Introducing 

Prezi AI.

Your new presentation assistant.

Refine, enhance, and tailor your content, source relevant images, and edit visuals quicker than ever before.

Loading…
Transcript

History of the Fertile Crescent 7000-500 BC

Section 1: Geography of the Fertile Crescent

Geography of the Fertile Crescent

Rivers Support the Growth of Civilization

Early peoples settled where crops would grow. Crops usually grew well near rivers, where water was available and regular floods made the soil rich. One region in Southwest Asia was especially well suited for farming. It lay between two rivers.

Rivers Support the Growth of Civilization

The Land between the Rivers

The Tigris and Euphrates rivers are the most important physical features of the region sometimes known as Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia means "between the rivers" in Greek.

The region called Mesopotamia lies between Asia Minor and the Persian Gulf. The region is part of the Fertile Crescent, a large arc of rich, or fertile, farmland. The Fertile Crescent extends from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea.

In ancient times, Mesopotamia was made of two parts. Northern Mesopotamia was a plateau bordered on the north and the east by mountains. The southern part of Mesopotamia was a flat plain. The Tigris and Euphrates rivers flowed down from the hills into this low-lying plain.

The Rise of Civilization

Hunter-gatherer groups first settled in Mesopotamia more than 12,000 years ago. Over time, these people learned how to plant crops to grow their own food. Every year, floods on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers brought silt, a mixture of rich soil and tiny rocks, to the land. The fertile silt made the land ideal for farming.

The first farm settlements were formed in Mesopotamia as early as 7000 BC. There, farmers grew wheat, barley, and other types of grain. Livestock, birds, and fish were also good sources of food. Plentiful food led to population growth, and villages formed. Eventually, these early villages developed into the world's first civilization.

Farming and Cities

Although Mesopotamia had fertile soil, farming wasn't easy there. The region received little rain. This meant that water levels in the Tigris and Euphrates rivers depended on rainfall in eastern Asia Minor where the two rivers began. When a great amount of rain fell, water levels got very high. This flooding destroyed crops, killed livestock, and washed away homes. When water levels were too low, crops dried up. Farmers knew that they needed to develop a way to control the rivers' flow.

Food Surpluses

Irrigation increased the amount of food farmers were able to grow. In fact, farmers could produce a food surplus, or more than they needed. Farmers also used irrigation to water grazing areas for cattle and sheep. As a result, Mesopotamians ate a variety of foods. Fish, meat, wheat, barley, and dates were plentiful.

Because irrigation made farmers more productive, fewer people needed to farm. Some people became free to do other jobs. As a result, new occupations developed. For the first time, people became crafters, religious leaders, and government workers. The type of arrangement in which each worker specializes in a particular task or job is called a division of labor.

Having people available to work on different jobs meant that society could accomplish more. Large projects, such as raising buildings and digging irrigation systems, required specialized workers, managers, and organization. To complete these types of projects, the Mesopotamians needed structure and rules. These could be provided by laws and government.

Farming and Cities

Controlling Water

To solve their problems, Mesopotamians used irrigation, a way of supplying water to an area of land. To irrigate their land, they dug out large storage basins to catch rainwater that fell to the north. Then they dug canals, human-made waterways, that connected these basins to a network of ditches. These ditches brought water to the fields. To protect their fields from flooding, farmers built up the rivers' banks. These built-up banks held back floodwaters even when river levels were high.

Appearance of Cities

Over time, Mesopotamian settlements grew both in size and complexity. They gradually developed into cities between 4000 and 3000 BC.

Despite the growth of cities, society in Mesopotamia was still based on agriculture. Most people still worked in farming jobs. However, cities were becoming important places. People traded goods there, and cities provided leaders with power bases.

Cities were the political, religious, cultural, and economic centers of civilization.

Section 2: The Rise of Sumer

The Rise of Sumer

An Advanced Society

In southern Mesopotamia, a people known as the Sumerians developed the world's first civilization. No one knows where they came from or when they moved into the region. All we know is that by 3000 BC, several hundred thousand Sumerians had settled in Mesopotamia, in a land they called Sumer. There they built an advanced society.

