Do Now

• Read “The First Written Records” and complete questions 1-6 when you are finished

**Use reading strategies you are familiar with**

Early River Valley Civilizations

• Complete the Early River Valley Civilizations as a class on the map provided using 4 different colored pencils

• Create a key when you are finished

Timeline • Review the timeline with your partner • Using the map and the timeline as

resources complete the questions below:

1. Which civilization was the first to form? 2. Why do you think the first civilizations developed where they did?

SWBAT

• Explain features of Sumer and the civilization’s contributions

Mesopotamia

• Mesopotamia is Greek meaning, “land between the rivers” • Present day Iraq

Geography

• Located in a larger region known as the Fertile Crescent – between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers

• First settlers built small villages along the banks of the rivers – where they flooded & had the most fertile soil to farm

Geography • Flooding

–Tigris and Euphrates commonly flooded & wiped away settlements

–The two rivers were unpredictable in their flooding

»People banded together to build canals & dikes

»Moved settlements uphill

Geography • Sumer never developed into one single

unified country, but the Sumerians were the first people to develop a civilization (3500 BC)

• Sumer was a collection of wide spread city-states: Uruk, Ur, Kish, Larsa, Lagash, Nippur, Akkad, Eridu –United under Sargon the Great City-states warred over water & food

Geography Cities • Sumerians had few natural

resources had to build with clay & water = bricks

Government • Sargon the Great

– The Legend • His mother placed him in a reed basket

and sent him down the Euphrates • A farmer found him and raised him • Became kings cupbearer (most trusted

servant) • Overthrew the king & united Sumerian

city-states • Established the Akkadian Empire (2300

BC)

Mesopotamia (continued)

Do Now • Read “The Epic of Gilgamesh” (don’t

forget to read the intro, and I suggest you read it twice)

• Discuss questions 1-3 with your partner.

• Strategically highlight the text and jot responses at the bottom of the page

Government • The Babylonians (2000 BC)

– The Babylonians were the next major empire to control Mesopotamia

– Babylon was the economic center of Mesopotamia, and Hammurabi becomes king

– Achievements • Gate of Ishtar (Nebuchadnezzar) • Number system based on 60

(hours/minutes/seconds) • Figured out the solar year of 365 ¼ days

Gate of Ishtar

Social Classes: Very strict hierarchy

King, priests, nobles & government officials

Merchants, artisans & farmers

Peasant Farmers,

Slaves

Religion

• Polytheistic – worshipped many gods

• Believed in the afterlife

• Gods & goddesses ruled natural elements on which the Sumerians depended on

Ziggurat

• Both religious & administrative temples, built to honor the gods

Religion • Religion & politics were intertwined

• Kings were the chief priest & considered semi-divine

• Center of activity revolved around the ziggurat

– Ziggurat step-like pyramids

– Education, trade, religious ceremonies, the mandating of laws

• City-states of Sumer shared deities, but each city-state worshipped a unique god

DBQ Practice

• On your own, examine, then complete the “DBQ: Examining Primary Sources” questions

Trade • Along with farming – Sumerian

city-states became dependent on trade

• Began trade with people from Egypt & India

• Traded for raw materials: wood, stone & metals

• First wheeled vehicles?

Contributions • Developed pictographs too

complicated to create so they simplified it

Cuneiform: (3200 BC) Simplified pictographs that represented sounds instead of objects

- Wedge-shaped characters were pressed into clay tablets to keep records

• Sumer- Middle East

• 5000s-2000s BCE

• Probable cause of demise: Invasion

• Pictured: U.S. Soldiers climb the steps of the Ziggurat of Ur, a Sumerian monument built during the Early Bronze Age (21st century BC).

Wrap Up

• Describe Sumer’s contributions to civilization and how those contributions influenced other civilizations.

Code of Hammurabi

SWBAT Evaluate evidence and explain what we can learn about Babylonia from

Hammurabi’s Code

Do Now

• How did cuneiform benefit Sumerian civilization?

Evaluation of Evidence

• We must evaluate all evidence

• To evaluate evidence, we ask:

–Why is a document useful?

–What are its limitations?

–What other information do we need?

Who was Hammurabi? • Member of the

Amorite dynasty

• King of Babylon from 1792-1750 BCE

• United all of Mesopotamia under the Babylonian Empire Relief of Hammurabi and the

god Shamash

Hammurabi’s Code

• First written law code

• Laws for Babylonian society (300)

• Tool to unify expanding empire

• “That the strong might not injure the weak”

• Allowed everyone to know the rules

• Most well known surviving copy of the code is an inscription on a stone slab called a stela

• 7 feet high, 2.5 feet wide

• Laws were written vertically from right to left

Loss and Unearthing

Central Historical Question:

What can we learn about Babylonia from Hammurabi’s Code?

Group Activity! • Listen to reading of Document A as

a model for how you should be reading closely to documents.

• Divide into groups.

• Read Documents A-C, one at a time, completing the “Guiding Questions” as you finish each document as a group.

Summary • Complete the “Summary” page on

your own

• This will be collected for a grade

A Mesopotamian Acrostic

• To review Mesopotamian civilizations, for each letter of MESOPOTAMIA, you will “write, draw, and explain” a piece of the civilization starting with that letter.