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Unit 1 Old Mesopotamian Civilization
Early Mesopotamia
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Who were the Sumerians? People who lived in the fertile crescent region Each city was controlled by a different government Early city states
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City of Ur
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Why are the Sumerians important?
Built the first large cities up to 100,000 people First sophisticated system of writing Invented the wheel as a load bearing device First to use sun baked clay bricks First to use the plow, and gravity flow irrigation system
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Who conquered the Sumerians?
In 2300 B.C.E. Sargon the Great conquered the entire plain between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers
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Who were the Akkadians? The Akkadians were the people of Sargon
His empire lasted less then a 100 years They spread Sumerian culture and inventions throughout the whole fertile crescent and into Egypt
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What is Cuneiform writing?
The writing the Sumerians invented They began to create a phonetic written language All kinds of things have been found on the tablets from laws to prayers They went beyond picture writing to abstract marks having meaning
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Writing
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Writing Breakthrough The beginning of phonetics
Clever scribes began to use written signs to indicate the sounds of the spoken language The Sumerians did not progress as far as an alphabet That was accomplished 2000 thousand years later
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Sumerians and Math: Set time 60 minutes 60 seconds
The 360 degree circle stems from the Sumerians Much of what we know of Geometry and Trigonometry was expanded by the Sumerians
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Lunar Calendar The Sumerians developed a very accurate lunar calendar (Not quite as good as the Egyptians) The calculated the number of full moons in combination with which stars were in the sky at any given time of year
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Sumerian Religion: The Sumerians were Polytheistic
Polytheistic means they believed in many gods, these gods had human traits and some were strong and other were weak Each major city developed it’s own gods The gods were cruel toward humans and were highly unpredictable There is also no trace of ethics in Mesopotamian religion
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Mesopotamian Priests To avert punishment the gods had to be appeased with frequent and costly rituals and ceremonies This was the responsibility of the hereditary priesthood The priest used their power to build large temple communities The priests power was broken when Sargon conquered the Sumerians
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Ziggurats The Sumerians built massive buildings called Ziggurats to honor their gods People sacrificed animals, food, and humans to the gods on the Ziggurats The best known Ziggurat is found in Babylon, it was built a long time after the Sumerians had been destroyed
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Ziggurats
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Epic of Gilgamesh First Epic Poem Story of Garden of Eden
Story of the Flood Gilgamesh searches for the secret of immortal life The Gods jealous of his power and defeat him
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Epic of Gilgamesh
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