CHW3M Education, Urban & Rural Living, & Economy

February 20th, 2015

MESOPOTAMIAN EDUCATION

At age 8 or 9, boys of the _________ families began to attend ________

Children from the _______-class families were taught life skills at ________

_______ learned a specific ______ such as boat-building or brickmaking, and ______were trained as wives and _________ (clear gender role divisions)

Can you think of a time in recent history (within the last 200 years where society was similar)?

EDUCATION CONT’D

The _______, which was constructed of brick with small windows near the ______, was called an edubba or ‘tablet house’

The children _______ school exercises on ______ tablets (you do not want to make many mistakes!)

Sitting on rows of ________ made of mud bricks, pupils learned _________, arithmetic, _________, history and __________

Students were called ‘_____’, the teacher (who was a priest and scribe) was called ‘_______’, and his monitors were called ‘big _______’? How does this school system compare to our current

school system? Is this where the term ‘big brother’ came from maybe?

EDUCATION CONT’D

The school day ran from ________ to _______, and discipline was very _______

Students who did not do their work ________ were punished

If they made mistakes, they had to ________ the work over and ________ the exercise

If the clay _______ before they could make the connections, the errors remained ________

Archeologists have found many such tablets with the teacher’s ____________ marked on them

URBAN AND RURAL LIVING: SUMER

What was life like in these great cities??? Sumer:

the city-states were surrounded by thick high _____ of mud brick

Inside the walls were a few broad ________, public squares, and ______ marketplaces

The _______ (the most sacred building) was always located in the ________ and served as the focus of most activities including ______ industries and religious ceremonies

Home of lower-class __________ would probably have seemed quite ________ – constructed of sun-dried earthen-brown bricks

SUMERIAN LIVING

A typical home featured a _____ door, and a few windows covered with ________ grilles high up on the walls

An outside ________ led to a flat _______ where people often slept on hot nights

Inside was a _______ room, which was cool and poorly lighted

Decorations were _______ to matting on the floor and woven ________ along the walls

SUMERIAN LIVING CONT’D Wealthy ________ Sumerians lived in more elaborate

homes (we know more about their dwellings because they could afford to build with kiln-dried rather than sun-dried bricks)

These more permanent materials have allowed ___________ to determine more accurately what homes were like

A vestibule (passage) ________ the home to the street Off the vestibule was a large reception room for

guests and a link to an open ______ The open court contained a ______, an _______, and a

grinding _______ for making flour Rooms for dining, ________, and leisure were located

around the court

ASSYRIAN LIVING

In Assyria, the _______ homes of the wealthy were ________ to those in Sumer

Assyrian homes may have been ______ decorated (wall paintings, hangings, fine rugs etc.)

Each room had a niche for _______ and for storing ___________ belongings

For the wealthy families, lavatories (_________) were constructed with asphalt ______ and drains, a testimonial to the excellent technology of the Assyrians

RURAL MESOPOTAMIA

Compared to houses in the cities, the ______ homes of tenant farmers were very _______

They were built close to irrigated ______, each one linked to the nearest neighbour by a well-beaten footpath

_______ was very scarce for construction, the earliest rural dwellings were simple reed huts covered in ____

Later, sun-dried mud ______ were used to build somewhat more permanent dwellings

The homes had flat roofs, were small and ________ to construct, residents had to live with the constant _______ that they might collapse at any time!

HOUSE MANAGEMENT

_____________ of the household was the woman’s responsibility

Wealthy women had household ________ to help them with their daily routine

If there was no ______ in the courtyard, water had to be transported from the ________ well

Grain had to be fetched from the granary, _________ had to be cared for, and food had to be ____________

MESOPOTAMIAN DIET

All peoples of Mesopotamia shared a similar daily _______

_________ was the main meal of the day In poorer homes, family members gathered on

the ______ mats and ate with their _______ from an array of food in baskets/pottery dishes

Wealthy usually dined on _______, eating from tableware – pottery/fine copper cups

Typical menu Baked fish, unleavened bread, goat’s milk, dates,

honey, grapes, and other fruit Wealthy could afford ______, chicken, and _____ Common drinks were _____ and date _____

BANQUETS AND FEASTS

Banquets & ______ were popular forms of entertainment among all _________

The wealthy served lavish spreads of duck, deer, and roasted wild pork on huge _______ platters – side dishes of fruit, vegetables & bread

Even _______ families had feasts & their main dish would be dried or ______ fish (dressed up for the occasion) with a mixture of onions and cucumbers, apples, spices, cheese, and eggs

