City-States of Mesopotamia

Hammurabi's Code

Babylonian Empire

• Code listed 282 specific laws
• Reinforced the idea that government had a responsibility for what occurred in society.

• Amorites took over Mesopotamia around 2000 B.C.
• Babylonian Empire reached its peak during the reign of Hammurabi.

The First Empire Builders

Sumerian Science and Technology

Sargon of Akkad

Life in Sumerian Society

Sumerian Culture

• Sargon conquered both northern and southern Mesopotamia, creating the first empire.
• Empire- several peoples, nations, or previously independent states under the control of one ruler.

• Invented the wheel, the sail, and the plow.
• First to use bronze and developed the first system of writing.
• Number system in base 60.

A Religion of Many Gods

• Social classes emerge- Priests and Kings, wealthy merchants, farm hands and workers, slaves.
• Women had more rights than in later civilizations.

• Polytheism- belief in many gods.
• Sumerians believed in roughly 3,000 gods.
• Epic of Gilgamesh- one of the earliest works of literature in the world.

The Spread of Cities

The Power of Priests

Monarchs Take Control

• Cultural diffusion- process of a new idea or a product spreading from one culture to another.
• This happened when Sumer's trade routes grew larger and their population expanded.

• In times of war, the city would choose the strongest warrior to lead the city's soldiers.
• Military leaders would become full-time rulers.
• Dynasty- series of rulers from a single family.

• Earliest governments were controlled by the temples and priests.
• Farmers believed the success of their crops depended on the blessings of the Gods.
• Ziggurats served not just as a temple but as a city hall.

Learning Objectives

Environmental Challenges

• People first began to settle and farm in southern Mesopotamia before 4500 B.C.
• Sumerians began to appear around 3500 B.C.

Geography of the Fertile Plains

Fertile Plains

City-States of Mesopotamia

• Fertile Crescent- arc of land between the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea that contains some of the best farm land in Southwest Asia.

• Between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers exists an area called Mesopotamia.
• Mesopotamia is Greek for "land between the rivers"
• Silt- mud left from flooded rivers that provides good farm land.

• Summarize how geography affected cultural development in the Fertile Crescent.
• Describe how city-states and how other cultures learned about them.
• Describe Sumerian religious beliefs, social structure, and technology.
• Explain the influence of Sumer on later civilizations.

Creating Solutions

• Irrigation- controlled watering/flooding of farm land.
• City Walls
• Trade
• Beginnings of organized government

Sumerians Create City-States

• City-State: Cities and land surrounding it, with their own government and ruler, functioning like a modern country does today.