persian Gulf in the north and Egypt in the aqueduct. Among the tools of war used by the Assyrians were battering rams to knock in the doors of city gates and towers on wheels for soldiers to climb over the walls of enemy cities. 4