Mesopotamia : The Earliest Civilization
Earliest Civilization: the Fertile Crescent
? Categorized as the earliest of all civilizations as people formed permanent settlements
? ______________________________ the area between the Tigris River and Euphrates River (___________________________)
? Mesopotamia is not within the "___________________________“, it is in the more desert area that the "____________________" arcs around
Geographic Conditions
? Little _________________________________________
? Hot and dry climate in the summers
? Winters brought ______________________________________ leaving muddy river valleys
? Springs brought catastrophic flooding of the rivers
? Arid soil containing _________________________
? No stone or timber resources
History of Mesopotamia
? Over the centuries, many different people lived in this area creating a collection of _________________________
? Sumer- southern part (_________________________BCE)
? Akkad- northern part (_________________________BCE)
? Babylonia- these two regions were unified (____________________BCE and ______________________BCE)
? Assyria- Assyrian Empire (_________________________BCE)
Religion
? Position of ________________________________and supported
by religion
? Kingship believed to be created ______________________________
__________________________________ was divinely ordained
? Polytheistic religion consisting of over 3600 gods and demigods
? ___________________________________________ from different regions
? Yet all of Mesopotamia shared the same religion and the same _______________________________________
Prominent Mesopotamian gods
? _________________(supreme god & god of air)
? _________________ (goddess of fertility & life)
? _________________ (god of heaven)
? _________________ (god of water & underworld)
? _________________ (god of sun and giver of law)
?
Ziggurats
? Important for gods to be ________________________ ceremonies
? Ceremonies performed by ________________________
? Temples created from mud brick and placed on platforms due to constant flooding
? Temples evolved to ziggurats- ______________________________
_________________________________________________________
? Famous ziggurat was Tower of Babel (over 100m above ground and 91m base)
?
Government
? Political structure ________________________________________
? Frequent wars led to the emergence of warriors as leaders
? Eventually rise of ________________________
Social Structure
Sumerians
? Established the _______________________________________
basis of Mesopotamia
? First to develop writing in the form of ________________________
? Sumerians are credited to have invented the wheel
? Became the first city of the world
? However, the Sumerians were not successful in uniting lower Mesopotamia
Akkadians
? Leader: _______________________________________
? Sargon’s greatest achievement was the _________________________ Mesopotamia (after conquering Sumerians in 2331 BCE)
? Established capital at ________________________
? Spread Mesopotamian culture throughout ________________________
? Yet dynasty established by Sargon was short-lived… Akkadians were conquered by the invading barbarians by 2200 BCE
Babylonians
? Babylonians reunited Mesopotamia in 1830 BCE
? Used their __________________________________trade and establish control over all of Mesopotamia
? ________________________ – conquered Akkad and Assyria and gained control of north and south
? Hammurabi’s Legacy: ________________________
? YET AGAIN, Mesopotamia was not unified for long…
Assyrians
? 10th century BCE, Assyria emerged as dominant force
? Assyrian ___________________________________and established the first true empire
? ________________________ was most feared due to their brutal, bloodthirsty & terrorizing tactics and use of iron weapons, battering rams, chariots
? Assyrian Empire stretched from ________________________ and West to Syria, Palestine and Egypt
? However, states began to revolt and ONCE AGAIN, ________________________collapsed by late 7th century BCE
? By 539 BCE , Mesopotamia part of the vast Persian Empire (led by Cyrus the Great)
? ________________________dominated for 800 years until Alexander the Great
Code of Hammurabi
? Code of ________________________on a stone pillar placed in the public hall for all to see
? ________________________ depicts Hammurabi as receiving his authority from god ________________________
? Set of divinely inspired laws; as well as societal laws
? ________________________ were designed to fit the crimes as people must be responsible for own actions
? Hammurabi Code was an origin to the concept of “________________________…” ie. If a son struck his father, the son’s hand would be cut off
? ______________________________________depended on rank in society (ie. only fines for nobility)
Writing
? Greatest contribution of Mesopotamia to western civilization was the invention of writing
? allowed the _______________________________, the codification of laws, records to facilitate trade
? First written communication was ________________________
? As society evolved, the first form of writing was developed called ________________________ (meaning “wedge shaped”), dating to 3500 BCE
? Cuneiform spread to Persia and Egypt and became the ________________________ for the growth and spread of civilization and the ________________________among cultures
Gilgamesh
? ________________________ is an ancient story or epic written in Mesopotamia more than 4000 thousand years ago
? ________________________ is the first known work of great literature and epic poem
? Epic mentions a great flood
? Gilgamesh parallels the ________________________, a six-columned tablet telling the story of the creation of humans and animals, the cities and their rulers, and the great flood ________________________
? ________________________ and the Nippur tablet both parallel the story of Noah and the Ark (________________________) in the Old Testament of the Jewish and Christian holy books
? Modern science argues an increase in the sea levels about 6,000 years ago (________________________)
? the melting ice drained to the oceans causing the sea level to rise more than ten feet in one century
Royal Tombs of Ur
? From 1922 to 1934, an archaeologist named ________________________excavated the site of the ancient Sumerian city of Ur
? City famed ________________________as the home of patriarch Abraham
? many great discoveries such as extravagant jewelry of gold, cups of gold and silver, _________________________________, and extraordinary objects of art and culture
? opened the world's eyes to the full glory of ancient Sumerian culture
Great Death Pit
? Found at Ur was a mass grave containing the bodies of 6 guards and 68 court ladies (______________________________________)
? servants walked down into the grave in a great funeral procession
? they drank a ________________________and fell asleep never to wake again, choosing to accompany the kings and queens in the afterlife
Legacies of Mesopotamia
Revolutionary innovations emerged in Mesopotamia such as:
? ________________________the concept of kinship and the city-state
? the building of places of worship (________________________)
? the birthplace of writing (________________________)
? _____________________________________________
? Oldest written records of a story of creation date back to Mesopotamia
? First civilization to make a prosperous living based on large scale agriculture