WC: (Test 1 Ch 1-3 & "Water"): Unit 1: CH 2 "Meopotamia"

Patriarchy

(PAY-tree-ahr-kee) A society in which males have social and political dominance

Ziggurats

(ZIHG-goo-raht) The stepped and elevated temple structures that the ancient Mesopotamian civilization erected in honor of its gods.

Emperor Hammurabi

Amorite or Old Babylonian who conquered Sumeria after Sargon the Great and ruled Babylon in Mesopotamia from about 1792 to 1750 B.C.E.

Who was involved in the earliest global trade network?

Arabian ports of Oman and Dilmun of Bahrain island most involved in trade that connected Mesopotamia, Arabia, & India.

Where is the best know ziggurat erected long after the Sumerian Epoch?

Babylon: The Tower of Babel of bible fame

The Sumerians were the first people to do a number of highly significant things:

They created the first large cities, distinct from towns and small cities such as Jericho.

When did Hammurabi rule Babylon in Mesopotamia?

about 1792 to 1750 B.C.E.

The Epic of Gilgamesh gives an account of what biblical event?

flood story similar to Noah believed by some scholars to be the origin of the flood story of the bible

Where were the first food-producing societies?

For many years, researchers believed that agriculture must have emerged first in a region of the Near East called the Fertile Crescent. By 7000 b.c.e., agriculture and livestock breeding had appeared in at least seven separate areas, independent of outside influences: 1. the Near East, 2. Central America, 3. South America, 4. northern China, 5. southern China and Southeast Asia, 6. northeast Africa 7. West Africa.

Sumerian Civilization

The Euphrates and Tigris Rivers originate in present-day Turkey and flow parallel to each other for about four hundred miles before joining together to flow into the head of the Persian Gulf (see Map 2.1). Between 7500 and 6000 b.c.e., large-scale irrigation was introduced in its northern region. these small farming communities of northern Mesopotamia produced perhaps the world's first food surpluses, which in turn enabled them to engage in regional manufacturing and trade. They needed planners and directors to organize agricultural labor, production, and trade, which also paved the way for the emergence of ruling elites. During the sixth millennium b.c.e., the world's first urban civilization developed in the lower courses of these rivers, in the region called Sumeria. This agrarian civili- zation was supported by extensive irrigation farming and trade, pioneered by Sumerians (soo-MAYR-ee-ans), who came into Lower Mesopotamia from somewhere to the east. Gradually, the Sumerians created a series of small, competing city-states, with populations typically between 8000 and 10,000. The largest and most important of these were Eridu (AYR-ree-doo), Lagash (LAH-gahsh), Ur (Oor), and Uruk (OO-ruhk). Here they developed ideas and techniques that would provide the foundation of a distinct and highly influential civilization.

Hammurabi codes of laws

pg 23 Law p 23-24 One of the earliest known complete codes of laws origi-nated in post-Sumerian Mesopotamia in the 1700s b.c.e., during the reign of the emperor Hammurabi (ham-moo- RAH-bee). He is the first of the historic lawgivers whose work has survived into our times. (see Hammurabi's law code Ch 1 sheet) His code certainly had predecessors that have been lost, because its legal concepts and vocabulary are much too sophisticated for it to have been a first effort. The code is based on two distinctive principles: punishment depended on the social rank of the violator, and offenders were subjected to the same damages or injury they caused to others. These ideas would be incorporated into many later codes over the next 2000 years, although rejected by modern democratic theory.

Semitic

(seh-MIT-ic) Adjective describing a person or language belonging to one of the most widespread of the western Asian groups; among many others, it embraces Hebrew and Arabic.

Who conquered the Sumerian Empire?

1. Sargon of Akkad, nomadic people invaded to enjoy fruits of civilization 2.Amorites or Old Babylonians under Hammurabi 1700s bce led by Hammurabi

Early Civilizations

1. civilizations in the world developed in the plains bordering on major rivers or in the valleys the rivers created. 2.Depended on intensive, productive agriculture, and the development of agriculture depended in turn on the excellent soil and regular supply of water provided by the river.

