Warm Up

• Explain how the Agricultural Revolution changed life for mankind.

CPS Quiz

Mesopotamia

Key Terms

• Fertile Crescent• Mesopotamia• Barter• City-state• Dynasty• Cultural diffusion• Polytheism• Empire

• Hammurabi’s Code

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Geography of Fertile Crescent

• Between the Persian Gulf and Mediterranean Sea

• Southwest Asia• Desert climate• Curved shape and fertile

land gave it it’s name

Mesopotamia

• Part of the Fertile Crescent

• “land between the rivers”

• Between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers

• Annual floods left rich soil for farming

Sumer

• Bronze Age began here• Early civilization in city

of Ur• Agricultural Economy

with irrigation system• Roads of windowless

houses and shops for craftsmen

• System of bartering

Environmental Disadvantages• Land almost a desert

because of unpredictable floods and little to no rain

• No natural barriers for protection

• Natural resources were limited, specifically building materials

Problems Solved• Irrigation ditches to carry

water from rivers to fields

• Built city walls with mud bricks

• Traded goods with people of mountains and desert for raw materials (stone, wood, and metal)

Sumer Civilization• Set apart from other early

societies due to use of five characteristics of civilization

• Built cities surrounded by fields, that shared same culture

• Each city formed its own government, making a city-state

Sumer Government• Early gov’t controlled by

temple priests• Believed success of crops

depending on blessings of gods

• Priests were believed to be able to talk to gods

• Priests took portion of every farmer’s crops as taxes

Sumer Government

• Men chose a tough fighter to lead city in war

• Power ended at end of war

• Some military leaders became rulers and would pass power on to their son, forming a dynasty

Cultural Diffusion• New cities started in other

locations in Fertile Crescent

• Sumerians shared products and ideas with these new cultures

• Spread of ideas or products from one culture to another is cultural diffusion

Sumerian Religion

• Polytheism, belief in more than one god

• Different gods controlled forces of nature

• Most powerful god was Enlil, god of storm and air

• Gods were like people

• Gods immortal• Humans were

servants• Believed dead souls

went to underworld

Sumerian Society

• Social classes• Kings, landholders, and

some priests were highest level

• Wealthy merchants were upper class

• Most Sumerians worked in fields or workshops and were middle class

• Slaves were lowest level

• Slaves were prisoners of war or Sumerians sold as children to pay of debts of their poor parents

Sumerian Science and Technology

• Invented wheel, sail, and plow

• Developed number system in base 60, which is used for modern time and measuring a circle

• Architecture• System of writing called

cuneiform

First Empires• City-states fighting one

another• Sargon, leader of Akkad

defeated Sumer• Controlled all of

Mesopotamia, creating first empire

• Empire brings peoples, nations, or states under control of one ruler

Babylonian Empire• 2000 B.C. nomadic

warriors known as Amorites invade the region

• Take control of Sumer• Create capital on the

Euphrates River, called Babylon

• Empire at strongest with Hammurabi as leader

Hammurabi’s Code

• Code of laws used to unify diverse groups in empire

• Code engraved in stone that were placed all over empire

• Dealt with all issues• Protected women and

children

• Punishment depended on social class and gender

• Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth mentality

Activity

• Hammurabi’s Code Interpretation and Illustration

Assyrian Empire

• Assyria 850BC advanced military strength

• Rise of warrior people• Northern Mesopotamia• Warlike behavior• Rule the Tigris to Egypt• Sennacherib destroyed,

82 cities, 820 villages, and burned Babylon

Military Organization and Conquest

• Used iron– Armor– Spears– swords

• Siege of cities– Pontoons for bridges– Undermine walls– Marched shoulder to

shoulder

Military Organization and Conquest

• Archers• Battering rams• Killed captives • Enslaved people• Forced exile

Assyrian Culture

• Nineveh- largest city of its day

• Sculptures of lion hunts and military campaigns

• King Ashurbanipal collected 20,000 clay tablets

• Library had modern features– Cataloging

The Empire Crumbles• 612 BC• Chaldeans and Medes level

Nineveh• Rebirth of Babylon• Nebuchadnezzar restored

Babylon• Hanging Gardens• Seven tiered Ziggurat• Sun, moon, earth and five

planets in our solar system

Activity

• Civilization Chart