Mesopotamia Egypt Middle East

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MesopotamiaEgyptMiddle East
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Mesopotamia

• Tigris Euphrates Rivers
• Fertile?flooding
• Sumer?1st advanced civilization
• 12 villages develop into City-States
• Independent, self-governing community, city w/
  surrounding farmlands
• Ziggurat--? of social economic life

3
Sumer

• Wheel sail
• Take advantage of water systems
• Transportation trade
• Bazaarcommon marketplace easier to barter
• Cuneiform
• Wedge-shaped

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Sargon the Great

• 2350 BC
• 1st emperor (Akkad)
• Conquered several areasbrought under control
• Created 1st EMPIRE

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Hammurabi

• Mesopotamian
• Assimilation of cultureselements continue
• Code of Hammurabi
• 1st written published set of laws
• Womens rights? some

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Mesopotamian Religion Law

• Polytheismbelief in more than 1 god
• Sumerian city-states believed they were owned by
  the gods
• Gods chose rulers protected city-states
• Much superstition

7
MesopotamiaEgyptMiddle East
8
Mesopotamia

• Tigris Euphrates Rivers
• Fertile?flooding
• Sumer?1st advanced civilization
• 12 villages develop into City-States
• Independent, self-governing community, city w/
  surrounding farmlands
• Ziggurat--? of social economic life

9
Sumer

• Wheel sail
• Take advantage of water systems
• Transportation trade
• Bazaarcommon marketplace easier to barter
• Cuneiform
• Wedge-shaped

10
Sargon the Great

• 2350 BC
• 1st emperor (Akkad)
• Conquered several areasbrought under control
• Created 1st EMPIRE

11
Mesopotamian Religion Law

• Polytheismbelief in more than 1 god
• Sumerian city-states believed they were owned by
  the gods
• Gods chose rulers protected city-states
• Much superstition

12
Mesopotamians Scholarship

• Mathematics Astronomy
• Multiplication/division
• Geometry
• System based on 60
• 360 degrees in ?
• 60 minutes in an hour
• Based on star observations
• 12 month calendar based on cycles of the moon

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How do we know all this stuff?

• The BEHISTUN ROCK
• Found in 1840s in western Iran
• 3 types of writing
• Persian
• Babylonian
• Elamite
• Henry Rawlinson

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Egypt

• Hired scribes kept records
• Hieroglyphicssacred carving
• Learn to write, for this will be of greater
  advantage to you than all the other trades.
• How to translate?

15
Rosetta Stone

• Napoleons Army Engineers1799
• 3 kinds of writing
• Hieroglyphics
• Greek
• Recent Egyptian script

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Other guys in the Middle East

• Hittites
• Phoenicians
• Hebrews
• Assyrians
• Babylonians
• Lydians
• Persians

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Phoenicians

• Main contributions
• Sea vessels
• Sailors, shipbuilders, merchants
• Purple cloth
• Clear glass
• Writing system based on early alphabet

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Hebrews

• Monotheism
• Hebrew religionJudaism
• Torah1st 5 books of the Old Testament
• Prophetsmessengers from God

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Assyrians

• Skilled/ruthless warriors
• Iron weapons
• War chariots
• Battering rams
• Terrorists
• Built library _at_ Ninevah
• Adopted religion, art, literature of Mesopotamia

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Babylonians

• Nebuchadnezzarenslaved Hebrews
• Conquered much of Fertile Crescent
• Hanging Gardens of Babylon
• Rebuilt ziggurat of Marduk
• Rebuilt Babylon into fabulous city

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Lydians

• Main contribution
• Used coins for trade instead of direct barter
• Standard weight of gold, silver, other metals
• Molded into disks
• Create MONEY ECONOMYeconomic system based on the
  use of money
• What is money?

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Persians

• 547 BC
• Cyrus the Great
• Largest empire in the ancient world
• Released Hebrews from captivity
• Conquered rest of Fertile Crescent
• Conquered Asia Minor

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Persia

• Darius the Great
• Extended Persia into North Africa
• Failed in conquest of Greece 490 BC
• However Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, Judea,
  Phoenicia, Hittites, Lydians under 1 rule
• BIG AREAhow to control?

