Mesopotamia

Means the land between the rivers

Euphrates

Tigris

Rivers of life and death

Inundation

Drought

Planting cycle

City-states

12 in Mesopotamia

Each is like its own monarchy

Continually competing for control of the area

Sargon (the Great)

King of Sumer

Builds 1st empire – unites city-states

Establishes a standing army

Endorses plundering to feed his men

Dies in 2279 B.C.E.

Period of chaos

Social Classes in Mesopotamia

Kings/priests

Scribes/merchants

Skilled workers

(scribes- people who can read and write)

unskilled workers

Slaves

May be POW’s or enslaved to pay off a debt or for a crime

Ziggurat Temples built in the city-states to honor the main god of that city-state Each city-state would have one Ceremonies and religious celebrations would take place there

Religion in Mesopotamia

Ancient Mesopotamians attributed the forces of nature to the workings of divine forces. Since there are many forces of nature, so there were many gods and goddesses, including four creator gods.

The highest of the four creator gods was the sky-god An, the over-arching bowl of heaven.

Next came Enlil who could either produce raging storms or act to help man.

Nin-khursag was the earth goddess.

The fourth god was Enki, the water god and patron of wisdom.

How the Gods Helped Mankind

The gods bound people together in their social groups and were believed to have provided what they needed to survive. The Sumerians developed stories and festivals to explain and harness help for their physical environment. Once a year came the new year and with it, the Sumerians thought the gods decided what would happen to mankind for the coming year.

The priests were responsible for the sacrifices and rituals that were essential for the help of the gods. In addition, property belonged to the gods, so priests administered it. This made the priests valuable and important figures in their communities. And so, the priestly class developed.

Cuneiform

Mesopotamian writing system

Cuneiform script is one of the earliest known systems of writing, distinguished by its wedge-shaped marks on clay tablets, made by means of a blunt reed for a stylus. The name cuneiform itself simply means "wedge shaped.”

550 Characters

Pictures and symbols

Sumerian Technology/Art/ science and Culture

First wheeled vehicles

Chariots and wagons

Potters wheel

Focus on astrology

Math

percent's, exponents, multiplication

Literature – the Epic of Gilgamesh

Babylon

11

Hammurabi

1792 B.C.E. 6th King of Babylon

From the Amorite people, assimilated into Mesopotamia, developed area of Babylon

built empire by

capturing several city-states

adopting parts of Sumerian culture

becoming the center of trade

repairing temples, improving irrigation, and creating a well organized army.

12

Code of Hammurabi

First major written collection of laws

282 laws dealing with trade, labor, property and family.

14

Code of Hammurabi reveals:

1. A stern sense of justice –

An “eye for an eye”

Severe punishments for crimes such as bribery, theft, dishonest weights and measures, or damage to another's property.

Law - 2. If any one bring an accusation against a man, and the accused go to the river and leap into the river, if he sink in the river his accuser shall take possession of his house. But if the river prove that the accused is not guilty, and he escape unhurt, then he who had brought the accusation shall be put to death, while he who leaped into the river shall take possession of the house that had belonged to his accuser.

15

2. A sharp division of classes

Punishment was based on class

A harsher punishment would be given for a crime against a noble or a priest and a more lenient punishment would be given for a crime against a common person – artisan, merchant, farmer, or slave

16

195 If a son strike his father, his hands shall be hewn off. 196 If a man put out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out. [ An eye for an eye ] 197 If he break another man's bone, his bone shall be broken. 198 If he put out the eye of a freed man, or break the bone of a freed man, he shall pay one gold mina. 199 If he put out the eye of a man's slave, or break the bone of a man's slave, he shall pay one-half of its value.

200 If a man knock out the teeth of his equal, his teeth shall be knocked out. [ A tooth for a tooth ] 201 If he knock out the teeth of a freed man, he shall pay one-third of a gold mina. 202 If any one strike the body of a man higher in rank than he, he shall receive sixty blows with an ox-whip in public. 203 If a free-born man strike the body of another free-born man or equal rank, he shall pay one gold mina. 204 If a freed man strike the body of another freed man, he shall pay ten shekels in money.

3. Fair Treatment of Women

They could own property, engage in business

Husband had legal duty to support wife

Wife should live with husband and be dependent on him

Fathers had unlimited authority over children – stable households make stable empires

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4. An advanced Business Society

Established regulations for protecting property and business contracts

Limited interest on loans

Set wages for workers

20

Assyria

Assyria was between the Tigris River and the Zagros Mts. in northern Mesopotamia

lived in cities, surrounded by small farming villages.

