Fertile Crescent Empires siege engine is a wheeled vehicle which can be fitted with a battering ram sticking out of the front. They were made from a wooden frame covered with very thick leather. Water could be poured through pipes so that the battering ram did not catch fire from burning torches.

Bellwork 11-12 What are some things that could make a nation weak and unable to defeat their enemies? (Use complete sentences)

Main Idea A series of invaders from both within and outside of Mesopotamia were able to gain control of the Fertile Crescent.

The Akkadians 1. Conquer Sumerians around 2330 B.C. because lack of united city states. 2. Spoke a language related to modern Arabic and Hebrew. 3. Sargon II- most powerful Akkadian king (2334 B.C- 2279 B.C.).

Sargon and his Empire:

Sargon and his Empire: 4. Though the Akkadian Empire was great, it too would fall after 150 years as new waves of invaders swept through the eastern Fertile Crescent

The Babylonians 5. Hammurabi-strong leader comes to power in Babylon around 1792 B.C. and conquers most of the Tigris-Euphrates Valley. 6. Great military leader, political leader, and law-maker. 7. Best know for his code: The Code of Hammurabi

The Babylonians 8. Code of Hammurabi was the first real set of written laws based on “an eye for an eye.” 9. People feared breaking the law because of punishment.

The Babylonians

The Babylonians 10. Babylonian culture: farming, trading, women could own property, be merchants and scribes. 11. Religion: many gods with religion focused on success on Earth rather than preparation for the afterlife

Other Conquerors

The Hittites 12. The Hittites, a warrior Indo- European tribe, developed in Southwest Asia. 13. About 2000 BC they settled in Asia Minor, which is now Turkey. 14. Their success came largely through their use of the horse-drawn war chariot. This next section we will be mainly discussing the different empires that occupied the Fertile Crescent. Indo-European- several tribes who spoke related languages. From here the Hittites conquered the surrounding people and built an empire. Their chariots were heavy and slow, but very powerful. Most chariots of this time held 2 soldiers- the Hittite chariot held 3. As one many drove, a second fought, and a third held shields for defense. The extra defender helped Hittites to move their chariots in close to the enemy forces while staying protected.

Hittite Kingdom

Hittite Culture 15. Hittites blended their culture with the cultures around them. Used Sumerian cuneiform and developed a law code similar to that of Hammurabi. 16. They were the first people in the region to master iron working techniques. Used iron mostly for making ornaments, though later people adopted it for tools and weapons.

Hittite's Fall 17. Around 1200 BC the Hittite empire fell to powerful raiders, known to historians only as the Sea Peoples.

The Assyrians 18. The Assyrians grew barley and raised cattle. 19. Because the Assyrians received decent amounts of rainfall and lay along major trade routes, many tribes invaded, seeking to control the area. Originally from northern Mesopotamia, near the city of Assur. As a result the Assyrians had been dominated by other people for centuries.

Assyria 20. In 900 BC the Assyrians built a strong empire that included all of Mesopotamia as well as parts of Asia Minor and Egypt.

The Assyrian War Machine 21. Assyria’s power relied on military. 22. It’s army included the first war chariots and cavalry 23. Masters at siege warfare Assyrian soldiers would use battering rams to pound through city walls or dug beneath the walls to weaken them. Also split up and resettled conquered people to keep them from rebelling.

Scare Tactics 24. They also used terror to awe the enemies and to control conquered areas. Assyrians often killed or maimed captives. 25. Captives who lived were enslaved.

Think Don’t Write Of all the Empires we’ve studied, which used the same military techniques as the Assyrians?

“Many of the captives I burned in a fire “Many of the captives I burned in a fire. Many I took alive; from some I cut off their hands to the wrist, from others I cut off their noses, ears, and fingers; I put out the eyes of many.” Assyrian king.

Assyrian Rule 26. Kings ruled through local leaders, each who governed a small area of the empire. 27. Local leader collected taxes, enforced laws, and raised troops for the army. 28. A system of roads linked the distant parts of the empire. 29. The Assyrians ruthlessly punished anyone who opposed them. To maintain peace across the empire the Assyrians ruthlessly punished anyone who opposed them.

