The Fertile Crescent/Mesopotamia

Location, Location, Location!*Don’t write!!!!!!!!!!!* FC Today: Iraq, Syria, Jordan Lebanon, Israel,Turkey & Iran

*FC is horseshoe/crescent shaped area of good farmland along Tigris & Euphrates rivers that stretches from W Mediterranean to

Persian Gulf

Location!• Don’t write!• Tigris & Euphrates flow from E. Turkey

to Persian Gulf.• Area known as Mesopotamia (land btw rivers)

• Floods at least once a year, leaving thick silt (mud). Very fertile

• Flooding unpredictable• Desert region• No barriers for protection

Sumerians!

• Don’t write: Settle 3300 BC• Good soil, few resources, no protection & flooding

Solution?• Dug irrigation ditches• Built city walls w/ mud bricks

*trade tools for raw materials

• By 3000 BC built city-states -independent cities w/ own govts & rulers,

& separate gods• Share culture• Ex: Kish, Lagash, Ur, Uruk

*All CS’s had ziggurat (temple) in middle

*Govt controlled by zig priests• Farmers need blessings of gods for crops & priests were go betweens

• During war, led by commanders (eventually became

full time leader)• Creates a Dynasty- single family rule

• Don’t write!!!• Built in receding tiers upon a rectangular, oval, or

square platform, the ziggurat was a pyramidal structure with a flat top. Sun-baked bricks made up the core of the ziggurat with facings of fired bricks on the outside. The facings were often glazed in different colors!

• C/S’s grew wealthy from surplus food & start trading

• Cities spread & so does cultural diffusion- (new idea/product spreads from one culture to another)

Religion*Polytheistic- many gods• Gods all powerful & immortal w/ humans as slaves, fatalistic, pessimistic (build ziggarats, offer sacrifice of animals,wine)• Enlil- god of storms/air, controls cosmos & man

Social class structure!

Kings, priests, landowners Wealthy merchants Field workers Slaves (sold as kids or pows)

****Women had rights! Could own property, be merchants, etc!!!***

Cuneiform

Arches, columns, ramps,

pyramid shape design

Dev number system base

60 (time, 360)

Invented wheel, plow, sail and use

bronze

Inventions & ideas develop from needs!!

• At war from 3000-2000 bc.• Never recover, but don’t die out.

• Succeeding rulers use Sumerian culture

Akkadians

Akkadians & Sargon

• 2350 BC: SARGON of AKKAD (city-state in N) conquers city-states of Sumer

• Controls Meso & creates first EMPIRE (brings together people, nations, independent states under 1 ruler) (From Med coast to Iran)

• Fell apart due to invasions, fighting after 200 years

• 2000 BC nomad Ammorites invade & est Babylon

• 1792-1750 BC- Hammurabi of Babylon creates uniform code of laws, carved in stone, posted all over

To bring about the rule of righteousness in the land, to destroy the wicked and the evil doers, so that the strong should not harm the weak

• 282 specific laws listed under headings: trade, business, marriage, family

• Severe punishments apply to all (but

different for rich & poor, men & women)

Hittites• 2000 BC Hittites appear from Anatolia (high, rocky platuea w/ minerals, timber in Turkey)

• Indo-European speakers. Separate city states create empire (Hattusas capital)

• Invade T/E around 1600 BC

• Tactics:• 1st to work iron into weapons (had charcoal & iron ore)

• 2 wheeled chariots, wood frame, leather

covered, 2-4 horses• Stalemate w/ Egyptians

Phonecians• Don’t’ write! 1100 BC- Lebanon today!• Merchants, traders & seafarers who built CS’s that competed w/ each other (Byblos, Tyre, Sidon) all over Med (sail as far as GB & around Africa)

• Trade goods (wine, weapons, metals), superb craftsmen (red/purple dye, wood, ivory)

• Create alphabet: phonetic w/ one pic for one sound

• Introduced to trade partners

LYDIANS• Mostly in Anatolia (Tur)• 1st to coin money of gold & silver btw 700 BC to 550 BC. Traders (coins stamped w/ king’s symbol of lion

head & sunburst) • Destroyed by Persians

• 300 miles N Mesopotamia• Aggressive, cruel, constant warfare

to expand*Defeat Syria, Palestine, Egypt Babylonia, Sumer btw 1000 & 650 BC

Assyrians

Military Tactics• Iron helmets/leather skirts w/ scales, iron swords & iron tipped spears, shields

• span rivers w/ pontoons, floating bridges• Dig under walls to weaken them (sappers)

• March shoulder to shoulder, shoot arrows, climb ladders.

