A statement has had all its vowels removed.
Replace them and find the statement.
N P P L D Y K P S T H D C T R W Y

An apple a day keeps the doctor away

•
Fertile Crescent is a fertile area in the Middle
East that stretches from the Persian Gulf to the
Mediterranean Sea.
–
Shaped like a crescent moon
•
Mesopotamia is a region within the Fertile
Crescent
–
The Land Between the Rivers
–
Tigris & Euphrates Rivers made it possible for farming due to flooding

Why Were People Drawn to This
Region?
1. Rich soil
2. Life-giving rivers o Fish o Clay for building o Strong reeds to make boats o Fertile soil left behind from the floods

1. Unpredictable floods destroyed crops, homes & people
2. Some areas were marshy and unsuitable for farming because of over-flooding

Rock- a- bye
Mesopotamia…
•
It is the birth of civilization.

1. Sumerians (3000 B.C. - 1800 B.C.)
2. Babylonians (1800 B.C. - 1200 B.C.)
3. Assyrians (1200 B.C. - 539 B.C.)
4 . Persians (539 B.C. - 330 B.C.)

• Sumer was never united under one ruler
– Independent city-states
– Results in their downfall…why?
• Sumerians were great inventors
– The wheel (around 3500 BCE)
– Invention of cuneiform writing
– The Plow
– The Sailboat

• First Writing system
– Cuneiform
– Clay tablets with reed for a stylus
• Earliest literature
– World ’ s oldest poetry
– The Epic of Gilgamesh

I am the great king
Gilgamesh…read the handout about my epic tale!

• Polytheism- belief in many gods
– Sumerians believed in polytheistic, anthropomorphic deities
• Each city-state had its own patron god
• Ziggurats – massive, stepped-pyramids used as temples by Sumerian priests
– Existed long before the Egyptian pyramids

• An: God of heaven
• Enlil: God of the air
• Enki: God of freshwater, male fertility, and knowledge
• Inanna: Goddess of love, female fertility and warfare
• Ki: Goddess of the earth.
• Nanna: God of the moon
• Ninurta: God of war, agriculture
• Utu: God of the sun

Religions have attempted to build their sanctuaries on prominent heights. Since no such natural heights were available in the flat flood plains of Mesopotamia (modern Iraq), ancient priests and kings determined to build ziggurats, square or rectangular artificial stepped temple platforms. Functionally, temples were placed on raised platforms to give them prominence over other buildings in a city, and to allow more people to watch the services performed at the temple. Symbolically, however, the ziggurat represents the cosmic mountain on which the gods dwell. The priests ascent up the stairway to the temple at the top of the ziggurat represents the ascent to heaven. The great ziggurat at
Khorsabad, for example, had seven different stages; each was painted a different color and represented the five known planets, the moon, and the sun.
WHAT DOES THIS PASSAGE REVEAL ABOUT THE
RELIGIOUS BELIEF OF PEOPLE IN MESOPOTAMIA?

The mud-brick core of the ziggurat was covered with baked bricks.
Each baked brick measured about 12 x 12 x 3 in and weighed up to 33lbs. About
720,000 baked bricks would have been needed in building the first stage of the ziggurat.
This brick was stamped with the name and title of Ur-Nammu , the king who ordered the ziggurat built. Most bricks used to build the ziggurat were stamped. Somebody had the job of stamping the damp bricks.

ZIGGURATS

• Its wealth lead to fighting over…
– Land
– Use of river water

• Akkad was a Sumerian citystate.
• King Sargon I of Akkad conquered Sumer and united the city-states.
• Eventually dissolved into independent city-states until Babylonia took control.

Babylon was the capital of the
Babylonian
Empire.

• Babylonia’s most powerful and memorable king rules from 1792 to 1750 B.C.E.
– Reorganizing the tax system for easier collection of taxes
– Repaired the irrigation canals to increase
– Establishes a written code of laws ( more to follow at a later date)

Hammurabi
• “So That the Strong Should
Not Harm the Weak”
Hmmm…I think someone “got my nose”?