Would conquer neighbors to control fertile land and trade routes

22

Old Assyria

2025 BCE – 1393 BCE

Capital Assur or Ashur

King was seen as a high priest

They were a warrior society

All males had to serve in military

Horse breeding was extensive

Executions, whippings, and forced

Labor were common

Ashurbanipal

was an Assyrian king

last strong king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire.

He is famed for amassing a significant collection of cuneiform documents for his royal palace at Nineveh. This collection, known as the Library of Ashurbanipal

He was ruthless to those he conquered, would have people flayed and have pillars of skulls built

Middle Assyria 1392 BCE – 934 BCE Great power – overthrew 25th dynasty of Egypt. Drove Ethiopians, Kushites, and Nubians from the area.

At its height, the Empire encompassed the whole of the modern nations of Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, Palestine and Cyprus, together with large swathes of Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Sudan, Libya, Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan.

Most warlike people

Iron weapons, moveable towers, cavalry, chariots, infantry would dig tunnels

Cruel and violent – ruthless treatment of conquered people

Deport rebellious people from their homelands

Boasted of their brutality

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Nineveh

Assyrian capital

Desire for order – laws regulating life

Wealthy from trade and looting – splendid palaces

King Assurbanipal

Cultured ruler, could read and write

founded 1 of the first libraries, 20,000 items

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The Assyrian Empire was severely crippled following the death of Ashurbanipal in 627 BC—the nation and its empire descending into a prolonged and brutal series of civil wars involving three rival kings.

Others took advantage of the bitter fighting among the Assyrians to raid Assyrian colonies, ravaging parts of the empire, including Levant, Israel and Judah and all the way into Egypt whose coasts were ravaged and looted with impunity.

This led to a coalition of forces to unite and launch a massive combined attack in 612 BC, finally besieging and entering Nineveh in late 612 BC

Babylon

Nebuchadnezzar II

Babylonian King

Revives power of Babylon and creates new Babylonian empire

Attacks Jerusalem, capital of Judah in 598 B.C.E., because they refuse to pay tribute

Exiles thousands of Jews to Babylon

Destroys temple of Solomon

Was suppose to house the Ark of the Covenant

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Nebuchadnezzar

Rebuilt:

Canals, temples, palaces

Created the Hanging Gardens of Babylon

A wonder of the ancient world

Gardens built by planting trees and flowers on and around the steps of a huge Ziggurat

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Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar

Nebuchadnezzar

Under his reign – new areas of learning

Astrology – the superstition that the movement of stars, planets, and other heavenly bodies directly affect the lives of human beings

Through study they learned to identify planets and to foretell eclipses

539 B.C. Babylon will fall to Persia, Cyrus the Great

34

Later Assyria as well as Mesopotamia

Will fall under the Persians

The Greeks

The Romans

680-780 Islam will enter the area

It will fall under Mongol rule in 1258 when Hulago Khan takes over Baghdad.

Later will be the Ottoman influence

The Persians

Cyrus the Great

will conquer Babylonian territory

will allow the exiled Jews to return to their lands

will be seen as a liberator

will control area until Alexander the Great conquers the territory

Persian Empire

Alexander the Greats Empire

Roman Empire

Ottoman Empire

Prehistory – Early Man

Understanding Date Classifications

B.C. - Before Christ

B.C.E. – Before Common Era

Numbers go in reverse – larger # to smaller # - to zero

A.D. – Anno Domini – In the year of our Lord

Develops during Roman era to offset Pagan traditions

C.E. –Common Era

1

Archeologists use artifacts and fossils to understand early societies that did not write

2

Hominids are the first upright beings (walk on 2 feet)

Hominids, were found in Africa

Locations of early hominids

Hominids come from the great ape population separated into 3 groups

1- present day gorillas

1-chimpanzees

1- modern humans, after a long and complicated evolutionary process

3

LUCY

a full female skeleton of a early hominid being

that could stand up and had opposable thumbs

(Age about 3 million yrs.)

Height about 3feet

Walked upright

Ape size brain

Jaw and teeth human like

Arms were long, they hung to the midpoint between hips and knees

What are the advantages of walking upright?

Homo Hablis

First True Humans

Use stone tools – have skills

Taller – larger brains

Increased use of hands

Longer arms than modern humans

2 million B.C

5

Homo Erectus

The upright man

First to create and use fire (500,000-250,000 yrs ago)

Cooked Food – (gives more energy than raw food and the cooked food gives the brain more energy needed for growth).

