1. Mesopotamia: “The Cradle of Civilization”

3. Earliest Civilization
The earliest known civilization developed along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers
Today, the land between the two rivers is part of the country of Iraq
In ancient times, the area was called Mesopotamia, “the land between the rivers.”

5. The Fertile Crescent
Civilization developed slowly in different parts of the world. People began to settle in areas with abundant natural resources. A section of the Middle East is called the Fertile Crescent.
The Fertile Crescent is a rich food-growing area in a part of the world where most of the land is too dry for farming. The Fertile Crescent is a crescent shaped region that extends from the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf

7. The Fertile Crescent
Some of the best farmland of the Fertile Crescent is on a narrow strip of land between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. The Greeks later called this region Mesopotamia, which means “between the rivers.”
Many different civilizations developed in this small region. First came the Sumerians, who were replaced in turn by the Assyrians and the Babylonians. Today this land is known as Iraq and was ruled by a dictator named Saddam Hussein until 2003

8. Geographic Conditions
Little rainfall for crops
Hot and dry climate in the Summer
Winter brought fierce windstorms leaving muddy river valleys
Spring brought catastrophic flooding
Arid soil containing little minerals
No stone or timber resources

9. Why live in Mesopotamia?
NATURAL LEVEES: embankments produced by build-up of sediment over thousands of years of flooding

10. Natural Levee create a high and safe flood plain
make irrigation and canal construction easy
provide protection
the surrounding swamps were full of fish & waterfowl
reeds provided food for sheep / goats
reeds also were used as building resources

11. History of Mesopotamia
Over the centuries, many different people lived in this area creating a collection of independent states
Sumer- southern part
Akkad- northern part
Babylonia- Sumer & Akkad were unified to become Babylon
Assyria- Assyrian Empire

12. Sumerians Lived in southern Mesopotamia, an area known as Sumer
Controlled the flooding by building up levees and used the canals to irrigate their crops
Barley, wheat, sesame, flax, fruit trees, date palms, etc.
Made bricks for buildings out of mud and baked them in the sun

13. Sumerians
The Sumerians moved to the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers about 3500BC, but we do not know where they came from. They were probably nomads who discovered the fertile land between the rivers. Nomads travel in small groups until they have eaten the food that grows wild and hunted the animals in the area. When food is no longer plentiful, they move to a new area. Some people continue to live like this in remote parts of the world to this day.

14. Sumerians
Eventually the Sumerians developed a civilization. They learned that by planting seeds and plowing their land, they were able to grow crops. They learned to domesticate or tame animals to help them plow their lands. The Sumerians learned to use irrigation, or a system of watering crops, to grow more food. The Sumerians also made a very important invention – the wheel. The invention of the wheel made it possible to pull heavy loads.

15. Sumerians
Sumeria was composed of several city-states, or nations the size of cities. Walls around each city-state protected the citizens from outside invaders. Farmland was usually outside the city walls and people would seek protection from the walls of the city when under attack.

16. Religion
The Sumerians were polytheistic, which means they believed in many gods. They worshipped their gods at huge temples they called ziggurats. Each ziggurat was dedicated to a specific god, whom the Sumerians believed ruled over their city.
When one city was conquered, the invaders would force the conquered people to accept their gods. Most people in the Western Hemisphere today are monotheists, which means that they believe in only one god. Christianity, Islam, and Judaism are all monotheistic faiths.

17. Religion Position of King was enhanced and supported by religion
Kingship believed to be created by gods and the king’s power was divinely ordained
Polytheistic religion consisting of over 3600 gods and demigods
Shows diversity of religion from different regions
All of Mesopotamia shared the same religion and the same prominent gods
gods were worshipped at huge temples called ZIGGURATS
Prominent Mesopotamian gods
Enlil (supreme god & god of air)
Ishtar (goddess of fertility & life)
An (god of heaven)
Enki (god of water & underworld)
Shamash (god of sun and giver of law)

18. Ziggurats Ziggurat of Ur -2000BCE
“mountain of god” or “hill of heaven”
Cosmic mountain from Creation Myths
Bridge between heaven & earth
Important for gods to be honoured by
religious ceremonies
Ceremonies performed by priests in
sacred temples on ziggurat
Temples created from mud bricks &
placed on platforms due to constant
flooding
Temples evolved to ziggurats- a stack
of 1-7 platforms decreasing in size from
bottom to top
Famous ziggurat: Tower of Babel
(100m+ above ground & 91m base)
Built BCE
Ziggurat of Ur -2000BCE

19. City-States
Each was considered a state in itself, with its own god and government
Made up of the city and farmland around it
The city was surrounded by a wall for protection

20. Mesopotamian Art Assyrian Bull Entrance to the Palace
Hittite Gold Statue
Assyrian Bull
Entrance to the Palace
of Sargon(Assyria)

21. Government
Political structure an early form of democracy
Frequent wars led to the emergence of warriors as leaders
Eventual rise of monarchy

