Chapter 2

Taurus Mountains

Tigris

1,720 miles long – 600 ft. wide

Euphrates 1,250 miles long – 750 ft. wide

Persian Gulf

Silt

Drought

Ancient irrigation canals

Ch. 2 Lesson2 Make a vocab list

Civilization…Write this down!!! Civilization – is a centralized society with

developed forms of religion, ways of governing, and learning. A civilization also depends on a stable food supply and on a division of labor system.

This will be on the test!

Technology

Sumerian Technology

Ziggurat

Largest buildings in Sumerian cities.

Religious purpose Became center of

city life

Religion The ancient Sumerians believed in many

gods - many, many gods. They believed that everything that happened to them - be it good or bad - was the result of a god's pleasure or displeasure. 

http://www.mesopotamia.co.uk/gods/explore/exp_set.html

Bull Man

Ishtar

Government

Sumerian Government Government- an organized system that

groups use to make laws and decisions City-state- city and farmland around it

Each had its own leaders and government 1st government- small group of leaders w/

one chief or supreme leader, all helped to make decisions Government changes to a monarchy – one

person has complete authority or control Leaders were said to be chosen by the

gods

City-states

Gilgamesh

The Epic of Gil Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, who was two-thirds god and

one-third man. He built magnificent ziggurats, surrounded his city with high walls, and laid out its orchards and fields. He was physically beautiful, immensely strong, and very wise. Although Gilgamesh was godlike in body and mind, he began his kingship as a cruel despot. He was cruel towards his subjects. He accomplished his building projects with forced labor, and his exhausted subjects groaned under his oppression. The gods heard his subjects’ pleas and decided to keep Gilgamesh in check by creating a wild man named Enkidu, who was as magnificent as Gilgamesh. Enkidu became Gilgamesh’s great friend, and Gilgamesh’s heart was shattered when Enkidu died of an illness inflicted by the gods.

Gilgamesh could not stop grieving for Enkidu, and he could not stop brooding about the prospect of his own death. Exchanging his kingly garments for animal skins as a way of mourning Enkidu, he set off into the wilderness, determined to find eternal life. Gilgamesh finds a plant that restores youth. A snake steals the plant one night while he is camping. As the serpent slithers away, it sheds its skin and becomes young again.

When Gilgamesh returns to his home, he is empty-handed but reconciled at last to his mortality. He knows that he can not live forever but that humankind will. Now he sees that the city he had ruled over and terrorized is a magnificent, enduring achievement—the closest thing to immortality to which a mortal can aspire.

Economics Sumerian farms were producing a surplus

of food Surplus Division of labor Craft workers, managers, merchants

Divisions in Society

King, priests, other leaders and family

Merchants, managers, carpenters,scribes,etc.

Slaves

Gender roles Men had more authority and rights than

women Women could be leaders

Religious Scribes

Women more rights and freedoms than other ancient civilizations Own property Divorce cruel husbands Own businesses

Cuneiform

Cuneiform

Innovations Iku – acre Quart – unit of measurement Cargo boats Writing – cuneiform

Conquests and Empires Why did the Sumerian city- states fight

each other?????

They fought each other for…

Control of fertile land and water rights!

Borders

Sargon

Sargon Official in Sumerian city- state of Kish Killed the king, marched through

Mesopotamia and established an empire Akkad Akkadians

Akkadian Empirearound 2300 B.C.

BabylonAround 1790

Hammurabi Accomplishments?

Accomplishments Promoted trade Building projects Upkeep on dikes and canals Reorganized tax system Code of Hammurabi

The Code 282 laws on an 8ft tall stone slab found

in Susa Top is an engraving of Hammurabi and

Shamash (Sun god) “to promote the welfare of people, make

justice visible in the land , destroy the wicked person and the evil, in order that the strong might not injure the weak”

Laws deal with all aspects of daily life Eye for an eye

Code of Hammurabi

Judgement Example

If anyone brings an accusation against a man, and the accused goes to the river and leaps into the river, if he sinks in the river his accuser shall take possession of his house. But if the river proves that the accused is not guilty, and he escapes unhurt, then he who had brought the accusation shall be put to death, while he who leaped into the river shall take possession of the house that had belonged to his accuser.

After Babylon Kassites (Present day Iran) ruled for

about 400 yrs Assyrians

Mesopotamia + parts of turkey, Egypt and the Persian Gulf

Assyrians Major goal?

To control trade routes in southwestern Asia

How did they conquer? Conquered one by one

Built a system of roads King Medes

Israelites Ancestors of the Jewish people

Abram Abraham

The Journey

Father Abraham Isaac – Jewish people Ishmael – Arab people (Islam) Christianity?

http://www.weebly.com/weebly/main.php