Power point about Mesopotamia

1. Mesopotamia
The Land Between The Rivers

2. fMesopotamia is the earliest of all
civilizations
f Where people first formed permanent
settlements
fMesopotamia is the area between
the Tigris River and Euphrates River
(present day Iraq)
f Its name is from two Greek words ”meso” and
“potamos”
f Combined they mean “between the rivers”
“The Cradle of Civilization”
The Fertile Crescent

4. fLittle rainfall for crops
fHot and dry climate in the summers
fWinters brought fierce windstorms
leaving muddy river valleys
fSprings brought catastrophic
flooding of the rivers
fArid soil containing little minerals
fNo stone or timber resources
Geographic Conditions

5. Then why live here?
Natural Levees: natural buildup of sediment of
thousands of years of flooding

6. fcreate a high and safe flood plain
fmake irrigation and canal construction
easy
fprovide protection
fthe surrounding swamps were full of fish
& waterfowl
freeds provided food for sheep / goats
freeds also were used as building
resources
Natural Levees
Everything you need in one safe place.

7. fOver the centuries, many different
people lived in this area creating a
collection of independent states
fSumer- southern part (3500-2000 BCE)
fAkkad- northern part (2340–2180 BCE)
fBabylonia- these two regions were
unified (1830-1500 BCE)
fAssyria- Assyrian Empire (1100-612 BCE)
History of Mesopotamia

8. fEstablished the social, economic and
intellectual basis of Mesopotamia
fFirst to develop writing in the form of
cuneiform
fSumerians are credited to have invented
the wheel
fEridu became the first city of the world
fHowever, the Sumerians were not
successful in uniting lower Mesopotamia
Sumerians

9. fLeader: Sargon the Great
fSargon’s greatest achievement was the
unification of lower Mesopotamia (after
conquering Sumerians in 2331 BCE)
fEstablished capital at Akkad
fSpread Mesopotamian culture
throughout Fertile Crescent
fDynasty established by Sargon was
short-lived… Akkadians were conquered
by the invading barbarians by 2200 BCE
f
Akkadians

10. fBabylonians reunited Mesopotamia
in 1830 BCE
fUsed their central location to
dominate trade and establish
control over all of Mesopotamia
fKing Hammurabi
f conquered Akkad and Sumer and gained control
of north and south
f His Legacy: created the first law code
Babylonians

11. Hammurabi’s
Law Code

12. f Code of 282 laws inscribed on a stone pillar
placed in the centre of town for all to see
f Stone depicts Hammurabi as receiving his
authority from god Shamash
f Punishments were designed to fit the crimes as
people must be responsible for own actions
f was the orginal “eye for an eye…” ie. If a son
struck his father, the son’s hand would be cut
off
f Consequences for crimes depended on rank in
society (ie. only fines for nobility)
Hammurabi’s Law Code

13. f10th century BCE, Assyria
emerged as dominant force
fAssyrian reunited
Mesopotamia and established
the first true empire
fAssyrian army was most
feared due to their brutal,
bloodthirsty & terrorizing
tactics and use of iron
weapons, battering rams,
chariots
Assyrians
Blood Thirsty Armies of Doom

14. fAssyrian Empire stretched from Persian
Gulf north and west to Syria, Palestine and
Egypt
fHowever, states began to revolt and once
again, Assyrian Empire collapsed by late
7th century BCE
fBy 539 BCE, Mesopotamia part of the vast
Persian Empire (led by Cyrus the Great)
fPersian Empire dominated for 800 years
until Alexander the Great
Assyrians

16. fEarly political structure an early
form of democracy
f Council of town members
fFrequent wars led to the emergence
of warriors as leaders
f Elect to rule during war, stays on afterwards
fEventually rise of monarchy and
theocracy
f King = god
f Gov’t run by priests
Government
Democracy to a Theocracy

17. fover 3600 gods and demigods
f Include gods from all different regions
f all of Mesopotamia shared the same religion and
the same main gods
fPosition of King was enhanced and
supported by religion
fKingship created by gods and the
king’s power was divinely ordained
Religion
Polytheistic

18. fEnlil, supreme god & god
of air
fIshtar, goddess of fertility
& life
fAn, god of heaven
fEnki, god of water &
underworld
fShamash, god of sun and
giver of law
Mesopotamian Gods
It was important for gods to be
honoured by religious ceremonies
Gods and
goddesses were
worshipped at huge
temples called
ziggurats

19. fTemples created from mud brick
and placed on platforms due to
constant flooding
fTemples evolved to ziggurats-- a
stack of 1-7 platforms decreasing
in size from bottom to top
fFamous ziggurat was Tower of
Babel (over 100m above ground and
91m base)
Ziggurats
Where Ceremonies were performed by priests

21. Social Structure
Nobles
Free Clients:
work for gov’t in
exchange for land
Commoners:
landowners and
craftsmen
Slaves
Nobles included the
king, his family, the
chief priests and the
high palace officials;
they had the best land
Slaves were
captured prisoners
of war used as
manual labourers
in military, civil
engineering, or
agricultural
projects, or as
household
servants.

22. Development of Writing

23. fFirst form of writing was Cuneiform
(meaning “wedge shaped”)
fallowed the transmission of knowledge,
the codification of laws, and recording of
goods to facilitate trade
fCuneiform spread to Persia and Egypt
f lead to the exchange of ideas among cultures
Writing
Dating to 3500 BCE

25. f Gilgamesh is the first known work of great
literature and epic poem
f Gilgamesh is a great king and hero
f Epic contains 1st mention of a great flood
f Gilgamesh parallels the story of Noah and the
Ark in the Old Testament (but much earlier)
f Modern science argues an increase in the sea
levels about 6,000 years ago
f the melting ice drained to the oceans causing the sea level to rise
more than ten feet in one century
The First Written Story
The Epic Story of Gilgamesh

26. fFrom 1922 to 1934, an
archaeologist named C. Leonard
Woolley excavated the site of
the ancient Sumerian city of Ur
fFound at Ur was a mass grave
containing the bodies of 6
guards and 68 court ladies
(servants of kings and queens)
f they drank a poisoned drink and fell asleep
never to wake again, choosing to
accompany the kings and queens in the
afterlife
The Royal Tombs of
UR

28. fcodified laws
fthe building of places of worship (ziggurats)
fthe birthplace of writing (cuneiform)
fInvention of the wheel, plow and sailboat
fOldest written records of a creation story
f First great epic poem--Gilgamesh
fFirst civilization based on large scale agriculture
f12 month calendar
fnumber system based on 60
f 60 minutes, 60 seconds, 360 degree circle
fWater clock
Legacies of Mesopotamia