• Impale/ behead those not killed in battle, *women, kids murdered sold into slavery

Ruling Power• Officials govern land closest to Assyria as provinces, made dependent & chose their rulers (governors report to central authority)

• Pay taxes & tribute, destroyed if don’t

• Don’t Write! Ninevah:• Walled city 3 miles wide, 1 mi long• Carvings of military campaigns

• King Ashurbanipal created library w/ 20,000 tablets from FC

• (organized by room, subject matter)

• destroyed by Chaldeans

• 612 BC-538 BC Chaldeans (aka Neo-Babylonians) invade Assyria destroy Nineveh

• Made Babylon capital (1000 yrs after Hammurabi) & restore city

• Nebuchadnezzar built Hanging Gardens of Babylon

• study astronomy (chart star positions) from ziggurat

• Destroyed by Persians

Built garden to please his wife Amytis of Media, who longed for the trees and fragrant plants of her homeland.[1] Gardens destroyed by earthquakes. 100 feet ( long by 100 ft wide & built in tiers so that it resembled a theatre. Vaults constructed under the terraces carried weight of the planted garden; Highest part garden, (75 feet) was on the same level as the city walls. Roofs of vaults supported the garden made of stone beams 16 ft long,. Laid over these were a layer of reeds set in thick tar, then two courses of baked brick bonded by cement, & finally a covering of lead to prevent the moisture in the soil penetrating the roof.. The earth was levelled off & t planted w/ every kind of tree. Galleries were sunlit, & contained conduits for the water which was raised by pumps from the river, though no one outside could see it being done

Persians*Today: Iran (Caspian Sea to Persian Gulf)

*fertile farmland w/ many minerals (gold, silver, copper, lead lapis lazuli)

• 550 BC Cyrus the Great conquers from Indus to Anatolia

• Kind, tolerant, honors local customs traditions, religions,

• Allowed Jews to return to Israel

• Don’t Write! 530 BC Son Cyrus’ Cambyses conquers Egypt & is cruel,dies. Brother Smerdis (fake, tries to take over) Darius knows he is a fake

• Darius, (522 BC) noble in king’s body guard, seized throne w/ help of elite soldiers & puts down

revolts• Conquest!! Conquers & controls 2500 miles (Afghanistan into India)

*Persia div into 20 provinces, using homelands, keep their religion, languages & laws

• Use satrap - gov to rule locally, plus a mili leader & tax collector & use spies

• Royal Road 1677 miles (messenger relays)

• METAL coins

Zoroastrianism• Religion started by Zoroaster (600 BC. Prophet)

• Earth is battleground btw spirit of good (light) & evil (darkness)

• Each person part of struggle• Ahura Mazda judges everyone at end of time on how well you fought

Hebrews, Israel and Judaism

• Palestine east end of Med Sea• Hebrews lived in Canaan (btw Jordan R & Med Sea)• Crossroads- seaports on Red & Med Seas

• Torah tells story of Hebrews (1st 5 books of Heb/Christian bible

*1800 BC Abraham chosen by God to lead/be the “father” of Hebrews, wanders for

for years.

*Don’t write!!*believe in 1 god Yaweh, (Monotheism)

*had power over all people*God looked after Hebrews & get homeland (Canaan) if they obeyed (covenant: mutual

promise)

Don’t write! Grandson Jacob (aka Israel) had 12 sons, each was leader of 12 tribes of Israel. 1600 BC Joseph led them to Egypt, enslaved

• 1230 BC? Moses led them out of Egypt, (the Exodus) wandered for 40 years.

• Given 10 commandments (social & religious behavior, new covenant)• Return to promised land

• Don’t Write!!• God’s mercy• Live justly

with one another

• Moral life in god’s laws

• Worship 1 god • no one above

law 62 old

• Hebrews return to Canaan 1020-922 Israel unites under 3 kings

• 1025 BC: Saul drives out Philistines (1st king of Israelites)

• King David- unite tribes, est Jerusalem

• King Solomon- built trade empire on Med & big Temple in Jerusalem for the Ark of the Covenant

• (holds 10 commandments)

• Solomon's projects raised taxes, strain all• Jews in N revolt after Solomon dies & divides in half: Judah in S & Israel in N

Judah & Israel Fall (DON”T WRITE)• 783 BC: tribute to Assyria• 722 BC: Israel falls • 586 BC: Neb destroys Judah & Jerusalem.

• Jews exiled to Babylon (Babylonian Captivity)

• 539 BC: Cyrus the Great (Persia) conquers Babylon & allows Jews to return

• Jerusalem rebuilt 445 BC, but later taken by Greeks, then Romans