The Bronze Age

1. The Bronze Age Earliest known civilization : Mesopotamia

2. Mesopotamia is at the eastern end of the Fertile Crescent. • Mesopotamia (“between the rivers”) • Mesopotamia is located between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Tigris Euphrates

3. Mesopotamia

4. Mesopotamia • These rivers often overflow and leave silt, which makes the soil rich for a flourishing agricultural economy. • Mesopotamian civilization was one of history’s important early civilizations. • Developing consistent agriculture required controlling the water supply. • People in Mesopotamia, therefore, developed a system of drainage ditches and irrigation works.

5. Mesopotamia • The resulting large food supply made possible significant population growth and the emergence of civilization in Mesopotamia

6. Mesopotamian City-States • The Sumerians developed the first Mesopotamian civilization. • City-states: were the basic political unit of the Sumerian civilization.

7. Mesopotamian City-States • The Sumerians invented the arch and the dome. • The most important building in each city was the temple called a Ziggurat. Ziggurat of Ur (Iraq: Present Day)

8. Mesopotamian Religion • The Mesopotamians were Polytheistic. • Polytheistic: Belief in more than one god or goddess. • They were called the Annunaki. • Each City-State had a chief god of the city, however they believed in all of the Annunaki

9. Mesopotamian Government • The Sumerian city-states were theocracies (Theo meaning “god” and cracy meaning “rule”). In a theocracy, government authority is founded upon divine authority give by the gods. Stele of Ur-Nammu receiving his mandate from the god Enil to rule his people.

10. Mesopotamian Economy • The Sumerian economy was principally agricultural, but industry (metalwork and woolen textiles, for example) and trade were important. • The invention of the wheel around 3000 B.C. facilitated trade.

11. Mesopotamian Social Classes • The Sumerian city-states had three classes: • Nobles included the royal family, royal officials, priests, and their families. • Commoners worked for large estates as farmers, merchants, fishers, and craftspeople. Around 90 percent of the people were farmers. • Slaves principally worked on large building projects, wove cloth, and worked the farms of the nobles.

12. Birth of an Empire • Empire: is a large political unit that controls many peoples and territories. • The Akkadians are called a Semitic people because they spoke a Semitic language.  • Around 2340 B.C., the leader of the Akkadians, Sargon, conquered the Sumerian city-states and set up the world’s first empire. Sargon I (Left), Typical Akkadian Solders (Right)

13. Akkadian Heavy Infantry Mesopotamian Millitary Akkadian Archer & Light Infantry Artwork by Robbie McSweeney Akkadian Commander

14. The worlds first empire Sumer: c. 3200 B.C.E. Akkadian Empire: c. 2350 B.C.E

15. Empire after Empire • In 1792 B.C., Hammurabi of Babylon, a city-state south of Akkad, established a new empire over much of both Akkad and Sumer.

16. System of Law • The Code of Hammurabi is one of the world’s most important early systems of law. • There are a set of 282 laws put forth to the people under Hammurabi's rule. • It calls for harsh punishments against criminals, and was not applied equally to all people. • The principle of retaliation (“an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”) is fundamental in Hammurabi’s code.

17. Writing • The Sumerians are most famous for their invention of a form of writing called Cuneiform. • It is a series of dash and marks placed in a clay tablet with reads and the baked. Akkadian Cuneiform

18. Writing

19. Lets make a time line • Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (10,000–8700 BC) • Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (8700–6800) • Hassuna (~6000 bc–? BC), Samarra (~5700 BC–4900 BC) and Halaf (~6000 BC–5300 BC) • Ubaid period (~5900–4400 BC) • Uruk period (~4400–3100 BC) • Jemdet Nasr period (~3100–2900 BC) • Early Dynastic period (~2900–2350 BC) • Akkadian Empire (~2350–2100 BC) • Ur III period (2112–2004 BC) • Early Assyrian kingdom (24th to 18th century BC)

20. Lets make a time line. • Early Babylonia (19th to 18th century BC) • First Babylonian Dynasty (18th to 17th century BC) • collapse: Minoan Eruption (c. 1620 BC) • Middle Assyrian period (16th to 11th century BC) • Assyrian Empire (c. 1365 BC–1076 BC) • Kassite dynasty in Babylon, (c. 1595 BC–1155 BC) • collapse: Bronze Age collapse (12th to 11th century BC) • Neo-Hittite or Syro-Hittite regional states (11th to 7th century BC) • Neo-Assyrian Empire (10th to 7th century BC) • Neo-Babylonian Empire (7th to 6th century BC)

21. The replay Video!