Bell Ringer

• What is the most important characteristic of a civilization? Why?

Bell Ringer

• Read the article, The Sacred Rac

• Can the Asu be considered a civilization?

• Why or why not?

Mesopotamia

An Ancient River Valley Civilization

Mesopotamia – Fertile Crescent

• Sumer – The earliest of the River Valley Civilizations

• Sumerian civilization grew along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers

Geography

• Mesopotamia = “land between the rivers”• Fertile Crescent – along Tigris and Euphrates

Rivers and Mediterranean Sea• Flooding provided fertile silt for farming• Modern-day Turkey, Iraq, and Syria

Fertile Crescent

Background

History of People• First people settled in 3500 BCE, • 2500 BCE – Sumerians arrive• Came because of good soil

Problems/Solutions

Environmental Challenges1) Unpredictable flooding

and drought2) No natural barriers for

defense3) Limited natural

resources

Solutions1) Irrigation

2) Built city walls with mud bricks

3) Traded for tools

Government

• City-States: Operated as independent area• Originally ruled by priests, but shifted to

military leaders• Military leaders – monarchs; created dynasties• Spread ideas through trade = cultural diffusion

III. SUMERIAN RELIGION

A Sumerian warrior-god, gold figurine, ca. 2,400-2,500 B.C.E.

Belief in many gods - polytheismGod of the clouds/air was Enlil – the most powerful god.Nearly 3,000 others – with human qualities. Sumerians viewed their gods as hostile and unpredictable – similar to the natural environment around them.

Marduk, the Dragon godPP Design of T. Loessin; Akins H.S.

Religion

• Polytheistic (over 3000 gods!)• Gods controlled nature and

were immortal and all powerful

• After death went to “land of no return”

• Produced accounts of legends• Ziggurats

Ishtar, Goddess of War

Ziggurat – Holy Mountain

Click on the pictures for more information on ziggurats.

Social Classrulers, priests

merchants, artists, scribes

peasants farmers

slaves

Social Structure

• Division among classes• Women:

– Had same rights as men for the most part– Typically, girls were not allowed to attend scribe

school, but there are a few notable female scribes

Sumerian Society

1. Three social classesa. Priests and kingsb. Wealthy merchantsc. Ordinary workersd. Slaves

2. Women

Left: Statue of Sumerian woman with hands clasped at chest, ca. 2600-2300 B.C. Right: Gypsum statue of man and woman at Inanna Temple at Nippur, circa 2600-2300 B.C.

a. Had more rights than in many later civilizations (could own property, join lower ranks of priesthood)b. But not allowed to attend schools (could not read or write)

Science and Technology• Wheel, sail, and plow• Used bronze• First system of writing –

Cuneiform• Investigation of

astronomy, medicine, and chemical

• Arithmetic/Geometry – number system based on 60

Sumerian Writing: cuneiform

Cuneiform is created by pressing a pointed stylus into a clay tablet.

Cuneiform- first system of writing

Sumerians invented:

• mud brick technology• wheel• base 60 – using the circle . . . 360 degrees• time – 60 minutes in an hour, 60 seconds in a

minute• 12 month lunar calendar (based on the moon!)

• arch• ramp• ziggurat

Literature

• Epic of Gilgamesh– One of the earliest works of literature in the world– Account of a Sumerian king and his quest for

immortality– Demonstrates beliefs and myths of Sumerians

Gilgamesh

The Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the earliest works of literature, contains a “flood story” that predates the Hebrew Old Testament story of Noah by at least 2,000 years. • Gilgamesh was king of Uruk (God-man)•Wise and strong, but cruel•Gods created Enkidu, a wild man, who was civilized by a woman•They became friends and fight magical beasts•Enkidu died – Gilgamesh was heartbroken•Gilgamesh goes to find Utnapishtim, the Mesopotamian Noah•Flood story follows•Gilgamesh gets the secret to immortality from Utnapishtim, but loses it to a snake•Lesson – one can’t live forever, but one can achieve much and one’s deeds can live for a long time

http://gilgamesh.psnc.pl/

PP Design of T. Loessin; Akins H.S.

