1. Unit 1 Old Mesopotamian Civilization
Early Mesopotamia

3. Who were the Sumerians?
People who lived in the fertile crescent region
Each city was controlled by a different government
Early city states

4. City of Ur

5. 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

6. Who conquered the Sumerians?
In 2300 B.C.E. Sargon the Great conquered the entire plain between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers

7. 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

8. 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

9. Writing

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. Ziggurats

17. 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

18. Epic of Gilgamesh