MESOPOTAMIA
THE FERTILE CRESCENT
• Mesopotamia (the land between 2
rivers), is a valley between the
Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.
• These rivers often overflow and
leave silt, which makes the soil rich
for an agricultural society.
• The SUMERIANS developed the
first Mesopotamian civilization.
ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA
• Ancient Mesopotamia covered three general
areas:
– Assyria
– Akkad
– Sumer
• Several different ethnicities lived in these
areas.
• Mesopotamian civilization involved many
peoples.
• The Sumerians developed the first
Mesopotamian civilization.
THE SUMERIANS
• By 3,000 B.C.E. the Sumerians had
formed a number of city-states centered
around cities such as Ur and Uruk
• These states controlled the surrounding
countryside politically and
economically.
• City-states were the basic political unit
of the Sumerian Civilization.
GOVERNMENT:
• WHAT IS AN EMPIRE?
• The Akkadians lived north of the
Sumerian city-states.
• They were considered Semitic people
because they spoke a Semitic language.
• Around 2340 B.C.E. the leader of the
Akkadians, Sargon, conquered the
Sumerian city-states and set up the
world’s first empire.
• The temple (most important building) was
built on top of a massive stepped tower
called a ziggurat.
• Sumerians believed gods and goddesses
owned and ruled the cities.
• In the beginning, the Sumerian state was a
theocracy (a government ruled by divine
authority).
SOCIETY & RELIGION
• three classes;
– Nobles- included the royal family,
royal officials, priests and their
families.
– Commoners worked for large estates
as farmers, merchants, fishers, and
craftspeople.
– Slaves worked on large building
projects, wove cloth, and worked the
farms of the nobles.
ANCIENT BELIEFS
• Due to the harsh physical environment
and famines, Mesopotamians believed
that the world was controlled by
destructive supernatural forces and
gods.
SOCIAL HIERARCHY
• Priest and priestesses were
important figures politically as well
as religiously.
• Ruling power passed from the
hands of kings, who traced their
authority back to the gods.
POLYTHEISM
• Like the Egyptians, the
Mesopotamians were polytheistic
because they believed in many gods
and goddesses.
• 3,000 gods have been identified
through archaeology and
anthropology.
ECONOMY
• The Sumerian economy was agricultural, but
manufacturing of metalwork and trade of
wheat were also important.
• The Sumerians are credited with the
invention of the wheel around 3,000 B.C.E.
and this greatly facilitated trade.
SYSTEMATIC FARMING
• Developing consistent agriculture
required controlling the water supply.
• People in Mesopotamia developed a
system of drainage ditches and
irrigation works.
• Careful farming methods resulted in
large food supplies and made possible
significant population growth and the
emergence of civilization in
Mesopotamia.
MAJOR CONTRIBUTIONS
• SUMERIAN ARCHITECTURE
• The Sumerians built largely with mud
bricks, they built their homes on top of
mounds to protect them from floods.
• Using them they invented the arch and
the dome and built some of the largest
brick buildings in the world.
CUNEIFORM
• The Sumerians were important
inventors. They created a system of
writing called cuneiform (wedgeshaped). They used a reed stylus to
make wedge-shaped markings on clay
tablets. Writing was for record keeping,
teaching, and law.
REED STYLUS
SCRIBES
• A new class of people who wrote and
made copies were called scribes.
• Like in Egypt, being a scribe was the
key to a successful career for an upperclass Mesopotamian boy.
• Writing also passed on cultural
knowledge from generation to
generation, sometimes in new ways.
LITERATURE
• The Epic of Gilgamesh, the most
important piece of Mesopotamian
literature, teaches the lesson that only
gods are immortal. Gilgamesh is wise
and strong, a being who is part human
and part god.
• Gilgamesh befriends a hairy beast
named Enkidu. When Enkidu dies,
Gilgamesh feels the pain of his friend’s
death, and he searches for the secret of
immortality. He fails.
TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION
• The Sumerians invented important
technologies, such as the wagon wheel.
• In mathematics they invented a number
system based on 60, and they made
advances in applying geometry to
engineering.
• In astronomy, the Sumerians charted
the constellations using their number
system of 60.
OTHER CONTRIBUTIONS:
•Sundial
•potter‘s wheel
•1st to make bronze out of copper
and tin, creating finely crafted
metalworks
SECOND EMPIRE: BABYLONIA
• The rise and fall of empires is an
important part of history.
• In 1792 B.C.E. Hammurabi of
Babylon, a city-state south of
Akkad, established a new empire
over much of both Akkad and
Sumer.
MAJOR CONTRIBUTION:
FIRST SYSTEM OF WRITTEN LAW
• The Code of Hammurabi is one of the
world’s most important early systems of
law.
• It calls for harsh punishments against
criminals.
• The principle of retaliation; “an eye for
an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” is
fundamental in Hammurabi’s code.
THE LAW
• Hammurabi’s code punished public
officials who failed in their duties or
were corrupt.
• It also had consumer protection
provisions, for example, holding
builders responsible for the quality of
their work.