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Persia

• Main contributions
• Improved/extended roads
• Unified use of coins
• Unified weights measures
• Government officials spoke same languageAramaic
• Postal system (pony express)
• Zoroastrianismhumans have choice between doing
  good doing evil good will triumph at the end
  of the world (destroyed by fire)

25
Mesopotamians Scholarship

• Mathematics Astronomy
• Multiplication/division
• Geometry
• System based on 60
• 360 degrees in ?
• 60 minutes in an hour
• Based on star observations
• 12 month calendar based on cycles of the moon

26
How do we know all this stuff?

• The BEHISTUN ROCK
• Found in 1840s in western Iran
• 3 types of writing
• Persian
• Babylonian
• Elamite
• Henry Rawlinson

27
Egypt

• Society based on Nile River3 seasons
• Flood
• Drying out to pre-flood levels
• Rainless time before flood
• Transportation
• Adjacent deserts protects Egypt from enemies

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Egypt

• Religion
• Polytheistic
• Amon-Re
• Life after death (mummification belongings)
• 3100 BC Menes formed 1 kingdom
• Memphiscapital
• Established 1st dynastyfamily of rulers

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Important!!Pharaohs individual power weakened
from time to time, but the empire always
continued. This changed when Alexander the
Great invaded in 300BC.
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Constants to rememberEmpire starts, empire
builds and increases, empire decays from within
(corrupt rulers, natural disasters, etc.), empire
dies.The culture remains!
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Egypt

• Hired scribes kept records
• Hieroglyphicssacred carving
• Learn to write, for this will be of greater
  advantage to you than all the other trades.
• How to translate?

32
Rosetta Stone

• Napoleons Army Engineers1799
• 3 kinds of writing
• Hieroglyphics
• Greek
• Recent Egyptian script

33
Other guys in the Middle East

• Hittites
• Phoenicians
• Hebrews
• Assyrians
• Babylonians
• Lydians
• Persians

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Hittites

• Main contribution
• Iron weapons
• Kept secret about 200 years
• Empire decline
• IRON AGE?today

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Phoenicians

• Main contributions
• Sea vessels
• Sailors, shipbuilders, merchants
• Purple cloth
• Clear glass
• Writing system based on early alphabet

36
Hebrews

• Monotheism
• Hebrew religionJudaism
• Torah1st 5 books of the Old Testament
• Prophetsmessengers from God

37
Assyrians

• Skilled/ruthless warriors
• Iron weapons
• War chariots
• Battering rams
• Terrorists
• Built library _at_ Ninevah
• Adopted religion, art, literature of Mesopotamia

38
Babylonians

• Nebuchadnezzarenslaved Hebrews
• Conquered much of Fertile Crescent
• Hanging Gardens of Babylon
• Rebuilt ziggurat of Marduk
• Rebuilt Babylon into fabulous city

39
Lydians

• Main contribution
• Used coins for trade instead of direct barter
• Standard weight of gold, silver, other metals
• Molded into disks
• Create MONEY ECONOMYeconomic system based on the
  use of money
• What is money?

40
Persians

• 547 BC
• Cyrus the Great
• Largest empire in the ancient world
• Released Hebrews from captivity
• Conquered rest of Fertile Crescent
• Conquered Asia Minor

41
Persia

• Darius the Great
• Extended Persia into North Africa
• Failed in conquest of Greece 490 BC
• However Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, Judea,
  Phoenicia, Hittites, Lydians under 1 rule
• BIG AREAhow to control?

42
Persia

• Main contributions
• Improved/extended roads
• Unified use of coins
• Unified weights measures
• Government officials spoke same languageAramaic
• Postal system (pony express)
• Zoroastrianismhumans have choice between doing
  good doing evil good will triumph at the end
  of the world (destroyed by fire)