The Ancient Near East-2

1
The Ancient Near East-2

• Mrs. Cox
• World History
• Paisley IB

2
Vocabulary

• 1. Fertile Crescent
• 2. Mesopotamia
• 3. ziggurat
• 4. city-state
• 5. polytheism
• 6. dynasty
• 7. cuneiform
• 8. Sargon
• 9. Hammurabi

3
Vocabulary

• 10. Indo-Europeans
• 11. steppes
• 12. Nebuchadnezzar II
• 13. Judaism
• 14. Torah
• 15. Abraham
• 16. covenant
• 17. patriarch

4
Vocabulary

• 18. Moses
• 19. Exodus
• 20. Diaspora
• 21. monotheism
• 22. Cyrus the Great
• 23. Darius I
• 24. satraps
• 25. Xerxes
• 26. Zoroaster
• 27. dualism

5
Questions

• 1. What problem did farmers face due to nearby
  rivers?
• 2. What was the name of the religious beliefs of
  the Sumerians and what does the word mean?
• 3. Name the areas in which Sumerians produced
  cultural achievement.
• 4. How did social hierarchy develop in Sumer?
• 5. Why did Sumers city-states weaken? Who were
  the rulers who came to power as a result?

6
Questions

• 6. What did the Indo-European tribes have in
  common?
• 7. How were the Assyrians different from the
  Sumerians?
• 8. Why did Nebuchadnezzar build the Hanging
  Gardens of Babylon, according to legend?
• 9. In what ways did many Phoenicians earn a
  living? Why was this a good career for a
  Phoenician?

7
Questions

• 10. What was the name of the people that appeared
  in Southwest Asia sometime between 2000 and 1500
  BC?
• 11. Where did the Hebrews move?
• 12. Why was Moses an important Hebrew leader?
• 13. Name at least three Hebrew kings and which
  one made Jerusalem the capital of his kingdom?
• 14. What are the beliefs of Judaism? Where would
  someone find out what the beliefs mean?

8
Questions

• 15. Who led the Persian revolt? What places did
  he conquer?
• 16. How did Darius change the Persian Empire?
• 17. List the teachings of Zoroaster. What did he
  think people should do?
• 18. Why did Zoroastrianism almost disappear?
• 19. Name the Persian emperors who encouraged
  cultures to blend. How was this helpful to the
  Persian empire?

9
Geography Promotes Civilization

• The Fertile Crescent is found between the
  Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Gulf in
  Southwest Asia. With the Fertile Crescent, an
  area called Mesopotamia developed. It was home to
  the worlds first civilization.

10
Geography Promotes Civilization

• As early as 3500 BC people farmed grains in
  Mesopotamias silt, rich soil left behind when
  the Tigris and Euphrates rivers flooded every
  spring. In time, people learned to control the
  rivers flooding and store rainwater to use
  during the hot , dry summers. As a result, food
  was plentiful. Villages grew larger and
  governments formed. Slowly, a civilization
  emerged.

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Sumer

• Sumerians developed the first civilization. Their
  first large cities began to appear by 4000 BC.
  Each Sumerian city had structures made of mud
  bricks and large pyramid-shaped temple called a
  ziggurat to honor its chief god.

12
Sumer

• Sumerians developed the first civilization. Their
  first large cities began to appear by 4000 BC.
  Each Sumerian city had structures made of mud
  bricks and a large pyramid-shaped temple called a
  ziggurat to honor its chief god.

13
Sumer

• Over time, each Sumerian city and its land formed
  a city-state, a political unit with its own
  government. Polytheism, the worship of many gods,
  shaped Sumerian life. The Sumerians believed that
  they had to keep the gods and goddesses happy so
  they would bring the people rich harvests instead
  of problems like flooding. As a result, priests
  held a higher status in society, often governing
  the city-states.

14
Sumer

• In time, the city-states started to fight more
  for land and water. War chiefs began to rule as
  kings. Often, a king passed his leadership on to
  family members, forming a dynasty.

15
Sumerian Culture

• The Sumerians produced great cultural
  achievements. Scribes kept records, wrote about
  laws and grammar, and created works of literature
  in a writing system called cuneiform. With the
  ability to record events, humankind moved from
  prehistory into the historical age.

