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Introduction to Mesopotamian civilization
Presentation · November 2022
DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.23514.62409
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Introduction to Mesopotamian civilization
https://www.linkedin.com/in/umer-hameed/
Key Vocabulary
• Anthropologist--focus on human society. They study how humans developed
and how they related to one another.
• Archaeologist--hunt for evidence buried in the ground where settlements
might once have been. They dig up and study artifacts and other things made
by humans. They also look for fossils.
• Artifact--weapons, tools, and other things made by humans
• Fossil--traces of plants or animals that have been preserved in rock.
• History--the period of time that began after people learned to write, about
5,500 years ago.
• Prehistory--the time before people developed writing.
• Civilizations--are complex societies. They have cities, organized governments,
art, religion, class divisions, and a writing system (8 features).
What Were the Ice Ages?
Why Were River Valleys
Important?
The first civilizations arose in river valleys
because good farming conditions made it
easy to feed large numbers of people. The
rivers also provided fish and freshwater to
drink and made it easy to get from one
place to another and to trade. Trade
enabled goods and ideas to move from
place to place. It was no accident, then, that
cities grew up in these valleys and became
the centers of civilizations.
Early civilizations shared another feature—they had a class
structure. That is, people held different ranks in society depending
on what work they did and how much wealth or power they had.
The Rise of Sumer
• The earliest-known civilization arose in
what is now southern Iraq, on a flat
plain bounded by the Tigris River and
the Euphrates River.
• Later, the Greeks called this area
Mesopotamia.
Mesopotamia - which means “the land
between the rivers.”
• Located in the eastern part of the
Fertile
Crescent.
• In the spring, the rivers often flooded,
leaving
behind rich soil for farming.
• Hot, dry climate.
• Known as “cradle of civilization”
because of
the Sumerians ideas and inventions.
• By 3000 BCE, many cities had formed in
southern Mesopotamia in a region
known as
Sumer (SOO•muhr).
Sumer
10. Most people in Sumer farmed. Some,
however, were artisans. Other people in Sumer
worked as merchants or traders. They traveled
to other cities and towns and traded tools,
wheat, and barley for copper, tin, and timber—
things that Sumer did no have.
11. People in Sumer were divided into three
social classes. The upper class included kings,
priests, warriors, and government officials. In the
middle class were artisans, merchants, farmers,
and fishers. These people made up the largest
group. The lower class were enslaved people
(prisoners of war., criminals, Still others were
enslaved because they had to pay off their
debts) who worked on farms or in the temples.
Generally, a person had to stay in the social class
into which he or she was born.
12. Men were the head of the
household. Women could buy and
sale property and run businesses.
13. Sumerians invented writing-their
greatest invention. Developed
writing to keep track of business
deals and other events. The
Sumerians writing was called
cuneiform.
14. Invented the wagon wheel
15. Invented the plow, which made
farming easier.
16. Invented the sailboat, which
replaced muscle power with wind
power.
17. The world’s oldest known story
comes from Sumer.
Epic of Gilgamesh (GIHL guh •MEHSH). The hero Gilgamesh is a king
who travels around the world with a friend and performs great deeds.
When his friend dies, Gilgamesh searches for a way to live forever. He
learns that this is possible only for the gods.
Primary Source Document:
http://www.ancienttexts.org/library/mesopotamian/gilg
amesh/
18. Sumerians developed many
mathematical ideas. They used
geometry to measure fields and
put up buildings. They also
created a number system based
on 60. We have them to
thank for our 60-minute
hour,60-second minute, and 360-
degree circle. In addition,
Sumerian people watched the skies
to learn the best times to plant
crops and to hold religious
festivals. They recorded the
positions of the planets and stars
and developed a 12-month
calendar based on the cycles of
the moon.
19. Over time, conflicts weakened Sumer’s city-states. They
became vulnerable to attacks by outside groups such as the
Akkadians (uh•KAY• dee • uhnz) of northern Mesopotamia.
The king of the Akkadians was named Sargon (SAHR • GAHN).
In about 2340 B.C., Sargon conquered all of Mesopotamia
creating the world’s first empire. An empire (EHM•PYR) is a
group of many different lands under one ruler. Sargon’s
empire lasted for more than 200 years before falling to
invaders.
The rivers have changed course
considerably in the last four
thousand years, moving well away
from some of the cities and
causing the complex network of
canals to dry up, but at the time,
the two rivers had separate
entrances into the foreshortened
Gulf.
Some of the earliest cities, such as
Sippar, Borsippa and Kish in the
north, and Ur, Uruk and Eridu in
the south formed the endpoints of
what became that complex
network of cities and canals. Girsu
and Nippur were highly important
religious centres, but other cities,
such as Larsa, Eshnunna, Babylon
and Isin didn't really emerge as
such until after the end of
Sumerian civilization in Circa 2000
BC.
Organized
Government
• Ruled by kings
• MONARCHY
Job
Specialization
• Farmers
• Merchants
• Priests
• Artisans
• Scribes
Social Class
Upper Class – Kings and priests
Middle Class – Farmers and artisans
Lower Class – Enslaved people
Art and Architecture
• Ziggurats
• Statues
• Palaces
• Homes
• Poems
• Pottery
Complex Religion
• Believed in many gods
• Polytheistic
Public Works
• Ziggurats
• Roads
• Irrigation systems
• Schools for wealthy boys
Writing
• Cuneiform
• Epic of Gilgamesh – first epic poem
• Tablets
Thank You
https://www.linkedin.com/in/umer-hameed/
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