“Necessity is the mother of invention.” --Plato
Mesopotamia Notes
How did the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers support agriculture?
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Geography
Fertile soil
(all the stuff that is blue is
fomhttp://www.kidskonnect.com/subject-index/16-history/257ancient-mesopotamia.html)taken from Semiarid climate. The land of
Ancient Mesopotamia experienced many floods, but today the area is
mostly desert.
The flooding was a challenge to the farmers. They had to learn to
control and work with it. The invention
of irrigation was extremely important, because it allowed the people
to plant during the hot, dry season.
The fertile land produced crops such as many fruits, vegetables, flax,
barley, wheat, and sesame. Sheep, cattle, goats,
and pigs were being raised by the farmers. The seeder plow,
invented by the Mesopotamians, was a major
achievement. It allowed farmers to plow their land and seed it at the
same time. This picture is
fromhttp://www.thinkquest.org/pls/html/think.page?p=722554401
&m=VIEW
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Hammurabi
He invented the first 282 laws because his codes are fair and brought
prosperities to Babylon. The Golden Age of Babylon was named
because of Hammurabi and his great leadership.
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Rivers
o Fresh water
o
o
Means of travel
For Bathing
How did climate affect farmers?
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Unpredictable floods
Unpredictable droughts
Irrigation
Slight rain
How did Mesopotamians cope with a lack of resources?
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Mud houses and walls
Trade
Surplus of grain
wood was in short supply The Ancient Mesopotamians developed the
arch and column. They were masters
of construction using bricks made of mud. Brick-making was a
major Mesopotamian industry,
especially in the south, where wood was in short supply and there
was no stone. Over the centuries,
rains and shifting sands destroyed much of southern Mesopotamia's
mud-brick architecture.
Only crumbled mounds remain as evidence of the great cities that
once stood in the deserts of southern Iraq
Basic Traits of
Civilization
Advanced cities
Specialized workers
Examples from Sumer
It is believed an ancient site called Eridu,
was the first city that was ever created.
They built permanent homes of sun-dried
bricks made of mud and straw, and started a
new life in the southern region of ancient
Mesopotamia.(
http://mesopotamia.mrdonn.org/sumer.html)
Complex institutions
The
(http://mesopotamia.mrdonn.org/homes.html)
rich lived in large homes, and the poor lived in
smaller homes, but nobody lived in huts.
Some of the larger homes were wide as well as
high, but nearly all the homes were three
stories high.
Rich and poor, most homes were clustered
around the Ziggurat and each other.
Most houses shared walls, like townhouses do
today.
There was little wood and stone available for
building materials. People built their homes of
sun-dried brick.
Doors led into a small family courtyard
Record keeping
They use pictures for keeping the record, then
switched to cuneiform, cuneiform is basically
like the Chinese symbol. They also used
something called rebus, it is like this.(
means growing economy. It was important to have
these languages so people can understand you.
Advanced technology
My name in Babylonian is like
this.
(http://www.ask.com/questions-about/WhatIs-the-Complex-Institutions-of-Mesopotamia)
Sumerians first to make city states, discovered
the wheel, made metal work, weapon and tool,
built with block made with mud, high walls to
protect the city from enemies, enough food
from farming that allowed them to do another
thing for ex.... they also made the numbers to
use in math but not counting zero. Today we
use most of the Sumerians first inventions but
more advanced.
What type of community developed in Sumer?
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City states
Ziggurats
Sumerian religion
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Polytheism
Anu was the father of the gods and the god of the sky
* Enlil was the god of the air
* Utu was the sun god and the lord of truth and justice
* Nanna was the moon god
* Inanna was the goddess of love and war
* Ninhursag was the goddess of earth
* Enki was the god of fresh water as well as the lord of wisdom and
magicziggurat
Sumerian society
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Social classes
Slaves
Roles of womenThe Mesopotamian woman's role was strictly defined.
Most girls were trained from childhood
for the traditional roles of wife, mother, and housekeeper. They
learned how to grind grain,
how to cook and make beverages, especially beer, and how to spin
and weave cloth for clothing.