Rise of the Akkadian Empire

In time, another society developed along the Tigris and Euphrates. This society was built by the Akkadians. They lived just north of Sumer, but they were not Sumerians. They even spoke a different language than the Sumerians.

In spite of their differences, however, the Akkadians and the Sumerians lived in peace for many years. That peace was broken in the 2300s BC when Sargon sought to extend Akkadian territory. He built a new capital, Akkad, on the Euphrates River, near what is now the city of Baghdad. Sargon was the first ruler to have a permanent army. He used that army to launch a series of wars against neighboring kingdoms.

.

Sargon's soldiers defeated all the city- states of Sumer. They also conquered northern Mesopotamia, finally bringing the entire region under his rule. With these conquests, Sargon established the world's first empire, or land with different territories and peoples under a single rule. Sargon's huge empire stretched from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea.

Sargon was emperor, or ruler of his empire, for more than 50 years. However, the empire lasted only a century after his death. Later rulers could not keep the empire safe from invaders. Hostile tribes from the cast raided and captured Akkad. A century of chaos followed.

Eventually, however, the Sumerian city-state of Ur rebuilt its strength and conquered the rest of Mesopotamia. Political stability was restored. The Sumerians once again became the most powerful civilization in the region.

An Advanced Society

City-States of Sumer

Most people in Sumer were farmers. They lived mainly in rural, or countryside, areas. The centers of Sumerian society, however, were the urban, or city, areas. The first cities in Sumer had about 10,000 residents. Over time, the cities grew. Historians think that by 2000 BC, some of Sumer's largest cities had more than 100,000 residents.

As a result, the basic political unit of Sumer combined the two parts. This unit was the city-state. A city-state consisted of a central city and all the countryside around it. The amount of farmland controlled by a city-state depended on its military strength. Stronger city-states controlled larger areas.

City-states in Sumer fought each other to gain more farmland. As a result of these conflicts, the city-states built up strong armies. Sumerians also built strong, thick walls around their cities for protection. Individual city-states gained and lost power over time. By 3500 BC, a city-state known as Kish had become quite powerful. Over the next 1,000 years, the city-states of Uruk and Ur fought for dominance. One of Uruk's kings, known as Gilgamesh became a legendary figure in Sumerian literature.

Religion Shapes Society

Sumerian Social Order

Because of their status, priests occupied a high level in Sumer's social hierarchy, the division of society by rank or class. In fact, priests were just below kings. The kings of Sumer claimed that they had been chosen by the gods to rule.

Below the priests were Sumer's skilled craftspeople, merchants, and traders. Trade had a great impact on Sumerian society. Traders traveled to faraway places and exchanged grain for gold, silver, copper, lumber, and precious stones.

Below traders, farmers and laborers. made up the large working class. Slaves were at the bottom of the social order.

Religion was very important in Sumerian society. In fact, it played a role in nearly every aspect of life. In many ways, religion was the basis for all of Sumerian society.

Religion Shapes Society

Sumerian Religion

The Sumerians practiced polytheism, the worship of many gods. Among the gods they worshipped were Enlil, lord of the air, Enki, god of wisdom; and Inanna, goddess of love and war. The sun and moon were represented by the gods Utu and Nanna. Each city-state considered one god to be its special protector.

The Sumerians believed that their gods

had enormous powers. Gods could bring good harvests or disastrous floods. They could bring illness, or they could bring good health and wealth. The Sumerians believed that success in life depended on pleasing the gods. Every Sumerian had to serve and worship the gods.

Priests, people who performed or led religious ceremonies, had great status in Sumer. People relied on them to help gain the gods' favor. Priests interpreted the wishes of the gods and made offerings to them. These offerings were made in temples, special buildings where priests performed their religious ceremonies.

