Unit 1
Investigating the Past and Ancient Civilizations in the Middle East:
Mesopotamia
Archaeology -the study of the past by looking at what people left
behind.
artifacts -objects made by people, for example, tools, pottery,
weapons, and jewelry. Archaeologists study artifacts to learn what
life was like in the past.
Paleontology -looks at prehistoric times and studies fossils to
learn what the world was like long ago.
Fossils -are the remains of plant and animal life that have been
preserved from an earlier time.
Anthropology -the study of human culture and how it develops
over time. Anthropologists study artifacts and fossils, too. They
look for clues about what people valued and believed.
Evidence -something that shows proof or an indication that
something is true.
Primary sources are firsthand pieces of evidence that were
written or created by the people who saw or experienced an event.
 Primary sources include letters, diaries, or government records.
 Literature or artwork from a particular time and place is a
primary source.
 Spoken interviews and objects, such as tools or clothing, are
also primary sources.
 Primary sources help historians learn what people were
thinking while the events took place.
Secondary sources -are created after an event by people who
were not part of the historical event.
 The information in secondary sources is often based on
primary sources.
 Examples are biographies, encyclopedias, history books, and
textbooks.
Detectives Who Study the Past
Social scientists might be:
 archaeologists who examine artifacts that people have made
and left behind,
 historians who study the written records that people began
to leave in the last few thousand years, or
 geographers who look at the natural and human-made
features of Earth.
Cave Art
 Caves have provided clues to the past for social scientists.
 Cave paintings and sculptures thousands of year old have been
found all over the world.
 Artifacts also have been discovered in caves.
 The art and artifacts provide information about how people
lived long ago.
Cave Art Tools
 Cave artists used sharp stones to grind colored minerals into
powder.
 They mixed the powder with animal fat to create paint.
 They may have used moss, fur, hollow reeds, or their own hair
as paintbrushes.
The Five Hominid Groups
Scientists call prehistoric humans hominids.
“Lucy” and Her Relatives
 A scientist found the bones of a hominid who lived more than
3 million years ago in Africa. He nicknamed the bones Lucy.
 Lucy belonged to the group Australopithecus afarensis.
 She had the capability to walk on two feet, or was biped.
Handy Man and Upright Man
 The group Homo habilis, or Handy Man, was taller than Lucy
and had the capability to make simple stone tools.
 The group Homo erectus, or Upright Man, were the first
hominids to migrate out of Africa into Asia and Europe.
 They stood up straight and had the capability to make tools,
fire, and shelters to protect them from the cold.
Neanderthal Man and Doubly Wise Man
 The group scientists called Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, or
Neanderthal Man, had large brains, made complex tools, and
lived in communities.
 Homo sapiens sapiens, or Doubly Wise Man, made more
complex tools, were skilled hunters, and created artwork.
The Old Stone Age, or Paleolithic Age
 Began about 2 million years ago, with the first tool making
hominids, and lasted until about 8000 B.C.E.
 Early modern humans developed.
 They were hunter-gatherers.
 They were nomads and wandered from place to place,
hunting animals and gathering plants for food.
 They took shelter in caves or made rough tent like structures
that were temporary.
 Prehistoric cave painters left clues about their way of life.
 They discovered fire by friction or striking stones together.
 Fire provided light, protection from animals and was for
cooking.
The Ice Ages
 Long periods of extreme cold that affected all the Earth
 Thick sheets of ice, or glaciers, moved across the land
changing its shape.
 A land bridge was believed to have formed that connected Asia
and North America. This allowed early humans to migrate
southward to settle in different regions.
 Humans survived by adapting: added fat to their diet, built
sturdier shelters, used furs for protection, and used fire to stay
warm.
The New Stone Age, or Neolithic Age
 Began when people started to farm and produce their own
food.
 The discovery of farming happened over thousands of years.
 Now, rather than having to roam long distances in search of
things to eat, people could settle down in one place.
 The Neolithic Age began around 8000 B.C.E. and lasted until
about 3000 B.C.E., when people learned to make tools out of
metal instead of stone (The Bronze Age).
 Many Neolithic settlements were located in the Fertile
Crescent, east of the Mediterranean Sea, where the land was
fertile (good for growing crops).
 Agriculture- the process of changing the environment in
order to use it more effectively.
 The Agricultural Revolution- also known as the Neolithic
Revolution, was the transformation of human societies from
hunting and gathering to farming.
 Farming and domestication of plants and animals tied people to
the land for cultivation and grazing grounds, and this transition
gave rise to permanent settlements, from villages to cities.
 Domestication- making something useful to humans, for
example taming a dog, roping livestock such as a pig or cow, or
cross-breeding vegetables to make them bigger.
 With domesticated plants and animals, villagers had a steady
source of food which led to a surplus, extra amounts or more
than what is needed.
 This settlement, in turn, led to the development of job
specialization, which meant that not everybody had to do the
same thing- they became experts at certain things, such as basket
making, craft making, building, or trading.
Mesopotamia
 Mesopotamia refers to the region now occupied by modern Iraq,
eastern Syria, and southern Turkey.
 The name refers to the area between the Euphrates and the
Tigris Rivers and means "between two rivers".
 The fertile area watered by these two rivers is known as the
"Cradle of Civilization," or the “Fertile Crescent” and it was here
that the first literate societies developed.
Sumerians
The Beginning of Cities Built the first cities in Mesopotamia around 3500 B.C.
