City-States in Mesopotamia Flashcards
What is the Fertile Crescent, and why is it called that?
- An arc of land that provided the best farming in Southwest Asia because of its shape and the richness of the soil
- called that bc of its Curved shape and richness of the land
Name three disadvantages of Sumer’s
natural environment.
- Unpredictable flooding + a period of little rain
- No natural barriers for protection
- Natural resources were limited
Time Period
3500-1600 BC
Rivers
Euphrates and Tigris
Cities
Sumer, Uruk
Physical Boundaries
Rivers
Significant Figures
Enlil and Ugally, Hammurabi
Religious Foundation
Polytheistic
style of political/government rule
theocracy
define:
theocracy
leader makes decisions about cities’ religion
Notable Achievements
Irrigation, agriculture, cuneiform, rule of laws
reason for collapse/end
The Babylonian Empire overtook them
Mesopotamia
Land between two rivers
Silt
the dirt left behind when the rivers flooded
Cuneiform
the mesopotamian writing system
Ziggurat
pyramid-like monuments and temples for the gods
City-State
A city and its surrounding land that it controlled like countries are governed today
Tigris
one of the two rivers that border mesopotamia. flows on the north and east side
Euphrates
one of the two rivers that border mesopotamia, flows on the south and west side
Zagros Mtns are located where?
north and east side of mesopotamia, right behind the tigris river
Fertile Crescent
the only fertile area (place you can plant in) in the place (surrounded by deserts)
cultural diffusion
When ideas/things are spread from culture to culture
polytheism
the belief in many gods
dynasty
A line of successors that is passed down from father to son
Persian Gulf
located under mesopotamia
Ur
a major city in mesopotamia that controlled much of the trade into Mesopotamia
sumer
the earliest known region of southern mesopotamia
uruk
the capital city of giglamesh, a large city-state, trade, specialization of crafts and teh evolution of writing
Nippur
ancient sumarian city, the religious center of mesopotamia
Babylon
the amorites invaded mesopotamia and made babylon their capital, hammurabi ruled in its peak
Hammurabi
made a code of laws, sixth king in the babylon dynasty
what were hammurabi’s laws abt?
- Deals with everything that affected his community
- Family relations
- Business conduct
- Crime - based on “an eye for an eye”
What were the positives of mesopotamia?
- The silt that you get from flooding
- Writing (cuneiform)
- Writing leads to history
- Trade, which led them to be the first territorial kingdom
- Taxes → stable social orders
- Hammarabi’s code introduced the “presumption of innocence”
- “Brutal, terrifying, efficient army”
What were the negatives of mesopotamia?
- Conflict between people and city
- Unpredictable flooding
- Hammarabi’s code was built on “an eye for an eye”, but could be unjust
- Empires are hard to unify
- They had to conquer cities in order to please the gods
Central Institutions (government, religion, law, etc)
- created ziggurats to worship the gods and had priests that could connect with them as rulers
- had a code of laws to establish order once an empire emerged.
Record Keeping
- written records in cuneiform for taxes and debts, trading, and record keeping for current events that were dramatic and note-worthy.
Innovative Technology
- the irrigation systems
- bronze
- the wheel for pottery.
Specialized Workers
People could do things other than farming with the surplus of food. That’s how specialized workers came to be. Two examples of these specialized workers are artists and scribes.
King Sargon of Akkad
created the first empire
