The Fertile Crescent Chapter 2:ii

1. The Fertile CrescentChapter 2:ii

2. The archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolley discovered the city of Ur. [Image Source: Biblical Archaeology Review, July/August 1996, p. 56.]

3. The Crown of Queen Pu-Abi. [Image source: National Geographic]

4. Woolley’s work showed that people had lived in Mesopotamia for a long time. [Image source: Biblical Archaeology Review, July/August 1996, p. 56.]

5. People from Arabia and the highlands of Turkey migrated to the Fertile Crescentca.5000 years B.C.

6. Clogged with deposits of silt, the Tigris and Euphrates rivers often overflowed, sometimes sweeping entire villages away. [Image source: http://members.tripod.com/jaydambrosio/mesopotamia.html]

7. Villages in early Mesopotamia built elaborate systems to control seasonal flooding and divert river water to irrigate their fields.

8. By 4000 B.C. Mesopotamian farmers were producing an abundance of grain crops.

9. Circa3500 B.C. the Sumerians settled in the lower part of the Tigris-Euphrates river valley. [Image source:http://www.faculty.fairfield.edu/faculty/jmac/meso/meso.htm]

10. The region they settled in Mesopotamia became known as Sumer.

11. A ziggurat, or temple, was at the center of every Sumerian city. [Image source: http://www.taisei.co.jp/cg_e/ancient_world/ur/aur.html]

12. Ziggurats were composed of a series of terraces with a temple or shrine on the top. [Source: http://www.jlc.net/~brian/art/fertile_crescent.html]

13. This is longer than the line at Disney World! Only priests and priestesses were allowed to enter the shrine, which was dedicated to the city-state’s chief deity. [Image source: http://www.faculty.fairfield.edu/faculty/jmac/meso/meso.htm]

14. Hey! Cold hands! Every Sumerian city-state was originally governed by a council of nobles and an assembly of wealthy citizens. [Image source: http://www.crystalinks.com/sumergods.html]

15. By 2700 B.C. many of the Sumerian city-states had become hereditary monarchies governed by kings. [Image source: http://www.jlc.net/~brian/art/fertile_crescent.html]

16. Sumerian kings also served as the high priest, representing the city-state’s chief deity. [Image source: http://members.tripod.com/jaydambrosio/mesopotamia.html]

17. Sumerian city-states were also theocracieswhere much of the land belonged to the local deity. [Image source: http://www.taisei.co.jp/cg_e/ancient_world/ur/aur.html1

18. Game of Ur [Image source: http://members.tripod.com/jaydambrosio/mesopotamia.html]

19. Roles of Men and Women

20. Family life and the roles of men and women was regulated by Sumerian law. [Image source: http://www.taisei.co.jp/cg_e/ancient_world/ur/aur.html]

21. As heads of households, men exercised great authority over their wives and children. [Image source: http://home.korax.net/~websiter/postcards.html]

22. Sumerian law allowed men to sell family members into slavery in order to retire a debt! [Image source: http://arthistory.about.com/arts/arthistory/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww-oi.uchicago.edu%2FOI%2FMUS%2FHIGH%2FOIM_A12332.html]

23. Women were allowed to buy and sell property, operate businesses, and own and sell slaves. [ http://www.upenn.edu/museum/Collections/royaltombsoverview.html]

24. Writing onClay Tablets [Image source: http://early-cuneiform.humnet.ucla.edu/archaic/index.html]

25. By 3100 B.C. the Sumerians developed a system of writing known as cuneiform, or “wedged-shaped writing,” to keep records. [Image source: http://www-oi.uchicago.edu/OI/PROJ/SUM/Sumerian_Tablet.html1]

26. Cuneiform began with pictograms or pictures meant to represent the items depicted. [Image source: http://www.upenn.edu/museum/Games/cuneiform.html]

28. Sumerians wanting to become scribes spent many years studying in schools called eddudas. [Image source: National Geographic]

29. The Epic of Gilgamesh, possibly the oldest story in the world, was first written in cuneiform circa1850 B.C. [Image source: http://members.tripod.com/jaydambrosio/mesopotamia.html]

30. Sumerians used cylinder seals to “sign” legal documents. [Image source: http://members.tripod.com/jaydambrosio/mesopotamia.html]

34. Sumerian Religion [Image source: http://www.faculty.fairfield.edu/faculty/jmac/meso/meso.htm]

35. Each Sumerian deity presided over a specific natural force or human activity.

36. An, the highest Sumerian deity, was responsible for the seasons. Oh, Great God An....

37. I’m his Ho, ho, ho! Enlil, god of winds and agriculture created the hoe (ho?).

38. Each city-state had a patron god or goddess to whom they prayed. [Image source: http://crystalinks.com/sumerart.html]

39. Sumarians pictured their deities as unpredictable, selfish beings who had little regard for human life.

40. Sumerian priests and priestesses performed religious ceremonies and rituals in an effort to appease their tempermental dieties. [Image source: http://crystalinks.com/sumerart.html]

45. Sumerians viewed the afterlife as a grim underworld devoid of light or air.

46. Sumerian Inventions [Image source: Scientific American]

47. [Image source:http://www.faculty.fairfield.edu/faculty/jmac/meso/meso.htm] Wagon wheel

48. Arch [Image source: http://www.nps.gov/jeff/arch-ov.htm]

49. [Image source: http://billtom.home.mindspring.com/dgates/wheel.html] Potter’s wheel

50. [Image source: http://www.floridaplants.com/store/sundials.htm] Sun Dial