8/25/14
1) Create three categories on your paper and
title them “Know”, “Want to Know”, and
“Learned”
2) Then, try to fill in the categories as best you
can for the following topics: Mesopotamia and
Sumer
3) Please put your Social Contract in your 3 ring
binder.
Honors Contracts? Due: Now
8/26/14-Bell Work
1) Describe the effect of geography on the settlement
of Ancient Mesopotamia.
-QUIETLY, INDEPENDENTLY
You will work on Question 2 with a partner, so if you
are done, please just sit quietly
2) Connect the Fertile Crescent to the Modern World
by working backwards to complete the following chain
of events. The end answer is given to you.
Mesopotamia Rap Challenge Questions:
How did the Sumerian people divide their territory?
Who built the Akkadian Empire?
Who invented the code that demanded an eye for an eye?
What type of educational facility did the Assyrians build?
Which civilization did the Assyrians defeat with their powerful
army?
Which ruler built the Hanging Gardens of Babylon for his wife?
Which civilization do we get our alphabet from?
What was the important activity that helped the Phoenician
civilization stand strong?
Ancient Mesopotamia
Emergence of Civilization
1. Setting the Scene: Geography
●Remember: Mesopotamia= “land
between 2 rivers.”
●Tigris and Euphrates River
Valleys – Fertile Crescent
●Flooding of rivers caused fertile
silt for farming
●Agriculture drew people to settle
in the river plains
Map of Modern Mesopotamia
2. Emergence of Civilization
●Necessity for irrigation prompts
development of governments
●New inventions enable job specialization
and population growth
oPottery wheel – 6000 BCE
oWheel 4000 BCE
oAdvancing technology moves into the Bronze
Age
●Development of metal hoes, plows, and
weapons
3. Sumerians
●Migrated to the fertile crescent from the north
about 4000 BCE
●Developed town centers of religion, pilgrimage
and worship
Ziggurat—center of city
4. Sumerian Political and Social
Organization
●Political – city-states formed independent
governments
oCity-states provided boundaries, markets,
religion, retained armies and system of
justice
oAdded to political stability with written
language for record keeping
oPopulations reached upwards of 70,000
Sumerian Political and Social
Organization
rulers,
priests
merchants,
artists,
scribes
peasant
farmers
slaves
5. Sumerian Economics
●Farming – barley, wheat, vegetables
●Artisans – jewelry, textiles,
leatherworking
●Cities hosted markets
By 2000 BCE – traded as far away as
Egypt and India!
6. Sumerian Culture and Religion
●Writing invented around 3500
BCE
o Needed for commercial, property, and
political records
●Helps spread Sumerian
culture and religion
●Epic of Gilgamesh - early
poem
●Polytheistic- many gods who
controlled nature
7. Science and Technology:
●Writing
oDeveloped writing system called cuneiform.
oWrote on clay tablets
oScribes learned to write
●basic math, geometry
obased on 60
ohour = 60 min, circle = 360 degrees
Origins of Cuneiform
Cuneiform
8. Decline
●Overuse of soil, leads to
decreased fertility
●Too much salt gets in the fertile
land
●INVASIONS!
INVASIONS
●2350- Sargon from Akkad invades
●Maintains Sumerian culture
●Creates the first empire:
oEmpire includes people from Sumer and
Akkad
●Declines because of infighting and famine
Invasions!
●Amorites take over- 2000 BCE
o Hammurabi unites Sumer and creates code of laws
 Harsh penalties were based on social class
 An “eye for an eye”, but only if a peasant took the
eye of nobility.
Invasions and Change
●Assyrian Empire
oWarrior people
oGlorified Military Strength –
 Advanced planning and engineering Skill –
bridges and walls
●Later, the Phoenicians and Hebrews would
maintain the land as well as Sumerian culture.