Ancient Middle East

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Ancient Middle East

• Fertile Crescent Civilizations

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Fertile Crescent

• Persian Gulf to the eastern edge of the
  Mediterranean Sea
• Greeks coined the term Mesopotamia which means
  land between the rivers
• Mesopotamia is the land between the Tigris and
  Euphrates Rivers
• Modern day Iraq
• 3300 BCE - Worlds first civilization developed
  in southeastern Mesopotamia - Sumer

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Fertile Crescent
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Sumer

• 12 separate city-states
• Complex Government Each city-states ruler
  responsible for protection of the walls and
  irrigation system, enforce laws, employ scribes,
  collect taxes, and keep records.
• Class Structure based on a hierarchy
• 1. Upper Class - High Priests, leading families,
  officials
• 2. Middle Class Lesser priests, merchants,
  artisans
• 3. Farmers

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City-States of Sumer
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Religion

• Religion polytheistic gods controlled every
  aspect of life
• Especially forces of nature
• Lived like humans
• Favored truth and justice
• But always responsible for violence and disaster.
  
• Ziggurat structures built to appease the gods

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Ziggurat at Ur
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Writing

• By 3200 BC the Sumerians invented the worlds
  first system of writing
• Cuneiform -

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Empire in Mesopotamia

• 2300 BC - Sargon the ruler of Akkad invaded and
  conquered the city-states of Sumer
• 1st empire in history

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Akkad
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Babylon

• 1790 Hammurabi brought much of Mesopotamia
  under his rule
• Lasting legacy Hammurabis code First rulers
  attempt to codify, or arrange and set down in
  writing, all the laws that would govern a state.

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Hammurabi
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Babylonian Empire
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Civil Law

• Hammurabi established Civil Law
• The branch of law that deals with private rights
  and matters, such as contracts, property
  inheritance, taxes, marriage, and divorce
• Women could own property
• Women could divorce
• Philosophy emphasized a stable household being a
  good for society.

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Criminal Law

• Hammurabis code also dealt with criminal law
• A branch of law that deals with offenses against
  another such robbery, assault or murder
• Hammurabis code limited personal vengeance
  thereby maintaining order
• Hammurabi emphasized An eye for an eye.

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Hittites

• 1400 BC the Hittites pushed out of Asia Minor
  (Turkey) into Mesopotamia
• Major contribution extracting iron from
• Created harder tools and weapons
• Refined the horse drawn chariot please page 39

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Assyrians

• 1100 BC a new group controlled Mesopotamia
• Over 500 years earned the reputation of being the
  most feared warriors
• Used loot to build splendid palaces

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Assyrian Empire
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Imperial Palace at Assyrian Capital of Nineveh
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Babylon II

• 612 BC Nebuchadnezzar Revives Babylon
• Built Canals, temples and walls at the palace of
  Babylon
• Surrounded Babylon with a defensive moat, and 85
  foot high walls
• May have built the hanging gardens

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Hanging Gardens?
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The Real Deal?
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Persians

• 539 BC Babylon fell to Persian Army led by
  Cyrus the Great

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Darius the Great522-486 BC

• Son of Cyrus
• Set up a bureaucracy, or system of government,
  through departments and subdivisions administered
  by officials who followed set rules.
• Model for later rulers
• Darius divided his empire into provinces called a
  satrapy
• Unified his empire by adopting Hammurabis idea
  of a codified laws
• Built hundreds of miles of roads and bridges too

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Economy

• Set up a common use of weights and measures
• Also encouraged the use of coins
• Most people participated in a barter economy
• Coins brought most merchants into an early form
  of a money economy

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The Golden Daric
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Zoroaster

• A new religion takes hold
• Lived 600 BC
• Rejected the old Persian gods and taught that a
  single wise god, Ahura Mazda, ruled the world
• Ahura Mazda was in constant battle against
  Ahriman, the prince of lies and deceit
• Eventually, Ahura Mazda would triumph and there
  would a Judgment Day where all souls would be
  judged.
• Zoroaster greatly influence Judaism and later
  Christianity and Islam

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Zoroaster
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Phoenicians

• Sailors and Traders
• Occupied a string of cities on the eastern
  Mediterranean coast
• In what is today Lebanon and Syria
• To promote trade the Phoenicians established
  colonies from North Africa, to Sicily and Spain
• Colony A territory setteled and ruled by people
  from another land

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Phoenician colonies
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Greatest Contribution

• The creation of the western alphabet
• Unlike cuneiform, the alphabet was based on 22
  symbols that stood for consonant sounds