Fertile Crescent

A belt of civilized settlements reaching from Lower Mesopotamia across Syria, Lebanon, and Israel and into Egypt; wide belt of land reaching from Mesopotamia to Egypt along the Mediterranean coast

4. Fertile Crescent

A belt of civilized settlements reaching from Lower Mesopotamia across Syria, Lebanon, and Israel and into Egypt; wide belt of land reaching from Mesopotamia to Egypt along the Mediterranean coast Where were the first food-producing societies? For many years, researchers believed that agriculture must have emerged first in a region of the Near East called the Fertile Crescent. By 7000 b.c.e., agriculture and livestock breeding had appeared in at least seven separate areas, independent of outside influences: 1. the Near East, 2. Central America, 3. South America, 4. northern China, 5. southern China and Southeast Asia, 6. northeast Africa 7. West Africa.

Gilgamesh

A legendary Sumerian king or lugal, who was the hero of an epic collection of mythic stories

Polytheism

A religion having many gods. Pg 21 Religion and the Afterlife Our knowledge of the Sumerians' religion is sketchy and unsure. As in most agrarian civilizations, they believed in a host of nature gods (polytheism—Greek for "many gods") of various ranks. There were many male and female dei- ties, each with specific competencies in natural and human affairs. Among the most important were Innana (or Ishtar), the goddess of love and fertility, and the water god Enki (ENG-kee). These gods were much like superhumans, with all the faults and weaknesses of men and women. Some were immensely powerful: their will affected all the Sumerian settlements, and they were believed to rule over all of nature and humanity. Pg 28

From book preface "the big idea" : Just some broad, main point.....

After prehistory, Mesopotamia, Africa and Egypt, India, Central Asia, China, (Native) America, and the Pacific started to develop .In these river-valley, mountainous, and maritime environments, humans were first successful in adapting nature to their needs on a large scale. Between about 2500 and about 1000 b.c.e., the earliest civilizations matured and developed a culture in most phases of life—a fashion of thinking and acting that would be a model for as long as that civilization was vital and capable of defending itself. Elsewhere—in Africa, Central Asia, the Pacific Islands, and the Americas—similar processes were underway. However, in two noteworthy respects these regions provided exceptions to the pattern by which people learned to produce food for themselves. (theselsited depended upon water for their development: 1. Africa, people of the Sahara region domesticated livestock, most likely cattle, before they learned to grow and depend on crops. 2. Central Asia and the Pacific Islands, nomadism, based on herding in the former and on fishing combined with agriculture in the latter, became the prevalent forms of subsistence. 3. By 500 b.c.e., the Near Eastern civilizations centered in Egypt and Mesopotamia were in decline and had been replaced by Mediterranean-based civilizations, as well as new ones in Africa, Asia, and the New World, which drew on the older civilizations to some extent but also added some novel and distinctive features of their own. In the millennium between 500 b.c.e. and 500 c.e., the entire globe underwent important changes. 1. Western and Central Asia became a potpourri of ideas where monotheistic religions took root. First Judaism, then Christianity and Zoroastrianism, appealed to the growing numbers of urbanites. 2. Farther south and east, Buddhism and Jainism challenged India's Hindu religion and philosophy, while China recovered from political dismemberment to become the permanent chief factor in East Asian affairs. 3. In the early centuries c.e. both Buddhist and Hindu civilizations appeared for the first time in both mainland and insular Southeast Asia as India's merchant classes traded with and settled in these regions at that time. 4. At the same time, the emergence of Islam created what many scholars believe was the first truly "world" civilization—at least to the extent that the Eurasian and African landmasses encompassed the world that was known to "Old World" peoples at that time.5. Rivaling the great civilizations of Asia and considerably surpassing that of Europe, the great empire of the Abbasid caliphs in Baghdad (750-1258 c.e.) acted as a commercial and intellectual bridge that transcended regional barriers from China to Africa and Europe. 6. Therefore, among the many lands and peoples bordering the Indian Ocean, the spread of Islam along the highways of commerce contributed to the emergence of sophisticated maritime civilizations in Western Asia, Southeast Asia, India, and East Africa. 7. The great Sudanic civilizations of Mali and later Songhay and Bornu in West Africa were likewise solidly based on an Islamic foundation.

