The Fertile Crescent/Mesopotamia

Location, Location, Location!* FC Today: Iraq, Syria, Jordan Lebanon, Israel,Turkey & Iran

*FC is horseshoe/crescent shaped area of good farmland between Tigris & Euphrates rivers that stretches from W Mediterranean to

Persian Gulf

Location!• Don’t write!• Tigris & Euphrates flow from E. Turkey

to Persian Gulf.• Area known as Mesopotamia (land btw rivers)

• Floods at least once a year, leaving thick silt (mud).Very fertile.Flooding unpredictable

• Desert region• No barriers for protection

• Don’t write: Settle 3300 BC• Good soil, few resources, no

protection & flooding

Write the Solutions!• Dug irrigation ditches• Built city walls w/ mud bricks

*trade tools for raw materials

Farmers built

ODams ---to control floods

OChannels ---

OWalls *****

OWaterways ***** to water crops (irrigation)

ODitches *****

Barley and dates

Sumerians!

• By 3000 BC built city-states -independent cities w/ own govts & rulers,

& separate gods• Share culture• Ex: Kish, Lagash, Ur, Uruk

*All CS’s had ziggurat (temple) in middle

*Govt controlled by zig priests• Farmers need blessings of gods for crops & priests were go betweens

• During war, led by commanders (eventually became

full time leader)• Creates a Dynasty- single family rule

• Don’t write!!!• Built in receding tiers upon a rectangular, oval, or

square platform, the ziggurat was a pyramidal structure with a flat top. Sun-baked bricks made up the core of the ziggurat with facings of fired bricks on the outside. The facings were often glazed in different colors!

Built like a wedding cake in layers!

• C/S’s grew wealthy from surplus food & start trading

• Cities spread & so does cultural diffusion- (new idea/product spreads from one culture to another)

Religion*Polytheistic- many gods• Gods all powerful & immortal w/ humans as slaves, fatalistic, pessimistic (build ziggarats, offer sacrifice of animals,wine)• Enlil- god of storms/air, controls cosmos & man

Social class structure!

Kings, priests, landowners Wealthy merchants Field workers Slaves (sold as kids or pows)

****Women had rights! Could own property, be merchants, etc!!!***

Cuneiform1st written epic

Arches, columns, ramps,

pyramid shape design

Dev number system base

60 (time, 360)

Invented wheel, plow, sail and use

bronze

Inventions & ideas develop from needs!!

• At war from 3000-2000 bc.• Never recover, but don’t die out.

• Succeeding rulers use Sumerian culture

Akkadians

Akkadians & Sargon

• 2350 BC: SARGON of AKKAD (city-state in N Meso) conquers city-states of Sumer

• Controls Meso & creates first EMPIRE (brings together people, nations, independent states under 1 ruler) (From Med coast to Iran)

• Fell apart due to invasions, fighting after 200 years

Ammorites/Babylonians!• 2000 BC nomad Ammorites invade & est Babylon

• 1792-1750 BC- Hammurabi of Babylon creates uniform code of laws, carved in stone, posted all over

To bring about the rule of righteousness in the land, to destroy the wicked and the evil doers, so that the strong should not harm the weak

• 282 specific laws listed under headings: trade, business, marriage, family

• Severe punishments apply to all (but

different for rich & poor, men & women)

Hittites Don’t Write• 2000 BC Hittites appear from Anatolia (high, rocky platuea w/ minerals, timber in Turkey)

• Indo-European speakers. Separate city states create empire (Hattusas capital)

• Invade T/E around 1600 BC

• Tactics:• 1st to work iron into weapons (had charcoal & iron ore)

• 2 wheeled chariots, wood frame, leather

covered, 2-4 horses• Stalemate w/ Egyptians

Phonecians• Don’t’ write! 1100 BC- Lebanon today!• Merchants, traders & seafarers who built CS’s that competed w/ each other (Byblos, Tyre, Sidon) all over Med, sailing to Great Britain & S. Africa

