MesopotamiaAbout 3,500 B.C. to 1,000 B.C.

Mesopotamia

Main Ruling Cultures of Mesopotamia

• Three ruling cultures • Sumer – 3,500 B.C. to 2,300 B.C.• Assyria – 2,300 B.C. to 1,000 B.C.• Babylon – 1,000 B.C. to 500 B.C.

• Located between two rivers – Tigris and Euphrates

• All three cultures built ziggurats, giant pyramid looking temples to worship the sun and moon gods.

• All three were polytheistic, or they believed in many gods

• L

•L

•B.C. means “Before Christ”

•You count backward in time till you get to A.D., then you start at 1 and count forward.

•A.D. means “Anno Domini” which is Latin for the “year of the Lord”

1 B.C. 1 A.D.

DINOSAURS - 60 million years ago that way

2009 A.D.

YOU ARE HERE

3,500 B.C.

Writing began in Sumer• Writing began a way to keep track of

goods bought and sold

• People kept track of their goods using pictograms

• People wrote on clay tablets using a stylus

• These pictures turned into cuneiform over a few thousand years.

Review 1. What objects do archaeologists use to

uncover clues about other cultures?

2. What culture was the first to write their history down using a form of writing?

3. What was the form of writing called that evolved from pictograms?

4. What two rivers supported the first ancient cultures?

5. What does it mean if a religion is polytheistic?

•Each city-state had no more than 40,000 people•Each state was ruled at first by the high priest, and after a few hundred years, by a king •Some city-states were called (Kish, Lagash, Eridu, and Uruk)•They fought wars with each other•They dug small canals for irrigation of their fields•City-states traded as far as Egypt and India

Modern Day Saudi ArabiaEgypt

Modern Day Turkey

Sumerian City-States

Akkadia

• A small culture to the North of Mesopotamia

• Sargon, an Akkadian king, conquered all the Sumerian city-states

• Ruled for 54 years

• Changed the language to Sumerian

Assyria – the first real Empire

• Harsh and violent culture

• Fierce warriors

• Conquered the Mesopotamian city-states

Babylon

• Started as a city-state

• Became great under King Hammurabi

• First leader in history to codify, or organize law

• Link to Fort Gordon Signal Corps News

Review

1. Who was King Hammurabi?

2. What was the main job of the scribes?

3. Which Empire did King Sargon come from: Babylon, Akkadia, Assyria?

4. What does codify mean?

5. What Biblical culture did the empires we talked about, except the Sumerians, take over?

“An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”

- Unknown

King Hammurabi

• Known for the “Code of Hammurabi” written on a stele, or giant carved stone

• First king of Babylon

• Divided law into civil and criminal

• First to write “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”

• There are 300 laws on this Stele

Open-Notes Quiz1. What does “cuneiform” mean?

2. Who first codified, or organized, the laws?

3. Put these cultures in the proper order of being a powerful culture: Assyria, Babylon, Sumer.

4. What does polytheistic mean?

5. What culture did King Sargon come from, and why was he an important ruler?

6. What does A.D. stand for?

7. What two rivers supported the first ancient cultures?

8. Why did ancient people start writing in the first place?

9. What two things did they use to write?

10. What modern day country was most of Mesopotamia in?

11. How many laws were written on the giant stele that was posted in all Babylonian cities?

Extra Credit.

1. What ancient country has the same name today as it did in the ancient days?

2. What ancient culture was captured as slaves by most of the empires that lived in Mesopotamia?

Open-Notes Quiz1. What does “cuneiform” mean?

2. Who first codified, or organized, the laws?

3. Put these cultures in the proper order of being a powerful culture: Assyria, Babylon, Sumer.

4. What does polytheistic mean?

5. What culture did King Sargon come from, and why was he an important ruler?

6. What does A.D. stand for?

7. What two rivers supported the first ancient cultures?

8. Why did ancient people start writing in the first place?

9. What two things did they use to write?

10. What modern day country was most of Mesopotamia in?

CNN News – From Thursday

1. Chinese married people feel social pressure to do what?

2. Is the political left, or the Democratic party, in favor of, or against expanding health care paid for by the government to more citizens?

Extra Credit.

1. What ancient country has the same name today as it did in the ancient days?

2. What ancient culture was captured as slaves by most of the empires that live d in Mesopotamia?

Hittites – 1400B.C.

• Conquered Mesopotamia because of their secret weapon – iron

• Began the Iron Age, weapon making revolution, in Europe, Africa, & Asia

Persian Empire – 539 B.C.

• Cyrus the Great• Created the

largest empire yet seen in the world

• Treated conquered peoples with respect

• Allowed to practice religion

Darius – 522B.C.

• Divided empire into providences called Satrapy

• Linked empire with roads • Created set of common

weights & measures• Created coin to do away

with barter• Single code of laws for

all

Persian religion• One of the earliest

monotheistic religions

• Created by Zoroaster – 600B.C.

• Single wise god – Ahura Mazda

• Sacred book called Zend Avesta

Phoenicians – 1,500 B.C.• Greatest

sailors/explorers of ancient times

• “Carriers of Civilizations”

• Our Alphabet comes from theirs