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Question: What is a civilization? Answer: Civilizations are complex societies. They have large cities,

organized governments, diversity in labor, art, religion, class divisions, and a writing system.

Link to Civilization Interactive Web: SS7 Civilization Interactive SMART Web.notebook

        In early human history people ate only wild plants and animals.

Question: What happened when they had depleted all sources of food in one region…?

Answer: People constantly migrated (moved to other places) in search of new food sources.

Thousands of years ago people realized that they could control their food supply by growing their own fruits and vegetables and by breeding animals.

To do this they had to do what?

domestication – The process in which a plant and/or animal species has changed its form and behavior so much so that it depends on people to survive.

Ex: Domestic sheep cannot leap from rock to rock like their wild ancestors. Why?

When domestication started, migration slowed and stopped being the way of life.

 How did the domestication of plants and animals change the environment?

 Possible answers: Forests were cut down; irrigation canals were dug; wars were fought to protect land used for farming.

 Agriculture allowed farmers to grow so much food that they had a 1. surplus to be saved, shared, traded or sold. 2. People now had a reason to establish permanent settlements.

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hunting and gathering – The process of hunting for animals and gathering wild plants and seeds.

Men hunted animals, while women were responsible for gathering the plants and seeds.

Who do you think was responsible for discovering that planting seeds could result in the growth of new plants?

subsistence agriculture – A type of farming in which plants and domesticated livestock are raised and breed to support the needs of a family and/or community.

What happened to food surpluses (extra food)? How did surpluses in food affect the types of jobs people had?

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The Fertile Crescent – Area encompassed by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the Middle East. Spring flooding leaves behind extremely rich and fertile soil.

The Geographic Conditions: o o Little rainfall Hot and dry climate o o o o Windstorms leaving muddy river valleys in winter Unpredictable, catastrophic flooding of the rivers in spring Rich alluvial soil containing little minerals Little stone or timber resources

Would you want to live in a place like the Fertile Crescent? EXPLAIN why or why not? Be sure to use information from your notes to support your response!

Write a 1x5 paragraph (one paragraph with FIVE sentences).

 The first civilization to develop a written language  Mesopotamia is a Greek word that means “between the rivers”, specifically, the area between the Tigris River and Euphrates River (present day Iraq) 

Lasted for approximately 3,000 years

 Its peoples were the first to irrigate fields, devise a system of writing, develop mathematics, invent the wheel and learned to work with metal 

irrigation – A system that supplies dry land with water through ditches, pipes or streams.

    As farming succeeded in Mesopotamia, communities began to have surpluses of food. As time progressed, the building of cities became practical.

surplus – An amount that is left over after a need has been met.

By 3500 B.C., the region of Sumer had many growing cities. However, due to long distances separating the cities, no ruler united all the Sumerian cities. Each Sumerian city acted as a state, with its own special god or goddess, it’s own government, and own ruler. They became known as city-states.

city-states – A central city and its surrounding villages, which together have one form of government, and share the same language, religious beliefs, and way of life.

         Sumerian cities were protected by vast walls to keep out invaders.

Large temples and royal palaces were spread throughout the cities.

Busy shops and market places lined the streets which were filled with passerby, musicians, acrobats, beggars, and water sellers.

Merchants displayed goods in outdoor stalls.

Streets were so narrow and congested with traffic, people had to squeeze through. The congestion kept carts from being able to travel down the streets.

Houses faced away from the crowded streets onto inner courtyards where families at and children played. Clay pipes, buried deep in the ground, carried waste away.

Oil lamps supplied light for Sumerians homes.

People slept on their flat roofs on hot nights.

There was no universal literacy, so the profession of scribes became very lucrative. Scribes spent many years in training and were paid extremely well for their services. They were also highly respected.

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Inventions and Discoveries in Ancient Mesopotamia (Part 1)

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Inventions and Discoveries in Ancient Mesopotamia (Part 2)

        Like most inventions, writing developed out of necessity. Merchants and traders needed a way to keep track of goods being bought and sold. At first people drew pictures to represent what they wanted to say and to keep a record of events. These pictures were called pictographs.

pictographs – A picture representing a word or idea.