Traveled over land bridge from Africa throughout Eurasia and Americas (earliest to migrate for extended periods)

Primitive Hunters

Family Dynamics

May have used a language

1 million to 375,000 B.C.

6

Migrations in and out of Africa

For 120,000 years people migrated throughout Africa, about 80,000 – 50,000 years ago people began to migrate out of Africa

Land Bridge Migration

Homo Sapiens

Known as Neanderthals

Very muscular

Used hand axes

Hunters and gathers

Lived in warm caves and painted them

Buried their dead

375,000 -40,000 years ago.

Migrate out of Africa around

100,000 and 50,000 years ago

9

Altamira Cave - Spain

Cave paintings show that people had a cultural awareness. It is symbolic expression that transmits group identity just as using feathers or painting ones face does.

Caves in Africa show people in the Sahara about 100,000 years ago swimming and animals grazing.

Modern Homo Sapiens

Called Cro-Magnons

Bodies like modern humans

Used more advanced tools – sickles, stone axes, bows and arrows

Created stone houses

First to become herders and farmers

Worked together on large scale hunts

In 1997 a modern Homo Sapiens skull was

found in Africa and has been dated as

160,000 years old.

20,000 – 3000 B.C. (ice age ends 10,000 B.C.E.)

11

Drawbacks of Species

Unusually aggressive

Human babies are dependent for a long time

Back problems

Awareness of one’s mortality- humans know they will die

Distinctive Features

Opposable thumbs

Regular sex- high sex drive

Omnivores

Distinctive brain

Ability for elaborate speech

Needs of man

Food

Shelter

Clothing

Community

Skills

Companionship

14

Nomadic Life

People move

For food

What does migration do for those migrating and for the areas they go to?

15

Development of Agriculture

Results from the ending of the Ice Age

About 10,000 years ago

Warmer climates –

results in population increases, which spur search for more reliable sources of food

Planting/harvesting

Big game animals (Mastodons) retreat so need to hunt smaller animals.

domesticate new animals – sheep, pigs, goats, cattle – use for meat, skins, and diary

16

Middle East

Where farming initially developed

The Fertile Crescent – from present day Turkey to Iraq and Israel

Spread of Agriculture

17

Agricultural Life

Farming allows people to settle down

Create villages

Domesticate – to control plants and animals or control your food sources

Around 9000 B.C.E. new domesticated animals- pigs, sheep, goats, cattle

18

Domestication or control of food sources

Creates a division of labor between

food producing groups and non food producing groups

Allows for specialization – art, religions, carpentry

With Division of Labor comes Social Classes

What could be the advantages of staying in 1 place?

More permanent houses of stone, mud brick, timber frameworks, some with windows and painted walls

Wells could be built

Irrigation systems developed

Help in chores and defense

Disadvantages-

Deforestation, erosion, flooding

20

Catal Huyuk- example of agricultural town

Town – 7000-5500 BCE

Farming

Trading

Skills develop

Start to rule over other communities

Some families specialize in politics

Military forces are organized

Some towns become small cities

Ruled by kings- divine status

21

Agricultural Societies

Some practice slash and burn and do continue to move

Burn trees

Farm intensively for several years until soil is depleted

Agricultural Societies

1. A kind of week – interruption in it with a religious significance

2. Weeks ended or began on market days

3. Rituals around planting and harvesting

4. Importance of science and math

5. Patriarchal system – dominance of men over women

6. Women are seen as property

7. Women’s sexual faithfulness is of high importance (WHY??)

8. Encourage high birth rates (WHY ??)

9. Men grew the staple crop

10. Have greater liability of disease (WHY ??)

11. Have greater inequality (WHY??)

23

Advanced civilizations

Writing

ability to pass on and share information

Technology

new tools – plows, hoes

Irrigation – move water for farming/drinking

grow more crops,

people live farther from water

Boats and carts

travel faster and easier

Creates exchange of ideas

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7 features of a Civilization

1. advanced cities – many people – centers of trade

2. specialized workers

3. government

4. organized religion

5. an economy

6. record keeping – writing

7. advanced technology – tools and problem solving

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Egypt

Isis and Osiris - gods brother and sister/ husband and wife

Son – Horus

Osiris brother is Seth or Set

Set kills Osiris/ Cuts up his body

Isis finds all the pieces and reassembles him

Osiris moves to the underworld with the god of the underworld Anubis

Egypt – many gods - polytheistic

Nile

The giver of life

Used for crops

Fresh water source

Transportation

trade

Rosetta Stone

Was an Egyptian decree in 3 languages

Hieroglyphs

Demotic

Greek

- this language allowed for translation of the hieroglyphics

Demotic script

During the 26th Dynasty it became the preferred script at court, however during the 4th century it was gradually replaced by a the Greek alphabet.