Around twelve years of age, a young girl was considered ready for
marriage.
Sumerian science and technology
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Early invention
During the earliest years of recorded history, the Ancient
Mesopotamians were experimenting With ways to count, measure,
and solve mathematical problems. They were the first to give
a number a place value and to recognize the concept of zero.
They invited the brick to make stronger and more reliable.
They were the ones who invented the plow and the seeder.
Creation of Written language
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Picture writing
Cuneiform
Literature- Epic of Gilgamesh6. The Sumerians of Ancient
Mesopotamia are credited with inventing the earliest form of writing.
The writings on tablets were of simple pictures, or pictograms, which
represented an object or an idea.
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Clay is a difficult material to draw on so the Mesopotamians
eventually reduced pictograms
into a series of wedge-shaped signs that they pressed into clay with
a stylus.
This wedge-shaped writing is called cuneiform. This invention of
writing was a huge advancement,
because it allowed information to be carried from place to place
accuratelyAkkadian Empire
Sargon
Created world’s first empire (group of many different lands under one ruler)
One ruler, one government
Encouraged writing
Lasted 200 years
2300
Great king
Babylonians
Hammurabi
o Code of Laws
o Justice
o Rights to people
o Legacy
o King Nebuchadnezzar
o King Nebuchadnezzar II
o Great king who brought them together has an empire.
Accounts indicate that the garden was built by King Nebuchadnezzar, who
ruled the city for
(4http://www.cleveleys.co.uk/wonders/gardensofbabylon.htm)3 years
starting in 605 BC (There is a less-reliable, alternative story that the
gardens were built by the Assyrian Queen Semiramis during her five year
reign starting in 810 BC). This was the height of the city's power and
influence and King Nebuchadnezzar constructed an astonishing array of
temples, streets, palaces and walls.
According to accounts, the gardens were built to cheer up
Nebuchadnezzar's homesick wife, Amyitis. Amyitis, daughter of the king of
the Medes, was married to Nebuchadnezzar to create an alliance between
the nations. The land she came from, though, was green, rugged and
mountainous, and she found the flat, sun-baked terrain of Mesopotamia
depressing. The king decided to recreate her homeland by building an
artificial mountain with rooftop gardens.
Assyrians
 Ferocious army
 Set fire to buildings
 Chariots, battering rams, ladders, tunnels
 Iron tipped weaponry from Hittites
 Cavalry
 Punishment, taxes, moved people to foreign territories once captured
(exiled)
 First libraries by Ashurbanipal in Nineveh 20,000 tablets: dictionaries, myths,
stories, science, geography, medicine, religion
 Made many enemies, two enemies (Medes & Chaldeans) joined forces to
defeat them
 The Assyrians were the first one to make a aqueduct to bring water from
miles away.
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The Assyrians had a powerful army. By 1100 B. C., they had defeated their neighboring
enemies. By 800 B. C., they had taken over cities, trading routes and fortresses all over
Mesopotamia. Their capital, Nineveh, was then the center of Mesopotamian civilization.
The Assyrian army well organized. It was divided into groups of foot soldiers
armed with shields, helmets, spears, and daggers. It also had chariots, cavalry, and
archers.
In the beginning, the Assyrians fought only in the summer when they did not have
to be concerned about planting or harvesting crops. Later, soldiering became a year
round job.
[ http://library.thinkquest.org/J002807/Time%20and%20Time%20Again/Time%20and
%20Time%20Again/mesoassyr.html Assyrian power was partly due to their weapons,
which were made of iron. Iron was harder and stronger than copper or tin. Iron had been
used in the Middle East for many centuries, but until 1400 B. C., it was too soft to be
made into weapons. Then, the Hittites developed the process of smelting. The Assyrians
borrowed this skill from them.
