EARLY CIVILIZATIONS

1. EARLY CIVILIZATIONS The Fertile Crescent

2. Standards and Benchmarks: • H6.7.2 Describe the development of agricultural techniques that permitted the production of surplus goods and the emergence of cultures centered in cities. • 6.7.4 Describe the social, political, and economic developments, as well as the religious, intellectual, and artistic achievements of early Mesopotamian civilization.

3. Today you will answer 4 Questions: • 1. Review: what technology did the Sumerians create to control the river and provide enough water? • 2. What features do all civilizations have in common? • 3.Why did the ancient Mesopotamians change their writing system from just pictures (pictographs) to the cuneiform shapes??

4. Questions (continued) • 4. What are some of the most important inventions created by the Mesopotamians?

5. QUESTION 1: Review • Review: What technology did the Sumerians create to control the river and provide enough water?

6. QUESTION 2: Review • What do all civilizations have in common? • Check your notes.

7. What is a Civilization? • Civilization is first: an organized society. • Before any civilization can develop, there must be a surplus of food. • This makes all other things possible.

8. The Surplus • When all goes well, there will be a surplus of food that is not immediately distributed. • It is valuable, and must be managed and guarded. • When a surplus exists, then people are free to choose different jobs.

9. Division of Labor • Not all people had to farm. Some could become specialists in particular tasks: • –Potters • –Tool makers • –Metal workers (smiths) • –Bakers, butchers, etc. • –Government workers • Priests

10. The Influence of Trade • Remember: we are talking about a community located on a river. • Trade helped because people didn’t have to make everything.

12. Advantages of Trade • Trade allowed for more specialization of Jobs • New jobs for artisans, people who work a skilled craft – weavers, metal workers, pottery makers • Trade meant that people had to develop standard weight systems to measure amounts traded, agreed upon between communities or groups.

13. Government Becomes Necessary • People need rules to live by. Without rules, there is no order. Crime increases. • People need government for three basic reasons. • First: to make rules and pass laws. • Second: to protect people. • Third: to build public works projects: things that the public can use and benefit from. For example: • Roads • City Walls • Irrigation

14. Find the Place in Your Notes where you are asked to Create A Web. • Do this Assignment Now. • Title: The Purpose of Government Web • Draw a web • Give at least three examples of each job and draw a picture for each.

15. What is a Civilization? • Most have the following elements: • A surplus of food. When people have more than enough food, they begin to develop other needs. • Division of Labor. When people have one job, they tend to do that job very well. They are also more likely to choose a job in a field they enjoy. • Organized government and religion. When groups of people live together, they need rules or laws. When they have the same laws, it is easier to trade. People living under the same government, or having the same religious beliefs are likely to have the same values. • Writing. This allowed societies to keep records and communicate.

16. So where would Civilization most likely develop?

17. The SUMERIANS • FIRST CIVILIZATION IN FERTILE CRESENT • INVENTED 1ST FORM OF WRITING • SETTLED IN SUMER • MOST SUMERIANS WERE FARMERS • MAY HAVE BEEN 1ST PEOPLE TO USE THE WHEEL

18. The Sumerians developed one of the earliest civilizations on earth, but no one really knew about them until the mid-19th century. The Sumerian civilization probably began around 5000 BCE. In the beginning, they were an agricultural community. They grew crops and stored food for times of need. An early civilization

19. How did it Begin? • Early Pioneers: One day, a group of early settlers wandered into the land between two rivers. • No one knows for sure, but there may have been a small band of people already living in the area. If so, the settlers quickly took over. They were real pioneers. • They built permanent homes of sun-dried bricks made of mud and straw, and started a new life in the southern region of ancient Mesopotamia.

20. The ancient Sumerians were very smart. They invented, among other things, the wheel the sailboat The first written language. Early Inventions:

21. Architecture • The largest building in most Sumerian cities was the ziggurat. • Builders made them in layers, kind of like a wedding cake. • Each layer was smaller than the one below. • Each layer contained a shrine for the city’s special god.