16
Sumerian Culture

• Sumerians also made advancements in math,
  science, and the arts. Their math system was
  based on the number 60. Because of this, even
  today we divide an hour into 60 minutes and a
  circle into 360 degrees. The Sumerians also
  invented the wheel and the plow and learned to
  use bronze to make stronger tools and weapons.
  They even built sewer systems and performed
  medical surgeries.

17
Sumerian Culture

• In addition to architecture and sculpture,
  Sumerian artists created engraved stone cylinders
  that when rolled over wet clay created a seal to
  serve as a signature or to show ownership. They
  traded with other groups to obtain materials. It
  was through trade that a social hierarchy, or
  ranking, developed.

18
Sumerian Culture

• At the top were the kings, priests, and their
  principal agents. Then came large landowners and
  wealthy merchants, followed by the majority of
  Sumerians who worked as craftspeople, farmers,
  and laborers. At the bottom of the ranking system
  were the slaves, many of whom had been captured
  during battles.

19
Sumerian Culture

• Men held political power and made laws while
  women took care of the home and children. Some
  upper-class women received educations and served
  as priestesses in the temples.

20
Empires in Mesopotamia

• Frequent warfare weakened Sumers city-states.
  Sargon, ruler of the Akkadians, was the first to
  use a permanent army. This army helped him to
  create the worlds first empire, a land that
  includes different kingdoms and people under one
  rule. The Akkadian Empire stretched from the
  Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf.

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Empires in Mesopotamia

• After Sargons empire fell, one hundred years of
  disorder followed. As several tribes battles for
  Mesopotamia, one tribe, the Amorites, settled in
  Babylon. Hammurabi, their leader, was a brilliant
  warrior. He brought all of Mesopotamia into his
  Babylonian Empire. During his rule, he wrote
  Hammurabis Code.

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Empires in Mesopotamia

• The code contains 282 laws dealing with a variety
  of crimes. Now people knew what kind of behavior
  was considered criminal. Upon his death,
  Babylonian power declined. With two centuries the
  empire had ended.

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2-3 The Hittites

• After the fall of the Babylonian Empire,
  Indo-European tribes invaded Mesopotamia.
  Speaking related languages, the tribes likely
  traveled from the steppes, or arid grasslands,
  north of the Black Sea.
• One of these tribes was the Hittites. Around 2000
  BC, they conquered the surrounding people to
  build a strong empire in Asia Minor, which is now
  Turkey.

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The Hittites

• They used iron, not bronze, to make better
  weapons, becoming the first people in the region
  to master iron making techniques. They also
  improved the horse-drawn war chariot, making it
  lighter, quicker, and able to hold an extra man.
  Their culture was a blend of their own and those
  around them.

25
The Hittites

• For example, they used Sumerian cuneiform to
  write their own language. The Hittites sacked
  Babylon around 1595 BC. The empire lasted until
  about 1200 BC, when it fell to powerful raiders
  known as the Sea Peoples.

26
The Assyrians and the Chaldeans

• The next group to rise to power was the
  Assyrians. A fierce warrior society, the
  Assyrians had chariots and iron tools, plus a
  well armed cavalry. They briefly gained power in
  the 1300s BC, lost it, then regained their
  strength when they built an empire around 900 BC.
  In time, the Assyrians used their military might
  to control all of Mesopotamia and parts of Asia
  Minor and Egypt.

27
The Assyrians and The Chaldeans

• They used siege warfare to take over cities by
  digging beneath city walls to weaken them or
  suing battering rams to pound through them. To
  keep conquered people from rebelling, the
  Assyrians spread fear by killing or maiming their
  captives. In some cases, however, they kept
  groups from rebelling by splitting them up and
  resettling them.

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The Assyrians and The Chaldeans

• Roads linked the vast Assyrian empire. Kings
  ruled through local leadership and harsh
  punishment for rebels. In spite of this
  brutality, Assyrian culture produced great
  achievements such as the library in the capital
  city of Nineveh, which housed more than 20,000
  cuneiform tablets.

29
The Assyrians and The Chaldeans

• As the Assyrians power declined, the Chaldeans
  formed an empire with the old city of Babylon as
  its capital. King Nebuchadnezzar II built a grand
  palace there. It is said to have housed the
  Hanging Gardens, one of the seven wonders of the
  ancient world. According to legend, he built this
  magnificent structure for his wife, who missed
  the mountains and forests of her birthplace.

