1. The Ancient Middle East

2. Mesopotamia

• Translation

3. Mesopotamia

• Fertile Crescent

• • Rivers

4. Mesopotamia

• Present day location

5. Civilization Built on Mud

• Sumerians

• • Engineers

6. Sumerian Culture

• Agricultural society

• Political boundaries

• • City-States

• • Largest Sumerian City-states

7. Sumerian Society

• 3 Level Class System

• • Nobles

• • Middle Class

• • Peasants

8. Sumerian Society

• Advanced Culture

• • Architecture

• • Science and Math

9. Sumerian Writing

• Cuneiform

• Records discovered

• • Financial transactions

• • Imaginative literature

10. Waves of Invaders

• Akkadians

• • King Sargon

• Gudea

• Babylonians 2000BC

11. Rise of Babylon

• Babylonians

• • Valued Sumerian Culture

• • • Adapted language and literature

• • • Used Sumerian as a literary language

12. Rise of Babylon

13.

• Hammurabi

• • 6th ruler of Babylon

• • Code of Hammurabi

• Babylon

• • 1792 BC

• • • Religious and cultural of Western Asia

14. Great Library of Nineveh

• Hittites

15.

• Assyrians

• • Nineveh

• • King Assurbanipal

16. The Rebirth and Final Fall of Babylon

• Chaldeans

17.

• King Nebechadnezzar

• • Hanging Gardens

18.

• Hanging Gardens

19.

• Hanging Gardens

20.

• Tower of Babel

• • Babylon Falls

• 539 BC

• • Cyrus the Great of Persia

21. Final Fall of Babylon

• Babylon Falls 539 BC

• • Cyrus the Great of Persia

22. Epic of Gilgamesh

• Written 4000 years ago

• Discovered in 1839 by amateur archaeologist

23. Epic of Gilgamesh

• Story based upon some fact

• • Gilgamesh

24. Epic of Gilgamesh

• Earliest written fragments date from 2000 BC

25.

• Epic:

• • Long narrative that recounts the deeds of a larger-than-life hero who embodies the values of a particular society.

• Gilgamesh: the character

Epic of Gilgamesh

26. Versions of the Epic

• Based upon 12 clay tablets of cuneiform script

• Discovered in modern day Iraq

• Also found in Jerusalem

• Also found in area from Mediterranean coast east to Persian Gulf

• • Reveals Mesopotamians pessimistic views of existence

• • Reveals Mesopotamians sensitivity and humanity