1. Ancient Mesopotamia

2. The Fertile Crescent - Mesopotamia “Land Between the Rivers”
Tigris
River
Mediterranean
Sea
Euphrates
River

3. on the Fertile Crescent Mediterranean Coastline
Impact of Geography
on the Fertile Crescent
The region gets its name from its crescent shape which reaches from the Mediterranean Sea in the west to Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf in the south. The entire region was fertile and suitable for farming and herding.
Mesopotamia
Annual unpredictable flooding left rich fertile soil in the river valleys. This encouraged nomadic people to settle and farm the land.
Dikes and irrigation systems had to be built for flood control and farming.
The deserts and mountains provided vegetation suitable for herding and grazing, but offered little protection from invasion.
With few natural barriers to invasion, the early civilizations experienced war and turmoil and were eventually replaced by a series of empires.
Mediterranean Coastline
In the western region of the fertile crescent along the Mediterranean, settlers farmed and turned to the sea. As seaports developed many became merchants, traders, and seafarers.

4. Ancient Sumer
Asia Minor
Around 5000 BC nomadic people moved north from the Arabian Peninsula and south from Asia Minor into southern Mesopotamia.
There they established the first civilization, known as Sumer.
The first governments likely formed to coordinate irrigation and flood control projects.
Arabian Peninsula

5. Organization of Ancient Sumer
Sumer was organized as a series of small autonomous city states each with its own government.
City-states were initially self-sufficient but as they grew were eventually forced to trade with other civilizations for raw materials such as stone, timber, and metals.
People of the various city states shared common culture, language, and religion.
City-states were built around large temples known as ziggurats.
Population of city-states varied from 20,000 – 250,000
The inability of city-states to unite under a single government weakened the Sumerians and eventually led to their decline.

6. Sumerian Government Sumerian Religion
City-States had dual governments
Monarchies headed by hereditary kings
Theocracies headed by a Priest-King called a Patesi
Sumer had no central government thus was weak against outside invasion.
Sumerian Religion
Religion was as at the center of Sumerian life.
Sumerians were polytheistic.
They viewed their gods as selfish and angry who punished humans with floods and famine.
Sumerians believed that the afterlife was grim and empty of light and air.

7. Sumerian Society and Daily Life
Patesi
Priests
Nobles
Bureaucrats
Merchants
Artisans
Farmers
Peasants
Slaves
Most Sumerians were farmers, merchants, or artisans
Food surpluses went to support temples and priests
Merchants and artisans traded goods among city-states and to other civilizations through traders.
Men conducted most daily affairs and controlled all property.

8. Sumerian Writing and Education
Sumerians developed a pictographic writing called Cuneiform which consisted of wedge shaped pictograms on clay tablets.
It was originally used for religious purposes and only priests and scribes had the ability to use it.
Upper class boys were educated and were taught by priests in temple schools.
Lower class boys and girls generally received little or no formal education.

9. Sumerian Developments, Inventions and Contributions
Sumerian engineers invented the arch, dome, and vault.
Developed algebra and a numbering system based on 60.
Believed to have invented the wagon wheel, potters wheel, and a 12 month calendar.

10. Decline of Sumerian Civilization
Sumer’s lack of central government and strong military prevented it from defending against outside invasion.
Around 2334 BC the Akkadians, led by Sargon the Great, invaded from the north and conquered the Sumerian city-states.
Sargon established the first central government in the Mesopotamian region and built an empire that stretched from Mesopotamia to Syria.
The Akkadians embraced Sumerian culture and spread it throughout the empire.
By 2190 BC the empire weakened and the old Sumerian city-states were able to regain their independence.

11. The Amorites and Babylonians
Around 2200 BC the Amorites, a nomadic people from Syria, settled into the Mesopotamian region and adopted Sumerian culture.
They gradually built power and took control of several cities including the city of Babylon.
Around 1830 BC, the Amorites began conquering all of Mesopotamia and establishing an empire throughout the region..
The city of Babylon became capital of the empire and the Amorites became known as Babylonians.
The greatest of the Babylonian kings was Hammurabi, a brilliant warrior king and lawmaker.

12. Hammurabi (1792-1750 BC) The Code of Hammurabi
Organized a strong central government throughout the empire.
He built a highway system throughout the empire and improved the tax system.
Increased trade with other civilizations
Established a strong justice system and a uniformed legal code ( The Code of Hammurabi) throughout the empire.
The Code of Hammurabi
Possibly the world’s first written legal code.
Combined the laws of all Babylonian city-states into one central code
Consisted of 282 laws dealing with all aspects of life
Based on an “eye for an eye” principle
Different punishments depending on one’s social class.

13. Code of Hammurabi
If any one is committing a robbery and is caught, then he shall be put to death.
If any one steal the minor son of another, he shall be put to death.
If a man take a woman as his wife, but have no intercourse with her, this woman is no wife to him.
If a man be guilty of incest with his daughter, he shall be driven from the place.
If a son strike his father, his hands shall be hewn off.
If a man put out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out.
If he break another man's bone, his bone shall be broken.
If he put out the eye of a freed man, or break the bone of a freed man, he shall pay one gold mina.

14. Decline of the Babylonian Empire
After the death of Hammurabi, the Babylonian Empire began to weaken.
Around 1700 B.C. a group of invaders known as the Kassites conquered the Babylonians.
Over the next 1000 years several dominant empires were established in the Fertile Crescent only to be overthrown by newer and stronger empires.
These included the:
Hittites
Assyrians
Chaldeans
Persians