1. Early Civilization:
The Fertile Crescent

2. On your desk… Each of you has a piece of paper folded in half.
When I tell you, I would like to you read the directions on the paper and do exactly what it says. Please remain QUIET!
Group A will go first
Group B will go second
When I say STOP, you must STOP!
You are the “leader” of your side of the room. You stand before your “people” and ask them to fold their hands in front of them as if they were praying. Tell them to please remain quiet as you give them directions. Then you will ask them to stand up on the count of three “1-2-3”. When they stand ask them to bow at the waist, and then have a seat.
Fold your hands on your lap and do whatever your “leader” tells you to do.
Remain silent, but stand up and do ten jumping jacks.
Remain silent, but stand up and turn in a circle 5 times.
Remain silent, but take this piece of paper and rip it into tiny pieces – throw them on the floor.
Remain silent, but walk up to the white board and write the following message: “Miss Weaver is the coolest”.
Remain silent, but sit on the floor and snap your fingers 20 times.
Remain silent, but stand up, turn your desk around and sit facing the windows
Remain silent, but stand up and walk the entire way around the room – CLOCKWISE
Remain silent, but stand up, put your hands in the air and do 10 toe touches.

3. Hmmmm… What happened on the left side of the room?
What happened on the right side of the room?
What was your reaction of the group that you were NOT a part of?

4. Order Chaos vs. Civilization Chaos Why do civilizations emerge?
What is the key component of a civilization based on your observations?
Order – It is the rule of law or proper authority.
Chaos – It is a state of utter confusion.
Chaos

5. Think on it…
Come up with your own definition of a civilization…write it down!

6. Our Definition

12. Civilization Defined:
The stage of cultural development marked by urbanization, advanced techniques of agriculture and technology, material, scientific, and artistic progress, expanded population, and complex social organization that have developed to manage problems of order, security and efficiency.

13. The First Civilizations
3500BC – development of the wheel and axle allows trade to expand from seafaring vessels to land as well
Result: spread of culture and prosperity
2900BC – Bronze Age results in the development of durable, long lasting tools
Weapons, helmets, shields, etc.

14. Civilization over Chaos
Hunting-gathering eclipsed by agriculture
No more nomadic existence
Farming = harder work, but with higher yield and no food shortages
Need for irrigation
Family size increases
Emergence of:
Artisans & craftsmen
Cities
Trade
Social Classes

15. Priests, nobles, military Artisans, small traders, merchants
Social Classes
King
Priests, nobles, military
Artisans, small traders, merchants
Farmers
Slaves

16. Story Time!

18. Using your iPad
In the “Education” folder, tap the icon that says “Student”
The app will prompt you to enter a room number:
Enter:
915540

19. Ancient Mesopotamia What does Mesopotamia literally mean?
The Land Between the Rivers
Why was this a perfect place for the 1st civilization?
Fertile Crescent - large arc of fertile land in the Middle East due to rich soil
Tigris & Euphrates Rivers made it possible for farming due to flooding

20. What Challenges Did People Face in Mesopotamia?
Unpredictable floods destroyed crops, homes & people
Some areas were marshy and unsuitable for farming because of over-flooding

21. The Many People of Mesopotamia
Sumerians (3000 B.C B.C.)
2. Babylonians (1800 B.C B.C.)
Assyrians (1200 B.C B.C.)
Persians (539 B.C B.C.)

22. The Many People of Mesopotamia
Sumerians (3000 B.C B.C.)
2. Babylonians (1800 B.C B.C.)
Assyrians (1200 B.C B.C.)
Neo-Babylonians (626 B.C B.C.)
Persians (539 B.C B.C.)

24. Sumerians How was Sumer governed? Sumerians were great inventors
Sumer was never united under one ruler
Independent city-states
Largest city was Ur
Results in their downfall…why?
Sumerians were great inventors
The wheel (around 3500 BCE)
Invention of cuneiform writing
Developed a sexagesimal (base 60) place-value number system
Earliest literature
World’s oldest poetry
The Epic of Gilgamesh

25. The Evolution of the Wheel
Stage one: Early men placed rollers beneath heavy objects so that they could be moved easily.
Stage two: Early men began to place runners under a heavy load, which they discovered would make it easier for the load to drag. This was the invention of the sledge.
Stage three: Men began to combine the roller and the sledge. As the sledge moved forward over the first roller, a second roller was placed under the front end to carry the load when it moved off the first roller. A model of a sledge with such rollers is in the Smithsonian Institution.

26. The Evolution of the Wheel
Stage four: Soon, men discovered that the rollers which carried the sledge became grooved with use. These deep grooves actually allowed the sledge to advance a greater distance before the next roller was needed to come on!
Stage five: The rollers were changed into wheels. In the process of doing so, wood between the grooves of the roller were cut away to form an axle and wooden pegs were fastened to the runners on each side of the axle. When the wheels turn, the axle turned too in the space between the pegs. The first wooden cart was thus made.
Stage six: A slight improvement was made to the cart. This time, instead of using pegs to join the wheels to the axle, holes for the axle were drilled through the frame of the cart. Axle and wheels were now made separately.