• The decline began with the death of
Hammurabi
• Fell to the Hittites in 1600s B.C.E.

• Began as empire around 1890s BCE when citystates were united.
• Located 60 miles south of Baghdad
• Babylonians built:
– Great walled cities teeming with life
– Roads allow caravans to travel the empire
– Vast public buildings
• The palace at Mari ( 350 –room palace with pipes to drain waste)
– Comfortable houses for all people

Started as city by the Euphrates River in 1900 BCE
Babylon--capital of Babylonian Empire
Under King Hammurabi conquered all of the surrounding cities (including Sumer) to make it the
Fertile Crescent’s 1st united empire in 1787 BCE.
Empire-- an area of many territories and peoples that is controlled by one government

Very similar to Sumerian culture
Adopted their religion, literature, inventions, & practices
Became wealthy via trade & agriculture
Trade required them to build roads & bazaars bazaar--outdoor market place for trading goods caravan--a group of travelers (Why travel together?)

Hammurabi’s Code--first known, written set of laws, created by King of Babylon during his reign (1792-1750)
Created a useful system of mathematics & astronomy
Math based on numbers from 1-60
Does this sound familiar?
Allowed them to calculate areas of geometric shapes
Why would this be important for building an empire?

•All their wealth couldn’t save them from conquest…
•They fell to another, growing empire in 1500 BCE .

•Civilization on upper
Tigris River in an open plain
•Capital—Nineveh
•Frequently attacked by invaders
•Developed standing army (soldiers who serve in military as their

•Fierce & cruel warriors
•Weapons made of iron
(rather than bopper or bronze)
•Created forts & government to administer conquered cities
•First mail service to communicate between cities in empire
•Other Advancements:
•Trained Horses & Chariots
•Archers & Stone Slings
•Battering Rams

They created a great library with clay tablets from
Sumer & Babylon.

By 650 BCE, Empire stretched from The Nile River to the Persian Gulf! (See map on p. 39 in textbook.)
Captured enemies (murdering or enslaving them), plundered & looted cities, & demanded taxes
(tributes) from the vanquished.
The Assyrians were widely hated.
Several revolt attempts
Medes & Chaldeans overthrew them in 612 BCE.

What city rose out of the ashes of Nineveh?
The Chaldeans made the city of Babylon their new capital.
This time around their most important king was
Nebuchadnezzar II
Ruled from 605-562 BCE
Babylon grew strong under him

Center of Math & Science
Astronomy so accurate could calculate length of year to within minutes of modern methods!
Started domesticating honey bees (Why?)

Huge wall surrounding the city
Beautifully decorated
Towers for guards
4-Horse Chariot-wide
Famous Gate of Ishtar

Hanging Gardens of Babylon
Built by Nebuchadnezzar
Beautifully decorated
Roof-top tropical gardens
In the middle of the desert
1 of 7 Wonders of the
Ancient World
Why? Let’s find out...

•Nebuchadnezzar is succeeded by his son in
562 BCE, but he’s assassinated just three years later.
•Within a few years, new empire invades

(539-330 BCE)

Located east of Fertile Crescent (modern-day Iran &
Afghanistan)
People were Indo-Europeans called Aryans (source of Iran’s name)
Started in 550 BCE by Persian province ruler named
Cyrus the Great (350-330 BCE)
United Medes & Persians into a strong army and later a kingdom

Army of archers & cavalrymen conquered most of ancient world (See map on p. 39)
Turkey
India
Egypt
Unlike Assyrians, they were benevolent:
Freed Jews
Treated conquered fairly & kindly (did force tributes)
Allowed them to maintain culture

Emperor Darius I (522-486
BCE) set up system to organize the empire:
Divided into 20 provinces
Each managed by governors
Judges & Tax Collectors appointed
Surprise inspectors
Well paved roads which led to international trade

complex structure of government offices needed to govern a vast empire or nation (negative connotation)

the official religion of the Persian Empire had one supreme god who made world, sun, moon & stars
What is this kind of religion called?

until Alexander the Great conquered it in 330 BCE