attempt to answer the following riddle in your notes: what building do you enter blind and come out...
TRANSCRIPT
Today’s Warm Up
Attempt to answer the following riddle in your notes:
What building do you enter blind and come out seeing?
Early CivilizationsMesopotamia: The Sumerians
Today’s LEQs: Why did humans transition from hunting and gathering to settled agriculture? Was this humanity’s biggest mistake?
Fertile Crescent
First known agricultural villages c. 10,000 BCE
First known cities c. 5,000BCE
Eastern portion = Mesopotamia
Let’s SCLARGE…
Social
Settled in the lower part of Fertile Crescent – a.k.a. Sumer Created 12 city-states
Birthplace of cities (500,000 people by 2500BCE with 80% in cities!)
Shared a common culture Complex social hierarchy with kings
and priests at the top / Slaves at the bottom
Social
Men: could sell wife and children to pay a debt; could divorce easily
Women: could buy and sell property; operate own businesses; own slaves
Patriarchal but women more privileged than later cultures
Customs & Traditions
Rituals suggested significance of religion i.e. New Years tradition – King of Ur
symbolically married goddess of fertility each year
Royals buried in elaborate tombs; often buried with sacrificed attendants
Commoners buried under their house or in cemeteries outside city walls
language, Communication, & Technology
Semitic Sumerians invented writing c.
3500BCE; first used for record keeping, later for literature & gov’t decrees Pictograms first Cuneiform by 3,000BCE
Epic of Gilgamesh & Code of Hammurabi = kind of a BIG DEAL…
language, Communication, & Technology
Invented first wheels – wagon wheel, pottery wheel
12 month lunar calendar (helped with agriculture)
arts & Architecture
Creativity flourished! Took pride in elegant cities & monuments Sculptures, mosaics, murals, stone bas
reliefs Arches, vaults, domes found in tombs
= new skill Walls for protection
Religion
Practiced polytheism Had one chief god for each city-state Gods were unpredictable, angry, &
selfish Priests had power & prestige
Survival depended on will of gods Built great temples called ziggurats
G0vernment & Politics
Competition for land and water rights with foreign invaders led to the development of a monarchy (king)
King was a religious & political leader King enforced law and set penalties
(usually a fine)
G0vernment & Politics
Key Leaders:Sargon I – built the Akkadian
Empire by uniting all of the Mesopotamian city-states (first empire!)
Hammurabi – created a code of law (we’ll discuss this more later!!!)
Economics
Trade central to urban life Merchandise by land, river, & sea Evidence of far off trade: shells from
Mediterranean Rich in agricultural goods but poor in
raw materials; traded with North for wood, stone, and metal
Your Turn!
You completed independent research for homework
Now, collaborate with your groups to create a presentation on your assigned early civilization
You are responsible for teaching your assigned civilization to the rest of the class – be clear and concise when going through the SCLARGE categories