1. Essential Question:
What were the important characteristics of the civilizations in Mesopotamia?
Warm-Up Question:
Why was the Neolithic Revolution such a big deal?
Which of the 5 characteristics of civilizations do you think is most important?

2. What Is Prehistory?
Prehistory is everything that happened before written records.
Writing developed in different places at different times.
This means that, technically, the dates for prehistory vary around the world.
Historians using the term prehistory are generally referring to time before the very first human writing, about 5,000 years ago (circa 3000 BCE).

3. The Stone Age Old Stone Age New Stone Age Paleolithic Age
2,500,000 to 8000 BCE
Made stone chopping tools
Hunter-gatherers
Humans migrated across the globe
End of the Paleolithic coincided with the end of the last ice age
Modern human beings overlapped with Homo erectus and Neanderthals
Cave paintings and small carvings
New Stone Age
Neolithic Age
BCE
Humans made numerous tools, as well as jewelry, from bone, wood, stone, tusks, etc.
Pottery
Permanent settlements
Agriculture (farming)
Animal domestication
Modern human beings left as the only hominids on the planet

4. River Valley Civilizations
The discovery of farming during the Neolithic Revolution allowed nomadic people to settle into civilizations

5. The world’s first civilizations all began in river valleys
The first civilization began in an area known as Mesopotamia

6. Mesopotamia means “land between the rivers” & is often called the “Fertile Crescent” or as the “Cradle of Civilization”
The Tigris and Euphrates Rivers flooded once per year, leaving behind fertile soil ideal for farming

7. The first civilization developed in the Fertile Crescent: Sumer
But, surrounding deserts & the lack of natural barriers attracted outsiders to Mesopotamia made the Sumerians vulnerable to attack

8. The Middle East: “The Crossroads of Three Continents”
The Middle East is called the crossroads because the three continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa come together here

9. Lasting Contributions
Advanced cities:
Sumerian city-states were protected by high walls
At the city center was a temple called a ziggurat

10. Religion and Afterlife
Sumerians practiced polytheistic and their gods were thought to control every aspect of life.
Each city built a ziggurat, a pyramid-temple that soared toward the heavens. At the top was a shrine to the chief god or goddess of the city.

11. Religion
The Sumerians believed in an afterlife, but thought the underworld was a grim place of no release. They buried food and tools with their dead.
Unlike the Egyptians, they did not imagine the afterlife in detail.
They did not believe in rewards and punishments.

12. Lasting Contributions
Specialized Workers:
At the top of society were priests, and then kings
In the middle were skilled workers, like merchants
- At the bottom, were commoners, slaves, etc.

13. Lasting Contributions
Religion: The Sumerians believed in polytheism, or many gods. Each god had power over different forces of nature or parts of their lives. Sumerians believed that people were just the servants of the gods

14. Lasting Contributions
Writing:
Sumerians made the world’s 1st writing called cuneiform
Phoenicians simplified cuneiform to a 22 letter alphabet
Phoenician merchants spread the alphabet throughout the Mediterranean world
The alphabet influenced Greek, Latin, & English

15. Gilgamesh Epic Tablet: Flood Story
The Story of Gilgamesh is similar in that it includes a tale of a global flood to punish man for his wrongdoings. Sound familiar?

16. Lasting Contributions
Technology:
Sumerians inventions include the wheel, sail, plow, & bronze metalwork

17. Akkadians
Sargon, King of Akkad, conquered the city-states (2300 B.C.) and built an empire.
After his death, other invaders swept into the wide valley tumbling his empire into ruin
Akkad were Semitic people, like the Hebrews

18. Babylon - “Gate of God”
The Sumerians were conquered by the Babylonians. The king of Babylon was Hammurabi. Hammurabi united the cities of Sumer and then expanded his empire all the way to Asia Minor

19. The Babylonians
A Semitic people who spoke Akkadian, conquered Mesopotamia in about 2000 B.C. Its capital, Babylon, was on the Euphrates River
The king of Babylon, Hammurabi, brought the empire (much of Mesopotamia) under his control and established the first written laws, criminal and civil.