Explain why irrigation would have been crucial to Mesopotamian agriculture

Between 7500 and 6000 b.c.e., large-scale irrigation was introduced in its northern region. These small farming communities of northern Mesopotamia produced perhaps the world's first food surpluses, which in turn enabled them to engage in regional manufacturing and trade. They needed planners and directors to organize agricultural labor, production, and trade, which also paved the way for the emergence of ruling elites. During the sixth millennium b.c.e., the world's first urban civilization developed in the lower courses of these rivers, in the region called Sumeria. This agrarian civilization was supported by extensive irrigation farming

lugals

By the end of the third millennium, kinglike figures, (LOO-guhls), combined both priestly and secular governing duties in most Sumerian city-states.

What does the emphasis on defeat and death in the Gilgamesh story signify in terms of the beliefs of the peoples who created these myths? Read the full accounts of the flood in Gilgamesh and Genesis. What do you make of the differences

During this time, humans were slaves to Mesopotamian gods and the nature they controlled. They were at their mercy and accepted their fates with resignation and futility Like nature; the gods were sometimes cruel, like allowing flooding, and were unpredictable. The best approaches were to honor and obey as well as you could and hope to prosper in life and afterlife, if there was one. There is no evidence of any love between gods and humans or any mortality or afterlife. There were also no ties to being good or bad but based on offerings and sacrifices to win favor for the farm-based cycles. The gods had to satisfy often to avoid natural catastrophes, which gave them a pessimistic attitude about their fates. In Genesis, Noah at least given a chance in the big flood and was warned by his god to build an ark to he and his family could be saved because he was a good man who had offered sacrifices and followed his laws. Noah's religion was based on morality and being good to be rewarded, where with the Mesopotamians it made not difference about the behavior and how many offerings they gave.

What does the emphasis on defeat and death in the Gilgamesh story signify in terms of the beliefs of the peoples who created these myths? Read the full accounts of the flood in Gilgamesh and Genesis. What do you make of the differences?

During this time, humans were slaves to Mesopotamian gods and the nature they controlled. They were at their mercy and accepted their fates with resignation and futility Like nature; the gods were sometimes cruel, like allowing flooding, and were unpredictable. The best approaches were to honor and obey as well as you could and hope to prosper in life and afterlife, if there was one. There is no evidence of any love between gods and humans or any mortality or afterlife. There were also no ties to being good or bad but based on offerings and sacrifices to win favor for the farm-based cycles. The gods had to satisfy often to avoid natural catastrophes, which gave them a pessimistic attitude about their fates. In Genesis, Noah at least given a chance in the big flood and was warned by his god to build an ark to he and his family could be saved because he was a good man who had offered sacrifices and followed his laws. Noah's religion was based on morality and being good to be rewarded, where with the Mesopotamians it made not difference about the behavior and how many offerings they gave.

c. 3500 b.c.e.

First agrarian civilizations in Mesopotamia

Called the Stela of Hammurabi, the monument proclaimed his accomplishments and claims to greatness. Based on this memorial, what requirements did a king like Hammurabi have to satisfy to measure up to the Mesopotamian ideal of a great king? From what god did a king have to obtain his right to govern?

Great kings should be pious, god-fearing and cause justice to appear around the world. The should destroy evil and wickedness and make sure the strong did not oppress the weak. He should be like the sun taking care of the land and a shepherd gathering abundance for his people. They should also make the kingdom famous and well known all over the world. Making sure to always made hid god happy and always be faithful. They are god-like because of the knowledge and wisdom the gods gave him. Kings should build temples to the gods and make a lot of offerings. Staying pure of mind so the gods will his prayers. They should be wise and be responsible for the government. Also, enlarging the kingdom is and establishing pure sacrifices to the gods forever is another requirement to be great. Who gave him "king" title: god: Marduk I am the favorite of the deities. When Marduk commanded me . . . to establish justice for the people of the land and to provide orderly government, I set forth truth and justice throughout the land, and caused the people to prosper. . When the deities of old who allot the destinies of the world, Gave the rule of human beings to [the god] Marduk, [and] set him over all other deities, . . . [and] made Babylon the foremost city-state in all the earth and the capital of an everlasting kingdom, with foundations laid strong as those of heaven and earth, At that time I, was called forth by name for the welfare of the people: elated the mind of Marduk my lord. . . . To me has been given the authority, and I have been faithful to Shamash. Hammurabi, Ch 3, p 33 Early Civilizations of the Nile Valley After 5500 b.c.e., the Afro-Asians who migrated farther down the Nile Valley (that is, toward the Mediterranean Sea) settled as farmers along its floodplain. It was they who were the ancestors of the ancient Egyptians. In time, they abandoned growing native African sorghum and millets in favor of wheat and barley, which they obtained from their Semitic-speaking relatives in Palestine and Mesopotamia. B