• If a building collapsed and killed anyone
other than a slave, the builder was
executed.
• Damages had to be paid to people
injured.
FAMILY LAW
• The largest group of laws in the code
covered marriage and the family.
• Parents arranged marriages, and the
bride and groom had to sign a marriage
contract to be officially married.
PATRIARCHAL SOCIETY
• Hammurabi’s code expresses the
patriarchal nature of
Mesopotamian society.
• Women had fewer privileges and
rights than men.
• The code enforced obedience of
children to parents.
• For example, a father could cut off
the hand of a son who had hit him.
THE ASSYRIANS
• The Assyrians of the upper Tigris River
formed the Assyrian Empire by 700
B.C.E.
ASSYRIAN EMPIRE: GOVERNMENT
• A king with absolute power ruled the
Assyrian Empire. They encouraged a
well ordered society – it was organized
well with local officials directly
responsible to the king.
– They developed an efficient
communication system in order to
administer their empire by setting up
a network of posts with horses
carrying messages that took only one
week to reach anywhere in the
empire.
Why were the Assyrians so successful at
conquering others?
• They glorified the military and were
known for their military prowess.
• Their military power came from using
iron and a large, well-disciplined army
of infantry, cavalry, and archers, often
on chariots.
• They also used terror to subdue people;
they were known for committing
atrocities on their captives.
SOCIETY & RELIGION:
• Riches from trade & war paid for
splendid palaces
• Women were confined in secluded
quarters and had to be veiled when they
appeared in public.
MAJOR CONTRIBUTIONS:
• Learned to extract iron from ore
• Created state of the art weapons
• Nineveh held one of the ancient world’s
largest libraries
The Empire Crumbles
• The cruelty displayed by the Assyrians
had earned them many enemies.
• In 612 B.C.E., combined army of Medes,
Chaldeans, and others rammed open the
city’s gates and burned and leveled
Nineveh.
• The fire glazed the tablets in the library,
which preserved them for
archaeologists to study centuries later.
Rebirth of Babylon under the Chaldeans
• After the Assyrian Empire collapsed, the
Chaldean king Nebuchadnezzar made
Babylonia the leading state of western
Asia.
• Babylon became one of the greatest
cities of the ancient world.
• Nebuchadnezzar II conquers Jerusalem,
destroys their temple, and enslaves the
Jews.
• Babylonia did not last long; the Persians
conquered it in 539 B.C.E.
PERSIA – 539 B.C.E.
• The Persians were a nomadic, IndoEuropean people living in what is today
southwest Iran.
• One family unified the different groups.
• One member, Cyrus, ruled from 559 to
530 B.C.E.
• He captured Babylon, treating his new
subjects with noteworthy restraint, and
he allowed the Jews to return to
Jerusalem.
GOVERNMENT:
• Cyrus captured Babylon, treating his new
subjects with noteworthy restraint, and he
allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem (he
had a reputation for mercy this caused
everyone to accept him as a ruler).
• The Persians based their empire on
tolerance and diplomacy.
• Cyrus’ son Darius (extended the empire
into India and Europe) created the
largest empire the world had ever
known.
SATRAP
• Darius strengthened the Persian
government by dividing the empire into
20 provinces, called satrapies.
• A satrap was the governor of the
province responsible for collecting
taxes, handling legal matters, and
recruiting soldiers.
ROYAL ROAD (contribution)
• The Persians established a
communication system using horses and
regular posts known as the Royal Road,
from Lydia to the empire’s capital at
Susa.
• They built hundreds of miles of roads.
– used barter then coins
– 1st coins made of electrum, an alloy, or
natural mix, the image on the coin
showed its value.
THE IMMORTALS
• Much of the Persian power was due to
its military.
• The empire had a standing army from
the entire empire.
• At its core was an elite group called the
Immortals because anyone who was
killed was immediately replaced.
• The Immortals were made up of ten
thousand each of cavalry and infantry.
PERSIAN DECLINE
• The Persian Empire declined for a set of
reasons common to the decline of
empires.
• The kings became more isolated at court
and lived lives of tremendous luxury.
• They levied high taxes that weakened
the people’s loyalty.
POWER STRUGGLE
• Factions were struggling for control of
the throne.
• Of the nine rulers after Darius, six were
murdered in plots.
• These bloody struggles weakened the
Persian monarchy and Alexander the
Great conquered Persia during the 330s
B.C.E.
ZOROASTRIANISM
• Zoroaster taught monotheism (belief in one
god).
• The universe was permeated by the good of
the supreme god Ahuramazda, who brought
all into being and an evil spirit named
Ariman.
• People have a free will to choose between the
two but eventually, good will triumph over
evil.
• In the last judgment at the end of the world,
good and evil will separate.
• The good will go to a happy eternal life, and
the evil to damnation.
Contributions:
• The most original Persian cultural
contribution was its religion of
Zoroastrianism (the first monotheistic
religion)
• Persian tradition says that Zoroaster
was born in 660 B.C.E.
• He had visions that caused him to be
declared a prophet.
• His teachings were written in the sacred
book of Zoroastrianism, the Zend Avesta.