Bellwork

• In your notes, take a guess at what the oldest human civilization is and write down how old it is.

World History

Section 3, Unit 1Mesopotamia

Classical Era

• Before we begin discussing Mesopotamia, it’s important cover that we are now in what is called the Classical Era of human history. This time period includes:– Mesopotamia– Ancient Egypt– Ancient India– Ancient China– Greece– & Rome and the Roman Empire

Objectives

• Identify important changes in Mesopotamian history and explain the importance of Mesopotamia on later civilizations.

• Map the location of the Fertile Crescent• Explain the importance of Hammurabi’s Code• Describe the power structure in Mesopotamia

between the priests and generals. • Examine and define the three characteristics

that united all Mesopotamians.

Fertile Crescent

• Mesopotamia is found in what is called the “Fertile Crescent”.

• This area is known to have some of the best farming land in the Middle East.

Fertile Crescent• The crescent was between the two rivers that provided the majority of the water in the area: the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

• These rivers often had an annual flood which would leave behind fresh soil and sediment that provided the people there with fertile farm land.

Early struggles• Early people in the fertile crescent found that

while the land was usually good for farming, there were three drawbacks to living in the area:– The floods were unpredictable, making it so that

there could be a long period of drought.– The area in which they lived was small and lacked

any natural defenses.– The natural resources were limited, so creating new

tools or supplies was difficult.

Question: What could they have done to solve each of these problems?

Solutions

• The early peoples created irrigation ditches that would allow them to grow crops without requiring the annual flood.

• They created city walls out of mud bricks to provide protection for their peoples.

• They traded with people around them to get the supplies they needed. These people traded their grains and cloth for stone, wood, and metal that was lacking in the fertile crescent.

Characteristics of Mesopotamia

• Mesopotamia was not a unified civilization. The people referred to as “Mesopotamians” are simply people who lived in separate regions (which contained several city-states or independent countries) who were unified under similar characteristics. –We will cover the regions in a later

slide.

Characteristics (cont).

• The characteristics that Mesopotamians shared where:– Writing system– Gods (religion)– Attitudes toward women

• Women enjoyed nearly equal rights and could own land, file for divorce, own a business, and make contracts.

• Outside of these characteristics, the regions that make up Mesopotamia would have been very dissimilar.

Cradle of Civilization• Despite the differences among various

regions, Mesopotamia is considered the Cradle of Civilization because, has a whole, the Mesopotamians are given credit for:– The rise of the modern concept of a city.– The invention of writing and the wheel. – Domestication of animals– Creation of many sophisticated weapons– Creation of irrigation

The Mesopotamians are given credit for many aspects of life that would appear in later civilizations.

Notable Regions in Mesopotamia •Sumer

•Uruk•Ur•Umma•Larsa

•Akkad•Babylon•Sippar•Ebla

•Assyria•Arbel•Arraphka•Gasur/Nuzi

Sumer

• Sumerians stand out in modern history has one of the first groups of people to from a civilization.

• Many peoples who would later live in the area would build upon what Sumerians left behind.

Sumerian Cities

• Sumerians were known to have large religious and culture centers in the middle of their city-states.

Sumerian Cities

• These temples where referred to as “ziggurats” and were similar to city halls.

• Priests managed the ziggurats and where regarded as the leadership of the city in which they lived.

Ziggurat

Sumerian Religion

• Sumerians were polytheistic (belief in multiple Gods), in which each god has power over a different force in nature.

• All together, the Sumerians believed in around 3000 different Gods.

Sumerian Gods

• The Sumerians believed that their Gods were not much different from normal people and lived relatively normal lives.

• However, they also feared their gods and believed that they were quick to anger.

• The Ziggurats were designed to host rich sacrifices for their gods, which included food, wine, and animals.

Patron Deity

• Because of the scale of the ziggurats, the importance of the Gods was made very apparent to the Sumerians.

• Many city-states in Sumer had a patron deity, or a single deity in which they would primarily worship over other deities.

Religious Power

• Sumerians strong beliefs lead to them believe that appeasing their Gods would lead to a better crop seasons.

• If the gods were happy, they would have crops. If the gods were displeased, they believed the gods would not provide them the food they needed.

• This belief gave Sumerian Priests an immense amount of power and they were able to demand that farmers give the priests crops in-kind (meaning that they pay their taxes with crops)

Shift in Power• When war occurred,

the Sumerian Priests would give power to a single commander who would lead the standing armies. During war, these commanders had almost as much power as the Priests.

• However, when wars ended, the Sumerian Priests would reassume power.