22. Social Structure Nobles
King and his family, high-priests, high dignitaries
Free Clients (amelu)
government officials, professional soldiers and priests
Commoners (mushkinu)
Work for the king (tenant farmers)
Shopkeepers, farmers, merchants, labourers, enforce laws, collect taxes
Own their own land (development)
Slaves
P.O.W.s, debt, born into slavery
~ wives & children could be sold
Could buy their freedom

23. Sumerians
Established the social, economic & intellectual basis of Mesopotamia
First to develop writing in the form of CUNEIFORM
Sumerians are credited to have invented the wheel
Sumer became the first city of the world
Sumerians were not successful in uniting lower Mesopotamia
Women: not protected by law; men dominant over women; if husband died, brother-in-law or father-in-law became her controller, could be sold into slavery

25. Akkadians Leader: Sargon I (the Great)
Sargon’s greatest achievement was conquering Sumer (2331 BCE) & then unifying the 2 areas into Babylonia
Established capital at Akkad
Spread Mesopotamian culture throughout Fertile Crescent
dynasty established by Sargon was short-lived… Akkadians were conquered by invading barbarians by 2200 BCE (Kassites)

26. Gate of Ishtar ~ Entrance to Babylon

27. Babylonians Babylonians reunited Mesopotamia in 1830 BCE
Used their central location to dominate trade and establish control
KING HAMMURABI – conquered Akkad and Assyria and gained control of north and south
Hammurabi’s Legacy: his law code
Innovation: glazed bricks, units to measure minutes & hours (ca.1800)
KING NEBUCHEDNEZZAR II – another important period under his leadership ( )

28. Assyrians 10th century BCE, Assyria emerged as dominant force
reunited Mesopotamia and established the first true empire
army was most feared due to their brutal, bloodthirsty & terrorizing tactics and use of iron weapons, battering rams, chariots
Empire stretched from Persian Gulf north and West to Syria, Palestine and Egypt
By 539 BCE, Mesopotamia became part of the vast Persian Empire (led by Cyrus the Great)
Persian Empire dominated for 200 years until Alexander the Great conquered (331 BCE)

29. Hammurabi
Hammurabi was the king of the city-state of Babylon. About 1800BC, Hammurabi conquered the nearby city-states and created the Kingdom of Babylonia. He recorded a system of laws called the Code of Hammurabi. The 282 laws were engraved in stone and placed in a public location for everyone to see.

30. Hammurabi required that people be responsible for their actions
Hammurabi required that people be responsible for their actions. Some of Hammurabi’s laws were based on the principle “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” This means that whoever commits an injury should be punished in the same manner as that injury. If someone put out another person’s eye, their eye would be put out in return. Hammurabi’s code may seem cruel today, but it was an early attempt at law. Laws are rules that are known to people.

31. Code of Hammurabi
Code of 282 laws inscribed on a stone pillar placed in the public hall for all to see
Hammurabi Stone depicts Hammurabi as receiving his authority from god Shamash
Set of divinely inspired laws; as well as societal laws
Punishments were designed to fit the crimes as people must be responsible for own actions
Hammurabi Code was an origin to the concept of “eye for an eye…” ie. If a son struck his father, the son’s hand would be cut off
Consequences for crimes depended on rank in society (ie. only fines for nobility)

32. Development of Writing
Sumerian writing
Made up of hundred of markings shaped like wedges
Developed because people had to keep track of business deals
Scribes – worked for the temple, palace, government, or army

33. Writing
Greatest contribution of Mesopotamia to western civilization was the invention of writing
allowed the transmission of knowledge, the codification of laws, records to facilitate trade
First written communication was PICTOGRAMS 3200 BCE)
As society evolved, the first form of writing was developed called CUNEIFORM
(meaning “wedge shaped”)
Cuneiform spread to Persia and Egypt and became the vehicle for the growth and spread of civilization and the exchange of ideas among cultures

34. Royal Tombs of Ur City famed in Bible as the home of patriarch Abraham
many great discoveries such as extravagant jewelry of gold, cups of gold and silver, bowls of alabaster, and extraordinary objects of art and culture
opened the world's eyes to the full glory of ancient Sumerian culture
Great Death Pit (at Ur)
mass grave
containing the bodies of 6 guards and 68 court ladies (servants of kings and queens)
servants walked down into the grave in a great funeral procession
they drank a  poisoned  drink and fell asleep never to wake again, choosing to accompany the kings and queens in the afterlife

35. One of the Wonders of the Ancient World

36. Hanging Gardens of Babylon

37. Legacies of Mesopotamia
Revolutionary innovations:
codified laws
concept of kingship and the city-state
building of places of worship (ziggurats)
birthplace of writing (cuneiform), astronomy
Invention of the wheel
Oldest written records of a Creation Story date back to Mesopotamia
First civilization to make a prosperous living based on large scale agriculture
One of the Wonders of the Ancient World: Hanging Gardens of Babylon
First Empire

38. Definitions Levee: Earthen dams constructed to hold back floodwaters
Domestication: The taming of wild animals to use for farming or to be kept as pets
City-state: a self-governing state consisting of a city and surrounding territory
Stylus: a hard, pointing writing tool cut from a reed