Mesopotamia - Empires

AkkadFirst EMPIRE Builders

3,000 – 2,000 B.C.E. the City-States began to war with each other.These internal struggles meant they were too weak to ward off an attack by an outside enemy.

Sargon of Akkad (ca. 2,350 B.C.E.)Took control of the region, creating world’s first empire – when several peoples, nations, or previously independent states are placed under the control of one ruler.

Definetype of

government

PP Design of T. Loessin; Akins H.S.

Akkad

• Sumer declined and by 2350 BCE • Sargon eventually succeeded in establishing

an empire. • The Akkadian Empire stretched from

Mediterranean Sea- to Persian Gulf.

World’s First Empire

2. The Akkadian Empire lasted about 200 years, 2350 – approx. 2150 B.C.E.

PP Design of T. Loessin; Akins H.S.

Akkad

Akkadian was a Semitic language (modern Semitic languages include Arabic and Hebrew. Akkadian became the lingua franca of the Mesopotamian region because it was versatile and easy to learn

PP Design of T. Loessin; Akins H.S.

Arabic Hebrew sample Akkadian text

Invasions, internal fighting, and a severe famine all contributed to the end of the Akkadian Empire.

Babylon

• Around 2000 BCE a group called the Amorites took over the fertile crescent and established a new kingdom called Babylon.

Babylon

• Hammurabi’s Code– Designed by ruler of

Babylon, Hammurabi– Wanted a unified law

code for his kingdom– Law code applied to

everyone, but punishments varied based on status and gender

Hammurabi’s Code: You Be the Judge

• We will break up into 6 groups – each table will be a group• Each group will receive a scenario• Each group will have 3 minutes to read the scenario and

come up with a punishment – the whole group must agree!!!

• We will then rotate the scenarios clockwise and repeat.• Do not copy a previous group’s punishment.• Write your group’s punishment on the card.• After all groups have looked at each scenario we will

discuss as a class.

What Should be done to the carpenter who builds a house that falls and kills the owner?

229. If a builder build a house for some one, and does not construct it properly, and the house which he built fall in and kill its owner, then that builder shall be put to death.

What Should be done about a wife who ignores her duties and belittles her husband?

143. If she is not innocent, but leaves her husband, and ruins her house, neglecting her husband, this woman shall be cast into the water.

What happens to the wine seller who fails to arrest bad characters gathered at her shop?

108. If a tavern-keeper (feminine) does not accept corn according to gross weight in payment of drink, but takes money, and the price of the drink is less than that of the corn, she shall be convicted and thrown into the water.

How is the truth determined when one man brings an accusation against another?

2. If any one bring an accusation against a man, and the accused go to the river and leap into the river, if he sink in the river his accuser shall take possession of his house. But if the river prove that the accused is not guilty, and he escape unhurt, then he who had brought the accusation shall be put to death, while he who leaped into the river shall take possession of the house that had belonged to his accuser.

What happens if a man is unable to pay his debts?

117. If any one fail to meet a claim for debt, and sell himself, his wife, his son, and daughter for money or give them away to forced labor: they shall work for three years in the house of the man who bought them, or the proprietor, and in the fourth year they shall be set free.

What should happen to a boy who slaps his father?

195. If a son strike his father, his hands shall be hewn off.

Some More of Hammurabi’s Laws• If any one steal the property of a temple or of the court, he shall be put to

death, and also the one who receives the stolen thing from him shall be put to death.

• If any one steal cattle or sheep, or an ass, or a pig or a goat, if it belong to a god or to the court, the thief shall pay thirtyfold therefor; if they belonged to a freed man of the king he shall pay tenfold; if the thief has nothing with which to pay he shall be put to death.

• If a man wishes to separate from his wife who has borne him no children, he shall give her the amount of her purchase money and the dowry which she brought from her father's house, and let her go.

• If a man put out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out. [ An eye for an eye ]

• If he break another man's bone, his bone shall be broken.

End of Babylon

- 1550 BCE Babylonian Empire was taken over by nomadic warriors

- Many Sumerian ideas were adopted by later civilizations including Assyrians, Phoenicians, and Hebrews