Who was responsible for recording written communication?

Answer: Scribes

scribes – Individuals who could read and write.

Over time, scribes created a more elaborate (detailed) type of script...

cuneiform – Wedge-shaped symbols used by the Sumerians to record written language. One of the first types of written language in the world.

A “Tablet” House

   Many scribes wrote literary and scientific works of their own. Certain lullabies and love songs were written by female scribes.

Since few people in Mesopotamia could read, scribes read out loud to audiences. Many tales from the Epic of Gilgamesh were read to the public masses.

The Epic Of Gilgamesh - Told the story King Gilgamesh, who ruled around 3000 B.C. Several tales are woven within this story, using Gilgamesh as the main focal point. This hero faces many problems involving friendship, loyalty, love of fame, adventure, death, and the quest for immortality.

   The people of Sumer worshipped not one, but many, gods and goddesses.

polytheism – The practice of worshipping more than one god.

Sumerian myths warned that the gods would punish people who angered them. Conversely, the myths promised rewards to those who served the gods well. 

myth – A traditional story; a legend that explains people’s beliefs.

 The Sumerians believed that their king was pre determined by the gods, and like the priests, acted as interpreters as they told the people what the god wanted them to do (i.e. by examining the liver or lungs of a slain sheep).

 Each city-state was ruled by a different god, but the dominant gods were: Anu- god of the upper heavens, Enlil- god of the forces of nature, Nin-khursag-the goddess of the earth and Enki- the water god.  These gods were usually depicted in human form and expected mankind to serve them and labor on their behalf.

 Story

     Each city-state built a temple to a specific god. The people believed this god was the city’s special guardian. These temples were called ziggurats.

ziggurats – A pyramid-shaped tower built with a temple rising from the top as a center of worship for Sumerian gods.

Terraces wrapped around the ziggurat allowing people to watch celebrations honoring their god.

The ziggurats were sacred places, so much so that priests would wash the statues of gods before and after each meal! The leaning Tower of Babel from the Old Testament is thought to have been a ziggurat.

   Temple priests were the first governors of Mesopotamian city-states. When disputes arose between city-states regarding land and water, leaders were elected to defend their interests. As time passed, these leaders, became kings. Each king also gained the power of selecting their successor – who would replace them after they died. From that point on, the city-states were governed by two groups: 1. The priests controlled religious and economic life.

2. The king controlled political and military life.

Would do you think was bad about having a government system where half was controlled by an elected ruler or king and the other half was controlled by religious priests? EXPLAIN in detail! Write a 1x5 paragraph (one paragraph with FIVE sentence paragraph).

     Unfortunately for Sumer, the wealth of the city-states became their downfall… The Sumerian city-states fought over land, and especially access to the river water.

Initially, Sumer was conquered by King Sargon of the Akkadian kingdom. Both groups were very similar, so Sumerian life remained very much the same. However, the union of the Sumerian city-states and Akkada resulted in the world’s first empire. Constant warfare weakened the Sumerian/Akkadian Imperial rulers and exhausted its armies. It was no longer a great power after 2000 B.C. It fell to a northern rival (enemy) – Babylonia – in 1759 B.C.

Babylonia:  Originally a small town, Babylon was located by the Euphrates River and grew in size and importance. Eventually, its ruler, King Hammurabi, conquered all of the city-states of Mesopotamia.

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empire – An area of many territories and people controlled by one government.

   Large caravans travelled from across the sea and desert to trade with the Babylonians.

caravan – A group of merchants travelling together for safety.

By controlling the vast array of Mesopotamian city-states, Babylonia grew extremely wealthy due to its ability to control and benefit from trade.

When a civilization, like the empires of Mesopotamia, trade frequently, the government becomes wealthy through taxes. Explain how a government may best use this tax money.

Write a 1x5 paragraph (one paragraph with FIVE sentence paragraph).

   Much of the Babylonian culture was borrowed from the Sumerians. However, one great contribution of the world was that of the Code of Hammurabi.

