Mesopotamia

1
Mesopotamia

• By Greg Wilk, Darren Zal, Mel Hewitt, Lizzy Ha,
  and Salman Syed

2
Social Classes

• There were 2 main types of people. Those who
  possessed land, and those who didnt.
• Those groups are broken down into, 4 different
  groups
• Nobles People such as Kings. They led their
  societies and were elected by people
• Clients Free people. They worked for the right
  to own their land
• Commoners They too were free people. Could not
  challenge Nobles.
• Slaves Usually foreigners, prisoners of war,
  and criminals.

3
Geography

• Fortunately for the Mesopotamians, their land lay
  between the Tigris and Euphrates
• -The Euphrates River lay in the west, and the
  Tigris to east. The rivers provided water to
  those living in Mesopotamia they made land
  fertile to grow food, and provided clay like
  substances.
• Due to the variation of environment, an assorted
  selection of vegetation could be found.
• The land provided its people with food like wheat
  and sheep and other important resources that it
  took to build a civilization.

4
Economic Factors

• Foods available wheat, barley, millet,
  cucumbers, dates, onions, lettuce, and fruit from
  various trees.
• Animals available cows, sheep, goats, pigs,
  oxen, donkey, and horses (horses were only
  available during Assyrian rule)
• Mesopotamia supported a wide variety of plants
  and animals
• Mesopotamia was so dependant on irrigation that
  when something went wrong in the canals, society
  suffered, and families starved

5
Economic Factors Cont.

• 2200 BCE-Economy collapsed when invaders
  destroyed the capital
• 2100 BCE-Economy prospered again under King
  Ur-Nammu
• 1894 BCE-Amorite Chieftain sumu-abum was king of
  Babylon, focused on improving economy and
  irrigation.
• About 1600 BCE- the northern city of Ashur built
  extensive trade routes
• About 1810 BCE-King Tigleth-Piliser restructured
  trade routes.
• The difference in the amount of money between The
  rich and the poor was huge.

6
Writing System and Language

• Sumerian was the first official language of
  farmers, hunters, and gatherers
• Akkadian and Cuneiform became the official
  language of economy and trading in the Ancient
  Near East
• Sumerian writing is the oldest full-fledged
  writing that archaeologists have discovered.
• Learning the language was hard work, there were
  over 2,000 symbols to be memorized
• Only the rich men learnt the language
• People were hired just to write, they were called
  scribes

7
Religion

• The Mesopotamian religion is the oldest one.
• They were polytheists
• They believed that crops grew because of a male
  god mating with his goddess wife
• They celebrated resurrections of their gods at
  their ziggurats and temples.
• They believed in sin and punishment for it from
  their gods.

8
Religion Cont.

• The Mesopotamians built ziggurats. Ziggurats were
  temples and they were places of worship
• They were very tall to avoid flooding
• They were built from clay and mud
• The Sumerian word for universe is an-ki. An is a
  God, and Ki is a goddess.

9
Government

• There was no strong central government.
• Men decided rules, it was sort of democratic
• Once the civilization grew, a Lugal was elected
  to rule
• The king was the head chief at the Ziggurat
• Hammurabis code of conduct is one example of
  rules being set by a king
• Hammurabis job was to protect the weak and
  innocent

10
Art and Architecture

• Mesopotamians based their arts off of animals
• It was on stone or clay
• Pottery usually had geometric patterns on it
• Ivory was a luxurious piece art
• Ziggurats were buildings for worship
• The walls would be painted
• The houses were made up of stone
• In the 7th century B.C.E. Metal was introduced

11
Map Of Mesopotamia
12
Timeline