The Code of hammurabi & Assyrians

1. The Code of hammurabi& Assyrians

2. Objectives, Key terms & People • Objective • Explain how early empires arose in Mesopotamia • Key Terms & People: • Hammurabi’s Code • Behistun Rock • Chaldeans • Sargon the Great • Lydians • Babylonians • Nebuchadnezzar

3. Fall of sumerian city-states • Around 2350 B.C. • Sargon the Great captured the city-states (ruler of Akkad) • The Sumerian civilization did not die • The rulers of the new kingdoms adopted basic ideas of Sumerian civilization to meet their own needs

4. babylon • Where the first conquerors of Mesopotamia came from • Located upstream from Sumer

5. babylon • Babylonians were nomads • They quickly adopted the civilized ways of the Sumerians • Like what? • Ziggurats, art, written laws, literature, cuneiform, irrigated fields and organized society • Conquered all of Mesopotamia • Why is this important? • Civilization spread over a large area

6. polytheism • Belief in many gods • Each city-state considered itself the property of one god

7. Epic of gilgamesh • One of the earliest literary works • What did it describe? • The underworld

8. Major achievements • Code of Laws known as Hammurabi’s Code • Based on Sumerian city-state laws • More complete because it was for an entire empire • Why do societies develop laws? • Empire • State that has conquered other lands and now rules them

9. Hammurabi’s code • Written by King Hammurabi • Nearly 300 laws • He picked out ones he liked from city-states of the empire • Written on an 8 foot slab of black rock • Why is this important? • First written law code-public knowledge • Idea of justice required balance • Eye for an eye; small crimes get small punishments http://www.mitchellteachers.org/WorldHistory/AncientEgyptNearEastUnit/PDFs/CourtCaseHarboringSlave.pdf

10. Mesopotamian advancement • Drew up multiplication & division tables • Made geometry calculations • Use base of 60 • Cut circle into 360 degrees • 60 minutes in an hour • First written records in astronomy • Kept records of changing positions of planets and phases of the moon • Developed 12 month calendar

11. Behistun rock • Discovered in 1840s by Henry Rawlinson • Key to Mesopotamian history • Behistan Rock includes eyewitness accounts of a battle and a list of provinces in the empire • Used to translate Mesopotamian writing

12. Hittites (1600-1200 B.C.) • Invaded Northern Mesopotamia about 1600 B.C. • Raided Babylon, Syria, Palestine and challenged Egypt’s power • By about 1450 B.C. the Hittite Empire included Asia Minor and Northern Syria • Just and humane laws • Notable architecture • Most important discovery • Iron=huge advantage over other empires • Sharper and stronger than bronze

13. Assyrians (750-612 B.C.) • Came from Northern Mesopotamia • Their villages were attacked repeatedly by barbarians from the Northern mountains • Assyrians learned to be tough fighters over the centuries of attacks

14. Assyrian army • Soldiers well equipped with iron swords and iron tipped spears • Most disciplined army so far • Trained to march and fight in tightly organized columns and divisions led by commanders of different ranks • Attacking a city • March within an arrow’s shot of the wall and on a signal shower the city with arrows • Meanwhile, other troops moved to the city gates and hammered them with iron-tipped battering rams

15. ASSYRIAN ARMY

16. Attacking a city (Cont.) • Show no mercy • Tortured, killed or enslaved the people • Assyrians uprooted the conquered people from their homelands, sending great groups of people to distant parts of the empire. Why? • To prevent later rebellion

17. Nineveh • Assyrian capital city • Largest city of its day(3 miles long by 1 mile wide) • Housed the treasures of the empire • Held world’s largest library • King Assurbanipal collected 25,000 clay tablets to create it

18. Chaldeans (612-550 B.C) • Capital city: Babylon • This was 1000 years after Hammurabi • Babylon became the center of the empire during this time

19. King nebuchadnezzar • Ruled from 605-562 B.C. • Rebuilt Babylon • Covered the walls of his palace with shining tiles arranged in bright patterns • Most impressive part of the palace was the famous Hanging Gardens of Babylon

20. Stargazers of babylon • Highest building: a 7 tier ziggurat that was more than 300 feet high and visible for miles • Priests observed stars nightly • Kept records of positions of stars and planets • The rise of each constellation (group of stars) marked a new month in their calendar • Belief that stars determined human destiny • Chaldeans observed the Zodiac (12 constellations to foretell the future) • Nebuchadnezzar consulted the temples star charts carefully in governing his kingdom

21. lydians • ***Major achievement: began the use of coins in trade • How did this help with trade? • Got rid of the barter system • Official government coinage came into use in about 560 B.C. • Coins brought about a money economy • Money economy: an economic system based on the use of money

22. Objectives & key terms/people • Explain how early empires arose in Mesopotamia • Sargon starts the first empire • Hammurabi’s Code • First written code of laws based on an eye for an eye • BehistunRock • Translated Mesopotamian writing • Chaldeans • Nebuchadnezzar was the ruler

23. Key people • Sargon the Great • Conquered the Sumerian city-states • Lydians • Invented coins • Babylonians • King was Hammurabi; code of laws • Nebuchadnezzar • Chaldeans’ leader that built the Hanging Gardens