8. Hammurabi's law code

History's first known law code, written by King Hammurabi in the eighteenth century b.c.e. 1700s b.c.e. Hammurabi/oldest surviving complete law code originated in post-Sumerian Mesopotamia in the 1700s b.c.e., during the reign of the emperor Hammurabi (ham-moo- RAH-bee). • He is the first of the historic lawgivers whose work has survived into our times. • His code certainly had predecessors that have been lost, because its legal concepts and vocabulary are much too sophisticated for it to have been a first effort. • The code is based on two distinctive basic principles: 1. punishment depended on the social rank of the violator 2. offenders were subjected to the same damages or injury they caused to others. • A commoner would get a different, more severe punishment than would a noble or official for the same offense; a slave would treated more harshly still;If in the same social class as the victim, the offender would have to give "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth • Another basic principle of Mesopotamian law was that the government should act as an impartial referee among its subject-citizens, seeing to it that the wronged party received satisfaction from the wrongdoer. • The victim had the right to demand personal compensation from the person who had caused him grief—a legal concept that is being reintroduced into US criminal law. These ideas would be incorporated into many later codes over the next 2000 years, although rejected by modern democratic theory" People were not equal before the law: husbands had a great deal of power over wives, fathers over children, rich over poor, free citizens over slaves Nevertheless, a definite attempt was made to protect the defenseless and to see that all received justice. Much of Hammurabi's law code dealt with social and family problems, such as the support of widows and orphans, illegitimacy, adultery, and rape. • Clearly, the position of women was inferior to that of men, but women did have certain legal rights and were not just the property of their male relatives. 1. A wife could divorce her husband, and if the husband was found to be at fault, the wife was entitled to the property she had brought into the marriage. 2. Women could also enter into contracts and have custody over minor children under certain conditions—two rights that many later civilizations denied them.

1500 b.c.e.

Hittites conquer Mesopotamia

Map 1.3 shows four of the aforementioned civilizations

How did the location of the Sumerian urban centers facilitate trade?

What factors might have encouraged the creation of written law codes like that of King Hammurabi?

Human nature has not really changed and as more people lived closer to each other, problems and conflicts arose concerning property, marriage, and right to protection. Codes of conduct and methods of punishment were developed to insure peace within the community.

Earliest global trade network in world history

Indians from the Indus Valley to the east (see Chapter 4) and Arabian merchant vessels plying the Persian Gulf from western Arabian seaports located in Oman and Dilmun (on the island of Bahrain) were most involved in the overseas trade that connected Mesopotamia with Arabia and India. Scholars think that this region comprised the earliest global trade network in world history

Who unified Mesopotamia?

It was the Semitic-speaking neighbors, the Akkadians, Babylonians, and Assyrians

What were the earliest settled communities?

Jericho, founded around 8000 b.c.e., and somewhat later, Çatal Hüyük (see Chapter 1). The first of these was located in a part of the Levantine Corridor that included the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers—a land that the ancient Greeks called Mesopotamia ("land between the rivers"), now the southeastern portion of Iraq.

11. Mesopotamia

Literally, the "land between the rivers"; the fertile lands between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers where the earliest known civilizations (Natufians 1st people, Jericho 1st recorded civi???) appeared in the fourth millennium b.c.e.

