1. Chapter 2 Mesopotamia

2. The Ancient Near East Earliest development of city life known
“Land Between the Rivers”, the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in southeastern Iraq

3. Sumerian Civilization
First to do some highly significant things
Created first large cities
First sophisticated system of writing
First monumental buildings
Probably invented the wheel
First to design, build irrigation system using gravity
First to use plow
Among first to make bronze utensils, weapons

4. Sumerian Civilization
Trade
Grew rapidly among villages and towns
Trade in agricultural goods, handicrafts
Constant contact throughout Persian Gulf
Exports: woolen cloth, foodstuffs
Imports: luxury goods, lumber, metal
Sargon the Great brought region under unified rule about 2300 BCE
Fertile Crescent

5. Earning a Living Livelihood came from land, directly or indirectly
Trade in foodstuffs, grain
Non-agrarian occupations required education, formal training, example: scribes, priesthood
Many occupations required apprenticeships, example: metalworking
Preparation, distribution, sale of food
Providing regular supply of water

6. Writing and Mathematics
Evolution of writing
Evolved from need to keep good records
Moved from pictography to use of abstract marks
Beginning of phonetic written language
Cuneiform – wedge-shaped – writing
Mathematics and Chronology
Based on units of 60
Basic geometry and trigonometry
Calendar based on movement of the moon

7. Religion and the Afterlife
Polytheism – religion of many gods
Each city-kingdom had its local powers
Ziggurats – stepped pyramids, most famous being Babylon
Not an optimistic religion
No loving relationship between humans and gods
No evidence of ethics
Unknowable reasons for divine punishments
Epic of Gilgamesh – first creation myth

8. Government and Social Structure
Two types
Theocracy of early city-states
Kingdom-empires beginning with Sargon the Great
Three classes
Priests, noble landlords
Freemen (most numerous)
Slaves

9. Status of Women Change in status over time
More or less equal at earliest stage of civilization
Undermined, overturned by militarized society
Patriarchy trend impossible to reverse
Most household, artisan occupations open to women, with limitations
Adultery was worst crime in marriage
Divorce, lawsuits from it were common
Sexual and Marital Life
Fundamentally different attitude toward sex
Marriage always arranged by families
Marriage involved bride money and dowry
Expected that the bride would be a virgin

10. Decline of Mesopotamia
Successors to Sumeria
Amorites, or Old Babylonians
Hittites
Assyrians
Chaldees, or New Babylonians
Decline of Mesopotamia in World History
Ceased to be important after Persian conquest
Largely caused by long-term environmental damage, decline in food supply

11. Discussion Questions
1. Sumerians built the first cities, and today a large percentage of the world’s population is urban. How would a Sumerian have found city life different from their rural existence? What would have been the benefits of city life? What disadvantages?
2. Hammurabi’s Code is one of the very first written law codes. Why is it so important to have law in written form? What difference, if any, would it have made to the average Babylonian to have written law?