Woden’s Day, January 16: Mesopotamia

EQs: Where was Mesopotamia, why is it called that, why is it called “The Cradle Of Civilization,” and how did they write?

  • Welcome! Gather pen/pencil, paper, wits!
  • Review of CLOZE: Intro to World Lit
  • BCE/CE/BC/AD
  • “arbitrary signals”
  • The Truths of Fiction
  • Gilgamesh’s World
  • Mesopotamia
  • Cuneiform
  • CLOZE: Mesopotamia
  • Begin Group Project: Cuneiform Me!
  • In small groups, students create cuneiform codes and messages

ELACC12RI3: Analyze and explain how individuals, ideas, or events interact and develop

ELACC12W6: Use technology to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing

ELACC12W9: Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis

ELACC12W10: Write routinely over extended and shorter time frames

ELACC12SL1: Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions

ELACC12L4: Determine/clarify meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases

ELACC12L6: Acquire and use general academic and domain-specific words and phrases

CLOZE: WorldLit

  1. A class called “World Literature” could cover all the Earth’s people, places, and times, but we will limit ourselves to works produced between the years ______BCE and ______CE.
  2. “BCE” stands for “B C E.” Modern scholars use this instead of “BC,” which means “B C .”
  3. “CE” stands for “C E.” Modern scholars use this instead of “AD,” which means “A D .”
  4. Why do modern scholars prefer “BCE/CE” to “BC/AD”?
  5. Define hemisphere: ______
  6. Define quadrasphere: ______
  7. We will focus on the ______Quadrasphere, often called ______.
  8. “Language” is best defined as “any ______of ______
  9. By this definition, why is this not language: 
  10. Define: logos
  11. Define: iconos
  12. Define: narrative
  13. Define: exposition
  14. Define: lyric
  15. Define: argument
  16. What would be meant by saying that “The Three Little Pigs is a true story”?

The Epic of Gilgamesh is an epic poem about a famous king of Uruk. There may or may not have been a real Gilgamesh, but there was a real Uruk, a Sumerian city in Mesopotamia.

“Mesopotamia” means “between the rivers”

(Gk. meso “middle” + pota “rivers”)

Tigris and EuphratesRivers in modern Iraq ( “Uruk” = “Iraq”)

This area sometimes is called “The Fertile Crescent”because the rivers and climate made it good farming.

For that reason, the first cities in the world–in modern sense as collections of people, buildings, streets, services – were built here.

And for THAT reason,Mesopotamia is sometimes called “The Cradle of Civilization.”

In about 3300 BCE, people in Mesopotamiamadedents in clay.

This is called cuneiform

(Latin cun “dent,” “wedge” + form “shape”).

Cuneiform is one of the first styles of writing in the world.

At first it was used on a small scale for simple messages, as on this clay cylinder – basically a receipt about stock on a ship:

Later, cuneiform was used for more complex purposes. The Epic of Gilgamesh is, so far as we can tell, the first story to be written down anywhere in the world. Oral versions probably existed from 2500 BCE – 1000 years before it was inscribed in cuneiform on this clay tablet in about 1500 BCE.

CLOZE: Mesopotamia

  1. The Epic of Gilgamesh is about a famous king of ______, a Sumerian city in the modern country of ______(the names sound very similar).
  2. Mesopotamiacomes from Greek words meaning “______the ______”
  3. What two rivers frame Mesopotamia?
  4. The area was sometimes called “The ______Crescent” because:
  1. The first ______in the world were built there.
  2. For that reason, Mesopotamia is sometimes called “The ______of ______.”
  3. Cuneiform was first used in ______in about the year ______BCE.
  4. Define cuneiform: ______
  5. The Epic of Gilgamesh probably existed in oral form in about ______BCE, and written on a cuneiform tablet in about ______BCE.

Begin Group Project: Cuneiform Me!

  1. Divide into pairs – or, if you wish, you may work alone. PHYSICALLY MOVE YOUR DESKS TOGETHER so that I can discern each group.
  1. Your pair, or your lonely self, will function as a nation of people. Decide on a “working name” for your nation.
  1. Fill out the Project Sheet I give you.
  1. Create a cuneiform alphabet out of ONLY lines, curves and dots. Remember that language consists of ARBITRARY signs – no numbers, letters or almost-letters, pictures, etc.

  1. Write out a brief message (30 – 50 characters) in your code.

WorldLitComp Group Project: Cuneiform Me!

Complete this worksheet and submit it today. I will use it to remind you of your mission.

Group Name:

Group Members’ Names:

Below, write out the code you will use to write your message.

On the back of this page, write out your message and its translation.

WorldLitComp Group Project: Cuneiform Me!

Complete this worksheet and submit it today. I will use it to remind you of your mission.

Group Name:

Group Members’ Names:

Below, write out the code you will use to write your message.

On the back of this page, write out your message and its translation.