How did Mesopotamian civilizations fit the model of an agrarian civilization that was outlined in Chapter 1? P 13-14 (8 factors)

Mesopotamia included all eight of the characteristics of an agrarian civilization. It was mainly rural in the beginning and parts outside of the city-state remained to farm and have rural outlooks. Also, it was based on mostly peasant farming or livestock breeding that supported the center powers. The people worked with what nature provided and relied on simple technology. Knowledge of nature was passed down generation to generation because their survival depended upon food production. Most agrarian civilizations were based on gods that controlled the environment, as Mesopotamia was. Their religion required ritual and offerings of sacrifices to please the gods or seeking out their will. Mesopotamia, as well as other agrarian civilizations relied on religious specialists to communicate with the gods for them. The lived their lives according to the seasons around farming and believed time were a cycle. Last, family and clan was used to protect from natural disasters to halp guarantee survival with elders and spirits of ancestors looking out for them

Cuneiform

Mesopotamian wedge-shaped writing begun by the Sumerians •C. 3000 bce •Ex pg 17 "Epic of Gilgamesh •Wedge shaped characters /signs on hand-sized clay tablets •Sumerian cuneiform remained the basic script of most Near and Middle Eastern languages until about 1000 b.c.e., when its use began to fade out.

Babylon

Most important of the later Mesopotamian urban centers. •Emperor Hammurabi, who ruled Babylon in Mesopotamia from about 1792 to 1750 B.C.E.

Give a narrative explanation as to why population growth would have encouraged people to create urban settlements.

Once early civilizations harvested water through gravity-based irrigation systems, this produced more crops, which in turn evolved into trading the surplus crops. Trading brought even more people in contact with each other, with sharing of ideas and inventions being adopted. Then, jobs relating to the production and trade, as well as craftsmen and artisans joined the agrarian farmers. All of these factors support a more complex society. Urban settlements evolved as the need for written records to keep up with it all and governing duties resulted. It was easier to administer an area that was not too spread out, so urban settlements made all this more streamlined and also provided a central place to worship gods. Gradually the spiritual pursuits joined with government and commercial enterprise.

Government and Social Structure Government in Mesopotamia

Pg 24 can be divided into two types: the theocracy (rule by gods or their priests) of the early city-states of the Sumerians and the kingdom- empires of their successors, starting with Sargon the Great of Akkad. relatively protected position of than figureheads for the priests, but later they exercised decisive power. The city, ruled by an elite headed by a king, was quite different in its social subdivisions from the village. In the village social equality was rarely challenged, and a leveling interdependency in everyday life was taken for granted. In the urban areas, on the contrary, distinctions among people were essential and expected to be displayed in many fashions and activities. Above all, the lower classes supported the far less numerous upper classes through both labor and taxes. The Mesopotamian civilization apparently had just three classes of people small groups of priests and noble landlords (often two branches of a single group) who were large landowners and had a monopoly on the higher offices of the city. Behind the priesthood stood the immense power of the high gods of the Sumerians and their successors: the deities of earth, sky, fire, freshwater, salt water, and storm. The second group, the freemen, was the most numerous class. They did the bulk of the city's work and trading, by Hammurabi's law code and by the thousands of other documents recovered in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries from the ruins of Sumerian cities. Both priests and nobles depended on their skills and their labor, which was presumably given on a more or less voluntary basis. Finally, the slaves—who at times were very numerous— often possessed considerable skills and were given some responsible positions. Freemen had some political rights, but slaves had none. slaves were common in most ancient societies Slavery had nothing much to do with race or ethnicity and everything to do with bad luck, such as being on the losing side of a war or falling into debt. Most slaves in Mesopotamia—and elsewhere—had run up debts that they could not otherwise repay. It was not at all uncommon for a person to become someone's slave for a few years and then resume freedom when the debt was paid. Hereditary slavery was rare. Many owners routinely freed their slaves in their wills as a mark of piety and benevolence.

