Empires of the Fertile Crescent

* The movement of people across the Fertile Crescent resulted in the change of ideas.

Sumerian Civilization› The Fertile Crescent gave rise to

the Sumerian civilization in the Tigris-Euphrates Valley

i. Rivers: Tigris & Euphrates

Sumerian Civilization

ii. Sumerian Writing1. Cuneiform: earliest known form of

writing (symbol-based)

Sumerian Civilization

iii.Architecture and Science1.Ziggurats – wedding cake-shaped

temples 2.First to develop and use the wheel3.Math- 60

Sumerian Civilization

iv. City-State: included a town or city and the surrounding land controlled by it.

v. Religion: Believed in a shadowy

lower world afterlife

Empires of the Fertile Crescent

a. Akkadians1. Sargon of Akkad- had first empire in

Sumeria

Empires of the Fertile Crescent

b. Babyloniansi. Code of Hammurabi

- 1st major collection of laws

Empires of the Fertile Crescent

c. Hittites: Invaders that had iron technology

d. Assyrians: Most feared warriors of Sumeria

› Kings control througha harsh code of justice

Empires of the Fertile Crescent

e. Chaldeans› Nebuchadnezzar

Ruthless king who encouraged Babylonian learning he received from the Assyrians

Empires of the Fertile Crescent

e. Persians1. Cyrus the Great

Captured Babylon in 539 BC & freed the Jews from captivity

2. Darius United Persian Empire

Culture Religion

› Zoroaster: a Sumerian prophet that taught that evil and righteousness were in constant battle

Culture Farming

› More difficult than Egypt because the flooding was unpredictable