Mesopotamia
● Where
○ Fertile Crescent
■ Where the Mesopotamia civilisation began
■ Located between Tigris & Euphrates
■ Started around 4500 BCE
■ moon-shaped strip of land from the Mediterranean Sea to
the Persian Gulf that is excellent farm land
● Located in modern-day Middle East
○ Reasons:
■ Water sources
■ Nearby a river (however, not reliable)
■ Ran dry in summer; flooded in spring
● How/why began
○ Villages joined together to build dams, canals and ditches
● The Sumerian Civilisation
○ When
■ Around 4500 ~ 4000 BCE
○ How began
■ People from Asia arrived in Mesopotamia
■ Forme d12 city-states = the city and the land surrounding it
● Considered the world’s 1st cities
○ Buildings
■ Ziggurats
● stepped pyramids with a temple at the top
● Functions
○ A place for worship
○ System
■ Shared common culture, religion and language
■ City-states governed themselves
■ Theocracies = king served as both government leaders and
high priests
■ Laws regulated the roles for women & men -> men had far
more rights
○ Writing
■ Cuneiform
● The symbols represented complex ideas
○ The Sun, God, Heaven, Mountain, Man, Ox, Fish
○ People
■ Scribes
● A trained people who could read & write documents
and stories
○ Epic of Gilgamesh = the oldest story in the
world
○ Religion
■ Polytheism
● Belief in more than one god
○ Each city-state had its own god
○ Negative outlook on life and the afterlife
○ Believed gods were selfish and no regard for
humans
○ Inventions
■ Wagon Wheel
■ Arch
■ Potter’s Wheel
■ Sundial
■ 12-month Calendar
■ Metal Plow
○ Empires
■ First Empire: The Akkadians
● 2334 BCE (began) to 2154 BCE (collapse)
● Ruled under Sargon I
● Kingdom was called Akkad
● Conquered & united all of the Sumerian city-states
● Empire fell apart after his & his grandson’s death
■ Babylon
● 1894 BCE (began) to 1595 (collapse)
● Ruled by Hammurabi
● Had strict Code of Laws
○ Hammurabi’s greatest achievement
○ Rules and consequences that addressed daily
life
○ Law code covered entire region of
Mesopotamia
○ “Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth” type of laws
○ Government assumed the responsibility of
protecting its citizens
○ People now had laws to protect their rights &
didn’t need to resort to violence
● Social classes
○ Similar to the Egyptians; More slaves
■ Upper class: Kings, nobles, priests
■ Middle class: artisans, scribes, merchants
■ Lower class (majority): farmers, poor
■ Lowest of the low: slaves
○ Hammurabi’s empire fell apart after his death