10. Levantine Corridor

Region/arc of land that included most of present-day Israel-Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, northern Iraq. & the Euphrates River valley. Archaeologists have discovered the earliest evidence of agriculture here; an arc of land that was endowed with especially high water tables c. 10,000 b.c.e. First evidence of agriculture in the Levantine Corridor Soon after the great thaw that came at the end of the last Ice Age, the first Neolithic villages and small towns sprouted up in the Levantine Corridor. Q NEOLITHIC SOUTHWEST ASIA Around 15,000 b.c.e., the world's climate began warming after centuries of Ice Age conditions, melting glaciers in the northern hemisphere, raising sea levels • covered the planet's landmasses with vast inland lakes, streams, and forests. • In southwestern Asia giant stands of oak and pistachio forests and bounteous herds of game replaced Ice Age grasslands. • Hunter-gatherers of the Near and Middle East, called Natufians (nah-TOO-fee-ans), stalked antelope and Persian gazelle and harvested wild nuts and grasses using flint-bladed sickles, enabling them to dramatically expand their populations. • However, around 11,000 b.c.e., a catastrophe occurred-- Younger Dryas Event, glacial melt water that had accumulated in a colossal, freshwater lake in northern Canada suddenly burst into the Atlantic Gulf Stream, 1. Triggered a thousand- yearlong regression in Europe and southwestern Asia development and back to the cooler and drier conditions of the late Ice Age. 2. The abundant sources of water and plant foods previously available to humans and animals alike disappeared, 3. forced Natufians to congregate in small, semipermanent villages near surviving streams and rivers. 4. Coming after a time when populations had grown dramatically, these catastrophic events forced small groups of these western Asians to adopt more intensive ways of managing their food resources. 5. Basically, this encouraged them to switch from gathering and hunting to planting and domesticating cereals such as emmer wheat, einkorn, and barley, which grew in wild forms in their natural environment. Thus, the world's first farming settlements appeared in a section of the Near East called the Levantine Corridor By 7500 b.c.e., cereal agriculture had become widespread among the Natufians and, furthermore, they had added to their food stocks by domesticating and breeding goats and sheep. Cattle were introduced later still. The switch to agriculture and livestock breeding provided an abundance that allowed people to grow their populations and congregate in towns and cities for the first time in history; and wherever this transformation occurred, the world's earliest recorded civilizations also appeared. Among the earliest of these settled communities were Jericho, founded around 8000 b.c.e., and somewhat later, Çatal Hüyük (see Chapter 1). • Jericho located in a part of the Levantine Corridor that included the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers—a land that the ancient Greeks called Mesopotamia ("land between the rivers"), now the southeastern portion of Iraq.

What made it possible for ancient Mesopotamia become the first urban civilization?

Several of the earliest civilizations in the world developed in the plains bordering on major rivers or in the valleys the rivers created. They depended on intensive, productive agriculture, and the development of agriculture depended in turn on the excellent soil and regular supply of water provided by the river. In ancient Mesopotamia, the dual drainage of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers made possible the first urban civilization.

Summary of Chapter 2

Some after the great thaw of the late Ice Age, the 1st Neolithic villages and small town formed in the Levantine Corridor. This new way of life spread quickly to Mesopotamia. Sometime around the middle of the 4th millennium, dependent agglomerations of agriculturists and skills trades were formed in Mesopotamia, when an Asian people, the Sumerians created them. Originally headed by theocratic priesthood and latter by warrior kings, the Sumerian city-states left their successors a rich variety of new techniques and views, including the load-bearing wheel, 1st sophisticated writing system, accurate chronology and math, and great architectural skills. Their religion seems harsh today, ut it reflected the perceptions of danger in the world at the time about natural and man-made disasters that were common in their time. They were little cared for slaves by their gods.

city-states

States or societies that are dominated by a single city. •During the period between 2000 and 1000 b.c.e., the largest of these may have contained upward of 100,000 people. •All early civilizations had advanced centers such as these—ones that drew their sustenance from a surrounding country- side that they had subjected to their rule. •Each city was encircled for miles by villages of farmers who built the canals and provided the agricultural surplus on which the city elite depended. •Most of these city-states began as places of ritual prayer and sacrificial offerings that honored one or more of their gods, whose goodwill was purchased so agriculture could flourish. •Gradually, the ceremonial aspects of the shrines and their priests were joined by commercial and governmental pursuits, so it became a place in which a growing population of labor-specialized people supported by sophisticated irrigation agriculture. •The available evidence has revealed that, at first, temple priests wholly comprised the ruling elite who organized the peasant workforce, irrigation, and regional trade. •By the end of the third millennium, kinglike figures, called lugals (LOO-guhls), combined both priestly and secular governing duties in most Sumerian city-states. •One of these might have been the semifictional Gilgamesh •They built the first monumental buildings, using sun-baked bricks and the post-and-lintel system (beams held up by columns, used today in structures as varied as monkey bars and bridges) as the basic elements of support. The most visible of these were palaces, temples, and other associated structures such as warehouses.

