Mesopotamia Textbook Pages 29-34, 72-83, 95-103

SumeriansSumer, Kish, Eridu, Uruk, Ur (Near the Persian Gulf)

3000BC

Pictographs Cuneiform, stylusArches (keystone), ziggurats temples baked brick in layersInvented plow, sailboat, circle in 360 degrees, wheelUsed levees and canals

City-State each had god(s)Monarch king, high priests, nobles, merchants, scholars, peasants,

farmers, slavesUpper-class boys attended schoolPolytheism – gods – forces of nature

no reward or punishment after deathGods: An – god of heaven

Enlil – god of air + stormEnki – god of water and wisdom

Flood Story – gods are unhappy with human life, send a flood

BabyloniansAkkad, Babylon

1792 BCE

Active Traders, Rights for WomenAdopted culture of Sumerians when

they conquered themAstronomy/Astrology Horoscope

Hammurabi Law Code “eye for an eye”Hammurabi – efficient leader, cared about

people, wanted JusticePolytheistic had Sumerian gods

would sacrifice to gods for favorsShadowy afterlife like SumeriansPriests could tell future wealthy

HittitesAsia Minor, IndoEuropean Language

1600BCE-1200BCE

Warlike people invade from Asia MinorLooted city of BabylonRetreat to West Fertile Crescent1st to smelt iron

Only major crimes received death penaltyYou could pay fines for penaltiesHad significant religious freedom

AssyriansAshur, Upper Tigris River, Ninevah

2000BCE, 900-650BCE, 700BCE Loot/destroy Babylon, 635BCE Civil War

Semetic Speaking from North MesopotamiaAdopt Sumerian cultureFierce effective warriors, 1st to use cavalry, had a standing armyExpand power into Egypt/Fertile Crescent

height of power Meso, Syria, Palestine, Nile ValleyLatitude//Longitude, Used circle, Medical Science, Mail service

Used terror to control enemies, enslaved people they conquered, killed enemy soldiers, deport populations cultural diffusion

Governed large EmpireRespect/feared other people’s godsGods controlled everythingKing of Assyria responsible only to God AshurNineveh is Capital – double walled for protectionAshurbanipal’s Library at Nineveh Epic of Gilgamesh

ChaldeansNineveh, Babylon

612BCE capture Nineveh

Conquer most of Fertile CrescentTrade, canals, buildingsHanging Gardens of BabylonSkilled astronomers predict solar/lunar eclipseCalculate length of the yearGate of Ishtar - Goddess

Nebuchadnezzar – Great Leader, builds Hanging Gardens of Babylon for his homesick wife

PersiansIndo-European language, Empire Indus R. to Europe

539-331BCE Finally defeated by Greeks and Alexander the Great

Empire stretched from Indus River to EuropeRoad System was used to connect Empire together

Imperial Bureaucracy- gov’t organized into different levels and tasks with a king at the top.

Cyrus, Darius, Xerxes expanded EmpireCollected taxes laws fairly executedConquered people let them keep their religion and

lawsSecret Agents Keep king informed, governors and military

leaders were kept in checkZoroastrianism good vs. evil, either rewarded or

punished in the afterlife. Had influence of Judaism and Christianity

PhoeniciansWest Fertile Crescent, “Phoenicia”, Tyre and Sidon =

Seaports, Carthage in Africa - Traders

1000BC

Ships highly skilled sailors, greatest tradersLumber, skilled metal workers, invented glass blowing

and purple dyePhoenician Alphabet spread throughout

Mediterranean. Model for later Western alphabets

City-Stateeach with a different KingCopied culture and government of others (Egyptian and

Babylonians)Afterlife sacrifice to please the gods, even children

(extreme cases)

LydiansAsia Minor, West Asian Minor = Lydia

600BC no empire

1st to use coined money created a money economy

Barter = trading goods or services for other commodities

Hebrews/JewsCanaan, Enslaved in Egypt

After 100BCE Hyksos kicked out Jews and are made slaves in Egypt for 400 yrs.

Founder AbrahamMoses Leads Exodus from Egypt, 10 CommandmentsYahweh (God) monotheisticTorah (1st 5 books of Old Testament) Law Code

Diaspora the spreading out (forced or voluntary migration) of Jews from their homeland.