The Fertile Crescent

PreviewPreview• What country is this?

–What significant features stand out to you?

–What cues did you use from the photograph to determine the name of the country?

• Is this a place you would consider visiting? Why or why not.

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• Phocenia wh/ = modern day Lebanon–What cues did you use from the

photograph to determine the name of the country?

• Is this a place you would consider visiting?

• Why or why not do you think this city was and is important?

• The Fertile Crescent

–Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq

–Tigris & Euphrates

•Mesopotamia: Land between the rivers

Civilization begins

1. Growth of cities– 3000 BCE approx. 12 cities

– City=center of trade for lg area

2. Specialized labor– Everyone w/ own job

– Artisan

– Food=$ (how priest were paid)

3. Writing

– Pictographs

– Ideographs

– Cuneiform= “wedge shaped” (pg 21)

4. Advanced Technology

– Wheel, plow, sailboat (3000 BCE)

– Bronze Age 2800 BCE

– Combination of copper & tin

5. Complex Institutions

– Long lasting patterns of organization

– Gov’t marriage, religion, etc.

Geographic Problems & Sumer (Sumerian)

3000-2000 BCE

1. H20: unknown when the rivers would flood; dried mud=desert

– Created irrigation system

2. Defense

– Sumer: size of Massachusetts

– Major city; Ur

– Reed huts; not natural barriers

– Built walls wh/ = creation of bricks

3. Resource

– Traded grain for metal

Religion

Polytheistic:

– Anu, Enlil,Ea w/ 3000 subgods

– Gods were immortal: all powerful w/ human traits

– Ziggurats were built for the priest

– After-life called: land of no return

– Priest: please gods, ran farms, collected taxes, declared war

4100 BCE in Iraq

Class Divisions

• Priest & nobles

• Merchants

• Workmen (farmers/artisans)

• Slaves

War determined leadership

–Who was the best fighter=leader

–Leader passes power down to his oldest son

–Began the concept of “kingship” wh/ later=monarchy

–War for 1000 years

Sumer defeated by Amorites

2000-1800 BCE

–Hammurabi

–Babylon

–Eventually conquered all of Meso. Wh/ = 1st empire

Hammurabi’s Code ( 1792-1750 BCE)

• Babylon needed law

–Carved on stone columns (stele)

–3500 cuneiform lines

–282 specific laws

–88 w/ marriage, family, property

Principles of the code (pg 33)• Retaliation• Double standard btwe. rich

& poor; men & women• Gov’t responsible for

society

• Babylon conquered by nomadic warriors circa1550 BCE

–Territory controlled by many little groups for 700 years

• One of those little groups called the Phoenicians

Phoenicians 1000-700 BCE

• 100 BCE powerful traders & merchants

• Tyre: snails=purple dye

–60,000 sn. = 1 lb of dye

• Trade due to lack of resources

• Est. colonies in Africa including Carthage

• Alphabet: reduced the 600 symbols system to 22 symbols

The Jews 2000-586 BCE

• 2000 BCE group of Jews left Sumerian st.

• Abraham & Sarah led nomadic group to Canaan (Palestine)

• Monotheism: Supreme being, Creator of all things, ruler f the universe

–God went w/ them

• 1650 BCE famine & drought came to Canaan

• Many people-including Jews- migrated to Egypt

• Honor to slaves• 1300-1200 Jews fled: Moses

–Sinai peninsula; Mt. Sinai = 10 commandments=Covenant=1st ethical law

Making the Connection

How are the Ten Commandments different from Hammurabi’s Code?

Have the Ten Commandments influenced modern law in the US and other Western countries?

• Judaism recognized as new religion: Justice, Morality, Relationship

• Again to Canaan=Promised Land– Israel: Jerusalem

– Canaanites not happy

– Kings needed: 1020-922

1.Saul 2. David 3. Solomon

• Solomon

–Ark of the covenant

–Increased taxes

–922: Israel (N) Judah (S)

Iron Age: Bronze out Iron in

• Assyrians 850-612 BCE

–Assurbanipal (Persian Gulf to Med.)

–Greatest power in SW Asia

–1st trained army

–Tortured, killed, enslaved, removed

–Nineveh; library w/ over 25,000 writings

Asshurbanipal on a chariot

during a royal lion hunt.

Chaldeans 612-564 BCE

• Reestablished Babylon

• 1st empire

• Nebuchadnezzar II (605-562)

–Hanging gardens (pump system)

–Dies @ 43 end of Meso. empires

An engraving inside an onyx-stone-eye in a Marduk statue

that depicts Nebuchadnezzar

II

• Stargazers–Ziggurats over 300 ft. high–Priest & stars–Months–Destiny–Zodiac: 12 constellations–Moon: months divided 4 week

Babylonian Captivity

• Jerusalem conquered 586 BCE

• Jews taken as slaves to Babylon

• Monotheism spread

Making the Connection

Why is the spread of monotheism an important event in the development of civilizations?

Persians 550-350 BCE

• Left local customs alone

• Babylon welcomed Persians and Cyrus prayed to their gods

• Jews back to Jerusalem

–Torah in print

• 20 provinces w/ multi nationalities

• Satraps = governors in charge of ea. Province

• Road & Coinage system: standard $

• Zoroaster

–Ahura-Mazda (truth & light)

–Ahriman (evil & darkness)

–Humans knowingly picked a side

–1st hopeful religion

Zoroaster: Iranian prophet

and poet