Four geographic challenges faced by the Sumerians:
1. Food shortages in the north hills due to lack of land
2. Uncontrolled water supply on the southern plains
3. Difficulties in building and maintaining water systems
across village boundaries
4. Attacks by neighboring communities
Solved them by:
 Moving to the southern plains
 Built dikes or levees, which were walls to hold back floodwater
from fields and homes and built canals, dams, and reservoirs
to control floods
 Used water from the reservoirs to irrigate, or bring water to,
the fields during the very hot, dry summer months
 Because of this, farmers produced a surplus, more food than
they needed
 People had various jobs: builders, making pottery, weavers of
fine cloth
 They traded what they made for what they needed
 Ziggurat
Civilization- a society that has developed arts and sciences and
organization. It includes:
 A stable food supply
 Development of a social structure with specialized skills and
different occupations or jobs
 Organized government
 Organized religion with beliefs and forms of worship
 Development of writing and keeping records
 Development of the Arts, such as painting, architecture, music
 Create new forms of technology
 Development of trade
Characteristic of a civilization
 A stable food supply
 Development of a social
structure with specialized
skills and different
occupations or jobs
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 Organized government
 Organized religion with
beliefs and forms of worship
 Development of writing and
keeping records
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Sumer
Built irrigation systems
Invented the plow
Had several classes of
people:
top were priests,
landowners, government
officials
middle were merchants and
artisans- or skilled workers,
farmers and fishers
bottom were slaves
Ruled by kings
First to develop a system of
written laws
Scribes recorded laws
Believed in gods and tried to
please them
Built ziggurats which were solid brick platforms of the
largest structure in a city.
Usually a temple stood on
top.
Held ceremonies and rituals
Created a written language
called cuneiform
Used a wedge shaped stylus
to etch writing in clay
tablets
Based upon pictographs
which were symbols that
stood for real objects
 Development of the Arts,
such as painting,
architecture, music
 Create new forms of
technology
 Development of trade
 Artists and metal artisans
made decorative items such
as mirrors and jewelry
 Architects designed temples
ad ziggurats
 Music and musicians with
songs an instruments
 Invented the plow
 Invented the wheel
 Created wheeled carts and
chariots
 Invented the arch that
added strength and beauty
above doorways
 Trade was centered in the
Persian Gulf
 They traded grain and cloth
for things such as wood,
gold, gems and animals
The Development of Early Writing
1.
2.
3.
4.
Pictographs- a picture sign that looked like the thing it stood
for.
Cuneiform- marks made in clay using a wedge-shaped stick.
Looked less like pictures but couldn’t express action.
Cuneiform- the symbols became connected to an action.
Cuneiform- characters came to stand for sounds/ syllables.
Four Empires of Mesopotamia
Akkadians
 Ancient Sumer was conquered
aroud2300 B.C.E. and made part of the
Akkadian Empire
 King Sargon was the first ruler
 Effective military strategies and created the world’s first empire
 Artists carved three dimensional sculptures on stones called
steles.
Hammurabi and Babylonia
 King Hammurabi – king and chief priest of Babylon conquered
all of Mesopotamia and made Babylon the capital
 Ruled for 42 years from around 1792 B.C. to 1750 B.C.
 Created code of laws to unify his empire and preserve order
 The oldest set of laws known to exist
 Created laws that he ordered to be carved on a stone stele and
placed in a public place for all to see
 Said people need to be responsible for their actions
 For example, if a man’s ox killed another, he had to pay for the
dead one
 The Code of Hammurabi consists of 282 laws, with adjusted
punishments, applying "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth"
depending on social status, of slave versus free man.
 It demands a trial by judges.
 One nearly complete example of the Code survives today, on a
stone slab in the shape of a huge index finger, using cuneiform
script.
 Codes protected all classes of Babylonian society, including
women and slaves. Hammurabi sought protection of the weak
from the powerful and the poor from the rich.
Assyrian Empire
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Rose to power 900 B.C.E. by expanding their territory
Feared for military strength and cruelty
Created new weapons and war strategies- siege warfare
Eventually the Empire grew too big to control
Built aqueducts- pipes or channels to carry water
NEO-BABYLONIAN EMPIRE
 Babylonians took control again
 Established Neo-Babylonian Empire- “Neo” means new
 King Nebuchadrezzar was a ruthless military leader who
ruled from 605 to 562 B.C.E.
 Rebuilt Babylon like in Hammurabi’s time
 Created the first sundial
 Conquered after 75 years by the Persians (today Iran)
Hammurabi’s Code is 44 columns of text, 28 paragraphs of
which contain the actual code. There are 282 laws (possibly
more have been rubbed off) that probably amend common
Babylonian law rather than define it. It describes regulations
for legal procedure, fixes rates on services performed in most
branches of commerce and describes property rights, personal
injury, and penalties for false testimony and accusations. It has
no laws regarding religion.
The Code of Hammurabi is significant because its creation
allowed men, women, slaves, and all others to read and
understand the laws that governed their lives in Babylon. It is
unique in that laws of other civilizations were not written
down, and thus could be manipulated to suite the rulers that
dictated them. The Code is particularly just for its time.
Although it follows the practice of "an eye for an eye", it does
not allow for vigilante justice, but rather demands a trial by
judges. It also glorifies acts of peace and justice done during
Hammurabi’s rule. It symbolizes not only the emergence of
justice in the minds of men, but also man’s rise above
ignorance and barbarism toward the peaceful and just
societies still pursued today. In the words of Hammurabi as
carved on the stone, "Let any oppressed man who has a cause
come into the presence of my statue as king of justice, and
have the inscription on my stele read out, and hear my
precious words, that my stele may make the case clear to him;
may he understand his cause, and may his heart be set at
ease!"
The Prologue inscribed in clay.
The stone slab shaped like an index finger. The entire code is
inscribed on the back. The top depicts Hammurabi receiving
the divine laws from the sun god, the god most often
associated with justice. This stone was unearthed by French
archaeologists in Iraq (ancient Elam), in 1901-02. The black
diorite rock is 2.4 m high and had been broken into three
pieces.
Ziggurat