5000 b.c.e.

Sumerians arrive in Mesopotamia

How did the location of the Sumerian urban centers facilitate trade?

The Ancient Near East The Mesopotamian city-states were concentrated in the rich agricultural plain (shown here in green) created by silt from the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers as they flowed toward the head of the Persian Gulf. The wide belt of land reaching from Mesopotamia to Egypt along the Mediterranean coast is known as the Fertile Crescent

Can you think of any reasons why Mesopotamian civilization evolved over the centuries from city-states to small empires?

The Fertile Crescent and valley between the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers was a fertile area to grow crops. Once water was harnessed through irrigations methods, surplus crops were trade. The rivers were also ideal for transport for trading. They were not far from the Mediterranean coast so once maritime travel was developed later on, it became even more ideal for trade allowing them to grow wealthy

Sumeria

The earliest known civilization, based on city-states located in southern Iraq along the Tigris and Euphrat es rivers. Pg 18 A combination of agrarianism, city life, social complexity, government, trade networks, and writing produced the earliest known civilizations in world history. One of these was Sumeria, in southern Mesopotamia. P 22 During the sixth millennium b.c.e., the world's first urban civilization developed in the lower courses of these rivers, in the region called Sumeria. This agrarian civilization was supported by extensive irrigation farming and trade, pioneered by Sumerians (soo-MAYR-ee-ans), who came into Lower Mesopotamia from somewhere to the east. p 27 n many places where Sumerian commercial tentacles reached, Sumerian culture eventually followed. Many centuries after the passing of Sumeria's greatness, its cuneiform system of writing and its literature continued to be the foundation of Mesopotamian culture. Pg 20 What we know of the Sumerians is extremely impressive. • left extensive records and physical evidence of their own, but also because they had enormous influence on their neighbors and rivals, such as the Akkadians and Egyptians, as well as on their several conquering successors in Mesopotamia.

Natufians

The earliest settlers of the Levantine Corridor, they founded the first known settled communities P 18 NEOLITHIC SOUTHWEST ASIA Around 15,000 b.c.e., the world's climate began warming after centuries of Ice Age conditions, melting glaciers in the northern hemisphere, raising sea levels, and covering the planet's landmasses with vast inland lakes, streams, and forests. In southwestern Asia giant stands of oak and pistachio forests and bounteous herds of game replaced Ice Age grasslands. Hunter-gatherers of the Near and Middle East, called Natufians (nah-TOO-fee-ans), stalked antelope and Persian gazelle and harvested wild nuts and grasses using flint-bladed sickles, enabling them to dramatically expand their populations. However, around 11,000 b.c.e., a catastrophe occurred. Known to archaeologists as the Younger Dryas Event, glacial melt water that had accumulated in a colossal, freshwater lake in northern Canada suddenly burst into the Atlantic Gulf Stream, triggering a thousand- year-long regression in Europe and southwestern Asia to the cooler and drier conditions of the late Ice Age. The abundant sources of water and plant foods previously available to humans and animals alike disappeared, forcing Natufians to congregate in small, semipermanent villages near surviving streams and rivers. Coming after a time when populations had grown dramatically, these catastrophic events forced small groups of these western Asians to adopt more intensive ways of managing their food resources. Basically, this encouraged them to switch from gathering and hunting to planting and domesticating cereals such as emmer wheat, einkorn, and barley, which grew in wild forms in their natural environment. Thus, the world's first farming settlements appeared in a section of the Near East called the Levantine Corridor, an arc of land that was endowed with especially high water tables and encom- passed much of present-day Turkey, Israel, Syria, and the Euphrates River valley. By 7500 b.c.e., cereal agriculture had become widespread among the Natufians and, furthermore, they had added to their food stocks by domesticating and breeding goats and sheep. Cattle were introduced later still. The switch to agriculture and livestock breeding provided an abundance that allowed people to grow their populations and congregate in towns and cities for the first time in history; and wherever this transformation occurred, the world's earliest recorded civilizations also appeared. Among the earliest of these settled communities were Jericho, founded around 8000 b.c.e., and somewhat later, Çatal Hüyük (see Chapter 1). The first of these was located in a part of the Levantine Corridor that included the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers—a land that the ancient Greeks called Mesopotamia ("land between the rivers"), now the southeastern portion of Iraq

Why would large-scale urban life have necessitated the concentration of power in the hands of temple priests and kings?

