Mesopotamia

Mespotamia 3500-500 B.C.



There was a land on the Eastern edge of the Fertile Crescent, in between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers known as Mesopotamia. In the Greek language Mesopotamia means “the land between the rivers.” Mesopotamia received little rain but had rich soil because of the Tigris and Euphrates flooding and depositing silt. This fertile land then led to ancient civilizations sprining up around there because they could grow crops and have a steady supply of food. Mesopotamia wasn't just one civilization it was a combination of many civilizations such as the Assyrians, Akkads, and the Sumerians. Sumer was one of the more important civilizations out of the three but each had its own things they did in history that impacted life. Once the cities started to expand they started to form some sort of political and economic control over the surrounding land. These cities were called city-states.

In the middle of the cities were temples dedicated to a chief god or goddess of the city. Connected to these temples were huge stepped towers called ziggurats. The reason why they did this was because they thought the gods would descend down into the city and live among the rest of the people and see how things were going because they believed that the gods and goddesses owned the cities which is called theocracy. The people who ruled the cities were said to be the son of the sky god because they thought that you could only rule if you were the son of the sky god.

Later the Sargon of Akkad overan the Sumerian cities and created the first empire in world history. Empires are easy to build up but later as the empire gets larger it gets harder and harder to maintain and eventually it will get taken over or destroyed by an enemy force.Which is exactly what happened to the Sargon of Akkads empire because eventually attacks from neighboring tribes brought the fall of the Akkadian Empire in about 2100 B.C. It was not until about 1792 B.C when Babylon took control of much of Mesopotamia. Babylon who now controls much of Mesopotamia was led by a ruler by the name of Hammurabi. Hammurabi wrote a set of rules that was based on a system of strict justicecall The Code of Hammurabi. The code basically meant that if you did something bad to a person then you would recieve the equal to that punishment in return.("An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.")



City-states: Cities that come to have political power and economical control around them they were known as the basic units of Sumerian Civilizations. Empire: Large political unit, under a single leader, who controls much land mandy people and many territories until death. Ziggurat: A massive stepped tower connected to the central temple for the gods and goddesses. They devoted mush of thier wealth to building these temples. Patriarchal: Type of society that makes men superior to women and women having fewer priveleges in marrage than men, according the the Code of Hammurabi. Polytheistic: The belief in many gods. They believed that it wast their duty to obey and serve the gods. Sumerians believed humans were made to do the manual labor for gods.

Sargon of Akkad: Was a leader of the Akkardians who took over the Sumerians around 2340 B.C. and started the first empire in history. Hammurabi: Leader of Babylon who beat Sargon of Akkad and wrote the Code of Hammurabi which was the first set of written laws. Sir Leonard Wooley: A British archealogist who discovered the Royal Tombs of Ur in 1927, was knighted in 1935 for contribuitoin to archealogy. Nebuchadnezzar: Leader of the Chaldeans who defeated the Assyrians revoking their dependence on Assyria and making Bablyon independent. Cyrus the Great: King of Persia who set up the Persian Empire which ended up conquering Mesopotamia, much more than that in the future.

Mesopotamia Religion- Information on Mesopotamian Religion Mesopotamina Government- Style and Laws of Mesopotamian Government Mesopotamian Gods- Gods and myth of Ancient Mesopotamia Military Style of Ancient Mesopotamia- Ways and system of Mesopotamia military Mesopotamian Society- System of Ancient Mesopotamian society

5000 B.C.- The first civilization in history the Sumerians began. 3100 B.C.- The Sumerians inveted writing. 2340 B.C.- Sargon of Akkad founded the first empire in history. 2000 B.C.- The ancinet civilization of Babylonia began. 1792 B.C.- Hammurabi wrote the Code of Hammurabi the first set of laws. 1550 B.C.- The Hittites conquered Babylon. 1200 B.C.- The Assyrians, the worlds first military power, rose. 700 B.C.- The ASsyrians destroyed Babylon. 605 B.C.- Nebuchadnezzar defeated Assyrians and rebuilt Babylon. 550 B.C.- The Persian empire began.