The Ancient Middle East

Words to Know Fertile Crescent – the area between the Mediterranean Sea and Persian Gulf Mesopotamia – Greek for “land between rivers”; the Tigris and Euphrates Ziggurat – pyramid-like temple City-state – a city with its own government Barter – trading one good for another

Words to Know Polytheism – belief in many gods Dynasty – a family of rulers (kings etc) Cuneiform – oldest writing; done on clay; wedge-shaped symbols; from Sumer Gilgamesh – world’s oldest written story (4,000 years old) Akkad – Addadian city (King Sargon I) with world’s first permanent army Hammurabi’s Code – Babylonian laws (written by King Hammurabi); world’s first written laws

1. Mesopotamia: "Land Between the Two Rivers"

Indo-European Migrations: 4m-2m BCE The Middle East: “The Crossroads of Three Continents”

The Ancient Fertile Crescent Area The Middle East: “The Cradle of Civilization”

Sumerians

Sumerian Religion - Polytheistic Enki Innana Anthropomorphic Gods

Mesopotamian Trade “The Cuneiform World”

Cuneiform: “Wedge-Shaped” Writing

Cuneiform Writing

Deciphering Cuneiform

Sumerian Scribes “Tablet House”

Sumerian Cylinder Seals

Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh Epic Tablet: Flood Story

Ziggurat at Ur Temple “Mountain of the Gods”

The Royal Standard of Ur

Mesopotamian Harp

Board Game From Ur

Sophisticated Metallurgy Skills at Ur

Sargon of Akkad: The World’s First Empire [Akkadians]

The Babylonian Empires

Hammurabi’s [r. 1792-1750 B. C. E.] Code

Some Examples: If a man put out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out. If he breaks another man’s bone, his bone shall be broken. If he put out the eye of a man’s slave, or break the bone of a man’s slave, he shall pay one-half of its value. If a man knock out the teeth of his equal, his teeth shall be knocked out. If any one strike the body of a man higher in rank than he, he shall receive sixty blows with an ox-whip in public.

Hammurabi, the Judge

Babylonian Math

Babylonian Numbers