27. I am the great king Gilgamesh…read the handout about my epic tale!

28. Sumerian Religion Polytheistic, anthropomorphic deities
Each city-state had its own patron god
Ziggurats
Massive, stepped-pyramids used as temples by Sumerian priests
Existed long before the Egyptian pyramids

29. Main Sumerian Deities An: God of heaven Enlil: God of the air
Enki: God of freshwater, male fertility, and knowledge
Inanna: Goddess of love, female fertility and warfare
Ki: Goddess of the earth.
Nanna: God of the moon
Ninurta: God of war, agriculture
Utu: God of the sun

30. Religions have attempted to build their sanctuaries on prominent heights. Since no such natural heights were available in the flat flood plains of Mesopotamia (modern Iraq), ancient priests and kings determined to build ziggurats, square or rectangular artificial stepped temple platforms. Functionally, temples were placed on raised platforms to give them prominence over other buildings in a city, and to allow more people to watch the services performed at the temple. Symbolically, however, the ziggurat represents the cosmic mountain on which the gods dwell. The priests ascent up the stairway to the temple at the top of the ziggurat represents the ascent to heaven. The great ziggurat at Khorsabad, for example, had seven different stages; each was painted a different color and represented the five known planets, the moon, and the sun.
WHAT DOES THIS PASSAGE REVEAL ABOUT THE RELIGIOUS BELIEF OF PEOPLE IN MESOPOTAMIA?

31. Many archaeologists believe that there was a temple on the highest terrace of the ziggurat.
Drains for rain water
Terrace
This staircase runs directly up the front of the ziggurat. Possibly only the temple priests were allowed to climb these steps to get to the higher stages of the ziggurat.

32. The mud-brick core of the ziggurat was covered with baked bricks.
Each baked brick measured about 12 x 12 x 3 in and weighed up to 33lbs. About 720,000 baked bricks would have been needed in building the first stage of the ziggurat.
This brick was stamped with the name and title of Ur-Nammu, the king who ordered the ziggurat built. Most bricks used to build the ziggurat were stamped. Somebody had the job of stamping the damp bricks.

33. ZIGGURATS

34. The Ziggurat at UR BABYLONIAN ZIGGURAT
Each ziggurat was part of a temple complex that included a courtyard, storage rooms, bathrooms, and living quarters, around which a city was built

35. iPad Reading Quiz Use the “Student Socrative” app and login 915540
What was your name?
How was Assyria’s method of expansion very different from those of other civilizations?
Describe the Assyrians in your own words.
What led to the downfall of the Assyrians?
How did the Persians treat the people they conquered?
What religion did the Persians practice?

36. The Babylonians
King Hammurabi creates the Babylonian empire by defeating city-states in Sumer
Babylonians built or developed:
Great walled cities
Roads allow caravans (groups of travelers) to converge on Babylon and its bazaars (markets)
First book of codified laws (Hammurabi’s Code)

37. “So That the Strong Should Not Harm the Weak”
Hammurabi
“So That the Strong Should Not Harm the Weak”
Hmmm…I think someone “got my nose”?

38. The Babylonians Astronomy & Astrology
First to recognize that astronomical phenomena are periodic and apply mathematics to their predictions
Babylonian observations of celestial phenomena are recorded in the series of cuneiform tablets known as the Enûma Anu Enlil.
Series of 70 tablets dealing with Babylonian astrology
Collection of omens, estimated to number between 6500 and 7000

39. Enûma Anu Enlil

40. Enûma Anu Enlil
The shelves of a tablet library excavated at Sippar in southern Mesopotamia.

41. The Assyrians Defeat the Babylonians around 1500BC
Very skilled warriors
Develop the battering ram
Used slings and armored chariots
First civilization to have a standing army
Capital located at Nineveh
Great library and record holdings
Eventually overcome in 612BC
Who defeated them?
The Medes & Chaldeans
Babylon rises again

42. Assyrian Warriors

43. Assyrian Warriors

44. Assyrian Warriors

45. Assyrian Battering Ram

46. Assyrian Battering Ram

47. Second Rise of Babylon (New-Babylon)
Nebuchadnezzar II rebuilt the city of Babylon
Constructed canals, aqueducts, temples and reservoirs
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
Once again, Babylon became a center for learning and science
New Babylonian Empire falls to the Persians in 539 BC

48. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
Built: Around 600 BC
Function: Royal Gardens
Destroyed: Earthquake, 2nd Century BC
Only wonder whose archaeological remains cannot be verified.
Built to cheer up Nebuchadnezzar's homesick wife, Amyitis of Medes who was depressed and missed her homeland

49. King Nebuchadnezzar II
Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!
King Nebuchadnezzar II

50. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon

51. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon

52. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon: Video

53. The Ishtar Gate The eighth gate to the inner city of Babylon.
It was constructed in about 575 BC by order of King Nebuchadnezzar II
The roof and doors of the gate were of cedar
The whole gate was covered in lapis lazuli glazed bricks which would have rendered the façade with a jewel-like shine

54. Bulls, Lions, & Dragons

55. Persia Cyrus the Great unified the nomadic people
Becomes the largest empire in Mesopotamia
Defeat the Babylonians, Assyrians, Jews, Phoenicians and Syrians, and the Greeks in modern Turkey
Sometimes called Achaemenid Empire
Practiced Zoroastrianism – monotheistic
Worshipped only ONE god
Developed a bureaucratic government
A government that is run by bureaus (or departments) staffed with nonelected officials
20 provinces called satrapies
Highly tolerant society

56. Zoroastrianism Religion based on the teachings of Zoroaster
All good comes from the god named Ahura Mazda
All evil comes from the spirit named Angra Mainyu
Holy text is called the Mathra-Spenta ("Holy Words")
“Good thoughts, good words, good deeds”

57. Ahura Mazda
Not THAT kind of Mazda…

58. Angra Mainyu