Geography of the Fertile Crescent

1
Geography of the Fertile Crescent

• What Makes a Civilization?

2
The Fertile Crescent

• The Fertile Crescent region extends from the
  Mediterranean Sea to the Tigris and Euphrates
  Rivers.

3
Mesopotamia vs. Fertile Crescent

• Mesopotamia literally means Land Between the
  Rivers.
• Mesopotamia is a part of the Fertile Crescent.
  It is the land between the Tigris and the
  Euphrates, whereas the Fertile Crescent extends
  westward to the coast of the Mediterranean.

4
The Civilization Package

• By 3500 B.C. small farming communities in the
  Fertile Crescent were developing into cities,
  marking the rise of civilization.

Arts Education
Economy and Trade
Science
Civilization
Government Leaders
Social Structure And Family Life
Religion
Geography Agriculture
5
Adapting to Geographical Features

• Before the civilization package could develop
  (refer to previous slide) the people of the
  Fertile Crescent needed to adapt to their
  environment.
• Southern Mesopotamia little rain and hot dry
  plains, (suffered from droughts and flooding) but
  good soil for farming (plenty of silt loose
  soil carried by water).
• Northern Mesopotamia some rain, mountains and
  poor, rocky soil.

6
Adapting to Geographical Features

• What did the Mesopotamians do?
• CAUSE EFFECT
• Rivers deposit silt Silt provides
  good soil for farming.
• Rivers flood fields Farmers build levees
• Homes are destroyed.
• Droughts make fields dry Farmers build
  irrigation canals artificial lakes

7
Agriculture Develops

• They domesticated plants and animals such as
  wheat, barley, cattle, sheep and pigs.
• Ancient Mesopotamians valued cattle they were
  work animals and they produced milk and meat.
• The ability to domesticate gave Mesopotamians a
  stable food supply and the ability to store
  surplus food to use during the lean months.

8
Agriculture Develops

• CAUSE EFFECT
• Mesopotamian farmers People became
• began producing more soldiers, scholars,
• food than they could and leaders.
• consume. Not everyone Villages grew into
• had to be a farmer cities.
• anymore.

9
The River is Life

• All ancient civilizations will develop near a
  water source
• For the Mesopotamians the Tigris and the
  Euphrates River made it possible for farmers to
  raise surplus crops, specialized labor, a system
  of government, a social structure as well as a
  more complex culture that included art,
  architecture, music, religion, law, and advanced
  language and writing systems.

10
Powerful New Kingdoms

• Babylonia Assyria

11
Powerful New Kingdoms

• After Sargons death some other city-states began
  to expand
• One of these cities was called Ashur or Assyria
  it had its own language and its own gods.
• Still, it shared some of the traditions of
  Mesopotamia.
• Ashur and Nineveh were its largest cities.

12
Powerful New Kingdoms

• Another powerful city-state in southern
  Mesopotamia called Babylon emerged.
• This city-state began to reunite the city-states
  of Sumer.

13
Who was Hammurabi?

• Babylons king Hammurabi built dams across
  the Euphrates River which gave him the power to
  control the rivers water flow to cause floods or
  droughts downstream.
• Essentially, city-states below Babylon had to
  cooperate with him or face destruction.
• By 1750 B.C. Hammurabi controlled ALL of
  Mesopotamia His empire became known as
  Babylonia.

14
The Code of Hammurabi

• Hammurabi was very similar to the Sumerian kings
  in that
• He ordered the building and repair of canals.
• He acted as a judge, using traditional Sumerian
  laws to make his legal decisions.

15
How do we know?

• In 1901 an archaeologist discovered a six foot
  pillar with a picture of Hammurabi and 200 of his
  laws carved in cuneiform letters.
• Historians could now study the laws of Hammurabi,
  written 4,000 years earlier!!

16
The Code of Hammurabi

• However, while Hammurabis law code was built
  upon Sumerian law, he adapted and reinterpreted
  those laws into what is known as the Code of
  Hammurabi.

17
The Code of Hammurabi

• Legal scholars call it the first great legal
  document of civilization it even predates the
  Bible.
• Let the oppressed, who have a case at law come
  and stand before this my image as King of
  righteousness. Let him read the inscription and
  understand my precious words.
• People had a clear explanation however
  imperfect of right and wrong.

18
Babylonias Decline

• After the death of Hammurabi the Babylonian
  Empire became weak.
• Ashur and Nineveh gained the upper hand and they
  were the first cities to break away from the
  empire.
• So began the Assyrian campaign to conquer and
  control the Fertile Crescent.
• By 600 B.C. the Assyrian empire stretched from
  Egypt to the Persian Gulf and north into the area
  that is modern Turkey.

19
The Assyrian Empire
20
Assyrias armies

• Assyria had a military advantage. They used
• Special battering rams and towers on wheels to
  destroy the walls of enemy cities.
• Fast horse-drawn chariots for war.
• These advantages made the warriors a force to be
  reckoned with.

21
Assyrian Weaponry
22
Assyrian City Life

• Assyrians utilized war prisoners as slaves they
  contributed to the labor force by working
  farmlands or by assisting with building projects.
• Still, others were able to start families and
  stayed in Assyria. They learned new skills and
  became Assyrian citizens.

23
Men and Womens Roles

• Assyrian men hunters, soldiers and government
  leaders.
• Assyrian women no legal rights. They stayed in
  the home, caring for their families.

24
Babylon Assyria Common Interest Story?

• Just as the Babylonians respected Sumerian
  culture, the Assyrians respected Babylonian
  culture.
• In What Way?
• The Assyrians collected large libraries of
  Sumerian Babylonian texts.
• A lot of what we know about Babylonia comes from
  the Nineveh Royal Library.

25
Ninevehs Legacy

• Located on the Tigris River made trade easy and
  provided fresh water.
• One of Ninevehs rulers brought water from even
  farther away by constructing a raised waterway
  an aqueduct. It carried water from 30 miles away.

26
A Roman Aqueduct
Pont du Gard, France, Roman aqueduct built circa
19 BC.
27
Nineveh is Destroyed

• In 689 B.C. the Assyrian king heard word that the
  city-state, Babylon, would revolt.
• He ordered that the city be destroyed.

28
Nineveh is Destroyed

• RESULT
• Soldiers looted Babylons temples and burned
  their homes/palaces.
• They flooded Babylon with river water.
• BUT!!!! BABYLON fights back.

29
Babylon destroys Nineveh

• In 611 B.C. Babylon and its allies destroyed
  Nineveh.
• The Assyrian Empire never recovered.

30

• For over 1,000 years Babylon was at the
• center of Mesopotamian civilization. But after
  the defeat of Assyria, Babylon lost its power but
  continued as a rich and important city.