1. Mesopotamia

2. Creation of Civilization • People were nomads at first—wanders, followed the food • Farming allowed people to stay in one place • This allowed more free time • People become specialized, learn skills, develop culture

3. The Fertile Crescent • 1st civilization develops in the middle east • Two rivers in present day Iraq—Tigris and Euphrates, area now called the Fertile Crescent • The rivers would flood and leave silt on fields • Villages joined together to use irrigation • Villages grow into civilizations/kingdoms • Sumer-Summerians • Babylonians • Assyrians

4. Government • Ruled by kings called lugals • Most important job was war • Lugal was also head priest • City-States—like states of a country • Hammurabi—most powerful of luguls, united the area • He focused on law and order • Code of Hammurabi-300 laws, strong protected the weak, eye for an eye approach

5. ReligionPolytheistic—belief in many gods

6. Religion cont. • Ziggurat—religious temple3 or more levels, 70+ feet high • Believed that gods lived on top—stairs to come down to earth, sometimes used human sacrifice

7. Daily Life in Mesopotamia • 3 classes of people • Aristocracy—rich and powerful, priests, high gov. officials, and generals • Working Class—paid in goods and food, no $, architects, scribes, merchants, farmers • Slaves—prisoners of war or families sold into slavery to pay off debts

8. Daily Life cont. • 1-2 story mud and brick homes • Father arranged marriages • Men—shaved heads, kilts, long beards • Women—braided hair, wore loose fitting long dresses • Games like checkers, music and dance were big, small harp called a lyre

9. Mesopotamian Achievements • Wheel for pottery, farming, chariots for war • Arches for support in architecture • Pulley, sundial • Calendar into weeks, days

10. Achievements cont. • Cuneiform-first written language—pressed wedges into damp clay • 500 combinations-scribes • Epic of Gilgamesh—first novel • Code of Hammurabi written in it

11. Hanging Gardens of Babylon • 1 of 7 Ancient Wonders of the World • Levels of gardens with complex irrigation system