Mesopotamia

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Mesopotamia
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Zagros Mountains
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Zagros Mountains
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Farmland Near the Euphrates River
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Government
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First Written Laws
Hammurabi
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The Army
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Walled Cities
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Scribes
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The statues found at the Abu Temple in Tell Asmar
from c. 2700 BCE are fine examples of the way
Sumerian sculpture is typically based on cones
and cylinders -- arms and legs like pipes, skirts
smooth and round, flaring out at their bottoms.
Faces are dominated by very large eyes but, for
reasons we might take for granted, artists of
many cultures have placed emphasis on eyes.
The sizes of entire figure showed the most
important people were made the tallest.  In the
same vein, a beard on a figure signified a man in
a powerful position.
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Who is the most important and powerful person
depicted in these statues? How do you know?
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The Sumerians were the first civilization to
record their stories but the reason writing
was Invented was not to record history or
stories. It was invented to keep track of taxes!
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Tablet containing part of the Epic of Gilgamesh
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• Among the firsts to come from this area
• Cultivation of grains (8000 B.C.)
• Writing (cuneiform) (3200 B.C.)
• Wheeled vehicles (3200-3100 B.C.)
• Mathematics
• Astronomy
• Calendars
• Dividing the day into 24 hours
• Religion
• Irrigation techniques, canals, dams
• Domestication of livestock
• Plows
• Metal working
• Beer
• Architecture
• City building
• Urban plumbing
• Legal system (The Code of Hammarubi)
• Preservation of literature ("The Epic of
  Gilgamesh")

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