1. Three time periods of Early History
1. Paleolithic or “Old Stone”
Tamed fire
Spoken Language
Art
Invention of tools
“Ice Ages”

2. 2. Mesolithic or “middle Stone”
Gradual progress of
Gathering food
Communities
Weapons
Art

3. 3. Neolithic or “New Stone”
Domesticated animals and plants
Farming revolution
Growth of villages
Earliest civilizations
Jericho (Israel)
Catal Huyuk (Turkey)
Bigger populations
Trade
Specialization
3. Neolithic or “New Stone”

4. The beginnings of world history?
5 of the major religions of the world believed that life began somewhere in the Mesopotamia region.
First civilizations

5. Communities vs. Civilizations (Civilizations were more complex)
Earliest Civilizations developed in Southern Iraq
Between the Tigris and Euphrates
The area was called Mesopotamia
Which is the eastern part of the Fertile Crescent
Fertile Crescent = Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Kuwait, Israel, Jordan, and parts of Turkey and Iran
One of these regions in the Fertile Crescent was Sumer (located in Southern Iraq)
Sumer + Fertile Crescent = Cradle of Civilization
Communities vs. Civilizations (Civilizations were more complex)

6. Sumer’s Contributions to civilization ( Ziggurat pictured above)
Earliest known civilization!
Greatest invention was writing = cuneiform
Oldest known story =
Epic of Gilgamesh
Wagon wheel
Sail Boat
Plow
Geometry
Calendar
City-States
Sumer’s Contributions to civilization ( Ziggurat pictured above)

7. The Worlds First Empires
Akkadians – Northern Mesopotamia
The king of the Akkadians was Sargon
He conquered ALL of Mesopotamia and established the worlds first empire
The empire would last 200 yrs
The Worlds First Empires

8. King of Babylon - Hammurabi
Next would be the Babylonian Empire with King Hammurabi
Best known for his code of laws
“The Ordeal” Still used by some Bedouin tribes today
King of Babylon - Hammurabi

9. Contributions of the Bayblonians
Babylon was a city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which can be found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers (55 mi) south of Baghdad. All that remains of the original ancient famed city of Babylon today is a mound, or tell, of broken mud-brick buildings and debris in the fertile Mesopotamian plain between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, in Iraq.
Contributions of the Bayblonians

10. The heartland of Assyria lies in present day Northern Iraq.
The remains of the ancient capital of Assyria, Nineveh, lie next to Mosul in Northern Iraq.
The Assyrians

11. Assyrian army Well organized Professional Soldiers
Used iron weapons (from the Hittites)
Scattered their enemies
Assyrian army

12. Capital city of the Assyrian Empire (about 1000 years after Hammurabi)
Nineveh had one of the world’s first libraries (25,000 tablets)
Nineveh

16. Chaldeans were known as the Medes
Captured Nineveh and shortly after the Assyrian empire fell
Most Chaldeans were descendants of the Babylonian people who made up Hammurabi’s empire about 1,200 yrs earlier
King Nebuchadnezzar controlled all of Mesopotamia
He rebuilt Babylon and it quick became the world’s largest and richest city
Developed the first 7-Day Calendar
Hanging Gardens of Babylon
Chaldeans were known as the Medes

17. Hanging Gardens of Babylon

18. The Achaemenid Empire or Persian Empire
Persians would conquer the Medes about 100 years later
Most territory was Iran
The empire took its unified form with a central administration around Pasargadae erected by Cyrus the Great. The empire ended up conquering and enlarging the Median empire to include in addition Egypt and Asia Minor. During the reigns of Darius I and his son Xerxes I it engaged in military conflict with some of the major city-states of Ancient Greece, and although it came close to defeating the Greek army this war ultimately led to the empire's overthrow.
The Achaemenid Empire or Persian Empire