Mesopotamia continued
- 2. Music Video- Intro Mesopotamia (3:21)
- 3. The Rise of Babylon • Euphrates River near modern-day Baghdad, Iraq • Former Sumerian city • By 1800 BC- became power with its own government • Hammurabi (1792 BC) was city’s greatest monarch • Fought many battles to expand his power • Named Babylon Empire after capital • Able to govern entire empire • Oversaw irrigation projects • Improved tax collection system • Increased trade= prosperity • Ruled 42 years- Babylon declined after his death
- 4. Hammurabi’s Code • 282 laws dealing with almost every part of daily life • Ex: trade, loans, theft, marriage, injury, & murder • Some still seen in today’s laws • Specific crimes= specific punishment • Social class did not matter • Important because it was written down for all to see • Effect: people all over Video
- 5. Hittites & Kassites Kingdom in Asia Minor-modern- day Turkey Achievements: Military advantages: Ironworking= strong weapons chariot = fast movement around battlefield to shoot arrows at enemies • Hittite king assassinated by Kassites= chaos in city • Kassites ruled for 400 years from North of Hittites video
- 6. The Assyrians • Northern Mesopotamia • 900 BC began conquering all of Fertile Crescent, parts of Asia Minor & Egypt • Success- strong organized army & strong weapons & chariots like Hittites • Spread terror before attacking • Demanded heavy taxes & punished those who opposed Achievements: Roads built to connect distant parts of the empire Messengers rode horseback to deliver orders to faraway officials Assyrian kings held power through: Local leaders who Governed small areas Collected taxes Enforced laws Raised troops for the army
- 7. The Chaldeans • 612 BC: destroyed Assyrian Empire • King Nebuchadnezzar rebuilt Babylon- restoring its former beauty • Legend of Nebuchadnezzar’s palace Hanging Gardens (Wonder of the World) • Copied Sumerian culture: studied language & built temples for Sumerian gods Achievements: • Babylon became center of astronomy- charted stars, tracked economic, political, & weather events • Created a calendar • Solved complex geometry problems Video: Hanging Gardens
- 8. The Phoenicians Geography: • Western end of the Fertile Crescent: modern-day Lebanon • Mountains border the region to the north and east, western border- Mediterranean Sea • Had few resources for trade • Cedar trees were prized for their timber- valuable trade item • Overland trade routes blocked by mountains & hostile neighbors
- 9. Phoenician Expansion of Trade • Became sea traders- fast fleets sailed to ports in Egypt, Greece, Italy, Sicily, & Spain (Cultural Diffusion) • They sailed through the Strait of Gibraltar to reach the Atlantic Ocean • Founded several new colonies along trade routes • Carthage (northern coast of Africa) later became most powerful city on the Mediterranean • Wealth came from trade of lumber, silverwork, ivory carvings, glass-blown beads, and slaves
- 10. Phoenician Advances • Glass blowing • Purple dye from shellfish-very popular with the wealthy • World’s first alphabet: • Developed to record their activities • Made writing much easier • Major IMPACT on the world then & now • English alphabet is based on the Phoenicians’ • Later civilizations modified alphabets into what we have
- 11. Phoenician Alphabet Video: Phoenician Alphabet (2:21)
- 12. Mesopotamian Civilizations Timeline 3000 BCSumerian Civilization World’s first civilization 2350 BC Akkadian Dynasty 2125 BC Third Dynasty of Ur 1900 BCFirst Dynasty of Babylon Code of Hammurabi 1500 BC Hittites & Kassites 900 BC Assyrian Empire 600 BCChaldeans (Neo-Babylon) 535 BC Persian Empire (Phoenicians)