Today’s Objectives
City-States in Mesopotamia
Summarize how geography affected cultural
development in the Fertile Crescent
 Describe city-states and how other cultures
learned about them
 Describe Sumerian religious beliefs, social
structure, and Technology
 Explain the influence of Sumer on later
civilizations

Where is Mesopotamia?
Where is Mesopotamia?
Geography of the Fertile
Crescent
• Living in
Mesopotamia has
disadvantages as
well as benefits
– No natural barriers
– Limited natural
resources
– Tigris/Euphrates
flooded annually &
unpredictable(silt)
Sumerians Create City-States
• Sumerians created citystates ruled by priests
– Success of crops depended
on blessings of the gods
• Solving problems
together was the
beginning of Sumerian
organized government
– Build city walls, irrigation,
organized trade
Sumerians Create City-States
• During war, military
leaders take over.
• They eventually
become full time
leaders
Sumerians Create City-States
• This concept of citystates spread to other
cultures through trade
– Surplus food allowed
trade to flourish
Sumerian Culture
 Sumerians
believe that natural forces and
human affairs are controlled by many gods
 Polytheism
 Enlil:
god of clouds and air—among the most
powerful
Sumerian Culture
 Sumerian
society developed a class
structure
 Highest:
Priest & Kings
 Second tier: Wealthy merchants
 Third tier: Ordinary Sumerians
 Lowest: Slaves
 What
did each group contribute to
Sumerian society?
Sumerian Culture
• Sumerians make
• The Babylonians
advances in farming and divided the day into
architecture
24 hours, each hour
– Invented wheel, sail, into 60 minutes, each
plow
minute
into
60
– 1st to use bronze
seconds
– Developed a system of
writing
– Developed a number
system in base 60
First Empire Builders
• Sargon of Akkad
created the first
empire by uniting the
city-states under his
rule, 2350 B.C.
– 200 yr rule
• Amorites created a
new empire in
Mesopotamia with
Babylon as the capital
Code of Hammurabi
• Strict legal code of
equal retaliation or an
“eye for eye” used to
govern Babylonia
– 282 “laws”
Code of Hammurabi
Code of Hammurabi
• 1792 BCE,
Hammurabi becomes
king
• Conquers Mari &
Babylon
• Hammurabi rules for
43 years
– Conquers all the
surrounding area
Code of Hammurabi
• Hammurabi is clever
administrator
– Control his empire by
promising harmony
and obedience
• Brings together all the
existing laws from all
over Mesopotamia
– Becomes the “Code of
Hammurabi
Code of Hammurabi
• 282 laws inscribed on
an 8 foot stela
– Hammurabi receives
the code from
Babylonia Sun-god
“Shamash”
• Promote the welfare
of the people
Hammurabi
Shamash
Code of Hammurabi
• Code deals with
aspects of daily life
• Administered by local
judges
• Assembly consisted of
free citizens who sat
with judges
– First juries
Code of Hammurabi
• Refelct the values of
Babylonian society
• Babylonian class
structure dictated
different punishments
for same crime based
on defendants gender
and social class
Questions
Sphinx
 What
 What
are the cultural/religious meanings?
depictions have you seen in American
pop culture?
Geography of Egypt
 Where
is Egypt?
Geography of Egypt
• The Nile creates rich
soil for crops and
promotes Egyptian
trade
– Annual flooding (like
clockwork) left
farmland rich
– Nile was worshiped as
a god
Egypt Unites into a Kingdom
 Pharaohs,
believed to be gods, ruled the
Old Kingdom
2
separate rules: Upper and Lower Egypt
King Menes Capitol
Egypt Unites into a Kingdom
 Upper/lower
united under King Menes
White: Upper
Red: Lower
 3rd
Dynasty known as the “Old Kingdom”
Egypt Unites into a Kingdom
 The
pyramids, which were tombs for the
pharaohs, reflected the strength of the
Egyptian culture
Egyptian Culture
 Polytheistic
 2000
beliefs (many gods)
gods and goddesses
 Flexible
 Lower
class structure
classes could gain status (marriage or
job success)
Egyptian Society
King
Queen
Upper Class
Rich Landowners
Government officials
Priests, Army Comdrs
Not locked into social
Classes
-Must be able to read and
write
Middle Class
Merchants, artisans
Lower Class
Largest class, Peasant farmers
Unskilled laborers
Egyptian Culture
 Egyptians
preserved bodies by
mummification
 Embalming
and drying the corpse
Tut
40 Days to embalm
70 days until burial
Hieroglyphics
 Egyptian
 Pictures
writing system
Similar to cuneiform,
it most likely came to
Egypt when they began
trading with the
Sumerians
stood for an idea
 “Owl” may have stood for the “m” sound
Questions
Today’s Objectives
The Afterlife
Understand how belief systems can affect other
aspects of culture
 See that information about a culture is not
limited to written sources
 Understand why many different articles were
buried in Egyptian tombs

Taking it with You
They believed they
could only reach their
full potential after death
Jars holding internal
Organs (canopic jars)
Qebehsenuef, the falcon head -- intestines
Duamutef, the jackal head -- stomach
Hapy, the baboon head -- lungs
Imsety, the human head -- liver
Thought to provide the king
with an alternative body for the
deceased spirit
Anubis: God of
embalming
ba is represented as a bird
Each person also has a ba.
