Mesopotamia

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The Ancient Middle East
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Early Civilizations

• The Neolithic Period
• From perhaps 400,000 to 7,000 B.C.E., early human
  beings survived as hunter gatherers in extended
  family units, a period known as the Paleolithic,
  or Old Stone Age.
• At the start of the Neolithic period, around
  7,000 B.C.E., a transformation began some
  hunter-gatherer societies began to rely chiefly
  on agriculture for their subsistence.
• Neolithic peoples contributed a great deal to the
  development of human society, including
  systematic agriculture, writing, sedentary
  living, and improved tools and weapons.
• Stonehenge and other stone circles scattered
  throughout Great Britain, Ireland, and Brittany
  were built by Neolithic societies that must have
  been prosperous, well organized, and centrally
  led.

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1. Mesopotamia "Land Between the Two Rivers"
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Indo-European Migrations 4m-2m BCE
The Middle East The Crossroads of Three
Continents
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The Ancient Fertile Crescent Area
The Middle East The Cradle of Civilization
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Mesopotamian Civilization

• Invention of Writing and Intellectual
  Advancements
• Writing appears to have begun at Sumer sometime
  around the ninth millennium B.C.E.
• The Sumerian pictographic form evolved by the
  fourth millennium into cuneiform (wedge-shaped)
  writing.
• The signs in the cuneiform system later became
  ideograms and evolved into an intricate system of
  communication.
• The writing system was so complicated that only
  professional scribes mastered it.
• Scribal schools flourished throughout Sumer.
• Scribal schools were centers of culture and
  learning.
• Mesopotamians made great strides in mathematics,
  medicine, and religion.

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Sumerians
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Sumerian Religion - Polytheistic
Enki
Innana
Anthropomorphic Gods
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Religion and Society

• Mesopotamian religion was polytheistic gods and
  goddesses existed to represent almost everything
  in the cosmos.
• The gods had many human attributes.
• The Mesopotamians created myths to explain the
  origins of the universe and of mankind.

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• The Sumerians produced the first epic poem, The
  Epic of Gilgamesh.
• The arid and harsh environment of Sumer fostered
  a religion based on placating a pantheon of harsh
  and capricious gods and goddesses.
• Shrines built in the center of Sumerian cities
  were focal points of Sumerian life and religion.

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• Sumerian society was organized into four classes
  of people nobles, free clients of the nobility,
  commoners, and slaves.
• The king and lesser nobility had huge land
  holdings.
• Clients were free people who were dependent on
  the nobility.
• Commoners were free and were independent of the
  nobility.
• The Sumerian slave population included
  foreigners, prisoners of war, criminals, and
  debtors.

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Mesopotamian Trade
The Cuneiform World
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Cuneiform Wedge-Shaped Writing
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Cuneiform Writing
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Deciphering Cuneiform
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Sumerian Scribes
Tablet House
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Sumerian Cylinder Seals
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Gilgamesh
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Gilgamesh Epic TabletFlood Story
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Ziggurat at Ur

• Temple
• Mountain of the Gods

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The Royal Standard of Ur
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Mesopotamian Harp
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Board Game From Ur
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Sophisticated Metallurgy Skillsat Ur
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Sargon of AkkadThe Worlds First Empire
Akkadians
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The Triumph of Babylon

• Unification
• The Babylonians united Mesopotamia politically
  and culturally.
• Babylons best-known king, Hammurabi (ca
  1792-1750 B.C.E.), forged a vibrant
  Sumero-Babylonian culture through conquest and
  assimilation.

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Life Under Hammurabi

• Hammurabi also created one of the worlds
  earliest comprehensive law codes, which today
  provides much useful information on daily life in
  ancient Mesopotamia.
• The Code of Hammurabi had two notable features
  it included different laws for people of
  different social status, and it was based on the
  idea that the punishment should fit the crime.
• Individuals brought their own complaints before
  the courts.
• The Code dealt extensively with business
  practices, agricultural issues, and family life.

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The Babylonian Empires
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Hammurabis r. 1792-1750 B. C. E. Code
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Hammurabi, the Judge
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Babylonian Math
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Babylonian Numbers
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Egypt, the Land of the Pharaohs (3100-1200 B.C.E.)

• The Nile River
• Egyptian society revolved around the life-giving
  waters of the Nile River.
• The regularity of the Niles floods and the
  fertility of its mud made agriculture productive
  and dependable.
• The Nile was Egypts primary highway and
  communication conduit.