Chaldean
Nebuchadnezzar II- rebuilt Babylon and made Ishtar Gate
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Ziggurat- Tower of Babel
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ChaldeaHanging) G The Chaldean's homeland
was in the relatively poor country in the far south of Mesopotamia, at the
head of the Persian Gulf. The Chaldeans first came to prominence in the late
8th Century BC. Marduk-apla-iddina II (the Biblical Merodach-Baladan) of
Bit-Yâkin, allied himself with the powerful Elamite kingdom and seized control
of Babylon in 721 BC after the death of the Assyrian king Shalmaneser V who
had ruled Babylon directly from Nineveh. The new king of Assyria Sargon II
attacked and deposed Marduk-apla-iddina II in 710 BC. After defeat by the
Assyrians he fled to his protectors in Elam. In 703 he briefly regained the
throne from a native Babylonian ruler Marduk-zakir-shumi II who had
ascended the throne after a revolt in Babylon against the Assyrian king,
Sennacherib. He was once more defeated at Kish, and again fled to Elam
where he died in exile after one final attempt to raise a revolt against Assyria
in his homeland, Bit-Yâkin in 700BC.
Babylon was then ruled by a native Babylonian puppet of the Assyrians Belibni, he was replaced by Ashur-nadin-shumi an Assyrian prince who was
murdered by the Elamites and replaced with a native Babylonian Elamite
puppet Nergal-ushezib. The Chaldeans briefly regained control of Babylon in
693 BC when the populace deposed Nergal-ushezib, and chose MushezibMarduk, a Chaldean prince to replace him. However, this was short lived, and
Sennacherib sacked Babylon, destroying the city in 689 BC routing the
Babylonians, the Chaldeans of Bit-Yâkin and their Elamite backers in the
process. Sennacheribs successor as king of Assyria, Esarhaddon rebuilt
Babylon, but for the next 73 years Babylon remained under Assyrian control.
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It was only in 620 BC under Nabopolassar that the Chaldeans finally gained
control over Babylon, founding the Chaldean Dynasty. After the death of
Ashurbanipal, the last great Assyrian king in 627 BC, Assyria descended into
a period of bitter civil war. A rebellious Assyrian general Sin-shumu-lishir
briefly set himself up as king in Babylon, but was ousted by Ashur-etil-ilani
the legitimate king of Assyria. Further civil war erupted with Sin-shar-ishkun
seizing the throne of Assyria from his brother Ashur-etil-ilani . Nabopolassar
took advantage of all this to seize a rebellious Babylon. Bitter fighting
continued in the region from 627 to 620 BC, the final straw was another
massive rebellion in Assyria while its king Sin-shar-ishkun was marching on
Babylon in an attempt to regain control. Nabopolassar seized Nippur and thus
Babylonia as a whole. Nabopolassar's position, and the fate of Assyria was
sealed when he entered into an alliance with another of Assyria's former
vassals, the Medes, the now dominant people of what was to become Persia.
The Medes, and Chaldean ruled Babylonians, together with the Scythians and
Cimmerians attacked Assyria in 616 BC, and by 612 BC the alliance had
sacked Nineveh, killing Sinsharishkun in the process. Nabopolassar and his
allies were now in possession of the huge Neo Assyrian Empire. An Assyrian
king Ashuruballit II held out at Harran, resisting until 605 BC, when the
remnants of the Assyrian Army and an Egyptian force were defeated at
Karchemish.ardens of Babylon
The Legend of Gilgamesh
the First Superhero!
The part I liked about the story about King Gilgamesh mainly because of many
reasons. One he can go to the deepest spot in the ocean I one breathes. Then I liked
the part when the story said that really got his camel. My favorite part was when the
gods sent Enkidu a bigger challenge so Gilgamesh can be a god. But alas, instead of
fighting they became best friends and went for an adventure
Hammurabi
Hammurabi is a little strict because most of them involved death but for a
very good reason like for rule number
22 if anyone is committing a robbery and is
caught, then he shall be put to death. If I was very important of Hammurabi codes because he
was a great leader for thinking this because the city of Babylon was called The Golden Age
of Babylon because
After watching this video, what did the Assyrians have as an advantage that
helped them conquer the Babylonians?
Well the Babylonians didn’t had is a great military and the horse because the
Assyrians were a more farming people and the Assyrians designed carrot and shield
to conquer empires.
The Assyrians were the first one to make an aqueduct to bring water from miles
away.