The Demotic script was used for writing business, legal, scientific, literary and religious documents. It was written almost exclusively from right to left in horizontal lines and mainly in ink on papyrus. Demotic inscriptions on wood and stone are also known.

Social Classes in Egypt

Pharaoh-royal family

Leading families, priests

Merchants, skilled workers, scribes

Unskilled, farmers

Slaves

(scribes –

people who can read and write)

Life in Egypt

Pharaoh – is a god

Rulers pass down power through the family line and create dynasties

Skilled workers for pyramids and writing

Laborers for big building projects – dams, pyramids, obelisks, temples

Farmers, also labor when they have time

Slaves – may do some labor on pyramids, but they were built by skilled workers for the most part

Egyptian Afterlife

Trial must be endured to reach paradise

Body must also be preserved so your life force or Ka can go on

Need body for the afterlife!!

They see the afterlife as positive

Egyptian Afterlife

Book of the Dead- prepares one for the afterlife. It provides advice and incantations to get the deceased through the trials of the underworld and into paradise.

Mummification

Preserve body for afterworld

Canopic jars

Royal tombs- need to take your possessions with you

Death, Judgement and Eternity

Death

Ka-or life force leaves the body first, Ba- or soul follows after burial. The falcon headed god, Horus, leads Ba, through the doorways of fire and cobras into the hall of judgment

Judgment

The jackal headed god, Anubis, weighs the deceased heart, the site of the conscience, against the feather of ma’at, which refers to things as they should be.

Osiris, king of the underworld and other gods watch as judges. If the heart is too heavy or too light, a monster that is part lion, part crocodile, and part hippopotamus devours it, dooming the deceased to a perpetual coma.

Eternity

If the heart balances, the winged Ba and the Ka reunite to form Akh, or spirit, which emerges in the bright realm ruled by Osiris. The Akh can now re-enter the living world and enjoy its pleasures, including love and attention of servants.

Mummification for regular people

Canopic Jars hold internal organs 4 jars – the 4 sons of Horus – job is to protect the organs Baboon Head – Hapy – protects lungs Human Head – Imsety – protects liver Jackal Head – Duamutef – protects stomach and upper intestines Falcon Head – Qebehsenuef – protects lower intestines

Temples

First Burial Tombs - Mastaba

Made from mud brick

Step pyramid

Djoser – first pharaoh to use stone Also a step pyramid

Red Pyramid and Bent Pyramid Snefru

Pyramids at Giza - Kufu perfect and smooth sided Elaborate substructures under all pyramids

Obelisks

Hatshepsut

Only female pharaoh

Used obelisks to promote

herself as the rightful ruler

King Tut or Tutankhamun

Rules from age 9-18

Dies from a chariot accident

Tomb found undisturbed in 1922 by Howard Carter

He was buried in the Valley of the Kings in an underground tomb which replaced pyramids.

This was done in the hopes of preventing tomb robbing.

King Tut’s Tomb

Valley of the Kings

Valley of the Kings

Compare Egypt and Mesopotamia Both cultures had - noble class, social classes, monuments, afterlife, change comes from outside forces

Egypt

Stable

Decorative art

Strong central authority

Status of women is higher

Positive afterlife

No female infanticide

Mesopotamia

Less stable

Art-less monumental structures

Wide ranging trade contacts

Attention to merchant class and commercial law

Female infanticide

Negative afterlife

Heritage of the River Valleys

Wheel

Alphabets

Writing tools

Square roots

Tame horses

Calendars

Monarchies

Bureaucracies

Divisions of time

Slavery

WILL BE ON THE TEST!!!!!!

Diaspora

the movement, migration, or scattering of people away from an established or ancestral homeland ...

Phoenicia present day Lebanon and Syria

Phoenicians

Fringe group – has influence on areas through trade, they preferred opening new markets and ports rather than subduing frontiers. They remained free of Assyrian control by giving Assyrian Kings expensive luxuries.

(Called the Chanani, then called the Canaanites in the bible).