• Traded goods (wine, weapons, metals), superb craftsmen (red/purple dye, wood, ivory)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/PhoenicianTrade.png

• Create alphabet: phonetic w/ one pic for one sound

• Introduced to trade partners

LYDIANS• Mostly in Anatolia (Tur)• 1st to coin money of gold & silver btw 700 BC to 550 BC. Traders (coins stamped w/ king’s symbol of lion

head & sunburst) • Destroyed by Persians

• 300 miles N Mesopotamia (descend from Sumer-Akkadians)

• Aggressive, cruel, constant warfare to expand use army, control trade routes! Very rich!

*Defeat Syria, Egypt Palestine, Babylonia, Sumer btw 1000 & 650 BC

Assyrians

Military Tactics• Iron helmets/leather skirts w/ scales, iron swords & iron tipped spears, shields

• span rivers w/ pontoons, floating bridges• Dig under walls to weaken them (sappers)

1

3

4

2

• March shoulder to shoulder, shoot arrows, climb ladders.

• Impale/ behead those not killed in battle, *women, kids murdered sold into slavery

• Don’t write!!!• Military service compulsory for all,, • Assyrians invented siege

machines, like battering rams & mobile towers shooting arrows.

• Supreme Assyrian god was Ashur (war god), cruel to enemies & merciful with his believers.

• Tiglat Palasar I (1116-1078 BC) "I killed four giant, powerful bulls in the desert of the Mitanni land, with my hard bow, my steel sword, and my sharp arrows... I also killed 10 strong elephant bulls in Harran on the banks of the Habur River. I captured 4 living elephants

From the order of the Ninurta god, I killed in fight, standing on foot, 120 brave hearted lions and 800 lions from my war chariot."

Ruling Power• Officials govern land closest to Assyria as provinces, made dependent & chose their rulers (governors report to central authority)

• Pay taxes & tribute, destroyed if don’t

• Don’t Write! • Ninevah was a walled city 3 x 1 miles long• Carvings of military campaigns

• King Ashurbanipal created 1st library w/ 20,000 tablets from FC (organized by

room, subject matter)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpKxRJDmnQI

• destroyed by Chaldeans• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hW9X3P0lbZk

• 612 BC-538 BC Chaldeans orNeo-Babylonians, invade Assyria destroy Nineveh

• Made Babylon capital (1000 yrs after Hammurabi) & restore city

• Nebuchadnezzar built Hanging Gardens of Babylon

• study astronomy (chart star positions) from ziggurat

• Destroyed by Persians

Built garden to please his wife Amytis of Media, who longed for the trees and fragrant plants of her homeland.[1] Gardens destroyed by earthquakes. 100 feet ( long by 100 ft wide & built in tiers so that it resembled a theatre. Vaults constructed under the terraces carried weight of the planted garden; Highest part garden, (75 feet) was on the same level as the city walls. Roofs of vaults supported the garden made of stone beams 16 ft long,. Laid over these were a layer of reeds set in thick tar, then two courses of baked brick bonded by cement, & finally a covering of lead to prevent the moisture in the soil penetrating the roof.. The earth was levelled off & t planted w/ every kind of tree. Galleries were sunlit, & contained conduits for the water which was raised by pumps from the river, though no one outside could see it being done

Don’t Write! Persians*Today: Iran (Caspian Sea to Persian Gulf)

*fertile farmland w/ many minerals (gold, silver, copper, lead lapis lazuli)

• 550 BC Cyrus the Great conquers from Indus to Anatolia

• Kind, tolerant, honors local customs traditions, religions,

• Allowed Jews to return to Israel

• Don’t Write! 530 BC Son Cyrus’ Cambyses conquers Egypt & is cruel,dies. Brother Smerdis (fake, tries to take over) Darius knows he is a fake

