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Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia. 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. The Fertile Crescent.

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Mesopotamia

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  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

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