They are known today by the name the Greeks gave them – Phoenicians or Purple People

They were called this because of an expensive purple dye they made.

Phoenicia

Maritime culture

Ship builders – had access to a forest of massive cedars. Also traded the wood.

Excellent sailors

Good metal skills- tools, weapons, jewelry

Produce glass

Purple dye from sea mollusks – connected with Royalty

Alphabet-

22 letters

Distinct sounds

(allowed educated people to communicate with one another and reduced the need for professional scribes).

Phoenician Alphabet

Lydians

1st to introduce coined money

Changes barter system

Barter – exchange of a good for a good a good for a service, a service for a service

Jews (originally the Hebrews, also known as the Israelites)

Area south of Lebanon around 1200-1000 BCE

Develops into kingdom in Jerusalem under David around 1000-960 BCE

David was succeeded by Solomon

Kingdom fragments after Solomon

Forming Israel in the North and

Judah in the South.

Reign of David and Solomon

Educated people focused on one God – YHWH (Yahweh) over other regional deities

This was referred to as henotheism – which means recognition of the power of 1 god over other spirits and deities that still exist.

Gradually they moved to monotheism.

Monotheism

The acceptance of only 1 God to the exclusion of all others.

The transition to monotheism was helped by prophets who threatened divine annihilation for groups that opposed the idea of 1 temple, 1 god, and 1 moral system.

Transition was completed by 600’s BCE

Jews

Were distinct in their belief in 1 God – monotheism

They believed God guided their destinies and the basis of this guidance was the Hebrew Bible or the Torah.

The Torah became the contract between the Jews and their one God. It regulated all aspects of their lives.

Torah was written by Moses. Torah is the 1st 5 books of the Bible

Genesis

Exodus

Leviticus

Deuteronomy

Numbers

Jewish people saw themselves as God’s chosen people

Converting non-Jews was not important

Jews concept of God – less humanlike, more abstract

God was linked to ethical behavior

Religion for the Jews was a way of life, not just rituals or ceremonies

From the power point on the 5 themes of Geography please answer the following.

1.  Explain the difference between relative and absolute location.

2.  What is meant by the term Human-Environmental Interaction and give an example of this?

3.  What moves and what is the larger effect or impact of this movement?

4.   What is a region?

From the Early Man power point define the following.

Archeologist

Artifact- give an example

Domestication

Hunter/Gatherer

Nomad

Hominids- read all the info I provided for this.

Irrigation- be very specific

Division of Labor

From the Early Man Power Point. 

Who is Lucy?

What were the characteristics of Homo Hablis?

of Neandrthrals?

of Homo Erectus?

From the Early Man Power Point

1. Discuss why civilizations began.

2. Where did civilizations first develop? 

3. What are 6 of the characteristics of a civilization.

4. What is meant by the term division of labor?

5. What are 4 characteristics of an advanced civilization or society.

From the Mesopotamia Power Points. Answer the following.

1. What was the Fertile Crescent?

2. What were the two main rivers the Fertile Crescent developed on?

3. Who was Sargon?

4. What city state was Hammurabi king of?

5. What did Hammurabi create?

6. King  Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked which group of people?

7. What did Nebuchadnezzar destroy that is important to these people?

8.  What does Nebuchadnezzar build in Babylon? 

9. What were the Assyrians like? 

10. Give 3 examples of Assyrian behavior? 

11.  What was the name of the Assyrian capital? 

The Jews.

1. What was the name of their Holy Book? 

2. What part of the Bible is this book located in?

3. What do the Jews believe about themselves?

4. What is different about their beliefs as compared to the other civilizations discussed so far?

5. How do the Jews view God?

6. What is meant by diaspora?

From the Egypt notes:

1. What was the Rosetta Stone? 

2. What languages were on the stone?

3. Which language helped decode the hieroglyphics?

4. What are hieroglyphics, be very specific?

5. What are Mastabas?

6. What did Djoser make his pyramid out of?

7. Why were Pyramids built?

8. What did Pharaohs take with them to the afterlife? 

9. Which pyramids are seen as the most perfect and the ones most of us recognize today? Think location, the Pyramids of ____. 

The Phoenicians. 

1. Name two products they produced?

2.  Why were they able to produce those products? 

3.  Explain their alphabet and the significance of it over cuneiform in Sumeria and Babylon.

In this answer be sure to discuss exactly what the Phoenician alphabet was like, exactly what cuneiform was like and why cuneiform would not be desirable in a trading area such as Phoenicia.  

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