Chapter 2

Section 2: The Fertile Crescent

People begin to settle in the Fertile Crescent around the same time as the ancient people in Egypt, 5000 BC.

Settled in the Fertile Crescent (crescent-shaped strip of fertile land that stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf), known Mesopotamia (eastern part Fertile Crescent/ “land between rivers) on a low plain between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.

Unlike the Nile River, the Tigris and Euphrates River did not provide a regular supply of water. During hot summer months, the plain was dry and during the raining season, the rivers would overflow and wash away villages and fields. Built dams and escape channel to control overflow.

Agriculture blossomed about 4000B.C. with the production of grain crops.

Sumerian Civilization:

3500 B.C.-Sumerians migrate to Mesopotamia from central Asia or Asia Minor. “World’s first cities”.

3000 B.C. 12 city-states. Consisted of the city and the land surrounding it. 20,000-250,000 people. Shared a common culture, language, and religion.

Sumerian city-states governed themselves. King was military and high persist. Kingship becomes heredity.

Sumerian men were the head of households and had great authority over wife and children. Like Egypt, women could buy and own land and own businesses.

3100 B.C.: Cuneiform invented to keep accounts and prepare documents. Like Egyptian hieroglyphics, it began with pictograms and then transformed into symbols represent complex statements. Influenced later Mesopotamia writing systems. 1850 B.C. –Gilgamesh believed to be the oldest story that was written by Sumerian scribes. Wrote on clay tablets.

Polytheistic (worship of many deities (gods)). Each city-state choose a specified deity whom the citizens prayed and sacrificed to. Priests performed religious ceremonies and rituals to keep gods happy. Sumerians, unlike Egyptians, believed humans had little control over daily lives and no happy life after death. (Dead were pale shadows) (Page 61)

Inventions: wagon wheel, the arch, potter’s wheel, number system based on 60, 12-month calendar based on the cycles of the moon, bronze out of copper and tin, and metal plow.

First Mesopotamian Empires:

2000 B.C.- Sumerian city-states fall to foreign invaders.

Sargon I- first empire builder in Mesopotamia. Akkadian Empire. Came to power 2300 B.C. Launched military campaign to expand the empire which united all the city-states of Mesopotamia. Sargon used Akkadian language instead of Sumerian but adopted religious and farming practices.

Hammurabi’s Babylonian Empire:

Amorites conquered Mesopotamia. Soon came under rule of Hammurabi. Built a strong government and worked to increase the economic prosperity of his people. Capital city was Babylon which became a major trade center. Law code: 282 sections punishment guides stated violations and specific punishments for each (“eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”). (Page 63-64, examples). Laws varied according to class.

Babylonian Society: 3-fold social class:

1. Kings, persist, and nobles

2. Artisans, small merchants, farmers, and scribes

3. Slaves

After Hammurabi’s death, Mesopotamia was once again divided into small city-states. Hitties, from Asia Minor, invaded about 1600 B.C., ending the Hammurabi dynasty.