1 / 8

Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia. Growth of City-States: Sumer, Akkad, Uruk, Babylon Religion and Government A system of writing Legends. Life in Sumer, Akkad and Uruk.

whitney-branch
Download Presentation

Mesopotamia

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Mesopotamia Growth of City-States: Sumer, Akkad, Uruk, Babylon Religion and Government A system of writing Legends

  2. Life in Sumer, Akkad and Uruk • The Sumerians and the Akkadians were very similar. They both farmed, and had similar customs. Wars occurred frequently over control of land and water. • Uruk was a very large city-state holding up to 50,000 people. • Each city-state was surrounded by a mudbrick wall for protection. • At the highest point of each city-state, was the city’s temple called a ziggurat.

  3. A ziggurat consisted of a series of stacked rectangular platforms that formed a huge pyramid shaped structure. Reaching up to 290 feet, ziggurats were believed by Mesopotamians to link heaven and earth.

  4. Religion • Religion and government were closely linked. • The Sumerians and the Akkadians practiced polytheism- the worship of many gods. • Each city-state believed to be under the protection of a particular god who looked after its interests. • If the people in a city state were peaceful and prosperous, they believed it was because the gods were pleased. • They worked hard to keep the gods happy by making offerings everyday.

  5. Government • The Sumerians believed that kings were chosen by the gods to carry out the god’s wishes. • This was called divine kingship- the belief that the right to rule was god-given. • The Sumerians also believed that the right to rule could be passed from father to son. • Sumer also had a class system where society was divided into classes.

  6. Writing • The Sumerians were great traders and made many business deals. • Sumerians invented a writing system to keep track of all of their business dealings called cuneiform.- A system of wedge-shaped writing. • A professional writer or scribe would press reeds into wet clay leaving markings that stood for objects, activities or sounds. • The clay tablet was left to dry creating a permanent record to use for reference.

  7. Cuneiform Writing

  8. Time to Review • How does a system of writing make it easier to conduct business? • Why were most city-states surrounded by a wall? • What is the belief in many gods called? • What does divine kingship mean? • How are city-states different from villages in the New Stone Age?

More Related