1. Early River Civilizations
NCSCOS Goals: , 2.01, 6.01, 8.01

2. Fertile Crescent
Area in Southwest Asia that serves as an oasis in the midst of deserts and Mountains
Great for farming
Contains the Tigris and Euphrates rivers

3. Sumer
Formed around 3000 BC
Cities grow, use walls for defense and have fields for farming around each city
Each city becomes its own city state, which is a political unit with its own government

4. Religion
Sumerians were polytheists, which means they worship more than one god
They believed their gods controlled all natural forces

5. Rulers
Originally priests ruled city-states, as fighting continues warlords controlled as kings
Kings would pass on title to their children, making it a dynasty

6. Writing
Sumerians are credited with having the first writing system, known as cuneiform
Most known bit of literature was the Epic of Gilgamesh

7. Math and Science
Sumerians created a math system based on the number 60, which is why we use 60 seconds to a minute and 60 minutes to an hour, and 360 degrees in a circle

8. Technology
Invented the wheel, the plow, learned to use bronze for weapons and tools, created sewers
Also first people to store medical information and perform basic surgery

9. Akkad Located just north of Sumer
2330 BC Akkadian ruler Sargon I was the first person to have a permanent army
Conquered all of Sumer and northern Mesopotamia, forming the worlds first empire-a land that includes different kingdoms and people under one rule

10. Cultural Diffusion
Akkadian Empire stretched from Mediterranean Sea to Persian Gulf
Spread Sumerian ideas for next 140 years before falling to a tribe from the East

11. Babylonian Empire
Amorites were one of the tribes fighting for power of Mesopotamia. They settled along the Euphrates River in Babylon, which is near present day Baghdad, Iraq

12. Hammurabi
1792 BC, Hammurabi becomes the king of the Amorites. He was able to unite all of Mesopotamia under one rule
Became famous for his set of laws
282 laws distributed throughout the empire

13. Hammurabi’s Code
#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.
#3-If any one bring an accusation of any crime before the elders, and does not prove what he has charged, he shall, if it be a capital offense charged, be put to death.
#6- 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.

14. Hammurabi’s Code Continued
#21- If any one break a hole into a house (break in to steal), he shall be put to death before that hole and be buried.
#25- If fire break out in a house, and some one who comes to put it out cast his eye upon the property of the owner of the house, and take the property of the master of the house, he shall be thrown into that self-same fire.
#109- If conspirators meet in the house of a tavern- keeper, and these conspirators are not captured and delivered to the court, the tavern-keeper shall be put to death

15. Hammurabi’s Code Continued
#128-If a man take a woman to wife, but have no intercourse with her, this woman is no wife to him.
#129-If a man's wife be surprised (in flagrante delicto) with another man, both shall be tied and thrown into the water, but the husband may pardon his wife and the king his slaves
 #133-If a man is taken prisoner in war, and there is a sustenance in his house, but his wife leave house and court, and go to another house: because this wife did not keep her court, and went to another house, she shall be judicially condemned and thrown into the water

16. Hammurabi’s Code Continued
#141- If a man's wife, who lives in his house, wishes to leave it, plunges into debt, tries to ruin her house, neglects her husband, and is judicially convicted: if her husband offer her release, she may go on her way, and he gives her nothing as a gift of release. If her husband does not wish to release her, and if he take another wife, she shall remain as servant in her husband's house.
#153-If the wife of one man on account of another man has their mates (her husband and the other man's wife) murdered, both of them shall be impaled.

17. Hammurabi’s Code Continued
#155- If a man betroth a girl to his son, and his son have intercourse with her, but he (the father) afterward defile her, and be surprised, then he shall be bound and cast into the water (drowned).
#157- If any one be guilty of incest with his mother after his father, both shall be burned
#192-If a son of a paramour or a prostitute say to his adoptive father or mother: "You are not my father, or my mother," his tongue shall be cut off
#195-If a son strike his father, his hands shall be hewn off
#196-If a man put out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out. [An eye for an eye]
#197-If he break another man's bone, his bone shall be broken

18. Hammurabi’s Code Continued
#200- If a man knock out the teeth of his equal, his teeth shall be knocked out. [A tooth for a tooth]
#202- If any one strike the body of a man higher in rank than he, he shall receive sixty blows with an ox-whip in public
#209- If a man strike a free-born woman so that she lose her unborn child, he shall pay ten shekels for her loss
#210-If the woman die, his daughter shall be put to death
#218-If a physician make a large incision with the operating knife, and kill him, or open a tumor with the operating knife, and cut out the eye, his hands shall be cut off.

19. Hittites Warlike Tribe around 2000 BC
Developed use of iron for stronger weapons
Sacked Babylon

20. Assyrians
Warlike tribe from northern Mesopotamia, came to power around 900 BC
Military power
Used cavalry, foot soldiers, and war chariots
Used battering rams and dug under walls
Relied on terror to defeat enemies
Ruling
Used local leaders to govern,
collect taxes, recruit for army
Ruled by fear

21. Chaldeans Took over power after Assyrians
Leader was Nebuchadnezzar II, rebuilt Babylon making it a great city again
famous for the Hanging Gardens, trees and flowers hanging from terraces making it look like they were floating in the sky, ancient writers listed it as one of the 7 wonders of the world

23. Phoenicia
Powerful due to trade, located on the Mediterranean Sea they were able to reach most places by water
Created one of the world’s first alphabets

24. Persians
First led by Cyrus the Great, they overthrew the Medes who ruled them
Expanded through conquering others, but allowed for local customs and traditions to continue
Darius I comes to power
Makes permanent military force
Ten Thousand Immortals
Failed to conquer Greece
Built roads, standardized monetary supply
Xerxes, son of Darius comes to power after his father’s death
Also tried to invade Greece and failed
Last powerful leader for the Persians
Fell around 330 BC

26. Zoroastrianism Religion created during reigns of Cyrus and Darius
One of the first ever religions to teach dualism, the belief that the world is controlled by two opposing forces, good and evil
People had free will and could act as they choose

27. Your turn Create your own laws-
Make laws necessary to cover ALL aspects of life in your civilization
Minimum of 15 laws
Explanation for each law
Punishments for breaking law