Mesopotamia

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Mesopotamia

• Tigris and Euphrates Rivers

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Sumerian Civilization 3000 BCE
Ziggurat
Capital City is UR
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Characteristics

• Religion is polytheistic and had a grim view of
  the afterlife
• Men were head of household, women had few legal
  rights
• Sumerian Advances
• Wagon Wheel
• Arches in building

• 3. Cuneiform Wedge shaped symbols
• 4. Sundial 60 seconds in a 1 minute
• 5. Number system based on 60
• 6. 12 month calendar
• 7. Metal plow
• 8. Epic of Gilgamesh
• 9. 1st Umbrella

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Akkadians

• Located North of Sumer
• 2340 BCE conquered Sumerians
• Sargon I ruled for 55 years. He united and
  expanded Mesopotamian culture and helped spread
  Sumerian achievements

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Babylonians 1750 B.C.

• King Hammurabi conquered Sumerians and Akkadian
• People sometimes described as Amorites
• Created 1st Babylonian Empire
• Hammurabis Code
• -uniform code of laws
• -written down 282 specific laws
• eye for an eye type laws

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Hebrews 1500 to 722 B.C.

• Journeyed into Palestine around 1200 B.C. from
  the Arabian Desert
• The Old Testament records their history
• Maintained their independence for 500 years
• Religion of the Hebrews is Monotheistic belief
  in one God Judaism
• God is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient

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Solomons Temple
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Phoenicians 1200 to 800 B.C.

• The best sea traders of the ancient world
• Founded cities in North Africa and Spain
• Known for their Alphabet (22 letters) English
  alphabet is a direct descendent
• Traded cedar logs, textiles dyed in purple, glass
  objects, and jewelry

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Phoenician ABCs
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Phoenician Ships
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Hittites 1450 B.C. to 1200 B.C.

• Fierce Fighters from the country of Turkey
• Used iron weapons
• Invented the chariot 3 men per chariot
• Wore their hair long with thick pigtails hung
  down their backs
• Legal system less harsh than Hammurabi

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Hittites
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Assyrians 800 to 612 B.C.

• One of the most lethal fighting forces
• Fighting force was organized into foot soldiers,
  charioteers and fast moving cavalry
• Burned cities and tortured and killed thousands
• Had network of roads that connected empire
• Worlds largest cuneiform library
• Their cruelty would earn them many enemies
• King Sennacherib bragged that he destroyed 89
  cities and 820 villages

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Assyrian Brutality
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Chaldeans 616 to 539 B.C.

• Known as the 2nd Babylonian Empire
• Treated the Jewish Population horrible enslaved
  the citys population and exiled them to
  Babylonia
• Predicted eclipses and the length of year
• King Nebuchadnezzar built the Hanging Gardens of
  Babylon one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient
  World

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King Nebuchadnezzar
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Hanging Gardens of Babylon
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Babylonian Ziggurat
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Persians 559 to 330 B.C.

• Empire was founded the Cyrus the Great treated
  conquered cities with kindness
• Allowed Jews to return to their homeland
• Darius I extended the empire and divided it into
  20 provinces with a rule known as Satrap
• Royal Road 1,500 miles long every 14 miles
  there were stations of food, rest, and horses
  took only 7 days to travel the distance
• Eyes and Ears of the King royal spies

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Zoroastrianism

• Zoroaster was a prophet with monotheisitic
  spiritual message
• Ahuramazda was the only god (good god). Ahriman
  was the evil spirit
• Had notions of heaven and hell
• Each soul faced a final evaluation of its actions

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Persian Rulers
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Persepolis