20. A Crossroads of Trade
Babylon’s location made it a good place for trade. Groups of travelers, called caravans, traveled back and forth from the Sumerian cities in the south to the city of Akkad in the north. Along the way, they always stopped in Babylon to trade.
Babylon had special markets, called bazaars, that people could go to to buy cotton cloth from India. They could also buy spices from Egypt there. Babylon became rich due to trade.

21. Lasting Contributions
Government:
Babylonian King Hammurabi created the first legal code
Hammurabi’s Code had 282 laws based on justice & retaliation (an eye for an eye)
The code had different punishments for the various levels of society

22. Lasting Contributions

23. Babylonia is Conquered
Hammurabi conquered many of the neighboring cities, and he kept expanding his empire. Hammurabi would often go to war against his allies as well. When the city of Elam attacked Larsa, Hammurabi helped Larsa defend themselves. Once Elam was conquered, Hammurabi turned right around and conquered Larsa! Each time that Babylon would conquer another city, Hammurabi would take the city’s chariots, weapons, tools, and all their riches. Trading helped Babylon get rich, and so did conquest.
Though Hammurabi formed a large and rich empire, the people that ruled after him could not keep it together. The empire kept getting smaller and smaller until eventually it was destroyed.

24. Hittites The Babylonian empire fell to Hittite invaders
Hitties were war-like people
Invaded sometime in the 1600 B.C.
Learned to extract iron ore and had a monopoly on the resource

25. The Assyrians Rise to Power
Assyria was a small kingdom of walled cities that was located north of Babylon. Their city was located in open land that was easily attacked, and they had to constantly defend themselves against invaders. Therefore, they became skilled warriors.
At around 1365 B.C., the Assyrians decided that the best defense they had was to attack other countries first, before they could attack them. By 650 B.C., Assyria had conquered a large empire. King Sargon II was a successful and ruthless Assyrian ruler.

26. The Assyrian War Machine
The Assyrians were geniuses at waging war. They invented the battering ram, which they used to pound down city walls. They used catapults to throw rocks at enemies, and the protected their archers (people who use a bow and arrows) with helmets and armor.

27. Assyrian Learning
The capital of the Assyrian Empire was a city called Nineveh. Nineveh became a great city of learning. It had a famous library that held thousands of clay tablets with writings from Sumer and Babylon. These records tell us a lot about life in Mesopotamia.

28. The Assyrians
Warlike people from northern Mesopotamia, the Assyrians began to consolidate a great empire
For 500 years, they earned a reputation for being among the most feared warriors in history
After Assurbanipal’s death, people joined forces to destroy the Assyrian armies.

29. Assyria Overthrown
The people that the Assyrians conquered were constantly rebelling against Assyrian rule. Most of the time, the Assyrians crushed the people who tried to fight them. However, in 612 B.C., two groups joined together to smash the Assyrian empire. These groups were the Medes and the Chaldeans.

30. The New Babylonian Empire
The Chaldeans created a new empire, centered at Babylon after they defeated the Assyrians in 612 BC. The greatest king of Babylon was Nebuchadnezzar II. He rebuilt Babylon and put massive walls around the city to protect it. He also built a great palace with hanging gardens.

31. A New Center for Learning
Under the Chaldeans, the New Babylonian empire became a center of learning and science. Chaldean astronomers charted stars and measured the correct length of the year. Chaldean farmers raised bees for their honey. Many people came to Babylon to share ideas and discoveries.
This clay tablet shows the world that was known to the Babylonians

32. The Fall of the 2nd Babylonian Empire
The second Babylonian empire came under attack and was defeated by the Persians, who were led by Cyrus, in 539 BC. Though the Chaldeans were defeated, the city of Babylon was spared from destruction.

33. The Persian Empire
In 539 B.C. Babylon fell to the Persian armies of Cyrus the Great. In general, Persian kings pursued a policy of tolerance.
Darius unified the Persian Empire in He adapted laws from the people he conquered.
He had hundreds of miles of road built or repaired
He set up a common set of weights and measures and encouraged the use of coins