Mesopotamia

The Fertile CrescentThe First Civilization  Mesopotamia means “land between the rivers”  Tigris and Euphrates Rivers  Annual flooding Silt – rich layer of soil deposited by a river Farming was the main profession because of the Conditions

The People of Mesopotamia Sumerians 3300 B.C (Sumer) Three Environmental Challenges of Mesopotamia 1.Unpredictable flooding/rain Sometimes no rain for months, other times it is flooding 2.No natural Barriers for protection Mesopotamia is one big flat open plain. People invade from all around 3.Limited Natural resources Lots of food, no wood or building materials

The People of Mesopotamia Solving Environmental Problems 1.To provide water, they dug irrigation ditches that brought water from the rivers 2.To protect themselves they built giant walls made of mud bricks 3.Sumerians traded their abundant resources for ones they didn’t have

Development of City-States  City-state: City and surrounding area functioning as a country does today.  Priests head government 3000 BCE  Kings head government 2500 BCE Create Dynasties  Series of rulers under one family Overview of Ur (city-state)

Society Social Hierarchy Kings, ruling family and Priests Merchants, scribes, lesser priests Peasant farmers Who is at the bottom? Slaves Captured in war Sold self into slavery to pay off debts **Role of Women?

Religion Polytheistic Goddesses Afterlife Pessimistic

Ziggurat

Advancements Inventions: wheel, sail, and plow 1 st to use bronze Developments in math Architectural innovations arches, columns CUNEIFORM Writing system Pictograph – symbols stand for words Ziggurats (temples)

Deciphering Cuneiform

TRADE Sumerians traded in the desert Why do we trade? Get things we don’t have (wood, etc.) Mesopotamian trade stretched from the Indus Valley to the Nile Sumerian culture followed with trade (grew with it) h?v=w-6HOQiuIgE h?v=w-6HOQiuIgE

Mesopotamia under Sumerians CONSTANT CONFLICT Result: Mesopotamia vulnerable to attacks Sargon of Akkad Unified Mesopotamia = world’s first empire. Dynasty lasted about 200 years. Akkadian Empire spread Sumerian culture from Mesopotamia to Egypt (Fertile Crescent)

Hammurabi Created a WRITTEN code of laws to help unify the diverse population Peak of empire was during the reign of Hammurabi

Code of Hammurabi Laws of the empire Punishments enforced as well Punishment’s varied on social rank (commoners, slaves treated harsher than nobles) MAIN IDEA OF CODE: Reinforced the belief that government had a responsibility for what occurred in society

Read a few of Hammurabi’s laws, what conclusions might you be able to draw about life in Babylon 1.If a man knocks the teeth out of another man, his own teeth will be knocked out. 2.If anyone strikes the body of a man higher in rank than he, he shall receive sixty blows with an ox-whip in public. 3.If a freeborn man strikes the body of another freeborn man of equal rank, he shall pay one gold mina [an amount of money]. 4.If the slave of a freed man strikes the body of a freed man, his ear shall be cut off. 5.If anyone commits a robbery and is caught, he shall be put to death. 6.If anyone opens his ditches to water his crop, but is careless, and the water floods his neighbor's field, he shall pay his neighbor corn for his loss. 7.If a judge tries a case, reaches a decision, and presents his judgment in writing; and later it is discovered that his decision was in error, and it was his own fault, he shall pay twelve times the fine set by him in the case and be removed from the judge's bench. 8.If during an unsuccessful operation a patient dies, the arm of the surgeon must be cut off. 9.If a son strike his father, his hands shall be hewn off. 10.If anyone steals the minor son of another, he shall be put to death. 11.If a man takes a woman to wife, but has no intercourse with her, this woman is no wife to him. 12.If a man strikes a pregnant woman, thereby causing her to miscarry and die, the assailant's daughter shall be put to death. 13.If a man puts out the eye of an equal, his eye shall be put out.