Hammurabi's Code – A code of laws that told the people of Babylon how to settle conflicts in all areas of life and brought all social classes under its rule. It was created by King Hammurabi and consisted of 282 laws.

Hammurabi’s Code was based on the idea of an “eye for an eye.” Essentially, a man who was blinded by another man, would have his own eye put out. Unfortunately, the code did not apply equally to all individuals…

“If a man has destroyed the eye of a member of the aristocracy, they shall destroy his eye. If he has broken another man’s bone, they shall break his bone. If he has destroyed the eye of a commoner or broken the bone of a commoner, he shall pay one mina of silver. If he has destroyed the eye of another man’s slave or broken the bone of a man’s slave, he shall pay one-half of the slave’s value.”

 As you just read on the previous slide, the code gave different punishments for breaking the same rules. The harshness of the punishment depended on how important the victim was. The higher the class of the victim, the stiffer the penalty.

Kings, Priests and Wealthy Land Owners Skilled Workers, Merchants, and Farmers Slaves and Poor Workers

 Many of those who ended up in slavery had either been captured in war or been sold into slavery to pay off their debts.

 Slavery was not based upon race or ethnicity like it was in the American south in the 1700 and 1800s.

 Women’s rights varied throughout the ages, but for the most part women had fewer rights than men and were considered property. Only in the case of the New Babylon Empire did women have the right to own property.

Explain your thoughts on the Hammurabi Code. Would you like to live by such a code? Explain why or why not.

Be sure to use information from your notes to support your response.

Write a 1x5 paragraph (one paragraph with FIVE sentence paragraph).

Assyria:  North of Babylon was a small kingdom with a few walled cities. The kingdom’s open land made it ripe for attack and attempted invasion. Due to this, the Assyrians were constantly defending themselves, which made them very skilled warriors.

  Around 1365 B.C., the Assyrians decided the best defense was a good offense. And so, they launched a massive campaign against the Babylonian Empire.

By 650 B.C., the Assyrians had amassed a large empire and began contributing to the future civilizations of the world.

  To control their vast lands, the Assyrians divided the empire into provinces.

provinces – A territory governed as a political district of an empire.

   Knowledge was very important to the Assyrians. One of their great accomplishments was the creation of one of the world’s first libraries, one that housed thousands of clay tablets with writings from Sumer and Babylon. Thanks to the creation of this library, much of the history we know about Mesopotamia comes from the tablets stored by the Assyrians. To control conquered territories, the Assyrians appointed governors to oversee these lands. Each of these governors was expected to report directly back to the king through reports sent by messengers. To do this, a system of roads was built. And the delivered messengers were basically the first mail delivery service in the world!

Explain why the recording of information, like the Assyrians did with their clay tablets stored in their great library, is important to future civilizations.

Be sure to use information from your notes to support your answer!

Write a 1x5 paragraph (one paragraph with FIVE sentence paragraph).

 The Assyrian empire also devoted much of its time to being strong and capable of defense and conquering. Inventions included:  The battering ram  Armored chariots   Stone slingers Archers with helmets and armor Another important invention: The creation of a standing army.

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standing army – A military composed of soldiers who choose the army as their career.

     Most other states had citizen-soldiers.

citizen-soldiers – Men who would fight in a war, but return home working as a farmer or skilled merchant once the war had ended.

Due to the vast size of the Assyrian empire, they had too few soldiers to defend it. So, they turned to mercenaries…

mercenary – A foreign soldier hired by another country to fight in its army.

However, due to its size and unmotivated, hired soldiers, Assyria fell to the Chaldeans who resurrected the New Babylonian Empire.

   The New Babylonian Empire spent a great amount of time rebuilding the city of Babylon, which had been destroyed by the Assyrians. In the rebuilt city, the king built a massive royal palace (almost 350 ft.) that had a dazzling landscape of trees and gardens for his prized wife. This palace is considered to be one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It was known as the Gardens of Babylon. This reborn empire also became a center for learning and science. Babylonian astronomers charted the paths of the stars and almost perfectly measured the length of the year.

astronomers – Individuals who study planets and stars.