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Mesopotamia

3500 BCE - 1700 BCE

Building

Government/ Legal System

ziggurats: tall pyramid temples believed to link heaven and Earth.

  • The Mesopotamians were known as the first city-builders.
  • They used mud bricks and crushed reeds to create their walled cities, temples and stepped-pyramids known as ziggurats.

Mesopotamia included several city-states: Uruk, Ur, Sumer, Babylon and Babylonia.

Mesopotamia later ruled under a monarchy (ruled by kings --same family)

Earliest known written law: the Code of Hammurabi-- to ensure justice and protect the weak.

Some of these laws included:

  • 6. If a man has stolen goods from a temple, or house, he shall be put to death
  • 192. If son said to the father who brought him up, "You are not my father," or to the mother that brought him up, "You are not my mother," his tongue shall be cut out.
  • 200. If a [noble] man has knocked out the tooth of a man that is his equal, his tooth shall be knocked out.

Writing System

The people who lived in Sumer were known as the Sumerians developed the earliest writing system called Cuneiform which could only be read by the privileged or the elite in society.

Cuneiform -- a form of writing on clay tablets

Religion

The people living in Mesopotamia were polytheistic-- believing in many different gods.

What is a civilization?

Technology/ Science

The Sumerians invented the wheel and the sailboat. They were also the first to irrigate fields for water.

Civilization: a form of human culture in which people live in cities-- with forms of writing and uses science and technology.

Farming

They also used Bronze to make tools by melting tin and copper together.

They also devised the calendar--dividing the year into 12 months.

The climate was hot and dry, but the soil was fertile.

Irrigation caused farming to flourish ! Since fewer people needed to farm, more jobs were created to help out society. These jobs included: potters, weavers, warriors or priests.

Geographic Setting

The first civilization of people settled near the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. This area is now present day Iraq.

Irrigation: the artificial application of water to land to assist in the production of crops.

Mesopotamia: Greek term meaning the "land between two rivers"

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