AncientSumer
3300 – 1900 B.C.
Fertile Crescent
Today…
Mesopotamia
Land “between the rivers”
Literally: Tigris & Euphrates
Why was this a good place to settle?
What did the Sumerians have to get reallygood at?
Sumerian Society
Organized into city-states
Each city-state was responsible for its ownsecurity, irrigation system, laws, taxes,record keeping and building its own walls.
Social Hierarchy:
1.Ruling family, officials, high priests
2.Scribes, merchants, artisans, lesser priests
3.Peasant farmers (about 90% of the pop.)
4.???
Sumerian Religion
Polytheistic
Meaning…?
Gods controlled every aspect of their life
A Sumerian’s job was to keep these godshappy at all times
Each city-state built a ziggurat
Afterlife?
Cuneiform!
Sumerians were the first to invent a systemof writing
Cuneiform used symbols (calledpictographs) to represent things,concepts, ideas, etc.
Scribes went through rigorous study tomaster the art of cuneiform.
Bad handwriting & talking during classwas punished by caning.
Oh how times have changed…
Sumer’s Legacy
Culture spread through trade to AsianMinor, Egypt and as far east as the IndusRiver Valley
Cuneiform
Astronomy
First to identify constellations
60 minutes in one hour; 24 hours in oneday
Epic of Gilgamesh
First story to be written down, passed on
After Sumer…
2300 B.C. Sargon, the ruler Akkad,came down from the north andconquered Sumer
By 1790 B.C. Mesopotamia wasunified under the rule of Hammurabi,the King of Babylon
Hammurabi’s Code
King Hammurabi’s greatestaccomplishment was writingdown (codifying) the laws ofthe land
WHY?
“Eye for an eye”
Fair?
Many empires follow…
Hittites: Ironworking
Assyrians: Warriors; Libraries
Babylon (again): Nebuchadnezzar
Re-built canals and temples
Fortified the city with a moat and giant wall
Built gateways meant to please the godsand allow people to pass through thedefensive wall
Ishtar Gate
Persia
539 B.C. Babylon falls to Cyrus the Great’sPersian army
Built the largest empire to date,encompassing a wide variety of culturesand beliefs
How do you think Cyrus treated the diversegroups in his empire?
Emperor Darius I creates a complexsystem of government; built roads to unitethe far-reaches of his empire
Darius transitioned Persian from a bartereconomy to a money economy
Linked his empire economically
The Phoenicians
Small state on theMediterranean Sea
What was their main industry?
“Carriers of Civilization”
Set up trading outposts, or colonies, aroundthe Mediterranean Sea
Phoenician alphabet
How is this different thancuneiform?
