ODMesopotamia

Olivia's home page MESOPOTAMIA

LOCATION:
 * Btwn Persian Gulf & Mediterranean Sea
 * Tigris River & Euphrate River
 * Modern day Iraq
 * Southwest Asia

GEOGRAPHY:
 * Curved shape
 * Flat swampy land
 * Rich soil = silt
 * Fertile Cresent
 * Desert climate
 * Mesoptamia means "land between the rivers"

ECONOMY/ AGRICULTURE:
 * Traded grain & cloth, tools, etc
 * Received stone, wood & metal
 * Grew wheat, barley & sorghom
 * through trade exchanged ideas
 * Cultural diffusion

TIME PERIOD:
 * 45000 BC people began to farm
 * 3300 BC Sumer (city state) (Sumarians) (people)

ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES:
 * Unpredictable floods good: soil, bad: ruin crops & take life
 * Natural resources were limited
 * little rain = desert
 * No natural barriers = defenseless but easy to see enemy coming
 * Not a lot of building materials
 * need for crops
 * Survival: built irrigation ditches

WAR / MILITARY/ DEFENSE:
 * Built city walls
 * Constant war btwn city states
 * Hard to defend= no natural barriers
 * Spread culture
 * Men picked leader during times of war

INSTITUTIONS:
 * City-State independant self governing ciy including its surrounding farm land

RELIGION:
 * Polytheism belief in many gods
 * Gods controlled nature
 * What happens to you after death go to the "land of no return"
 * Gave offerings & sacrifices to the gods

ARCHITECTURE:
 * Ziggurat gods around the "bazar" = market place
 * Exchange ideas
 * Religions, polical, economic & social

LITERATURE:
 * Epic of gilgamesh
 * Gives us into on how they __might__ have lived
 * Story is similar to the Noah's ard legend (flood)

SOCIAL CLASS:
 * Top layer kings, land lords, & priests
 * Next: wealthy merchants
 * Next: ordinary people: people who worked in the fields, or in work shops.
 * Lowest level: slaves (debt-war)

EQUALITY (WOMANS RIGHTS):
 * Could be priests
 * Farmers or artisans
 * Own property
 * Merchants
 * Learn to read and write
 * Become scribes
 * More rights than woman in many ancient scitites

TECHNOLOGY:
 * Inventions: wheel, plow, bronze, sail.
 * Math to plan & build
 * arithmetic& geometry base = 60
 * architure
 * writing

IMPORTANT PEOPLE:
 * Sargon conquered Sumer (adapted & spread Sumer cult.)
 * Hammurabi leader of baby Lonian Empire (known for code law)

GOVERNMENT:
 * Controlled by priests at first
 * During war men chose a tough fighter to lead - at first control ended after war was over
 * With more frequent wars tough fighters = commanders got permanent control
 * Hammurabi's code of law