1.

The appearance of
writing
„ Appeared in Mesopotamia over 5,000 years ago.
„ Living in cities means that people need to create a
SYSTEM OF CONTROL TO KEEP THE
INTERESTING DATA: TAXES, TRADE
TRANSACTIONS
„ Later other affairs begen to be registered in
writing: holy books, science books, literary works,
etc.
„ Invention of writing sets the birth of History.
 ¢. The First Civilizations
„ Emerged in Mesopotamia, Egypt, India &
China 5,000 years ago

„ They are called j

 

:
1. Tigris & Euphrates (Mesopotamia)
¢. Nile (Egypt)
3. Indus (India)
4. Yellow River and Blue River (China)
¢.1 Main Characteristics
a) Strong Political Power
b) Very Hierarchical Society
c) Great Artistic Development
¢.¢ From cities to empires
¢.3 Empires State Structures
Example: The Code of
Hammurabi
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 ¢.4 The first urban societies
Each person has a job
and provided Each group live ina
Division of work inside
themselves with other particular quarter of
cities
necessities at the the city
market

ities need to buy food Trade adquire great arter: interchange of

and supplies importance products
¢.5 Urban society in
Mesopotamia
Two most Temple: where
important people
buildings worshipped gods

Palace: king·s
residence
 Mesopotamia·s society

Society

Non privileged
Privileged (people
(people with or
with rights and
without rights and
owning the land)
without any lands)
 Privileged groups: had all
the rights and possessed
most of the riches

Aristocracy: king, his

family & the nobility. Scribes: from noble
Possessed great part of families had great power
the land and lead the
government and the army Priests: religious rituals.
Lived in temples,
possessed land and
cooperate with
government
 Peasants: rented
lands of the king.
Give him part of the
harvest.
Free
Crafstmen:
carpenters,
perfumers,«

Non privileged
groups No rights. Treated as
Slaves
objects

Belonged to men and

when they worked
Women
their wage was half
of an adult man
 3. Mesopotamia
„ The Greeks called the area between Tigris and
Euphrates Mesopotamia, which means ´between
the riversµ.
„ Many different civilizations developed in this
small region. First came the Sumerians, who
were replaced in turn by the Assyrians and the
Babylonians.
„ Today this land is known as Iraq.
Mesopotamia·s Timeline
 3.1 The Sumerians

Arrived in Irrigation: system

Sumeria was
Meopotamia in of watering crops
composed of
the third to grow more
several city-states
millenium BC food.

Walls around city. Polytheistic.

Ziggurats,
Farmland outside dedicated to a
walls specific god.
The city of UR and its ziggurat
[



„ "You can have a lord, you can have a King, but the man to
fear is the tax collector!´ Sumerian proverb
„ The [

, a massive stepped pyramid about ¢10
by 150 feet in size, is the most well-preserved monument
from the remote age of the Sumerians. It consists of a series
of successively smaller platforms which rose to a height of
about 64 feet, and was constructed with a solid core of mud-
brick covered by a thick skin of burnt-brick to protect it from
the elements.
Sumerian writing: Cuneiform

„ Created by the Sumerians, cuneiform writing began as a

system of pictographs. Over time, the pictorial
representations became simplified and more abstract.

„ http://www.dearqueologia.com/traductor/ALFABETO.H
TML
 3.¢ Akkadian Empire

Northern Semitic people who The Akkadian Empire lasted from

conquered the Sumerians ¢350 BC circa ¢350 BC to ¢150 BC³
and ruled Mesopotamia. approximately ¢00 years.

The ancient city of Akkad in central

Mesopotamia, founded by Sargon I,
was an imperial centre in the late
third millennium BC; the site is
unidentified, but it was on the
River Euphrates somewhere near
Babylon.
 3.3 Babylon
The Babylonian Empire
Its capital Babylon was
was the most powerful
beautifully adorned by
state in the ancient world
in ebuchadne ar,
after the fall of the
who erected se eral
Assyrian empire (61¢
famous buildin s.
BCE).

E en after the Babylonian

Empire had been
o erthrown by the Persian
in Cyrus the Great (539),
the city itself remained an
important cultural center.
ë
  

 3.4 Assyrian Empire
The Assyrians were Semitic people
living in the northern reaches of
Mesopotamia; they have a long
history in the area, but for most of
that history they are subjugated to
the more powerful kingdoms and
peoples to the south.
The new state grew around four
cities fed by the waters or
tributaries of the Tigris: Ashur,
Arbela, Nimrud (or Calah) and
Nineveh.

They took their common language

owever, unlike Babylon, from
and their arts from Sumeria, but
beginning to end they were a race
modified them later into an almost
of warriors, more crueler and more
undistinguishable similarity to the
brutal that any other race before.
language and arts of Babylonia.
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4. Religion in Mesopotamia
„ Polytheistic
„ Gods = human shaped and had the same
passions as human beings. Inmortal
„ Temples = gods· residence in Earth
(ziggurat)
„ Different rooms: rites like animals and
humans sacrifices
 5. The first schools
Centre of
Scribe training Mesopotamian
culture

Scholars,
Rich families·
Scientists,
children. Only
Theologians,
men.
Linguists
5. The first schools
Cycles

Elementary Advanced

Other
read write
subjects
! 
 


 6. Mesopotamian Art
Arch
In ente
ault

Architecture Materials brick

a obe
Reliefs &
Decorate
frescos
[




 

 6. Mesopotamian Art

Sumerians and
Akkadians Statues
of kings and gods
Sculpture Stone
Assyrians figures
of bulls with
human heads
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 Final exercises
„ Where did the earliest civilization in history develop?

„ Why did the invention of writing become necessary?

„ What social groups formed the first civilizations? Which one

were privileged and which ones were dominated?

„ What materials did Mesopotamian architects use? What

were the main buildings?

„ Why do you thinks kings used to fostered different kinds of

art?