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The Assyrians and The Chaldeans

• Nebuchadnezzar also built numerous palaces and
  temples, including an immense multistoried
  ziggurat, in Babylon in 539, the Chaldean empire
  ended, less than 100 years after rising to power.

31
The Phoenicians

• While great empires rose and fell, smaller states
  emerged in Phoenicia in western Asia at the
  western end of the Fertile Crescent along the
  Mediterranean Sea in present-day Lebanon. Wealthy
  city-states such as Sidon and Tyre become centers
  for trade.

32
The Phoenicians

• Phoenicians could not easily farm the rugged
  hills and mountains of their homeland, so they
  turned to trade for their livelihood. Many became
  expert sailors who traveled to faraway ports.
  Along the way, they founded colonies such as
  Carthage, which became a powerful city on the
  Mediterranean coast of north Africa.

33
The Phoenicians

• While exporting valuable goods brought the
  city-states wealth, the Phoenicians greatest
  achievement was their alphabet. As traders
  traveled from port to port, more people began to
  use the alphabet. The Greeks modified the
  Phoenician alphabet for their own alphabet, which
  is the ancestor of the one we use to write
  English today.

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2-3 The Early Hebrews

• The Hebrews ancestors of the people called Jews,
  appeared in Southwest Asia between 2000 and 1500
  BC. Judaism is the religion of the Hebrews.
  Accounts of their early history form the Torah,
  the most sacred text of Judaism. The Torah and
  other writings became the Hebrew Bible, which
  also appears as the Old Testament within the
  Christian Bible.

35
The Early Hebrews

• The Torah tells about a man named Abraham.
  According to the Torah, God made a covenant, or
  promise, to lead Abraham and the rest of the
  Hebrews to a new land where his people would form
  a mighty nation. Later Hebrews considered Abraham
  their patriarch, or ancestral father because in
  Canaan, his grandson Jacob had 12 sons. Each of
  them established a tribe. Later, all Hebrews
  could trace their roots to one of these tribes.

36
The Early Hebrews

• Still later, some Hebrews moved to Egypt, where
  the pharaoh made them slaves. According to the
  Torah, God told a Hebrew leader named Moses to
  demand the Hebrews freedom. Around 1200 BC,
  after a series of plagues struck Egypt, the
  pharaoh finally agreed. The journey of the
  Hebrews out of Egypt led by Moses is called the
  Exodus. Jews today still celebrate the Exodus
  during the Passover holiday in the Spring.

37
The Early Hebrews

• After the Exodus, the Hebrews wandered through
  the desert for 40 years. According to the Torah,
  God gave Moses two stone tablets that contained
  the Ten Commandments. Over time, the commandments
  greatly influenced the laws and values of Western
  Civilization. When the people reached Canaan,
  which later became known as Israel, the Hebrews
  renamed themselves the Israelites.

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The Kingdom of Israel

• At first the Twelve Tribes did not have a central
  government. They lived in communities scattered
  in Canaan, where they farmed and raised
  livestock. Each community had judges to enforce
  laws and settle problems between people. This
  system worked until the Philistines invaded in
  the mid-1000s BC.

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The Kingdom of Israel

• To get rid of the Philistines, the Israelites
  made Saul their first king. He had some military
  success but never won full support from the
  people. The next king, David, did have the
  tribes backing. He was able to unite the
  kingdom, which grew strong as he conquered new
  territory. He also made Jerusalem the capital of
  his kingdom. Davids son Solomon later built a
  great temple there when he became king.

40
The Kingdom of Israel

• After Solomons death around 931 BC, Israel could
  not agree on who would be the next king. So it
  became two kingdoms Israel and Judah. Within a
  few centuries, both had fallen. In 722 BC, Israel
  was conquered by the Assyrians, who scattered the
  people of Israel throughout their empire.

41
The Kingdom of Israel

• Judah, the other Hebrew kingdom, fell to the
  Chaldeans, who destroyed Solomons Temple and
  enslaved the Jews in Babylon. These events marked
  the start of the Diaspora, the scattering of the
  Jews outside Judah. After fifty years of
  enslavement, the Persian Empire conquered the
  Chaldeans and let the Jews return to Jerusalem.

