Early Societies: Mesopotamia Where it all began

AD, BC,CE, BCE, what does it all mean????

Domestication of Animals

Characteristics of Civilization 1.Surplus of food. 2.Large towns, with some form of government 3.People perform different jobs (Division of Labor) 4.Development of a calendar 5.Form of writing

Nile River

Yangtze River

Indus River

Mesopotamia: The Fertile Crescent

The Fertile Crescent This civilization began about 5000 BC. The area stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. This includes the modern-day countries of Iran and Iraq.

The Fertile Crescent The Fertile Crescent is sometimes called Mesopotamia. This is the area between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.

The State and Urban Revolution: In the city-state (or state), kin and tribal loyalties are, by definition, subordinated and replaced by political ties…. What makes a city- state different from an agricultural town is the synergy created by its people interacting with each other on the basis of political relationships rather than traditional blood ties.

Sumer, B.C.

Sumer The Sumerians arrived around 3500 BC. By 3000 BC they had set up 13 city-states. They built ziggarats to bury great kings and act as centers of government.

Temple of Sumer

Mesopotamian Religion Believed in many gods-polytheism Had gods to explain every aspect of life

Hammaurabi Leader of the Amorites. Brought the entire region under his control. Created a law code covering the entire region. Each violation was assigned a specific punishment. If a son strikes his father, they shall cut off his hand.

Reign of Hammurapi of Babylon, B.C.

Dams and Canals Villages cooperated together to build dams and escape channels to control the seasonal flooding. Later, canals were built to water fields away from the river.

Cuneiform The Mesopotamian form of writing. Consisted of hundreds of wedge-shaped markings. Used to produce business records and literary works.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF CUNEIFORM: The Sumerian writing system during the early periods was constantly in flux. The original direction of writing was from top to bottom, but for reasons unknown, it changed to left-to- right very early on (perhaps around 3000 BCE). This also affected the orientation of the signs by rotating all of them 90° counterclockwise. Another change in this early system involved the "style" of the signs. The early signs were more "linear" in that the strokes making up the signs were lines and curves. But starting after 3000 BC, these strokes started to evolve into wedges, thus changing the visual style of the signs from linear to "cuneiform".