Mesopotamia presentation
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MESOPOTAMIA CIVILIZATIONBY- Krishna Dutt Shivani Sharma Abhinav Singh Karthick Krishna Apoorva Gangrade Rudrapriya Yadav Anshula Gumber Narendra Anekar Soumya Gupta
The Land between the rivers…
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Good farming conditions Provided fish and
freshwater Easy to travel Easy to trade (way
goods and ideas moved from place to place)
The world’s first civilizations all began in river valleys
Mesopotamia Civilization
To the north and west, it fades into the plains of Syria
The Tigris and Euphrates rivers sit in the land as dominant physical feature
To the south and west, it fades into the Arabian desert
WHY…???
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THE TIGRIS AND EUPHRATES RIVERS FLOODED ONCE PER YEAR, LEAVING BEHIND FERTILE SOIL
IDEAL FOR FARMING OFTEN CALLED THE “FERTILE CRESCENT” OR AS THE
“CRADLE OF CIVILIZATION”
Probably settled before 5000 B.C.
Lasted for approximately 3000 years
The Mesopotamian plain – mainly alluvial Clay – abundantly and cheaply available building materials. Brick manufacture – sun dried or Kiln burnt
The district was named as Mesopotomia (Messos = middle, potamos = river)
FORMATION AND DEVELOPMENT
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SEQUENCE OF CIVILIZATION….(History of Mesopotamia)
SUMERIAN CULTURE, PEAKING IN 3300 BC 4500-2000 BC
AKKADIAN PERIOD 2350 - 2200 BC
BABYLONIAN CULTURE 2000- 1600 BC(Combination of Sumerian and Akkadia)
ASSYRIAN CULTURE 1350 - 612 BC
PERSIAN CULTURE 539 - 330 BC
Priests
Kings and Nobility
Scribes
Craftsmen and Peasants
Slaves
SOCIAL STRUCTURE
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The Sumerians were the first civilization in this area..
IMPACT OF GEOGRAPHY (LOCATION)Unpredictable flooding during periods of little rain / dry summer months
Dug irrigation ditches… brought water to fieldsNo natural barriers for protection…City wall built walls around citiesLimited natural resources, especially building materials
‐ stone, wood, metal
TradeTraded with people around them for theproducts they lacked
Lacked building materials
Used Mud bricks
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Religion and Afterlife Polytheistic religion. Deities were in human forms and represent some natural
phenomenon. Gods were worshipped at huge temples called ZIGGURATS.
• Believed to be homes for gods and goddesses.• Priests were permitted inside the ziggurat• It was their duty to care for the gods and attend
to their needs.
CELLA
ZIGGURAT
SUMMERIAN PERIODFrom about 3000 B.C. many cities grew up in Sumer such as:
Ur Uruk Eridu Mari
The Sumerians became powerful under ruler Ur- Nammu who reigned from 2113-2046 B.C.
He constructed the famous Ziggurat at Ur.City of Ur was at its highest glory and capital of Sumer.
SOCIAL STRUCTURE
GOVERNMET PRIEST,SOLDIERS
MERCHANTSCRAFTMAKERS, LABORERS
SLAVES
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ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTERSTICS Mud was the main building material. Mud was formed into sun brick and built into massive walls Spaces were narrow because of the walling material. Façade of buildings were whitewashed and painted to hide the lack of
attraction of the material. Temples was their major building type.
SUMERIAN PLANNING OF CITY UR
Entire city was surrounded by a canal
The houses are densely packed withnarrow streets between them.
The city was enclosed in wall
Temples were the principal architectural monuments of Sumerian cities.. Mixture of
•residences houses- 1 storey•commercial and industrial buildings
Streets were fronted by courtyard
GREAT ZIGGURAT UR
The temple sits on a three multi-tiered Ziggurat mountain.
Access to the temple is through triple staircase reaching first stage.
The fourth staircase gave access to the second and third stages of the ziggurat and to the temple.
The Great Ziggurat was located as part of a temple complex.
Complex comprised of:- • Ziggurat and its court • Secondary court attached to it and The king was the chief priest of the temple and lived close to it.
Sargon, King of Akkad, conquered the city-states (2300 B.C.) and built an empire.
After his death, other invaders swept into the wide valley tumbling his empire into ruin.
AKKADIANS
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The fifth king of the first Dynasty was Hammurabi(1792-1750B.C.)
Babylonian civilization mainly developed in the central southern region of the Mesopotamia. (Present day Iraq)
BABYLONIAN PERIOD
CITY PLAN OF BABYLON
Babylonians invented the idea of a circle containing 360 degrees and the hour containing sixty minutes.
The king build new walls to protect the city and new canals and dikes to improve crops
Economy was based on agriculture and wool / cloth
Individuals could own land around cities
Grain used as the medium of exchange.
KING HAMMURABI’S BABLYON
Hammurabi’s Legacy: Law codeTo enforce his rule, Hammurabi collected all the laws of Babylon in a code that would apply everywhere in the land.Code of 282 laws inscribed on a stone pillar placed in the public hall for all to seeHammurabi Code was an origin to the concept of “eye for an eye…”Consequences for crimes depended on rank in society (ie. only fines for nobility) Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology
The city of Khorsabad demonstrate Assyrian architecture.
ASSYRIAN PERIOD
Located on the upper Tigris
The cities of Assyria were Nineveh, Dun, Khorsabad, Nimrud and Assur.
During the Assyrian periods, temples lost their importance to palaces
Assyrian kings built walled cities, in which palaces took precedent over religious buildings
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CITY OF KHORSABAD
TEMPLESTATE COURT
ENTRANCE COURT
RAMP
PALACE OF SARGON, KHORSABAD
Khorsabad was designed as the royal capital of Assyria
Built by Sargon II in 720 BCE
It illustrates the main characteristics of Assyrian architecture and planning
At the centre of the city 25acre palace occupied a plateau 55’ above the level of town
The city was built on a flat land and enclosed by a double wall with seven city gates. The palace was located on the north west side of the city
Govt. buildings in the palace area were bordered by a sturby. Rising near the central axis was a 7 stage ziggurat. 143’ sq base
THE PERSIAN EMPIRE In 539 B.C. Babylon fell to the Persian armies of Cyrus the Great.He had hundreds of miles of road built or repaired.He set up a common set of weights and measures and encouraged
the use of coins.
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Mesopotamia, specifically Babylon used a mathematical system based on sixty as all their numbers were expressed as parts of or multiples of sixty.
Some parts of the ‘base-sixty’ system still remain today: 360 degrees in a circle, 60 seconds in a minute and 60 minutes in 1 hour.
Devised a calendar base on cycles of the moon (number of days between the appearance of two new moons was set as a month; 12 cycles made up a year
INTERESTING FACTS
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THANK YOU...