Download The Ancient Fertile Crescent

The Ancient Fertile Crescent
The Middle East: The Cradle of Civilization
Mesopotamia
• Between Tigris and
Euphrates rivers
• Not a lot of resources
• Control of rivers key
to development
• Traders use the rivers
or go overland
• Wealth builds
Sumerian cities
Sumerian Civilization
• 12 separate citystates that battle for
land and water
• Ruler in each city is
chief servant of the
gods
• Maintains city walls,
irrigation system,
leads armies
Social Structure
• Each city-state has its
own hierarchy
• Ruling family;
officials; high priests
• Lesser priests;
scribes; merchants;
artisans
• Peasants; slaves
Religion
• Polytheistic
• Gods have human
characteristics
• Afterlife
• Underworld
• Each city-state built a
ziggurat dedicated to
the city’s god or
goddess
Ziggurat at Ur
Temple
Mountain of the
Gods
Cuneiform
• Earliest form of
writing
• Pictographs of clay
tablets
• Becomes symbols for
complicated thoughts
• Records; economic
exchanges; myths;
prayers; laws,
business contracts
Cuneiform Writing
Deciphering Cuneiform
Sumer’s Legacy
• 1900 BC Sumer is gone
• Other’s adapt cuneiform and spread
Sumerian ideas
• Astronomy and mathematics
• 60 minute hour; 360 degree circle
• Knowledge is passed along to the Greeks
and Romans
Hammurabi
• 1790 BC-King of
Babylon
• Controls
Mesopotamia
• Law Code
• Civil Law
• Criminal Law
Hammurabi’s Code
Babylonian Numbers
Other Empires
• 1400 BC Hittites
• Iron working; horsedrawn chariot
• 1350 BC Assyrians
• Trade and war
• 612 BC
Nebuchadnezzer
revives Babylon
The Persians
• Cyrus the Great
• 580-529 BC
• 539 BC conquers
Babylon
• A tolerant ruler
• Empire stretches from
Asia Minor to India
Darius the Great
• 522-486 BC
• Divided empire into
provinces headed by
a governor called a
satrap
• Law code; money
economy
• Built the Royal Road
and Persepolis
Persepolis
The People of Persepolis
Persepolis
The Royal Road
Zoroastrianism
• Founded by Zoroaster
about 600 BC
• Ahura Mazda aka the
Wise Lord
• Good vs. Evil
• Judgment Day
• Heaven/Hell
• Priests are called
magi
The Phoenicians
• Sailors and traders
• Carriers of civilization
• Colonized and traded
all around the
Mediterranean
• Developed an
alphabet with 22
symbols that the
Greeks adapt-it
becomes ours
The Egyptians
• Nile River
• Upper and Lower
• Old, Middle, New
Kingdoms
• Pharaoh
• Pyramids and
mummies
• Hieroglyphics
Roots of Judaism
• Hebrews; Palestine
• Monotheistic;
• 2000 BC-Covenant
with Abraham
• Torah
• Prophets
• Law and Morality; The
Ten Commandments