1. Mesopotamia

3. Between the Rivers
Geography Promotes civilization

4. Geography??? Farming began in southern Mesopotamia in 5500 BC
Flat, swampy region
The Tigris and Euphrates rivers often flooded during the spring
The floods left a very fertile mud, called silt – this made the soil very rich

5. Geographic Challenges
Little rain
Water from rainfall and snowmelt
Rivers overflow without warning
Rivers dry up

6. Methods of Controlling Water
developed methods to control water (i.e., basins, canals, dikes)
projects required organization!!!
complex government formed

7. Sumer: The Cities of Sumer
First civilization
3,000 BC
mud brick buildings
Temples in the center
ziggurats rose to the sky
Walls surrounded the city
city-state - a political unit with its own government

8. Sumer: Religion and Government
polytheistic
The gods controlled nature
Each City-State had their own personal god
Enlil
Rain Storm
The City’s Center

9. Sumerian priests Priests held high status and governed the city-states
City-states battled for dominance
War chiefs began to rule as kings
Many of the city-states’ kings formed dynasties
A dynasty is a series of rulers from one family

10. Sumerian Culture: Writing
Cuneiform – Sumerian writing
Wedge-shaped symbols on clay tablets
first used to keep business accounts and other records
Epic of Gilgamesh
Scribes created written documents – this required years of schooling, but allowed one to move up in social class

11. Sumer: Scientific advancement
The Wheel
The Plow
Used bronze to make stronger weapons
Medical knowledge, and performed basic surgeries

12. Sumer: The Arts Sumerian architecture: arches, ramps, and columns
Sumerian Sculpture: statues with large, wide-open eyes, as well as small objects carved out of ivory
cylinder seals

13. Empires in Mesopotamia
Frequent warfare weakened Sumer’s city-states.
Each new invader adapted parts of Sumerian culture into its own society

14. Sargon’s Akkadian Empire
2330 BCE
Sargon I – first to create a permanent army
Conquered all of Sumer and northern Mesopotamia
Akkad was the world’s first empire

15. Continued…
Used cuneiform as the main language for religion and literature
Kept the power of the priesthood
Empire lasted for 140 years
spread Sumerian culture
Tribes from the east invaded and captured Akkad

16. The Babylonian Empire
The Amorites settled in Babylon on the Eurphrates, near modern Baghdad, Iraq
Hammurabi became king of Babylon in 1792 BCE
He was a great warrior and UNITED all of Mesopotamia in what is known as the Babylonian Empire

17. Hammurabi Great administrator Managed buildings and projects
Improved the tax collection system
Increased trade
Honored old Sumerian gods
Allowed priests to retain their power
Schools continued to teach the Sumerian language and cuneiform writing

18. Hammurabi’s Code Code of laws
282 laws dealing with everything from trade and theft to injury and murder

19. Decline of Babylon After Hammurabi’s death, Babylonian power declined
Less than 200 years later, the empire had fallen