Similar to what we call "personality"
Judgement
Each person also has what is called a ka, or
life-force Egyptians would bring food to a
dead person's tomb as an offering to his or
her ka
"Opening of the Mouth."
This ceremony was to magically
give the deceased the ability to
speak and eat again it released
The ba and ka to the next world
Osiris is the god of the
dead and the god of the
resurrection into eternal
life; he is ruler, protector
and judge of the
deceased
Warm-up
 Begin
preparing a list of items you will need
for the afterlife. At a minimum, use the
following categories:
 Food
 Clothes
 Entertainment
 Furniture
 Cosmetics/toiletries
 Household
goods
 Personal belongings
You may list other categories—you decide!
Geography of South Asia
 The
Indus and Ganges Rivers created a
fertile plain
Geography of China
 The
geography isolates China and
determined where early settlements
developed
Gobi Desert
Geography of South Asia
 Geography
presented challenges for the
Indus Valley
 Wet/Dry
seasons
 Monsoons: Yearly floods unpredictable
 World’s tallest mountains to the north
Civilization Emerges on the
Indus
 Early
Indus Valley settlers developed
farming villages along the Indus River
(3200 B.C.)
 Arrived
by boat from Africa (?) 7000 B.C.
Civilization Emerges on the
Indus
 Indus
Valley cities were well planned and
had plumbing and sewage systems (2500
B.C.)
 Used
a grid system and fortified citadel
 Separate residential areas
Civilization Emerges on the
Indus
 Ruins
reveal the character and trading
patterns of the Indus Valley civilization
 Uniform
housing
great
 Few weapons
 Indus
social divisions not
conflict not great
seals in Sumer meant trade occurred
between the two
Mysterious End to Indus Valley
Culture
 The
Indus Valley civilization ends
mysteriously in about 1500 B.C.
 Indus
River may have change course (no
floods)
 Possibly overgrazed/farmed
 Possibly natural disaster or attack from north
Questions
Geography of China
 The
geography isolates China and
determined where early settlements
developed
Gobi Desert
Geography of China
 Early
settlers faced challenges as a result of
China’s geography
 Huang
He (Yellow river) floods
 Settlers more self reliant
 Not immune to attack from outsiders
Civilization Emerges in Shang
Times
 Before
Sumer, Chinese built settlements
along the Huang He
 Legend:
first Chinese dynasty is the Xia
 Leader: Yu—built first flood control projects
Civilization Emerges in Shang
Times
 When
Mesopotamia, Egypt and Indus
Valley fell to invaders
 Shang dynasty rose to power
 Built
palaces and left written records
Civilization Emerges in Shang
Times
 Shang
society was divided between ruling
nobles and peasant farmers
 Warrior/nobles
owned the land
to the Shang ruler
sent tribute
Origins of Chinese Culture
 The
Family was central to Chinese society
 Chief
loyalty throughout your life is to family
 Highest virtue: honor your parents!
 Men, most important, made the decisions
Origins of Chinese Culture
 Chinese
communicated with gods through
ancestor spirits and oracle bones
 Questions
applied
answers
written on the bones, then hot poker
priests “read” the cracks for the
Oracle bones were the earliest
form of written Chinese
language
Origins of Chinese Culture
• China’s written language
was not connected to its
spoken language
– Each character represent
an idea (not sound)
– Advantage: Everyone
learned same writing
• Need to know 1000
characters to be literate
Origins of Chinese Culture
 Shang
artisans made silk and excelled at
bronzework
 Bronze
 Silk
used only for weapons
was a symbol of civilization
Zhou Bring New Ideas
 The
Zhou use the Mandate of Heaven to
overthrow the Shang (1121-221 B.C.)
 Natural
disasters could spell the end to a ruler
 Established the Dynastic Cycle
Dynastic Cycle
Mandate of Heaven
New Dynasty
Old Dynasty
-Brings Peace
-(Re)builds infrastructure
-Gives land to peasants
-Protects people
-Taxes people too much
-Stops protecting people
-Lets infrastructure decay
-Treats people unfairly
New Dynasty claims
Mandate of Heaven
Generations go by
New Dynasty
becomes…..
Problems
-Floods, earthquakes, etc
-Peasant revolt
-Invaders attack empire
-Bandits raid countryside
Old Dynasty loses
Mandate of Heaven
Zhou Bring New Ideas
 Feudalism
 Zhou
led to increase local warfare
rulers gave control to local lords
 As lords grew more powerful, became less
reliant on Zhou rulers
fought among
themselve
Zhou Bring New Ideas
 War
and the collapse of traditional values
bring an end to the Zhou Dynasty
TAKS Test Review