The Fertile Crescent Chapter 2:ii

[Image Source: Biblical Archaeology Review, July/August 1996, p. 56.]

The archaeologist

Sir Leonard

Woolley discovered

the city of Ur.

The Crown of Queen Pu-Abi.

[Image source: National Geographic]

Woolley’s work showed that people had lived in Mesopotamia for a long time.

[Image source: Biblical Archaeology Review, July/August 1996, p. 56.]

People from Arabia and the highlands of Turkey migrated to the Fertile Crescent ca. 5000 years B.C.

Clogged with deposits of silt, the Tigris and Euphrates rivers often overflowed, sometimes sweeping

entire villages away.

[Image source: http://members.tripod.com/jaydambrosio/mesopotamia.html]

Villages in early Mesopotamia built elaborate

systems to control seasonal

flooding and divert river

water to irrigate their fields.

By 4000 B.C. Mesopotamian farmers were producing an abundance of grain crops.

Circa 3500 B.C. the Sumerians settled in the lower part of the Tigris-Euphrates river valley.

[Image source:http://www.faculty.fairfield.edu/faculty/jmac/meso/meso.htm]

The region they settled in Mesopotamia

became known as Sumer.

A ziggurat, or temple, was at the center of every Sumerian city.

[Image source: http://www.taisei.co.jp/cg_e/ancient_world/ur/aur.html]

Ziggurats were composed of a series of terraces with a temple or

shrine on the top.

[Source: http://www.jlc.net/~brian/art/fertile_crescent.html]

Only priests and priestesses were allowed to enter the

shrine, which was dedicated

to the city-state’s chief

deity.[Image source: http://www.faculty.fairfield.edu/faculty/jmac/meso/meso.htm]

This is longer

than the line

at Disney

World!

Every Sumerian city-state was originally governed by a council of nobles and an

assembly of wealthy citizens.

[Image source: http://www.crystalinks.com/sumergods.html]

Hey! Cold

hands!

By 2700 B.C. many of the

Sumerian city-states had become

hereditary monarchies governed by

kings.[Image source: http://www.jlc.net/~brian/art/fertile_crescent.html]

Sumerian kings also served as

the high priest, representing the city-state’s chief

deity.[Image source:

http://members.tripod.com/jaydambrosio/mesopotamia.html]

Sumerian city-states were also theocracies where much of the land belonged to the local deity.

[Image source: http://www.taisei.co.jp/cg_e/ancient_world/ur/aur.html1

Game of Ur

[Image source: http://members.tripod.com/jaydambrosio/mesopotamia.html]

Roles of Men and Women

Family life and the roles of men and women was regulated by

Sumerian law.

[Image source: http://www.taisei.co.jp/cg_e/ancient_world/ur/aur.html]

As heads of households,

men exercised great authority over their wives

and children.

[Image source: http://home.korax.net/~websiter/postcards.html]

Sumerian law allowed men to

sell family members into

slavery in order to retire a debt!

[Image source: http://arthistory.about.com/arts/arthistory/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww-oi.uchicago.edu%2FOI%2FMUS%2FHIGH%2FOIM_A12332.html]

Women were allowed to

buy and sell property, operate

businesses, and own and

sell slaves.[ http://www.upenn.edu/museum/Collections/royaltombsoverview.html]

Writing on

Clay Tablets

[Image source: http://early-cuneiform.humnet.ucla.edu/archaic/index.html]

By 3100 B.C. the Sumerians developed a system of writing

known as cuneiform, or “wedged-shaped writing,” to keep records.

[Image source: http://www-oi.uchicago.edu/OI/PROJ/SUM/Sumerian_Tablet.html1]

Cuneiform began with pictograms or pictures meant to represent the items

depicted.

[Image source: http://www.upenn.edu/museum/Games/cuneiform.html]

[Image source: National Geographic]

Sumerians wanting to

become scribes spent many

years studying in schools

called eddudas.

The Epic of Gilgamesh, possibly the

oldest story in the world, was first written in

cuneiform circa 1850 B.C.

[Image source: http://members.tripod.com/jaydambrosio/mesopotamia.html]

Sumerians used cylinder seals to “sign” legal documents.

