1. Bellringer:
1. Take out your HW (your notes on pages in the Duiker book) and have them on your desk for a HW check.
2. Get out the Map Activity sheet we picked up last class but did not work on. We will work on this map together to start the class.
3. Update your ToC:
Page #14: Notes – Mesopotamia
Page #15: Map Activity: Mapping Mesopotamia
4. Write down your HW:
Read/take notes on pages in your DUIKER textbook (stop just before the “Spread of Egyptian Influence” section)

2. AGENDA: 1. Bellringer (Notes Check)
2. Map Activity: River Valley Civilizations
3. Notes: Mesopotamia
4. Map Activity: Mapping Mesopotamia

3. Geography

4. GEOGRAPHY: Located in the Fertile Crescent (modern-day Iraq)
Between Tigris and Euphrates Rivers
Climate = generally dry and hot
Flooding = irregular – can’t predict it!
Problematic! Hurts crops, affects worldview
Cities located along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers
This area existed around 3000 B.C.
It was in present day Iraq, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
It's hot and dry, but often flooded
There were many cities, one of the most famous being Babylon

5. Religion: Polytheistic (believe in many gods)
Different gods/goddesses = different areas of life
Life/actions centered on how to best please the gods
Feel that what happens is a punishment/gift from gods
EX: Irregular flooding = happens when gods are punishing them
Where do they worship? Ziggurats
Priests have a lot of power in Mesopotamian culture
They developed a religion based on gods that would bless their crops, help with flood control, and basket weaving
They tried hard to please these gods
They built ziggurats or shrines for these gods that only priests or priestesses could enter 

6. Achievements: Writing systems
Developed writing system called cuneiform
Scribes = new occupation in civilizations (to write stuff down!)
Technological innovations
Irrigation (to allow for successful farming)
Machines (wheel, plow, sailboat, etc.)
Intellectual achievements
Wrote of Epic of Gilgamesh, early law code (Hammurabi’s Code)
Mathematic achievements (number system based on 60)
The Mesopotamians devoloped art
They wrote in cuneiform, and wrote things like the Epic of Gilgamesh
They had amazing inventions such as irrigation,the wagon wheel, a plow, and the sailboat.
They futher developed math, using the 360 degree circle and making number systems based on 60. They also began to use 60 seconds in a minute and 60 minutes in an hour.  

7. Politics/Government:
Throughout Mesopotamia, there were different city-states – each city-state had its own king
City-state examples: Ur and Sumer
Government led by kings (often got their power through military victories)
Kings = highest servant of the gods
Each city-state had own armies, laws, etc.
Had a ziggurat at its center, cities were surrounded by walls
Famous city-state/leader: Hammurabi, who led the city of Babylon
Government led by kings, who were often war heroes.
The leaders led armies, controled food supplies, and made laws
The sumerian city-states were often at war with each other. they fought for "glory and control of more territory."
City-states were surrounded by walls for protection
Hammurabi, the king of Babylon, had a code of laws

9. A closer look: Hammurabi’s code
Written by Hammurabi, one of the most famous Mesopotamian kings
Why did he create Hammurabi’s Code?
Ruled the Babylonian Empire, which he was expanding = more people under his control
More people = more diversity  needs a universal law code fair to all people
Hammurabi’s Code’s goal: To provide fair justice to all people
“An eye for an eye”
Hammurabi is the best known and most celebrated of all Mesopotamian kings. He ruled the Babylonian Empire from B.C.E. Although he was concerned with keeping order in his kingdom, this was not his only reason for compiling the list of laws. When he began ruling the city-state of Babylon, he had control of no more than 50 square miles of territory. As he conquered other city-states and his empire grew, he saw the need to unify the various groups he controlled.
A Need for Justice
Hammurabi keenly understood that, to achieve this goal, he needed one universal set of laws for all of the diverse peoples he conquered. Therefore, he sent legal experts throughout his kingdom to gather existing laws. These laws were reviewed and some were changed or eliminated before compiling his final list of 282 laws. Despite what many people believe, this code of laws was not the first.
Oldest Code Known
The oldest known evidence of a law code are tablets from the ancient city Ebla (Tell Mardikh in modern-day Syria). They date to about 2400 B.C.E. — approximately 600 years before Hammurabi put together his famous code.
The prologue or introduction to the list of laws is very enlightening. Here, Hammurabi states that he wants "to make justice visible in the land, to destroy the wicked person and the evil-doer, that the strong might not injure the weak." The laws themselves support this compassionate claim, and protect widows, orphans and others from being harmed or exploited.