• Darius, (522 BC) noble in king’s body guard, seized throne w/ help of elite soldiers & puts down

revolts• Conquest!! Conquers & controls 2500 miles (Afghanistan into India)

*Persia div into 20 provinces, using homelands, keep their religion, languages & laws

• Use satrap - gov to rule locally, plus a mili leader & tax collector & use spies

• Royal Road 1677 miles (messenger relays)

• METAL coins

Zoroastrianism• Religion started by Zoroaster (600 BC. Prophet)

• Earth is battleground btw spirit of good (light) & evil (darkness)

• Each person part of struggle• Ahura Mazda judges everyone at end of time on how well you fought

So how did the Mesopotamians impact us?

Wheels chariot plowsailboat money writing Calendar math glassshaduuf trade library1st united empires Ziggurats Irrigation Metal tools1st written epic transportation independent city states code of law

Hebrews, Israel and Judaism

• Palestine:east end of Med • Hebrews/ Isrealites/Jews lived in Canaan

(btw Jordan R & Med Sea)• Crossroads of ME- seaports on Red & Med Seas

• Torah tells story of Hebrews (1st 5 books of Heb/Christian bible

*1800 BC Abraham chosen by God to lead/be the “father” of Hebrews &

move to Canaan. Wanders for for years.

*Don’t write!!

*believe in 1 god,Yaweh (Monotheism)

*had power over all people, not a physical being

*God looked after Hebrews & given homeland (Canaan) if they obeyed . This mutual promise called

the covenant His Grandson Jacob (aka Israel) had 12 sons, each was

leader of 12 tribes of Israel. 1600 BC Joseph led them to Egypt due to famine & were enslaved

• 1200-1300 BC? Moses led Isrealites out of Egyptian slavery, (called the Exodus).

• Given 10 commandments (social & religious behavior, new covenant w/ god)• Wander 40 years & return to promised land

• Don’t Write!!• Major beliefs:

God’s mercy• Live justly with

one another• Moral life in

god’s laws• Worship 1 god • no one above law• Right conduct• Interpreted by

prophets

• Organized into 12 tribes. Would unite under judges periodically.

• From 1020-922 BC, Israelites unite under 3 kings to form Israel

• 1025 BC: Saul (1st king) drove out Philistines

• King David- unites tribes, est Jerusalem as capital

• King Solomon- built trade empire on Med, building program & big Temple in Jerusalem for the Ark of the

Covenant (holds 10 commandments)

• Solomon's projects raised taxes, strain all• Solomon dies &Jews in N Israel revolt & divides Is in half: Israel in N Judah in S

Judah & Israel Fall (DON”T WRITE)• 783 BC: pay tribute to Assyria• 722 BC: Israel falls • 586 BC: Neb destroys Judah &

Jerusalem. • Jews exiled to Babylon (Babylonian

Captivity)

• 539 BC: Cyrus the Great (Persia) conquers Babylon & allows Jews to return

• Jerusalem rebuilt 445 BC, but later taken by Greeks, then Romans

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wksHEDgBRnM

• http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/kids/people-places-kids/iraq-mesopotamia-kids/

Tiglath Pileser I Reading1. Describe what you think Tilgath’s

personality is like? How does he wish to be viewed by the reader?

2. Summarize what happened on this campaign

3. Is this record credible? Why or why not?4. What does his attitude tell you?5. Imagine you are the king of Tunabi. How

would you feel as his army approached? Design a defense plan against Assyrian technology!

6. How does this writing help to explain why the Assyrian empire expanded so quickly?

Hanging garden

• Long program 53- 1:06 minutes• http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=_BUE5jEMfEU• http://www.unmuseum.org/wonders.htm

Design your own Hanging Gardens!

Like Nebuchadnezzar did to make his wife happy, design your own happy place!

*Where would it be? *What would it look like? *What would it have? *Why would this make you happy? Draw it out!

Label it!

Bell ringer – 5 minutes Be sure to include today’s date!