1. Warm-up Activity: Get out a blank piece of paper
Write your name at the top
Reread the letter that complains about the gardeners. You can find this letter on page 8 of your reading packet at the top of the page.
1. Write a law that relates to the gardeners who stole the dates.
2. What should be their punishment?
3. What should happen to the people who didn’t tell about the theft?
Turn this in on the front table
Pick up a note sheet and complete the vocabulary section… use your reading packet to help

2. Legacy of Mesopotamia Section 3 Jordan Cotten 6th Grade Social Studies
Fertile Crescent Unit 3
Legacy of Mesopotamia
Section 3
Jordan Cotten
6th Grade Social Studies

3. Vocabulary Code Cuneiform
___________ = organized list of laws or rules
___________ = form of writing that uses groups of wedges and lines; used to write several languages of the Fertile Crescent
Cuneiform

4. King Hammurabi Hailed from Babylonia Ruled from 1792 B.C. – 1750 B.C.
Died 1750 B.C.
Very successful leader
Won numerous conquests
throughout Mesopotamia

5. written Hammurabi’s Code First code of laws _________ down
Believed laws should apply fairly
Instructed Babylonians how to settle conflicts in all areas of life
282 laws organized into categories
Trade, labor, property, family, adopting children, practicing medicine, hiring wagons or boats, controlling dangerous animals, etc.

6. Stela = stone slab
Clay Tablet

7. I got to see it….

8. “eye for an eye”
A man who blinded another person would have his eye pulled out.
Not equal for everyone
Refer to page 6 in reading packet
Read the passage at the beginning of section

9. What does this mean?
“If a man destroyed the eye of a man of the class of gentlemen, they shall destroy his eye. If he has broken a gentleman’s bone, they shall break his bone. If he has destroyed the eye of a commoner or broken a bone of a commoner, he shall pay one mina of silver. If he has destroyed the eye of a gentleman’s slave, or broken a bone of a gentleman’s slave, he shall pay half [the slave’s] price. If a gentleman, they shall cut off [the slave’s] ear.”

10. What about women? Women were to be obedient to husbands and fathers
A man could sell his wife or
children into slavery to pay
off a debt.

11. Not So Equal… Higher class victim = harsher penalty
Accidentally breaking rules just as
guilty as someone doing it on purpose
Ex: “If a surgeon performed a
major operation on a citizen
with a bronze lancet [knife]
and has caused the death of this
citizen…his hand shall be cut off.”

12. Everyone knew the rules Everyone knew the punishments
Why was Hammurabi’s Code so important?
They were written down
Everyone knew the rules
Everyone knew the punishments

13. Activity: Hammurabi’s Code
In groups of 3:
Read each scenario from Hammurabi’s Code
Write what you think would/should happen for each one
5 minutes to complete
Get your group laptop when you are done
Log onto laptops

14. Activity Continued: Hammurabi’s Code
Go to
At the top, click on down arrow and select Rockingham County Middle School
Click on Staff Websites
Click on Mrs. Cotten’s website
Click on the link for Hammurabi’s Code under Daily Updates
Compare your answers on your paper to what King Hammurabi really did
Explore the site and learn more about the harshness of his Code

15. The People Vs. King Hammurabi
Debate:
The People
Vs.
King Hammurabi

16. Debate: Continued Read about King Hammurabi and his Code
Argue on behalf of Hammurabi
Argue on behalf of poor people/slaves
Prepare your arguments as a group
Be ready to defend your position and also illustrate how your opposition’s reasons are “wrong”

17. Journal Entry
Title: Writing Date: Today’s Date
Answer the following in a minimum of 10 sentences
15 minutes to complete
How different would our lives be without writing? Consider how little we would know about the achievements and mistakes of people in history. How would we communicate over long distances, keep records, or understand the laws of our country? What would day-to-day life be like?

18. scribes The Art of Writing Developed 3500 B.C. Sumerians began writing
Sumerians kept records
Record keepers VERY important
Very few writers
Positions held by
________
scribes

19. I got to see this…

20. What did the scribes do? Recorded: Sales and trade Tax payments
Gifts for the gods
Marriages
Deaths
Calculated military supplies and food
Calculated need for workers on
government projects

21. “Pages” of Hard Clay Scribes wrote on clay Provided by Tigris and
Euphrates Rivers
Shaped soft, wet clay
into tablets
Used a stylus to mark in
wet clay
Set clay out in sun to dry
Made permanent record

22. What’s in a shape? Shape and size of tablet depended on purpose:
Large = reference
Small = letters or postcards, personal messages
Letter about gardeners

23. From Pictures to Writing…
Writing developed over time
People drew pictures… each important object would have its own symbol
Symbols changed over time
Scribes combined symbols to make wedges and lines known as cuneiform
Cuneiform used to represent different languages… very useful in a land
of many peoples

24. Sumerian
script

25. Shows how pictures turned into words (symbols) over time
HEAD

26. Try These: http://www.penn.museum/cgi/cuneiform.cgi