1. Civilization Develops in the Ancient Middle East
5000 BC to 600 BC

2. I. The City States of the Sumerians
Settled in Mesopotamia- “between the rivers”
Between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers
7000 years ago
Rivers helped them raise crops and animals
Fertile Crescent

4. B. Life in Sumer Better than prehistoric humans Woman had legal rights
Slaves could set up a business and buy their freedom
Children could be sold into slavery and beaten by teachers
Hierarchy
Complex government

5. C. Ziggurats and Religion
Temples located in ziggurats
Main building in each city-state
Dedicated to the city’s chief god or goddess
Believed gods had human feelings
Kept gods happy through worship in temples and sacrificing animals
Belief in afterlife
If gods were angry, they punished the Sumerians by making rivers flood and crops fail

6. Ziggurat

7. D. Sumerians invented writing
Cuneiform- Sumerian writing
Symbols created for each sound or word
Wrote on soft clay tables with a stylus- a sharp, pointed writing tool
First people to write down history

8. Cuneiform Tablet

9. E. Other Sumerian Inventions
Plow, sailboat, wheels on carts, potter’s wheel
Arches and ramps
Astronomy and mathematics
- Number system based on 60

10. POD 10/8/14 Mesopotamia means…. The land between two mountains
The land between two rivers
The land between two lakes

11. II. Akkadians and Babyloanians
Sargon I united the city-states of Mesopotamia- FIRST EMPIRE
Akkad- north of the Sumerians
used bronze weapons
Sargon ruled for 35 years

12. B. Sargon I borrowed from the Sumerians
System of writing- used cuneiform for written records
Translated Sumerian writings about government and religion into their own language
Akkad collapsed after the death of Sargon I

14. C. Babylonians BC
King Hammurabi’s army defeated the Akkadians and Sumerians
Built a ziggurat to honor Marduk
Merchants came from Asia to do business b/c of developed trade routes

15. D. Hammurabi’s Code First system of laws Civil law and criminal law
He ruled for 40 years and recorded 300 laws at the end (found in 1902 in Iran)
Golden Age of Babylon
Mesopotamia divided into city states again after his death in 1750 BC