[Image source: http://members.tripod.com/jaydambrosio/mesopotamia.html]

Sumerian Religion

[Image source: http://www.faculty.fairfield.edu/faculty/jmac/meso/meso.htm]

Each Sumerian deity presided over a specific

natural force or human activity.

An, the highest

Sumerian deity, was

responsible for the seasons.

Oh, Great

God An....

Enlil, god of winds

and agriculture created the hoe (ho?).

I’m his Ho,

ho, ho!

Each city-state had a patron god or goddess to

whom they prayed.[Image source: http://crystalinks.com/sumerart.html]

Sumarians pictured their

deities as unpredictable,

selfish beings who had little regard for human life.

Sumerian priests and priestesses performed religious ceremonies

and rituals in an effort to appease their tempermental dieties.

[Image source: http://crystalinks.com/sumerart.html]

Sumerians viewed the afterlife as a grim

underworld devoid of light or air.

Sumerian Inventions

[Image source: Scientific American]

[Image source:http://www.faculty.fairfield.edu/faculty/jmac/meso/meso.htm]

Wagon wheel

Arch

[Image source: http://www.nps.gov/jeff/arch-ov.htm]

Potter’s wheel

[Image source: http://billtom.home.mindspring.com/dgates/wheel.html]

Sun Dial

[Image source: http://www.floridaplants.com/store/sundials.htm]

The Sumerians developed a number system based on 60 and a 12-month calendar.

First to make bronzeout of copperand tin.

{image source: Scientific American]

[Image source: http://www.upenn.edu/museum/Collections/royaltombsoverview.html]

The Sumerians produced an abundance of finely crafted metal work,

some of which was recovered in the Royal

Cemetery at Ur.

The First Mesopotamian

Empires

The first empire-

builder in Mesopotamia was Sargon I

of Akkad.

[Image source: http://www.hp.uab.edu/image_archive/ue/ueg.html]

Sargon I conquered all the city-states of Mesopotamia and united

them in one empire.

[Image source: http://www.crystalinks.com/sumermilitary.html]

Akkadian empirecirca 2200 B.C.

Under Sargon, the

people of Mesopotamia began to use

the Akkadian language.

[Image source: http://www.crystalinks.com/akkadia.html]

The city-state of

Ebla was located

northwest of the

kingdom of Akkad.

[Images source: National Geographic]

Control of the overland trade routes between Egypt and Mesopotamia

made Ebla a wealthy city.

[Image source: National Geographic]

Sargon’s grandson

Naram-Sin captured and burned the city of Ebla.

[Image source: National Geographic]

The destruction of Ebla had the effect of preserving a vast

library of cuneiform texts.

[Image source: http://www.mazzaroth.com/ChapterFour/Ebla.htm]

The Amorites, a Semitic people from western Syria, poured into Mesopotamia and overran many Sumerian cities circa 2000 B.C..

Hammurabi, a scion of the dynasty founded at Babylon,

brought the entire region under his control.

Hammurabi organized a

strong government

and worked to increase the prosperity of

his people.[Image source: http://members.tripod.com/jaydambrosio/mesopotamia.html]

Source: Biblical Archaeological Review, March/April 1995, p. 49.

Hammurabi created a

unified code of law that regulated

most aspects of daily life.

Hammurabi’s Code clearly stated which actions were considered violations and assigned specific

punishments for each.

[Image source: http://www.getnet.com/~labores/babylonia.html]

Hammurabi’s purpose was

“to make justice appear in the

land.”

[Image source: http://www.getnet.com/~labores/babylonia.html]

Hammurabi’s code consisted of 282 sections, some of which dealt with:

• property of married women

• adoption and inheritance

• interest rates on loans

• damage to fields by cattle

Source: Biblical Archaeological Review, March/April 1995, p. 53.

Hammurabi’s Code divided society into three social classes:

kings, priests, &

nobles

artisans,

merchants,

scribes, & farmers

slaves

The Babylonians borrowed heavily from Sumerian culture.

• Why? Duh! Same people, same place, different government.

The Hittites conquered Babylon circa 1600 B.C.