1. “The land between rivers”
Mesopotamia
“The land between rivers”

2. Mesopotamia
3500 – 1700 B.C.
Region located between the Tigris River and Euphrates River

3. Agriculture
Very hot and dry, but people learned how to irrigate the land by using the rivers.
Led to a surplus of food
Allowed people to specialize in areas other than farming
Pottery
Weavers
Metal workers
Warriors
priests

4. Government Divided into City-States Had its own ruler and local gods
Uruk Ur
Babylon
Had its own ruler and local gods
Eventually, several of the city states united under one single ruler

5. Religion Polytheistic Believed in as many as 2,000 different Gods
Historians believe Mesopotamian religions were the world’s oldest faiths
Rulers were often priests
Theocracy – society governed by religious leaders

6. Building World’s first city-builders
Lacked stone or timber, instead built with mud bricks and crushed reeds
Walled cities, temples with arch's, and stepped pyramids known as ziggurats.
Each ziggurat was made of a series of square levels, with each level slightly smaller than the one below it

9. Culture/Science Sumerians invented the wheel and the sailboat
Also figured out how to reroute water to irrigate fields firther away
Tools and weapons of copper and bronze
Sumerians devised a calendar, 12 months
Babylonians developed a number system based on 60 and invented the world’s first writing system cuneiform, a form of symbol writing on clay tablets
Only the elite could read and write in cuneiform (priests and scribes)

13. Legal System Babylonians developed earliest written law code
Code of Hammurabi
Aim was to ensure justice and protect the weak

14. Amateur Historian…go!
Hammurabi’s Code treated nobles and commoners differently, some code provisions punished criminals harshly.
195 – if a son strikes a father, his hands shall be cut off
196 – if a noble man puts out the eye of another noble man, his eye shall be put out
197 – if he breaks another noble man’s bone, his bone shall be broken
198 – if he puts out the eye of a commoner, he shall pay one mina (silver)
How did the penalty a nobleman faced for putting out the eye of a nobleman or a commoner differ?

15. Women Responsible for raising children and crushing grain
ENORMOUS variations in the rights of women from different social classes
Wealthier women were allowed to go to the marketplace to buy goods, could complete loegal matters in the husbands absence, and could own property
Could engage in business for themselves and obtain divorces
Those who were relatives to the ruler enjoyed an even higher status