SumerianPriest

Wars

• Question: What would happen to the power of commanders if war became more frequent with outside city-states?

Effect of Wars

• As war between the Sumerian city-states became more frequent, some commanders began taking permanent control of not only the standing armies in various city-states, but also started to become monarchs.

• These monarchs started to create vast dynasties- a system in which rulers would keep power in their family by transferring power to their heirs.

• By 3000 B.C., many Sumerian city-states became dynastic.

The Rise of Akkad

• Between 3000 and 2000 B.C., the city-states of Sumer where in almost constant war in one another. Because of this, they were almost incapable of warding off attacks from outside forces.

• The Sumerian city-states were attacked constantly by outside forces, and while they were unable to recover economically, they never lost their culture.

• Many later rulers would adapt these Sumerian ideals into their own empires.

Sargon of Akkad

• By about 2350 B.C., a conqueror named Sargon of Akkad defeated the city-states of Sumer.

• The Akkadians were a Semitic people- people who spoke a language related to Arabic and Hebrew.

• Sargons’ conquering of Sumer helped spread the Sumerian culture beyond the Fertile Crescent.

Sargon of Akkad (cont.)

• Sargon had expanded his empire throughout both Northern and Southern Mesopotamia, creating the worlds first empire (a civilization of once independent cultures who are under the control of one leader).

• His empire lasted only 200 years, in part due to internal fighting, invasions, and severe famine.

The Rise of the Babylonian Empire

• After Sargon’s empire, in about 2000 B.C., the Amorites- another Semitic group of nomadic warriors- utilized the weaknesses after his empire to overwhelm the Sumerians and establish control.

• Within a short time, they established a new capital, Babylon.

Babylon• Babylon, formed

in 1894 B.C., was found near the Euphrates River.

• It was described as a strong cultural center and has had it’s place in history , including being the home of the biblical Tower of Babel and home to the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

Babylon with itsZiggurat

Hanging Gardens of Babylon

Hammurabi

• Hammurabi was the sixth Babylonian Emperor and ruled during 1792 B.C. to 1750 B.C.

• Under his reign, the Babylonian empire achieved the peak of its power.

Expansion of the Empire • During his reign, Hammurabi had

increased the size and power of his empire.

• Despite these advances, Hammurabi’s greatest achievement was his code of laws.

Hammurabi’s Code

• Prior to Hammurabi, independent Sumerian cities had formed their own laws.

• Hammurabi, however, believed that a single set of laws was required to create a unified empire.

• He collected existing laws, judges, and rules and formed what is known as Hammurabi’s Code.

Hammurabi’s Code (cont.)

• Hammurabi had his code set in stone. It was the first law to be written.

• Subsequently, his law was placed all over his empire.

Hammurabi’s Code (cont.)

• It consisted of 282 specific laws that dealt with issues from community, family relations, business conduct, and more.

• The code applied to everyone his empire, but the punishments were different depending on gender and social class. In many cases, punishments were often based in the principle of “an eye for an eye”.

Effects of his code

• Despite the severity of the code, it reinforced that the government was responsible for what occurred in society. For example, if a person was robbed and the thief not caught, the government would compensate the victim.

• Hammurabi’s code had a distinct legacy on laws, including keeping a record of laws, setting punishments, and pushing forth the belief that the government was to safeguard its’ people.

Mesopotamia after Hammurabi

• Two centuries after Hammurabi, the Babylonian Empire fell to nomadic peoples.

• The beliefs and systems designed by Sumerians and Babylonians would be adopted by the Assyrians, Phoenicians, and Hebrews that would come after them.

Review the Objectives

• Identify important changes in Mesopotamian history and explain the importance of Mesopotamia on later civilizations.

• Map the location of the Fertile Crescent• Explain the importance of Hammurabi’s Code• Describe the power structure in Mesopotamia

between the priests and generals. • Examine and define the three characteristics

that united all Mesopotamians.

Video

• Let’s watch a video about Mesopotamia from Crash Course History.

Questions?

• If you have any questions, please ask.

Next lesson

• During the development of Mesopotamia, another empire was growing to the west.

• The next lesson will cover the Egyptian Empire.

Review

1. What were the effects of Hammurabi’s Code?2. How was his code different from previous

codes of law?3. What was the effect of Sumerian religion on

the culture of Mesopotamia?4. What were the characteristics of the

Mesopotamians that unified them?5. Where is the Fertile Crescent (what rivers is

it located between)?6. Why is Mesopotamia considered the “Cradle

of Civilization”?