1. Mesopotamia

2. Mesopotamia
This is known as the “cradle of civilization” or the location for the emergence of civilization.
When did this civilization emerge?
Where was this civilization?
It was the area between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.
Mesopotamia literally means “land between two rivers.”

3. Religion

4. Characteristics of Mesopotamia
Religion – These people were polytheistic – worshipped many gods.
Actually they worshipped hundreds of gods.
Every city even had its own god.
Yet, only certain gods received major attention. Like god of the sky, sun etc.
Main god = Anu father of the gods and god of the sky.

5. Characteristics of Mesopotamia
Cities
They were the first to develop cities among anyone else.
Babylon was a famous city
It was considered a marvel of the ancient world with a population of 200,000.
Defensive walls around the city for 10 miles.

6. Babylon

7. Characteristics of Mesopotamia
Farming
They were the first farmers in the world.
They domesticated animals such as cattle, goats, and pigs.
Some of Mesopotamia did not have steady rainfall in the summer, so they were the first to come up with irrigation.

8. Irrigation

9. Characteristics of Mesopotamia
Writing – Developed the first form of writing.
It was known as cuneiform – wedge shaped symbols.
They wrote on clay tablets, and eventually had a very systematic form of record keeping.
Wealthy students went to school as scribes which was very important and a very difficult job.

10. Cuneiform - Very hard to decipher

11. Characteristics of Mesopotamia
Literature
The first piece of literature was developed here.
It was passed down orally, but written on clay tablets around 2000 bc, 1,000 years before the Illiad or Odyssey.
It is called the Epic of Gilgamesh
It describes a part man, part god as he journeys through life facing obstacles.

12. Gilgamesh
This one is Gilgamesh 

13. Characteristics of Mesopotamia
Laws
Laws of Hammurabi - The longest and best organized written laws that survived from Mesopotamia.
It details crimes and punishments.
It also has a prologue stating that laws very divine from the gods.

14. Code of Hammurabi

15. Characteristics of Mesopotamia
Architecture
They made structures out of the mud bricks which was good because they had a lot of it.
They also made structures called Ziggurats – Stepped towers made of mud-bricks, every city had one, and it was part of a temple complex.

16. Ziggurats

17. Politics
Mesopotamia was a region that contained city-states similar to Ancient Greece.
There was no centralized government.
They had kings that ruled over each city-state.

18. Economics
They had a surplus of crops, so they had plenty of workforce.
They had an extensive trade network that reached to the Indus Valley where they would get gold.
Recorded business transactions.

19. Social Structure Three types of people in society.
The nobility, or patrician (a member of one of the landholding families),
The free citizen, or plebeian (a citizen who was free but did not possess land),
3. The slave (a member of society who neither owned land nor was free).