Men and Women in Sumer

Sumerian men and women had different roles. In general, men held political power and made laws while women took care of the home and children. Education was usually reserved for men, but some upper- class women were educated as well.

Some educated women were priestesses in Sumer's temples. They helped shape Sumerian culture. One, Enheduanna, the daughter of Sargon, wrote hymns to the goddess Inanna. The first known female writer in history.

Section 3: Sumerian Achievements

Sumerian Achievements

Invention of Writing

The Sumerians made one of the greatest cultural advances in history. They developed cuneiform, the world's first system of writing. The Sumerians did not have pens, pencils, or paper, though. Instead, they used sharp tools called styluses to make wedge shaped symbols on clay tablets.

In time, Sumerians put their writing skills to new uses. They wrote works on history, law, grammar, and math. They also created works of literature. Sumerians wrote stories, proverbs, and songs. They wrote poems about the gods and about military victories. Some of these were epics, long poems that tell the stories of heroes. Later, people used some of these poems to create "The Epic of Gilgamesh", the story of a legendary Sumerian king.

Invention of Writing

Earlier written communication had used pictographs, or picture symbols. Each pictograph represented an object, such as a tree or an animal. In cuneiform, symbols could also represent syllables, or basic parts of words. As a result, Sumerian writers could combine multiple symbols to express more complex ideas such as "joy" or "powerful".

Sumerians first used cuneiform to keep business records. A scribe, or writer, would be hired to keep track of the items people traded. Government officials and temples also hired scribes to keep their records. Becoming a scribe was a way to move up in social class.

Sumerian students went to school to learn to read and write. Like today, though, some students did not want to study.

Advances and inventions

Writing was not the only great Sumerian invention. These early people made many other advances and discoveries.

Math and Science

Another area in which Sumerians excelled was math. In fact, they developed a math system based on the number 60. Based on this system, they divided a circle into 360 degrees. Dividing a year into 12 months a factor of 60 was another Sumerian idea. Sumerians also calculated the areas of rectangles and triangles.

Sumerian scholars studied science, too. They wrote long lists to record their study of the natural world. These tablets included the names of thousands of animals, plants, and minerals.

The Sumerians also made advances in medicine. Using ingredients from animals, plants, and minerals, they produced many healing drugs. Among the items used in these medicines were milk, turtle shells, figs, and salt. The Sumerians catalogued their medical knowledge, listing treatments according to symptoms and body parts.

Advances and Inventions

Technical Advances

One of the Sumerians' most important developments was the wheel. They were the world's first people to build wheeled vehicles, such as carts. Using the wheel, Sumerians invented a device that spins clay as a craftsperson shapes it into bowls. This device is called a potter's wheel.

The plow was another important Sumerian invention. Pulled by oxen, plows broke through the hard clay soil of Sumer to prepare it for planting. This technique greatly increased farm production. The Sumerians also invented a clock that used falling water to measure time.

Sumerian advances improved daily life. Sumerians built sewers under city streets. They used bronze to make strong tools and weapons. They even produced makeup and glass jewelry.

The Art of Sumer

The Sumerians' skills in the fields of art, metalwork, and architecture-the science of building-are well known to us. The ruins of great buildings and fine works of art have provided us with many examples of the Sumerians' creativity.

The Art of Sumer

The Arts

Sumerian sculptors produced many fine works. Among them are the statues of gods created for temples. Sumerian artists also sculpted small objects out of ivory and rare woods. Sumerian pottery is better known for its quantity than its quality. Potters turned out many items, but few were works of beauty.

Jewelry was a popular item in Sumer. The jewelers of the region made many beautiful works out of imported gold, silver, and gems. Earrings and other items found in the region show that Sumerian jewelers knew rather advanced methods for putting gold pieces together.

Cylinder seals are perhaps Sumer's most famous works of art. These small objects were stone cylinders engraved with designs. When rolled over clay, the designs would leave behind their imprint. Each seal left its own distinct imprint. As a result, a person could show ownership of a container by rolling a cylinder over the container's wet clay surface. People could also use cylinder seals to "sign" documents or to decorate other clay objects.

