UTANAPISHTIM SURVIVES THE
GREAT FLOOD
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LtiyefHCe4
Mesopotamian, Jewish,
and Phoenician History
What are the connections?
It’s a
hardknock life
for us!
Ancestor of the Jewish People
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Abraham’s origins in
Mesopotamia.
Born about 2,000 B.C.E in the
Sumerian city-state of Ur.
Came to believe that there was
only one true God.
According to the Torah, God told
Abraham to leave Mesopotamia
and travel to a new land, where
he would become the father of a
great nation of people.
Around 1950 B.C.E, gathered his
many relatives and went west into
the land of Canaan.
Assyrian Invasions
Assyrians conquer the kingdom of Israel.
In 722 B.C.E, the Assyrians
conquered Israel.
Characteristic of Assyrian
conquest:
Assyrians would force many of
the conquered peoples to
relocate to other parts of their
empire.
When they conquered Israel, they
forced the ten tribes to scatter
throughout their empire.
Assyrians did not settle the Israelites in
one place, but scattered them in small
populations all over the Middle East.
These Israelites became known as the
“Ten lost tribes of Israel”.
What really happened in the Siege of
Jerusalem?
As for Hezekiah, the Judean, I
besieged forty-six of his fortified
walled cities and surrounding
smaller towns, which were
without number. Using packeddown ramps and applying
battering rams, infantry attacks
by mines, breeches, and siege
machines, I conquered (them). I
took out 200,150 people, young
and old, male and female, horses,
mules, donkeys, camels, cattle,
and sheep, without number, and
counted them as spoil. He
himself, I locked up within
Jerusalem, his royal city, like a
bird in a cage. I surrounded him
with earthworks, and made it
unthinkable for him to exit by the
city gate....
Sennacherib Prism
What really happened in the Siege of
Jerusalem?
That night the angel of the
LORD went out to the Assyrian
camp and killed 185,000
Assyrian soldiers. When the
surviving Assyrians woke up
the next morning, they found
corpses everywhere.
Isaiah 37:36
The Babylonian Captivity
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Conquest by the Chaldeans
(Neo-Babylonians) led to the
scattering of the Jewish
people.
Chaldean army captured
Jerusalem and destroyed
Solomon’s temple in 586 B.C.E
Marched 10,000 Jews to their
capital, Babylon, to work as
slaves: lasted about 50 years.
530’s B.C.E, Persians conquered
the Chaldeans and let the Jews
return to Jerusalem.
Many Jews migrated to other
areas of Persian empire.
Diaspora: Scattering of the Jews
outside of Israel
Phoenicians take sail
Phoenicians carry
civilization around the
Mediterranean Sea.
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Had few resources and
were surrounded by
enemies.
• Phoenicians became expert
sailors.
• Designed and built ships that
could sail long distances.
• Sailed throughout the
Mediterranean and into the
Atlantic Ocean.
Phoenicians take sail
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1550-300 B.C.E: Phoenicians grew wealthy from trade and set up colonies
throughout Mediterranean Sea.
Phoenician traders created an alphabet to record their activities: used by many
civilizations.
Phoenicians carried the goods, ideas, and technology of the Fertile Crescent to
Europe, North Africa, and West Africa.
Phoenician navigation skills and boat designs were adopted by other ancient
peoples.
Phoenician Achievements
Libya is washed on all sides by the sea except
where it joins Asia, as was first demonstrated, so
far as our knowledge goes, by the Egyptian king
Necho, who, after calling off the construction of the
canal between the Nile and the Arabian gulf, sent
out a fleet manned by a Phoenician crew with
orders to sail west about and return to Egypt and
the Mediterranean by the way of the Straits of
Gibraltar. The Phoenicians sailed from the Arabian
gulf into the southern ocean, and every autumn put
in at some convenient spot on the Libyan coast,
sowed a patch of ground, and waited for next year's
harvest. Then, having got in their grain, they put to
sea again, and after two full years rounded the
Pillars of Heracles in the course of the third, and
returned to Egypt.
Herodotus, The Histories 4.42
PHOENICIAN ALPHABET
Who can create the GREATEST
civilization!
• Walk around the classroom and find your group.
• In groups of four your challenge is to create a
civilization that is GREATER than those created
by the other groups.
• To create the greatest civilization, you must think
carefully about the characteristics of a great
civilization and add them to your graphic
organizer.
• Use a classroom voice and stay with your group.
• Add your names to the poster and give your
civilization a name.
WHAT MAKES A CIVILIZATION?
Environment that allows
for farming and
domestication
Cultural identity
Created or
borrowed
advanced
technology
Food Surpluses
Good
location
for trade
Large Population
Strong rulers
System of
government
and law
Specialization and
skilled workers
Organized society and social structure
Large,
organized,
well-trained
army
Reflections: Rules and Laws
• What rules and laws
influence your daily
life and the life of your
family.
• What would happen if
these rules and laws
disappeared?
• Why are rules and
laws necessary for a
community to be
successful?