Cultural Achievements 30. Library in Nineveh included more than 20,000 cuneiform tablets. 31. Epic of Gilgamesh tells the story of a Sumerian king- oldest work of literature.

Assyrian Empire Declines 32. As the empire grew larger, the Assyrians found it harder to control. 33. The Chaldeans, who lived in southern Mesopotamia, and the Medes, who lived in what is now Iraq, joined forces. 34. In 612 BC they captured and torched Nineveh. 35. Empire came to a sudden end. With its capital and government gone the empire came to a sudden end.

The Chaldeans 36. Taking much of southern and western Assyria, the Chaldeans formed their own empire. 37. most famous leader was Nebuchadnezzar who rebuilds Babylon into a wealthy and powerful city in. 605 B.C Nebuchadnezzar was the most famous king. He fought both the Egyptians and the Jews, capturing the Jewish capital of Jerusalem and taking many of its residents to Babylon as slaves,

Nebuchadnezzar 38. Captured the Jewish capital of Jerusalem and taking many of its residents to Babylon as slaves. 39. He built numerous temples and palaces, including an immense multistoried ziggurat.

Nebuchadnezzar 40. The Chaldean king also built himself a grand palace that , according to legend, featured the famous Hanging Gardens. 41. There, thousands of trees and flowers grew on the terraces and roofs as if hanging in the air. Didn’t hang but grew on the roofs and terraces of the royal palace in Babylon. Ancient writers listed this as one of the 7 wonders of the world. Diodorus tells us it was about 400 feet wide by 400 feet long and more than 80 feet high.

Hanging Gardens 42. Built to cheer up Nebuchadnezzar’s wife because she was homesick. 43. Babylon received very little rain and for the gardens to survive it would have had to been irrigated by using water from the Euphrates River. She was the daughter of the king of the Medes and was married to Nebuchadnezzar to create an alliance b/w the two nations. The land she came from was green, rugged, and mountainous, and she found the flat- sun baked terrain to Mesopotamia depressing. The King decided to recreate her homeland by building an artifical mountain w/ rooftop gardens. That meant lifting the water far into the air so it could flow down through the terraces, watering the plants at each level. This was probably done by means of a "chain pump."

Hanging Gardens A chain pump is two large wheels, one above the other, connected by a chain. As the wheel is turned, the buckets dip into the pool and pick up water. The chain then lifts them to the upper wheel, where the buckets are tipped and dumped into an upper pool. On the chain are hung buckets. Below the bottom wheel is a pool with the water source The chain then carries the empty ones back down to be refilled. The pool at the top of the gardens could then be released by gates into channels which acted as artificial streams to water the gardens. The pump wheel below was attached to a shaft and a handle. By turning the handle slaves provided the power to run the contraption.

Chaldean’s Culture 45. Adopted the Sumerian language and built temples to the Sumerians gods. 46. In 539 BC, less than hundred years after they conquered Assyria, a people called the Persians conquered Babylon. The Chaldean Empire was short lived

The Persians 1. Famous leader was Cyrus the Great who captured Babylon and the Fertile Crescent around 540 B.C. 2. Later leaders included Darius I and his son Xerxes. 3. Huge empire from India to the Mediterranean Sea

The Persians 4. Tried to invade Greece in 400 B.C. but failed. 5. Government: Kings all-powerful, but concerned for justice. 6. Collected taxes, administered law fairly 7. Let conquered people keep own laws and religion.

The Persians 8. Built miles of roads to connect empire-used for mail. 9. Helps spread ideas and culture. 10. Persian religion- teachings of prophet Zoroaster become important around 600 B.C.

The Persians 11. Life is a universal struggle between good and evil, and that there will be a final judgment. 12. Good would eventually triumph. 13. Philosophy known as Zoroastrianism influenced Judaism and Christianity.

The Persians 14. The decline of the Persians- weak kings after Xerxes. 15. Final defeat in 331 B.C by the Greeks under Alexander the Great. 16. Empire lasted over 200 years