Some cylinder seals showed battle scenes. Others displayed worship rituals. Some were highly decorative, covered with hundreds of carefully cut gems.

The Sumerians also enjoyed music. Kings and temples hired musicians to play on special occasions. Sumerian musicians played reed pipes, drums, tambourines, and harplike stringed instruments called lyres. Children learned songs in school. People sang hymns to gods and kings. Music and dance provided entertainment in marketplaces and homes.

Architecture

Most Sumerian rulers lived in large palaces. Other rich Sumerians had two-story homes with as many as a dozen rooms. However, most people lived in smaller, one-story houses.

These homes had six or seven rooms arranged around a small courtyard. Large and small houses stood side by side along the narrow, unpaved streets of the city. Bricks made of mud were the houses' main building blocks.

City centers were dominated by their temples, the largest and most impressive buildings in Sumer. A ziggurat, a pyramid- shaped temple, rose high above each city. Outdoor staircases led to a platform and a shrine at the top. Some temples also had columns to make them more attractive.

Section 4: Later Peoples of the Fertile Crescent

Later Peoples of the Fertile Crescent

The Babylonians Conquer Mesopotamia

Although Ur rose to glory after the death of Sargon, repeated foreign attacks drained its strength. By 2000 BC, Ur lay in ruins. With Ur's power gone, several waves of invaders battled to gain control of Mesopotamia.

The Babylonians Conquer Mesopotamia

Hammurabi's Code

Hammurabi was a brilliant war leader. His armies fought many battles to expand his power. Eventually, Hammurabi brought all of Mesopotamia into his empire, called the Babylonian Empire after his capital city.

Hammurabi was not only skilled on the battlefield, though. He was also an able ruler who could govern a huge empire. He used tax money to pay for building and irrigation projects. He also brought wealth through increased trade. Hammurabi is best known, however, for his code of laws.

Hammurabi's Code was a set of 282 laws that dealt with almost every part of daily life. There were laws on everything from trade, loans, and theft to marriage, injury, and murder. It contained some ideas that are still found in laws today.

Under Hammurabi's Code, each crime brought a specific penalty. However, social class did matter. For example, injuring a rich man brought a greater penalty than injuring a poor man.

Hammurabi's Code was important not only for how thorough it was but also because it was written down for all to see. People all over the empire could read exactly what was against the law.

Hammurabi ruled for 42 years. During his reign, Babylon became the major city in Mesopotamia. However, after his death, Babylonian power declined. The kings that followed faced invasions from the people Hammurabi had conquered. Before long, the Babylonian Empire came to an end.

Rise of Babylon

Babylon was home to one such group. That city was located on the Euphrates near what is now Baghdad, Iraq. Babylon had once been a Sumerian town. By 1800 BC, however, it was home to a powerful government of its own. In 1792 BC, Hammurabi became Babylon's king. He would become the city's greatest ruler.

Invasions of Mesopotamia

Assyrians

Later, in the 1200s BC, a group called the Assyrians from northern Mesopotamia briefly gained control of Babylon. However, their empire was soon overrun by invaders. After this defeat, the Assyrians took about 300 years to recover their strength. Then, starting about 900 BC, they began to conquer all of the Fertile Crescent. They even took over parts of Asia Minor and Egypt.

The key to the Assyrians' success was their strong army. Like the Hittites, the Assyrians used iron weapons and chariots. The army was very well organized, and every soldier knew his role. The Assyrians were fierce in battle. Before attacking, they spread terror by looting villages and burning crops. Anyone who still dared to resist them was killed.

After conquering the Fertile Crescent, the Assyrians ruled from their capital city, Nineveh. They demanded heavy taxes from across the empire. Areas that resisted the Assyrians' demands were harshly punished.

Assyrian kings ruled their large empire through local leaders. Each governed a small area, collected taxes, enforced laws, and raised troops for the army. Roads were built to link distant parts of the empire. Messengers on horseback were sent to deliver orders to faraway officials.