42
The Kingdom of Israel

• They were allowed to rebuild Solomons Temple,
  renaming it the Second Temple. Many Jews,
  however, moved other places in Persia instead of
  returning to Jerusalem.

43
The Teachings of Judaism

• Ancient Hebrew society was based on religion,
  just as it was later for Jews. The most important
  belief in Judaism is that only one God exists.
  This belief is called monotheism. Because most
  other ancient peoples worshipped many gods, the
  Jews monotheism set them apart. Other central
  beliefs are obedience to the law, justice, and
  righteousness.

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The Teachings of Judaism

• The most important laws of Judaism are the Ten
  Commandments, but a whole system of laws guides
  many areas of Jewish life such as how to pray,
  when to worship, and what to eat. This system of
  laws is called Mosaic Law. These beliefs are
  recorded in scared texts such as the Torah and
  the Talmud. The Talmud contains explanations and
  interpretations of the other sacred texts.

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2-4 Growth and Organization

• The Medes were another Indo-European tribe that
  came to power. They settled in Media, on the
  plateaus of what is now Iran. Among the
  neighboring groups the Medes conquered were the
  Persians. In 559 BC, Cyrus the Great led a
  Persian revolt that united Persia and Medes under
  his rule.

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Growth and Organization

• Cyrus then conquered the wealthy kingdom of
  Lydia, several Greek cities in Ionia, and
  Babylon. Cyrus also freed the Jews from slavery
  and allowed them to return to Jerusalem and
  rebuild their temple there.
• At the time of Cyruss death in 530 BC, he ruled
  the largest empire in the world.

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Growth and Organization

• His son Cambyses became emperor, but unlike his
  father, he was described as a tyrant and a
  madman. After Cambysess death, Darius I became
  leader of Persia. He strengthened the empire by
  creating a permanent army of paid, trained
  soldiers. Some soldiers were even more skilled
  and they served as bodyguards for the emperor.
  Darius gained new lands in the east, although he
  was unable to conquer Greece.

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Growth and Organization

• To help rule his vast empire, Darius had satraps
  govern different regions. Even though they were
  in charge, the satraps still had to obey Dariuss
  orders. Darius also built roads and minted the
  first Persian coins. Trade made Persia very rich,
  and most historians consider Dariuss reign the
  high point of Persian culture.

49
Growth and Organization

• His son Xerxes was the last strong leader of
  Persian. Later emperors faced rebellion and a
  decline of trade until around 330 BC, when the
  Greek king Alexander the Great conquered Persia.

50
Zoroastrianism

• During the reigns of Cyrus and Darius, a religion
  called Zoroastrianism took hold in Persia. Based
  on the teachings of Zoroaster, it was one of the
  first religions to teach dualism, the belief that
  the world is controlled by two opposing forces,
  good and evil, or Ahura Mazda and Ahriman.

51
Zoroastrianism

• The Avesta, Zoroastrianisms sacred text, told
  people to live good lives in the service of Ahura
  Mazda so that they could go to heaven.
  Zoroastrianism almost disappeared when the
  Persian Empire fell to the Greeks, but gradually,
  Zoroasters teachings spread again in Persia and
  other parts of the world.

52
Persian Achievements

• The Persian Empire stretched across most of Asia.
  Because it was huge, it contained dozens of
  peoples with their own customs and traditions.
  Emperors like Cyrus and Darius encouraged their
  cultures to blend because Persia built unity. The
  people lived at peace with each other, so instead
  of fighting, they were able to work together to
  improve the empire.

53
Persian Achievements

• To ensure that leaders in the capital stayed
  aware of what was happening throughout the
  empire, a network of high quality roads was
  built. Messengers traveled the Royal Road, more
  than 1500 miles ling, that was the worlds first
  long highway. Urgent messages were carried by a
  series of messengers who worked like runners in a
  relay race.

54
Persian Achievements

• The Persians were also widely admired for their
  art, especially delicate drinking vessels made of
  gold and set with precious gems. These were used
  in the royal court, Animals were common Persian
  decorations, appearing on the walls, gates, and
  columns of the empires cities.

55
Persian Achievement

• Architectural achievements are another part of
  Persias culture. Persepolis was a city designed
  by Darius I to be a monument to Persias glory.
  At its center was a huge, highly decorated hall.
  There was nothing else like it in the ancient
  Near East.