Mesopotamia: Cradle of Civilization

Mesopotamia
Cradle of Civilization
Mesopotamia
Geographic area-
In modern day country
of Iraq
The name means “land
between 2 rivers”
2 Rivers- Tigris River
and Euphrates River
Mesopotamia
 The constant water supply from the 2
rivers provided rich farm land ideal for
growing crops.
 The rivers flooded each spring, the early
people in the area built levees to keep the
flood waters back and built irrigation
systems.
Mesopotamia
 Area was first settled about 4500-4000
B.C.
 These people were originally farmers,
herders, and fishermen.
 They made tools, bricks, clay figures, and
pottery.
Sumer
 The people who lived there were called
Sumerians
 The first known civilization around 3500 B.C.
 The Sumerian people made wagon wheels, used
copper and bronze, made sail boats, used plows,
wrote laws, and studied astronomy.
Sumer
 Important city states developed
 Built strong walled cities for protection
from outside invaders
 Important Sumerian city-
Ur (capital of Sumer) had a population of
around 200,000
Most cities were unattractive- no public
services available to remove garbage and
sewage. This was left to pile up on the
streets.
Sumerian Cities
 Streets were narrow, unpaved, winding
 Houses were one story mud brick structures with
flat roofs.
 Members of the upper class had 2 story houses
with many rooms that included sleeping quarters
and servants quarters and burial plots below the
house
 Household utensils made out of stone, copper
and bronze
 Merchants supplied the townspeople with
material items
Religion
 Sumerians constructed shrines or temples called
Ziggurats.
 Ziggurats were to serve as a pedestal for the
gods to descend to Earth.
 On top was a shrine room where people would
pray or hope to entertain a divine visitor.
Religion
 Public was not invited to engage in temple
rituals, but they needed to constantly pray
or the gods would not bless their lands.
 Around the ziggurat were courts where
artisans worked, children went to school,
and people traded and stored goods there.
 Sumerians believed that all of nature was
controlled by gods
Education
 The Sumerian schools were called “tablet houses”
and were used to educate scribes for various
religious, governmental, and commercial jobs.
 Schools at first were mostly religious and were
for rich children
 Male only
 Classes went from morning until sunset
 Curriculum included- grammar, penmanship,
science, and math
Writing
 Writing helped man maintain a complex
economic and political society
 Sumerian writing dates back as early as
3100 B.C.
 Dried Mud tablets with a sharp pointed
reed called a stylus was how they wrote
the cuneiform.
 This writing was adopted by their
conquerors and used for about 2000
years.
Family Life
 Woman had rights in Sumerian society
 They could buy and sell property and
could run businesses
 The husband was the head of the
household
 He could divorce his wife or rent out his
wife and children for up to three years
 Children were expected to support their
parents when they became old
Priests and Kings
 Priests were also the kings of the city-states
 Gilgamesh was the most famous
 Received advice from an assembly of free
men
 During wars, the assembly chose a military
leader to serve until the war was over
 Eventually, these leaders stayed in charge
and became kings.
 Kingship became hereditary
Ticket out the Door
Irrigation
schools
canals
Accomplishments
First city
builders
Developed
religion and
government
Section 2
Later Mesopotamian Empires
Sargon 1
 Ruled an area called Akkad
 Began to conquer city-states one by one
and became king of all of them
 Created world’s first empire
 Ruled for 50 years
Hammurabi of Babylon
 Hammurabi was king of Babylon who
conquered Akkad and Sumer
 The Babylonians took on the language and
religion of the people they conquered
 Hammurabi improved irrigation systems
and changed the religion
 Developed his own set of laws called the
Code of Hammurabi
Hammurabi
 Appointed judges to carry out the code
 Judges were punished if not honest
 He believed people were innocent until
proven guilty
 During Hammurabi’s rule, Babylon became
a trade center
 Hammurabi’s reign is known as the Golden
Age of Babylon
Ticket Out the Door
 How is Hammurabi’s code similar to the
laws in the United States?
Section 3
Contributions
Inventions and Contributions
 Inventions and customs of the Sumerians
and Babylonians were copied and
improved upon by other cultures.
 Oldest written records in
the world
 First written laws
 Cuneiform was a model
for other people’s
system of writing
 Invented the wheel which aided
transportation
 Invented the plow which allowed farmers
to grow more food
 Invented the sailboat which replaced
muscle power with wind power
 wheel
Inventions and contributions
 Developed a 12
month calendar
based on the
cycles of the moon
 It marked the
times for religious
festivals and
planting
 Contributions to math
 Developed a number system based on 60
 60 minute hour
 60 second minute
 360 degree circle
 Clock that was controlled by water
Ticket out the Door

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