23. Ziggurat of the future: Dubai

24. City-States • The Sumerians learned to control theTigris and Euphrates Rivers by constructing levees, dikes and irrigation canals. • As a result, a stable food supply existed, and the Sumerian villages evolved into self-governing city-states. • At the center of each city-state was a temple surrounded by courts and public buildings. • Radiating from the all-important city center were the two-story houses of the priests and merchants, or the upper class; the one-story homes of government officials, shopkeepers, and craftspeople; and the lower class homes of farmers, unskilled workers, and fishermen. The city-state also included the fertile farming land outside the city wall.

26. Social Classes • Over time, people began to look at certain jobs as being “better” than others. • This resulted in the development of social classes. • Three major classes: Upper, Middle, and Low • Higher Class = More Power and Money • Different Classes had Different Jobs. • Upper Class = Nobles, Priests • Middle Class = Craftspeople, Merchants, Scribes, and Artisans. • Lower Class = Farmers, and Slaves • King or Ruler was above everyone else.

27. Writing • Over five thousand years ago, people living in Mesopotamia developed a form of writing to record and communicate different types of information. • The earliest writing was based on pictograms. Pictograms were used to communicate basic information about crops and taxes.

29. Over time, the need for writing changed and the signs developed into a script we call cuneiform. Over thousands of years, Mesopotamian scribes recorded daily events, trade, astronomy, and literature on clay tablets. Cuneiform was used by people throughout the ancient Near East to write several different languages. Cuneiform

30. The system began with pictograms, pictures or signs drawn on clay tablets. The signs changed over many years, and this is the story of what happened to just one of the signs. The development of writing

31. Around 3100 B.C. people began to record amounts of different crops. Barley was one of the most important crops in southern Mesopotamia and when it was first drawn it looked like this. Draw the sign for barley in your notes. Scribes drew the sign on soft clay tablets using a pointed tool, probably made out of a reed. Barley

32. The sign changed shape • The barley sign changed shape when the scribes used a writing tool with a squared-off end instead of a point. • The end of this tool was used to press wedge shapes like these into clay tablets.

33. . • The barley sign had to be written using several wedges. At this point it became what we call cuneiform.

34. Although the signs had changed over the centuries there were more changes to come. Nobody can explain why the changes happened. • The most ancient tablets have signs drawn in boxes. Later, the signs were written in rows, arranged in the order in which they were read. • The barley sign looked like this

35. Question 3: • Look at page 94 in your book. • Why did the ancient Mesopotamians decided to change the writing system from just pictures (pictographs) to the cuneiform shapes? • How did the change from pictures (direct representation) to cuneiform (abstract representation) affect who could use the system?

36. Scribes were very important people. They were trained to write cuneiform and record many of the languages spoken in Mesopotamia. Without scribes, letters would not have been written or read, royal monuments would not have been carved with cuneiform, and stories would have been told and then forgotten. Scribes

37. They invented a system of mathematics based on the number 60. Today, we divide an hour into 60 minutes, and a minute into 60 seconds. That comes from the ancient Mesopotamians. Mathematics

38. Language • Some Mesopotamian words are still in use today. • Words like crocus, which is a flower, and saffron, which is a spice, are words borrowed from the ancient Mesopotamians.

39. Sumerian Inventions • Cuneiform writing • The wheel • Potter’s wheel • Sailing ship • Pick-axe • Brick mold • Glass • 60-based counting system: 60 minutes to an hour, 360 degrees to a circle • Number positioning • Beer • Epic poetry Treasures from the Royal Tombs of Ur

40. QUESTION 4 • WHAT ARE SOME IMPORTANT CONTRIBUTIONS OF ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS IN THE FERTILE CRESCENT?

41. To Answer: Divide into groups • Groups: • #1 - New Inventions and Innovations • #2 - Architecture and Religious Beliefs • #3 - The Role of Government • # 4 -Changing Economics • #5 - Divisions in Society

42. Review Chapter 2, Lesson 2:Civilization in Meopotamia • Review the section in your focus groups. • Return to your tables. • Report what you have read to your group. • Make sure you have a complete set of notes that addresses all of the areas in Chapter 2.