Today’s Warm Up

Attempt to answer the following riddle in your notes:

What building do you enter blind and come out seeing?

Early CivilizationsMesopotamia: The Sumerians

Today’s LEQs: Why did humans transition from hunting and gathering to settled agriculture? Was this humanity’s biggest mistake?

Fertile Crescent

First known agricultural villages c. 10,000 BCE

First known cities c. 5,000BCE

Eastern portion = Mesopotamia

Let’s SCLARGE…

Social

Settled in the lower part of Fertile Crescent – a.k.a. Sumer Created 12 city-states

Birthplace of cities (500,000 people by 2500BCE with 80% in cities!)

Shared a common culture Complex social hierarchy with kings

and priests at the top / Slaves at the bottom

Social

Men: could sell wife and children to pay a debt; could divorce easily

Women: could buy and sell property; operate own businesses; own slaves

Patriarchal but women more privileged than later cultures

Customs & Traditions

Rituals suggested significance of religion i.e. New Years tradition – King of Ur

symbolically married goddess of fertility each year

Royals buried in elaborate tombs; often buried with sacrificed attendants

Commoners buried under their house or in cemeteries outside city walls

language, Communication, & Technology

Semitic Sumerians invented writing c.

3500BCE; first used for record keeping, later for literature & gov’t decrees Pictograms first Cuneiform by 3,000BCE

Epic of Gilgamesh & Code of Hammurabi = kind of a BIG DEAL…

language, Communication, & Technology

Invented first wheels – wagon wheel, pottery wheel

12 month lunar calendar (helped with agriculture)

arts & Architecture

Creativity flourished! Took pride in elegant cities & monuments Sculptures, mosaics, murals, stone bas

reliefs Arches, vaults, domes found in tombs

= new skill Walls for protection

Religion

Practiced polytheism Had one chief god for each city-state Gods were unpredictable, angry, &

selfish Priests had power & prestige

Survival depended on will of gods Built great temples called ziggurats

G0vernment & Politics

Competition for land and water rights with foreign invaders led to the development of a monarchy (king)

King was a religious & political leader King enforced law and set penalties

(usually a fine)

G0vernment & Politics

Key Leaders:Sargon I – built the Akkadian

Empire by uniting all of the Mesopotamian city-states (first empire!)

Hammurabi – created a code of law (we’ll discuss this more later!!!)

Economics

Trade central to urban life Merchandise by land, river, & sea Evidence of far off trade: shells from

Mediterranean Rich in agricultural goods but poor in

raw materials; traded with North for wood, stone, and metal

Your Turn!

You completed independent research for homework

Now, collaborate with your groups to create a presentation on your assigned early civilization

You are responsible for teaching your assigned civilization to the rest of the class – be clear and concise when going through the SCLARGE categories