Chapter 2Early Civilizations

World History

Fall 2008 Hasquin

Section 2 – The Fertile Crescent

Setting the Scene

Terms:City-State, Cuneiform

People to Meet: The Sumerians, Sargon I, the Akkadians, Hammurabi

Places to Locate:Fertile Crescent, Mesopotamia, Tigris and Euphrates Rivers

Ancient River Valley Civs

The Twin Rivers

People move into the area between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers from Asia Minor.

The area is known as Mesopotamia

“Land between the Rivers”

An area of the Fertile Crescent

Made up of modern nations of Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Syria & Iraq

Rivers continuedNeolithic farmers used the T&E to water their crops.

The T&E do not flood regularly like the Nile.Dry summers and wet springs complicate agriculture.

Floods were strong and unpredictable.

Dams, levees and channels were constructed to control floodwaters and irrigate crops.

Surplus grains were being produced by 4000 BC.

The Sumerian Civilization

Central Asian Sumerians move into Mesopotamia – 3500 BC

The Southern area of T&E become known as Sumer

Sumer is the birthplace of some of the world’s oldest cities

Sumerian City-States

By 3000 BC there are 12 City-States

The 3 most notable are Ur, Uruk and Eridu

A city-state is the city itself and the lands surrounding it.

The people of Sumer share common culture, language, and religion

Each city-state contains a ziggurat or temple.

The ziggurat is layered and has a temple on top.

Sumerian Government

Each city-state was governed independently of the others.

Some were controlled by councils, eventually lead by military leaders, and then kings.

Sumerian kings were also the chief priest

Gov’t was a monarchy and theocracy

Kings oversaw agriculture because it was tied the local deity.

Also handed out punishment for crimes – usually fines.

Roles of Men and Women

Family life and the roles of men and women were regulated.

Men had authority over women and children.

Women had few rights, but were able to own property and run a business.

Writing on Clay Tablets

Commerce was the driving force behind life in Sumer.

Writing was developed to keep track of business transactions

Writing dates to 3100 BC and is the oldest system

Cuneiform uses pictograms and used wedge-shaped characters.

Writing continued

The pictograms were made by pressing a stylus into tablets of wet clay and then drying or baking them.

Special training was required to be a writer or “scribe.”

Scribes were important and ranked high in the social class.

Literature was also developed, the most important work being Gilgamesh

Sumer’s Many Deities

Sumerians were polytheistic

Each deity represented a force of natureAn – Seasons, Enlil – Wind and Agriculture

Each city-state laid claim to it’s own deity.

Deities were viewed as unpredictable and selfish.

Humans had little control over their lives and the afterlife was grim and unwelcoming

Sumerian InventionsInvented the wagon wheel

The Arch

Potter’s Wheel

Sundial

12 Month Calendar

360 days

Base 60 numerical system

Bronze – Tin and Copper (Alloy)

Metal Plow

First Mesopotamian Empires

Sumer will eventually fall to outside invaders.

Sargon I was the 1st empire builder of Mesopotamia

Mystical life

Builds Akkadian Empire in Northern Mesopotamia

Expands and unites all of Mesopotamia under his rule

Mother abandons him in a reed basket on the Euphrates river

Rescued and raised by farmer

Established kingdom in North Mesopotamia – Akkad

Sargon wants to expand empireUnites city state 800 years before Egyptian new kingdom

Akkadian language replaces Sumerian

AmoritesExpanded into Syria

Overrun Sumerian city-states and capture city of Babylon

Babylon becomes capitol and Hammurabi becomes king

Hammurabi strengthens government

Babylon becomes major trade center – Egypt to China

Produced grain & cloth

Hammurabi’s Code of Law“To make justice appear in the land”

Collected laws of different city-states

282 law sections dealing with daily life

Penalized wrongdoers severely

“eye for an eye”

Laws were written to protect the less powerful

Three classes of Babylonian social classes – Kings, priest, nobles- artisans, farmers – slaves

Most slaves were captured in war

Used cuneiform for writing

Babylonian empire declines after Hammurabi’s death

Hittites break empire apartBabylon will reemerge as the Chaldeans

The Fertile Crescent

Ziggurat at Ur

Cuneiform Symbols

Gilgamesh

Akkadian Empire

Sumer & Early Empires