Name: ___________________________________________________________________Period: __________ Date: __________
Rise of Cities
Standard: Analyze the origins, structures, and interactions of complex societies in the ancient Eastern
Mediterranean from 3500 BCE to 500 BCE.
Essential Question: What were the origins, structures, and interactions of complex societies in the ancient
Eastern Mediterranean?
Describe the development of Mesopotamian societies to include the religious, cultural, economic and
political facets of society, with attention to Hammurabi’s law code.
Neolithic Revolution
Description:
Mesopotamia
Geography:
Society:
Economics:
Innovation:
Religion:
Describe the development of Mesopotamian societies to include the religious, cultural, economic and
political facets of society, with attention to Hammurabi’s law code.
Political
City-States:
Role:
Leadership:
Rise of Empire:
Describe the relationship of religion and political authority in Ancient Egypt.
Ancient Egypt
Geography:
History
Egypt Unified:
Old Kingdom:
Society:
Advancements:
Rise of Cities
Standard: Analyze the origins, structures, and interactions of complex societies in the ancient Eastern
Mediterranean from 3500 BCE to 500 BCE.
Essential Question: What were the origins, structures, and interactions of complex societies in the ancient
Eastern Mediterranean?
Describe the development of Mesopotamian societies to include the religious, cultural, economic and
political facets of society, with attention to Hammurabi’s law code.
Neolithic Revolution
Description:
 end of the last Ice Age
 ended the practice of hunting and gathering
 developed systematic agriculture - keeping of animals (goats and sheep) and growing food (wheat)
 establish more permanent settlements
Mesopotamia
Geography:
 Greek word meaning: “between the rivers”
 Tigris & Euphrates Rivers
 Extends from the Mediterranean Sea to Persian
Gulf
 Fertile Crescent – the valley/plain
Society:
 large numbers of people lived together to form
cities
 social classes developed
1. highest were rulers/priest
2. middle class were merchants
3. lower class were the laborers and slaves
Innovation:
 invented wagon wheel, the potter’s wheel, the
sundial, the arch, and bronze
 created a system of writing
 developed a number system based on 60
 Geometry was used to measure fields
 charted the constellations
Economics:
 Agriculture
 large-scale system of water control
 crops could be grown on a regular basis
Religion:
 polytheistic - belief of many gods
 ziggurat – the temple and most prominent
building in a Sumerian city
1. devoted much of wealth to build
2. symbol that Sumer was an advanced
civilization, with specialized workers and
could sustain a large population
 elaborate houses for the priests and priestesses
Describe the development of Mesopotamian societies to include the religious, cultural, economic and
political facets of society, with attention to Hammurabi’s law code.
Political
City-States:
 political and economic control of the city and the
surrounding countryside
 first city-states created by the Sumerians
Leadership:
 Rulers were the Priest:
1. success of crops depended on the gods
2. believed Priest to be representative to the
gods
 Power passed from religious leaders to kings
Role:
 Religious center (ziggurat)
 Political center (palace)
 Trading center (market)
 Storage for surplus food
 Walls served as defense for citizens
Rise of Empire:
 a large political unit that controls many peoples
and territories
 Akkadian Empire lead by Sargon 2340 BC
Describe the relationship of religion and political authority in Ancient Egypt.
Ancient Egypt
Geography:
 “The Gift of the Nile”
 Nile is the longest river in the world
 Lower Egypt or the Nile delta is the area where
the Nile splits in two, before it empties into the
Mediterranean
 Upper Egypt = the land upstream
History
Egypt Unified:
 began around 3100 B.C.
 King Menes united Upper and Lower Egypt
 created the first dynasty in Egypt
 dynasty = a family of rulers whose right to rule is
passed on within the family
Society:
 organized like a pyramid
 pharaoh at the top
 surrounded by a ruling class of nobles and priests
who ran the government and managed their own
estates
 below the upper class were merchants, artisans,
scribes, and tax collectors
 largest number of people was peasants who
worked the land, paid taxes, and provided
military service and labor
Old Kingdom:
 2700–2200 B.C.
 rulers became known as pharaohs
 the political and religious leader of the people
 thought to be a god-king
Advancements:
 Pyramids, temples, and other monuments
exemplify the architectural and artistic
achievements
 advances in geometry, able to calculate area and
volume
 hieroglyphics, or ‘sacred carvings’