THE ECONOMY

It was _________ the amount of grain yields that farmers in ___________ were able to produce – in spite of environmental ___________

Farmers had to ________ the floodwaters of the rivers and irrigate the ______ to produce sizeable crop yields

The fertile banks of the Tigris and Euphrates _______ produced three main crops Barley Dates Sesame _______

The best farming lands were ________ in higher regions, out of reach of the floodwaters, or well drained ________

SUMERIAN AGRICULTURE

Sumerian’s were the first people to harness _______ (oxen) to their ploughs They later developed a shoulder-yoke for the

oxen that made ________ the plough easier Next they changed the ______ of the plough so

that it became a _________ for turning soil, not just scratching

They were also the first to add a seed _______ to the plough

SUMERIAN WATER SYSTEMS

Sumerian’s most significant __________ was the system of dams and _______ that they developed to control the floodwaters and for irrigation

Each city-state built a _______ canal that was fed by a dam on either Tigris or Euphrates river

_______ canals were constructed on a _____, water could flow more easily – linked the main canal to ditches surrounding the city’s fields

All channels were controlled by ______ – regulated by __________ or inserting clods of earth

This required HUGE amounts of time & effort

WATER SYSTEM CONT’D

________ was still a major concern At anytime, rushing floodwaters could dump

______ into the canals, clogging them and destroying fields – one ________ canal could be disastrous

The government hired irrigators to help keep the canals _______ Made each farmer __________ for regularly

maintaining them

__________ areas of Mesopotamia didn’t need as much irrigation to grow grain and fruit

ASSYRIAN IRRIGATION

Assyrian’s also developed a system of __________

The farming land (like in Sumer) was limited to a narrow band ______ the river banks

They protected the land by preventing ______, ________, and ______ from grazing on it

Most of the farm animals were raised in ______

On the northern mountain slopes, sheep grazed _______, and wool became an important industry

AGRICULTURE LINK TO SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

Agriculture was closely linked to the _________ and social organizations in Mesopotamia

Sumerians – believed that the land surrounding a particular city-state belonged to the ______ of that city-state

Since priests were the ‘_______’ of gods, the land was owned by the ________ and the priests leased out the land to the __________

MESOPOTAMIAN TAXES Sumerian farmers were expected to _______ 1/3 of the

proceeds from their harvest to the _____of the city-state, and 1/3 to the _______ to help finance the operation of the ___________

The final third was theirs to ______, even though the government still ______ them on their profit!

Between 2500 BCE and 2360 BCE, priests levied _______taxes & confiscated the ______ of any farmer who did not pay – enraged the farmers

Urukagina (King of Lagash) realized how _______ this was and took over the taxing powers of the _______ and returned much of the land to the farmers

During the time of Hammurabi (Babylonian empire) individuals were allowed to own _______ amounts of land around the cities

MESOPOTAMIAN INDUSTRY

________ agricultural industry meant that not all citizens had to ______ – some could become craftspeople or artisans

Workrooms were located around and within the low walls of the __________

Other jobs: Tanners preparing animal skins for containers Military dress Harnesses Potters spinning clay vessels on wheels ___________ making tools/wagons/ships Weavers producing woollen textiles _______ workers (copper/gold/silver/bronze for bowls,

statues, tools, weapons, ornaments)

MESOPOTAMIAN TRADE

Temple _______ kept detailed records and _________ on clay tablets to guarantee that the industries were run ___________

Small ______ called keleks (made of reeds/goatskins) carried ______ up and down the major rivers from one Sumerian city to another

Transport not always ______ (swift currents and sandbanks could capsize boats)

Long ships, powered by square _____ and ______, brought back building stone from ______, copper from Cyprus, gold from _______, and cedar from Lebanon

TRADE CONT’D

In exchange, Sumerians _______ wool, cloth, jewelry, oil, and grains

These ventures in trade ________ an exchange in ________ and ______ that further promoted the development of the civilized ________

Babylonians were the ________ traders, major trade routes met at the city of Babylon

Like the Sumerians and Babylonians, the Assyrians were enthusiastic traders

The places where trade took place became major market ________

TRADE CONT’D

_________ became very important to the economy of major Assyrian cities

A population of craftspeople ______ in each centre

They opened stalls on the streets to exchange their ______, pottery, or woollen _______ for imported products

Like the Sumerians, the Assyrians _______all of their business transactions, however they __________ the system by using fewer signs & symbols