Several other civilizations developed in and around the Fertile Crescent. As their armies battled for land, control of the region passed from one empire to another.

Invasions of Mesopotamia

Hittites and Kassites

A people known as the Hittites built a strong kingdom in Asia Minor, in what is today Turkey. Their success came, in part, from two key military advantages they had over rivals. First, the Hittites were among the first people to master ironworking. This meant they could make stronger weapons than their foes.

Second, the Hittite army skillfully used the chariot, a wheeled, horse- drawn cart used in battle. Chariots allowed Hittite soldiers to move quickly around a battlefield. Archers riding in the chariots fired arrows at the enemy.

Using these advantages, Hittite forces captured Babylon around 1595 BC. Hittite rule did not last long, however. Soon after taking Babylon, the Hittite king was killed by an assassin. The kingdom plunged into chaos. The Kassites, a people who lived north of Babylon, captured the city and ruled for almost 400 years.

Chaldeans

In 652 BC a series of wars broke out in the Assyrian Empire over who should rule. These wars greatly weakened the empire. Sensing this weakness, the Chaldeans, a group from the Syrian Desert, led other peoples in an attack on the Assyrians. In 612 BC, they destroyed Nineveh and the Assyrian Empire.

In its place, the Chaldeans set up a new empire of their own. Nebuchadnezzar , the most famous Chaldean king, rebuilt Babylon into a beautiful city. According to legend, his grand palace featured the famous Hanging Gardens. Trees and flowers grew on its terraces and roofs. From the ground the gardens seemed to hang in the air.

The Chaldeans greatly admired the ideas and culture of the Sumerians. They studied the Sumerian language and built temples to Sumerian gods. At the same time, Babylon became a center for astronomy. Chaldeans charted the positions of the stars and kept track of economic, political, and weather events. They also created a calendar and solved complex problems of geometry.

The Phoenicians

At the western end of the Fertile Crescent, along the Mediterranean Sea, was a land known as Phoenicia. It was not home to a great military power and was often ruled by foreign governments. Nevertheless, the Phoenicians created a wealthy trading society.

Expansion of Trade

Motivated by a desire for trade, the people of Phoenicia became expert sailors. They built one of the world's finest harbors at the city of Tyre.

Fleets of fast Phoenician trading ships sailed to ports all around the Mediterranean Sea. Traders traveled to Egypt, Greece, Italy, Sicily, and Spain. They even passed through the Strait of Gibraltar to reach the Atlantic Ocean.

The Phoenicians founded several new colonies along their trade routes. Carthage, was the most famous of these. It later became one of the most powerful cities on the Mediterranean.

Phoenicia grew wealthy from its trade. Besides lumber, the Phoenicians traded silverwork, ivory carvings, and slaves. They also made and sold beautiful glass items. In addition, the Phoenicians made purple dye from a type of shellfish. They then traded cloth that had been dyed with this purple color. Phoenician purple fabric was very popular with rich people all around the Mediterranean.

The Phoenicians' most important achievement, however, wasn't a trade good. To record their activities, Phoenician traders developed one of the world's first alphabets. This development made writing much easier. It had a major impact on the ancient world and on our own. In fact, the alphabet we use today is based on the Phoenicians'.

The Phoenicians

Geography of Phoenicia

Today the nation of Lebanon occupies most of what was Phoenicia. Mountains border the region to the north and east. To the west lies the Mediterranean.

The Phoenicians were largely an urban people. Among their chief cities were Tyre, Sidon, and Byblos. These three cities, like many Phoenician cities, still exist today.

Phoenicia had few resources. One thing it did have, however, was cedar. Cedar trees were prized for their timber, a valuable trade item. But Phoenicia's overland trade routes were blocked by mountains and hostile neighbors. Phoenicians had to look to the sea for a way to trade.

Learn more about creating dynamic, engaging presentations with Prezi