Chapter 3 (Ancient Mesopotamia) Flashcards
What’s the name of the 2 rivers that the Fertile Crescent follows?
Tigris river & Euphrates river
What do historians call the place around the Fertile Crescent and the 2 rivers?
Mesopotamia
What is Mesopotamia’s geography?
It’s flat and fertile
What does Mesopotamia mean?
Land between the rivers
Which river had a faster flow?
Tigris River
What did the Mesopotamians call the Tigris river?
Swift river
What were the consequences of the Euphrates frequently changing course?
The riverside settlements were left without water
Were the rivers predictable or unpredictable?
The rivers flooded unpredictably
What was one positive thing about the rivers?
They deposited silt
What is silt?
An especially fine and fertile soil
What was one positive effect of the thriving farms?
The population grew and cities developed
What were some problems farmers in Mesopotamia had to deal with?
Flooding, hot summers, unreliable rainfall
What crops did the region’s fertile soils promise?
Wheat, barley, figs
What did Mesopotamians make to control the water supply?
Irrigation
What is irrigation?
Watering fields using human-made systems
From where where did irrigation canals carry water?
From the rivers to the fields
What did farmers use stored rainwater for?
to build walls from mounds of earth to hold back floodwaters
What did the ox-driven plow do?
It broke up the hard-baked summer soil and prepared large areas for planting
Why could Mesopotamians afford to develop art, architecture, and technology?
Because of the plentiful food from successful agriculture
What did the agricultural surpluses allow to develop?
A great civilisation
Where did Mesopotamia’s first civilisation arise?
Sumer
What does a city-state include?
The city and its surrounding lands & settlements
How many city-states did Sumer have?
12
Why were wars frequent between city-states?
To protect fertile land, natural resources, and trade routes
What natural resources did Sumer lack?
Tin & copper
How did Sumerians acquire tin and copper?
Through trade
Why was tin & copper so important?
Because combined, they produce bronze
Why was bronze so important?
Most tools and weapons were made of bronze
What was made to manage a lot of people?
Government systems
What did administrators do?
They supervised taxes
What was the Sumerian society organised by?
Social class
What is social class based on?
Power and wealth
Who was 1st and 2nd by social class?
Kings, then priests
What are artisans?
People who are skilled at making things by hand
What do you call belief in many gods?
polytheism
Why did Sumerians worship hundreds of gods?
Because they believed gods had the power to control natural forces they couldn’t (floods, etc)
Who was the storm god?
Ishkur
What did Sumerians offer to gods in public rituals?
Temple tax
What are rituals?
Formal series of acts always performed in the same way
How did Sumerians try to predict what the gods were planning?
By observing natural events (sun, moon, stars)
What did Sumerians develop by observing natural events?
Calendar, astronomy, mathematics
What was the most important building within a city-state?
ziggurat
What does ziggurat mean?
Mountaintop
Where did Sumerians believe the deity lived?
A shrine, on top of the ziggurat
Who was responsible for conducting religious practices at the ziggurat?
Priests
What did the practices include?
Offering food to god/goddess
Where was the statue representing the deity placed in?
The adytum (holy place)
Why were meals set on a table before the statue?
Sumerians believed the god/goddess would eat the meal
What is purification/cleansing?
rituals using holy water
Who was purification often used on?
Kings
What is the name of the earliest form of writing, invented by Sumeriams?
Pictographs (images of objects)
What did pictographs evolve into?
Cuneiform
What did Cuneiform represent?
Sounds
Who formed words and combined them into sentences?
Scribes
Who was an inspirational Mesopotamian ruler?
Sargon the Great
What is not known about Sargon?
His past, only rumours
Why was Sumer weakened while Sargon gained power?
Due to internal wars and invasions
Sargon’s armies conquered Sumer, and parts of Mesopotamia. What did these conquests create?
The world’s first empire
What is an empire?
A group of different lands and people governed by one ruler
How many years did the Akkadian empire last?
150 years
How many years did Sargon rule?
56 years
What did Sargon allow in the lands he conquered?
the people to keep their local rulers and customs
What did the people ruled by Sargon have to do?
Obey him and pay a protection tax
What’s the name of the protection tax?
tribute
What was the result of Akkad’s farmers managing agriculture so well?
100 years without famine
What’s a famine?
Widespread hunger
What did Akkad trade with distant suppliers for?
Timber, metal
What were Sargon’s wars concentrated on?
Controlling trade centers, and protecting natural resources
Why were Sargon’s sons unable to control the empire after his death?