10. Looking at Hammurabi’s code: Through QUOTES
Hammurabi is the best known and most celebrated of all Mesopotamian kings. He ruled the Babylonian Empire from B.C.E. Although he was concerned with keeping order in his kingdom, this was not his only reason for compiling the list of laws. When he began ruling the city-state of Babylon, he had control of no more than 50 square miles of territory. As he conquered other city-states and his empire grew, he saw the need to unify the various groups he controlled.
A Need for Justice
Hammurabi keenly understood that, to achieve this goal, he needed one universal set of laws for all of the diverse peoples he conquered. Therefore, he sent legal experts throughout his kingdom to gather existing laws. These laws were reviewed and some were changed or eliminated before compiling his final list of 282 laws. Despite what many people believe, this code of laws was not the first.
Oldest Code Known
The oldest known evidence of a law code are tablets from the ancient city Ebla (Tell Mardikh in modern-day Syria). They date to about 2400 B.C.E. — approximately 600 years before Hammurabi put together his famous code.
The prologue or introduction to the list of laws is very enlightening. Here, Hammurabi states that he wants "to make justice visible in the land, to destroy the wicked person and the evil-doer, that the strong might not injure the weak." The laws themselves support this compassionate claim, and protect widows, orphans and others from being harmed or exploited.

11. What should be done to the carpenter who builds a house that falls and kills the owner?
Code 2: If a builder builds a house for a man and does not make its construction sound, and the house which he has built collapses and causes the death of the owner of the house, the builder shall be put to death.

12. What should be done about a wife who ignores her duties and belittles her husband?
Code 143: If the woman has not been careful but has gadded about, neglecting her house and belittling her husband, they shall throw that woman into the water.

13. What happens if a man is unable to pay his debts?
Code 117: If a man be in debt and is unable to pay his creditors, he shall sell his wife, son, or daughter, or bind them over to service. For three years they shall work in the houses of their purchaser or master; in the fourth year they shall be given their freedom.

14. What should happen to a boy who slaps his father?
Code 195: If a son strikes his father, they shall cut off his hand.

15. What happens if a man accuses someone of murder and it is not proved?
Code: The accuser will be put to death.

16. How is the truth determined when one man brings an accusation against another?
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.

17. economics: Agriculture-based economy
Most of money/profit in Mesopotamia came via farming crops
Trade did happen, though
Traded wheat, tools, barley for metals like copper, timber, etc.
Most of a workers profit came from farming
They irrigated their fields
 They tried to control flooding, which ruined crops
They traveled on rivers for trade. Trade allowed people to deliver ideas and crops to far away places. They traded tools, wheat, and barley for copper, tin, and timber.
There were three social classes. The upper class: Kings, priests, and priestesses, the middle class:Artisans, merchants, farmers, and fishers, and the lower class: slaves, prisoners of war, criminals, those in debt 

18. Social: Patriarchal society
Daily life based around farming and religion
Different social classes
Housing differed based on your class
Grew lots of food
Used river mud with crushed leaves to make bricks
 Palaces were built for kings
People lived in small mud-brick houses
Men were the head of the house, and were the only ones that could go to school. They would later become scribes.
Women could buy and sell property

21. After the notes:
1. Work with a neighbor to complete the Mapping Mesopotamia map activity. Use page 28 in your ANCIENT WORLD TEXTBOOK to complete this activity.