1. Mesopotamia Unit I- 8000 BCE - 600 B.CE
Originally created by Ms. Susan M. Pojer Horace Greeley HS Chappaqua, NY

2. Changes resulting from Neolithic Revolution
What happened to food supplies?
Agricultural skills, technology and use of animals to control production increased production efficiency and food supply
Human population?
Increased due to longer life spans and more children to tend land and animals
Occupations?
Fewer people needed to produce food creates new occupations and specialization like priests, traders and builders
Gender differences?
Distinction develops between agricultural societies and nomads (hunter/gatherers)
Patriarchial systems developed where men held power in family, government, and economy as women become responsible for domestic home duties (Banpo- China- Matriarchial)

3. Nature of civilization
What are the central characteristics of civilization?
Large cities dominating the countryside around them in order to guarantee food supplies
Public building projects and monumental architecture
Complex political organization to coordinate activities and protect population using authority systems based on kinship, military prowess, and merit or ability.
Written language to communicate multiple ideas and large amounts of information
Specialization of labor evolving from increased food production and improving overall quality of life through engineers, traders, artists and bureaucracies to serve community
Growth of art and literature serves to enrich and preserve culture
Long distance trade with other civilizations leading to cultural diffusion, spreading and sharing material culture (pottery, tools, textiles) and nonmaterial culture (beliefs, customs values and ideas)

4. Civilization Pro’s and Con’s
Advantages of Civilization
Specialization of skills, inventions, arts and literature
Economically and politically coordinated cities
Increased ability to protect population from internal and external dangers
Improved quality of life and prosperity
Disadvantages of Civilization
Increase class and gender distinctions create oppression and inequality
Overproduction of land and depletion of resources with increased population
Increased threat from “outside” attracted to wealth and internal crime promoted by crowded conditions and inequality
Creates life threatening congestion, pollution, disease
Recurrent theme in successive time periods and multiple societies between rural and urban lifestyle divisions

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

6. “Land between the Rivers”
Mesopotamia
“Land between the Rivers”

7. The Ancient Fertile Crescent “The Cradle of Civilization”

8. Effects of cities Cities bring massive changes to human life
Alter physical environment (agricultures, slash and burn, ziggurats)
New means of transport (wheel, sailboat) need generated by lack of natural resources
Metallurgy new use for metals (tools, weapons): the beginning of Bronze Age
Human organization and structure changes (governments)
Division into social classes (royal, religious, landholding)
Specialization (scribes, artisans, traders, warriors, farmers)
Record keeping needed lead to development of language and writing

9. Characteristics of city states
1. Scale / physical size, population, and territory controlled are greater Chatal Hayuk to Sumer and others ,000
2. Religion / Power rests in the hands of priests ( Theocratic Socialism ) and prestige and power of royalty derived from religious domain By 2800 B.C.E. kings became hereditary position
Role of religion
City is center for religion (ziggurats as homes to Gods) Importance of priests increases
Sacred marriage in New Years ceremonies
Royal tombs for kings emphasizes religious role
3. Specialization / specialists with defined roles establish hierarchical classes
4. Trade & Markets / contributes to economic and social complexity and growth
5. Monumental architecture / Impress residents and enemies
6. Writing develops from pictograms to ideograms to cuneiform Record keeping and literature leads to Epic of Gilgamesh and codes of law

10. Mesopotamian Civilizations
Sumerian
B.C.E.
Gilgamesh, Ur, Uruk [Southern Iraq]
Akkadian
B.C.E.
Sargon I aka Nimrod, Babylon, Ninevah [central]
Assyrian
B.C.E. / B.C.E. [Northern]
Babylonian
B.C.E. / B.C.E.
Hammurabi to Nebuchadnezzer [Central Iraq]

12. Rise of Sumer Migration of Sumerians to Mesopotamia (4000 B.C.E.)
Opportunity and need combine to create city
Challenges of river valley (floods and farming create need for irrigation)
Lack of natural resources encourages long distance trade
Need for protection and aggression results in disputes over resources
Age of warring cities (Ur, Uruk, Lagash, Nippur) B.C.E.
Creation of the first empires (control of other lands and people)
Eventual creation of city-states and unified empires

13. Sumerians

15. Ziggurat at Ur
Temple
“Mountain of the Gods”

17. Sumerian Religion - Polytheistic
Enki
Innana
Anthropomorphic Gods

19. Mesopotamian Trade
“The Cuneiform World”

20. Cuneiform: “Wedge-Shaped” Writing

21. Cuneiform Writing

22. Deciphering Cuneiform

23. Sumerian Scribes
“Tablet House”

24. Sumerian Cylinder Seals

25. Gilgamesh

26. Gilgamesh Epic Tablet: Flood Story

27. Sumerian Innovations Wheel [from pottery wheel] Cuneiform Astronomers
Arithmetic base of 10 and 6
Clock of 60 seconds, minutes, 12 hours, 12 months
Military formations
Codified law /administration [govt]
Agriculture and irrigation
Wheat, barley, sheep, cattle

28. Akkadian Empires
The first “empire”

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

30. The Royal Standard of Ur

31. Skilled artisans

33. Board Game From Ur

34. Akkadian Innovations Given credit for the world’s first empire
Sargon of Akkad aka Nimrod
Multiethnic centrally ruled empire
Euphrates River to Mediterranean with parts of modern-day Iran,Syria, Anatolia, and Arabian Peninsulas
Continuation of Sumerian civilization and innovations

35. “A land bathed in blood”
Assyrian Empires
“A land bathed in blood”

36. The Assyrian Empire
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37. Assyrian Military Power
Assyrian soldiers carrying away the enemy’s gods.

39. Jewish Captives: 8c BCE

40. Assyrian Innovations
During this time, metal technology evolves to work with Bronze
Mostly known for military prowess:
excavation of city walls, battering rams, corps of engineers, pontoons, “life” jackets
Combines Sumer and Akkad lands
Fertile Crescent, Egypt, Anatolia with the capital at Nineveh

41. Hammurabi to Nebuchadnezzer
Babylonian Empires
Hammurabi to Nebuchadnezzer

42. Ishtar Gate

43. Hanging Gardens of Babylon and tower of Babel

44. Israelites in Captivity

45. Sophisticated Metallurgy Skills at Ur

46. The Babylonian Empires

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

48. Hammurabi, the Judge

50. Babylonian Math

52. Babylonian Numbers

53. Nebuchadnezzar II’s Babylon

55. Babylon under the Chaldeans

56. Babylonian Innovations
Recorded laws and customs- first major collection of laws
“Eye for an Eye, tooth for a tooth”
Sharp division of classes- nobles, priests, artisans, merchants, farmers, slaves
Women could own property*
Strong paternal role
Business practices-such as loans, contracts
Astrology
First fell to Hittites (Iron) and eventually Fell to Persians

57. Works Cited
Bentley, Jerry H. and Ziegler, Herbert F. Traditions and Encounters: A Global Perspective on the Past. 4th Edition. Boston, MA: McGraw Hill
Bulliet, Richard, Daniel R. Headrick David Northrup, Lynman L. Johnson, and Pamela Kyle Crossley. The Earth and Its Peoples: A Global History. Boston: Houghton Mifflin
Spodek, Howard. The World's History, Third Edition. 3rd ed. Pearson Prentice Hall