Because the empire became too big to control
Why did the Akkadian Empire come to an end?
Famine, attack from enemies, rebellion of city-states
After the fall of Sargon’s Akkadian Empire, what tribe invade Mesopotamia?
the Amorites
Where did the Amorites establish their capital?
Babylon (a city-state overshadowed by powerful neighbours)
Who became the 6th king of Babylon?
Hammurabi
What did Hammurabi spend the first 29 years of his rule?
Working on domestic improvements
What did Hammurabi build up?
A network of alliances (partnerships)
How many years did it take for Hammurabi to take over Mesopotamia?
8 years
What title did Hammurabi claim?
King of Sumer and Akkad
What did Hammurabi make to help unite his empire?
The Code of Laws
What is The Code of Laws often based on?
A person’s social class
What happened to the Babylonian Empire after Hammurabi’s death?
Rapidly declined and disappeared
What were the Assyrians united by?
Their worship of the god Ashur
What 2 things helped the Assyrians conquer all of Mesopotamia, and parts of Asia and Egypt?
A strong agricultural economy and a large professional army
What gave Assyrian armies an advantage?
destructive iron weapons
iron>bronze
Who used horse-drawn chariots and soldiers who used bows&arrows?
Assyrians
What did Assyrian soldiers often do to conquered land and people?
kill or enslave captured people, then burn their cities
Why was the Assyrians eventually weakened?
People were tired of being treated unfairly and violently. Internal power struggles
Who were the Chaldeans?
Seminomadic people from Babylonia
Who conquered all of Mesopotamia after overthrowing the Assyrians?
the Chaldeans
Who was the most famous Chaldean king?
Nebuchadnezzar II
How many years did Nebuchadnezzar rule for?
43
What were some personality traits of Nebuchadnezzar?
Cruel
What did Nebuchadnezzar do to Babylon?
He rebuilt the city and added beauty to it
What is the Nebuchadnezzar’s most famous accomplishment?
hanging gardens of Babylon
What name did babylon claim, thanks to Nebuchadnezzar?
Babylon, gate of god
What did the narrow strip of coast along the eastern Mediterranean contain?
Natural resources & good harbors
What was the combination of Natural resources & good harbors perfect for?
Industry & trade
What did Greeks call the people from around the Mediterranean coast area?
Phoenicians
What does Phoenician mean?
Purple dye people
How did Phoenicians produce purple dye?
They processed local shellfish
What did Phoenicians export to Egypt and Mesopotamia?
Wood from cedar trees
What did Phoenicians import, and what did they use it for?
Raw materials, crafted it into luxury goods for trade
What did Phoenicians use to record trade transactions?
their own 22 letter alphabet
Were Phoenicians shipbuilders?
yes
The Phoenicians became one of the first Mediterranean people to sail on which ocean?
The Atlantic Ocean
Despite their talents and enormous wealth, why did the Phoenicians eventually absorbed into the New Babylonian Empire?
They were militarily weak
Where is the region of Persia located in the present?
Iran
What were the Persians ruled by?
The Medes
Who led a successful uprising against the Babylonian empire?
Cyrus the Great
What did the lands under Persian rule think of it?
They enjoyed the 200 years of peace and economic well-being
What was the secret if Cyrus’s success?
Tolerance and sympathy for the beliefs and practices of others
What did Cyrus do to the kings of the lands he conquered?
He allowed them to keep their thrones
How much tribute did Cyrus ask of the people?
Only an amount that they could afford
After Cyrus’s death, his son took over. What did his son do?
He added Egypt and Libya to the empire
Who ruled after Cyrus’s son?
Darius I
What did Darius do?
He divided his empire into 20 smaller provinces
What were the provinces ruled by?
Satraps (governors)
What form of payment did Darius introduce?
Currency
Why did Darius build the Royal Road?
He knew communication was essential for good government
What did the Royal Road do?
It made messenger’s lives easier, and it helped unify the people and culture
What was the name of the new capital Darius built?
Persepolis
What did Persepolis symbolise?
the magnificence of the Persian empire
What was the Persian empire?
The largest, most stable, most powerful empire of ancient Mesopotamia
What does legacy mean?
Cultural and technological things left to us from the past
What did Hammurabi’s Style of government highlight?
the importance of law
What did Cyrus’s Style of government highlight?
the power of tolerance
What did the ox-drawn plow do?
Made it easier to cultivate large areas of land
What did the wheel revolutionise?
Transportation and trade on land
What was the abacus?
a device that uses sliding beads for counting
What number did Mesopotamians devise number systems on?
60 (time)
