Transcript City-States in Mesopotamia

City-States in
Mesopotamia
Rivers=Life Blood
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Tigris and Euphrates Rivers
Flow
From modern day Turkey
 To Persian Gulf
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Geography
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Mesopotamia
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Greek=“Land Between the Rivers”
Fertile Crescent
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Fertile plains
Rain=Flooding
 Flooding=Silt
 Silt=Farmland
 Wheat & Barley (villages grow)
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Environmental Challenges
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Settling & farming began Southern
Mesopotamia
Sumerians 3500 B.C.
Mixed w/ farms
 Language b/c dominant
 Attracted
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Good soil
 Flat
 Swampy
 Land of Sumer
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Disadvantages
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Flooding = unpredictable rivers
Becomes desert
 Little/no rain
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Sumer small region
Massachusetts
 Open plain
 Clusters of reed huts
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Natural Resources limited
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No supply of stone, wood, metal
Solutions
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Irrigation ditches
Defense (mud make city walls)
Traded grain, cloth, & tools w/ mountain
people
Solutions = ?
Organization
 Leadership
 Laws
 Government
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Sumerians create City-States
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5 characteristics of civilizations
3000 B.C. had # of cities
Uruk
 Kish
 Lagash
 Umma
 Ur
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What is City-State?
Ziggurat
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Center of city
Place of worship
Government center (pay taxes)
Priests have power
Political
 Religious
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Sumerian Culture
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Religion
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Polytheistic
Enlil (most powerful god)
Udugs (wickedness gods)
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3,000 gods
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Cause disease
Misfortune
Any human trouble
Like humans
We are servants
Angry gods = natural
disasters
Sacrifices
Death = “Land of no return”
Sumerian Social Classes
Priests & Kings
Wealthy Merchants
Farmers
Slaves
Science & Technology
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Inventions
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Wheel
Sail
Plow
Bronze
Writing
Known maps 2300 B.C.
Recorded scientific
investigations
Geometry & arithmetic
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# system based on 60
60 seconds = 1 minute
360°
Empire Builders
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Wars
City-states @ war w/ one another 3000-2000 B.C.
 Weaken state
 Culture survived
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Sargon of Akkad
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2350 B.C. defeats Sumer
From North
Semitic language = related to Hebrew & Arabic
1st Empire
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Mediterranean coast in West
To present day Iran in East
Lasted 200 years
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Civil War
Famine
Invasions
Babylonian Empire
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2000 B.C. nomadic warriors (Amorites) invade
Overwhelm Sumerians
Babylon b/c capital
Hammurabi 1792-1750 B.C. (peak)
Hummurabi’s Code
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Uniforming code in kingdom
Collected
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Existing rules
Judgment
Laws
Code cont.
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Engrave in stone
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Places throughout empire
282 Laws
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Laws apply to everyone different punishments
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Community
Family relations
Business conduct
Crime
Rich & poor
Men & women
Eye for an Eye
Significance
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Government responsible