No+Name+Stiefel's+Meso

No Name's Domain = -¦-Mesopotamia-¦- =

Location: Geography: Economy/Agriculture: Time Period: Challenges: War/Military/Defense: Institutions: Religion: Architecture:
 * Southwest Asia
 * Modern day Iraq
 * Between Persian Gulf & Mediterranean Sea
 * Tigris River & Euphrates
 * Curved Shape
 * Fertile Crescent (good soil)
 * Flat Swampy land
 * Rich soil = silt
 * Desert climate
 * Mesopotamia means (land between the rivers)
 * Traded grain & cloth
 * received stone, wood, barley, & sorghom
 * Through trade exchanged ideas\
 * 4500 B,C, (people began to farm)
 * 3300 B.C (Sumer)
 * Unpredictable flooding
 * Limited natural resources
 * Little rain = desert
 * No natural barriers
 * Not a lot of building materials
 * Need water for crops and survival, built irrigation ditches
 * Built city walls
 * Constant war between city-states
 * Hard to defend = no natural barriers
 * Spread culture
 * Men pick a leader during times of war.
 * City-state, independent, self governing city including its surrounding farm land.
 * Empires - independent countries/city-states brought under one ruler (Sargon farm land)
 * Babylonian - avoided Mesopotamia
 * Dynasty - series of rulers from on family
 * Polytheism - belief in many gods
 * Gods controlled nature
 * What happens to you after death? Go to the land of no return (gross yucky place)
 * Gave offering & sacrifices to the gods
 * Arches, Ramps, Columns, Pyramids, Ziggurat (closest to the gods)
 * Ziggurat - (three levels) (1st: Temple/Church) (2nd: Government) (3rd/Base: Grain)
 * Around the "bazaar" - market place
 * Exchanges ideas - (Religions, political, economic, & social center of Mesopotamia)

Literature: Social Class: Equality: Technology: Important People: Government:
 * Epic of Gilgemesh
 * Gives us information on how they might have lived
 * Story is similar to the Noah's Ark Legend (flood).
 * Top layer: Kings, Land holder priest
 * Next: wealthy merchants
 * Next: ordinary people (people who worked in the fields or in work shops)
 * Lowest Level: slaves (debt/war)
 * Women could be merchants, farmers or artisans
 * Women could own property
 * Women could be priests
 * Some upperclass learned to read, write & become scribes
 * More rights than women in many ancient societies
 * Inventions: weel, plow, bronze, sail
 * Arithmetic & geometry base 60 (60 secs = min) (60 mins = 1 hour) 360° Circle
 * Architecture: Arches, ramps, pyramids, ziggurat
 * Writing Cuneiform (On clay tablet)
 * Sargon (Conquered Sumer - adapted & spread some culture
 * Hammurabi leader of Babylonian Empire (known for code of law)
 * Controlled by priests at first
 * During war, men chose a tough fighter to lead - at 1st control ended after war was over.
 * With more frequent wars, tough fights (commanders) got permanent control
 * Hammurabi's code of law.