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
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
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
Chaldeans 612-564 BCE
• Reestablished Babylon
• 1st empire
• Nebuchadnezzar II (605-562)
–Hanging gardens (pump system)
–Dies @ 43 end of Meso. empires
• 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
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