The farm villages that supported urban life through the production of crops surrounded the powerful power centers. The crops not only provided food for urban life, but also commerce and trade. To administer and organize all of that, the priests and kings controlled all of this. Priests were special "ears" to the god and at first kings were just figureheads, then later they became "chosen" by the gods to ensure success for the community. They expertise and knowledge of the gods was needed to over see the organization of the workforce, the irrigation and trade of the surplus crops.

Theocracy

The rule by gods or their priests.

Who were the Akkadians and who was their first famous leader?

They were a society north of Sumer that spoke a different language. They conquered the Sumerians in 2000 BC.-Sargon the Great

What monument to his reign on a stone pillar did Hammurabi build to proclaim his accomplishments and claims to greatness?

a stone pillar called the Stela of Hammurabi

5 Ancient Civilizations

a. In ancient Mesopotamia, the dual drain- age of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers made possible the first urban civilization. b. In Egypt, the Nile—the world's longest river, at more than 4000 miles—was the life-giving source of everything the people needed and cherished. c. At a slightly later date, the Niger River nurtured the early development of agriculture and city life in West Africa. d. The earliest available evidence of the beginnings of Indian civilization is found in the extensive fields on both sides of the Indus River, which flows more than 2000 miles from the slopes of the Himalayas to the ocean. e. In northern China, the valleys of the Yellow River (which is about 2700 miles long) and the Yangtze River were the cradles of the oldest continuous civilization in world history. Map 1.3 shows four of the aforementioned civilizations.

Mesopotamian trade

eventually extended across a broad expanse that stretched from the Indus Valley in modern-day Pakistan (see Chapter 4) to the Nile Valley and the lands bordering the eastern Mediterranean. Regional overland networks extended west toward the Mediterranean coast and east into the Iranian mountains. Mesopotamia also stood at the center of one of the world's first international, seaborne commercial networks, although the scanty evidence suggests that most of the impetus for this came from abroad. Indians from the Indus Valley to the east (see Chapter 4) and Arabian merchant vessels plying the Persian Gulf from western Arabian seaports located in Oman and Dilmun (on the island of Bahrain) were most involved in the overseas trade that connected Mesopota- mia with Arabia and India. Scholars think that this region comprised the earliest global trade network in world history

Mesopotamian Women's Rights, Sex, and Marriage

p 25 In the earliest stage of civilization, women shared more or less equally with men in social prestige and power. This egalitarianism was undermined and overturned by the coming of militarized society (armies), the heavy plow in agriculture, and the establishment of large-scale trade over long distances. The trend toward patriarchy (PAY-tree-ahr-kee)—a society in which males have social and political dominance— proceeded at varying speeds in different societies but was impossible to reverse once it started. Because children and the continuity of the family were the real reasons for marriage, the marital bed was an honorable and even sacred place, and what took place there was in no way shameful. But males and females had desires

"TheEpic of Gilgamesh"

was one of the most beloved stories of Mesopotamia. It portrays a society in search of a religious basis for human action. Stories of the Flood occur in many ancient cultural traditions, such as the Noah story in the Hebrew Bible, the creation myths of the Hindus, and some of the North American Indian creation accounts. • In each case the story tells of a disastrous flood that engulfed the entire earth and nearly annihilated humanity. • In the Middle Eastern tradition the earliest narrative of the Flood is found in the Epic of Gilgamesh. − In this version the main focus of the story is on the inevitability of death and the defeat of the hero as he attempts to achieve immortality. Gilgamesh is a grim tale that speaks of death and the afterlife in pessimistic and fearful tones. Indicative is this description by Gilgamesh's companion Enkidu of a vivid dream he had, foreshadowing his approaching death The epic ends with the failure of Gilgamesh's quest for the secret of immortal life. The somber funeral chant seems to underline the poet's sense of resignation and futility: The Mesopotamian counterpart of the biblical Noah is Utnapishtim (oot-nah-PISH-tim). Here his description of the Flood is contrasted with the version recounted in Genesis