Mesopotamia

Time Periods

6.5.7	WH 1, 2	Recognize major historical time periods (i.e., Early Civilizations, Classical Period, Dark Ages, Middle Ages, and Renaissance).
6.5.1	WH 1, 2	Read a timeline and order events of the past between prehistory and the Renaissance.

Map Reading SPIs

6.3.1	G	Identify the basic components of a world map (i.e., compass rose, map key, scale, latitude and longitude lines, continents, and oceans).
6.3.2	G	Identify basic geographic forms (i.e., rivers, lakes, bays, oceans, mountains, plateaus, deserts, plains, and coastal plains).
6.3.4	G	Identify geographic reasons for the location of population centers prior to 1500 (i.e., coastal plains, deserts, mountains, and river valleys).
6.3.5	G	Use a variety of maps to understand geographic and historical information (i.e., political maps, resource maps, product maps, physical maps, climate maps, and vegetation maps).
6.3.3	G	Identify the location of early civilizations on a map (i.e. Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Ancient Chinese, Indian).

Culture SPIs

6.1.5	WH 1, 2	Identify differences between various cultural groups (i.e., European, Eurasian, Indian, Southeast Asian, Middle Eastern, African, and Native American).
6.5.5	WH 1	Identify major technological advances (i.e., tools, wheel, irrigation, river dikes, development of farming, advances in weaponry, written language, and printing press).
6.4.4	GC	Recognize the roles assigned to individuals in various societies (i.e., caste systems, feudal systems, city-state systems, and class systems).
6.1.6	G	Recognize reasons that cultural groups develop or settle in specific physical environments.
6.1.7	WH 1	Identify how early writing forms in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Indus Valley influenced life (i.e., legal, religious, and culture).
6.5.4	WH 1	Recognize the forms of early world writing (i.e. cuneiform and Egyptian/Native American Hieroglyphics).
6.5.17	WH 1	Recognize the significant mythologies of the Sumerians, Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans.
6.1.1	G	Recognize the basic components of culture (i.e., language, common values, traditions, government, art, literature, and lifestyles).
6.5.11	WH 1, 2	Identify characteristics including economy, social relations, religion, and political authority of various societies (i.e., Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Greek City-States, Roman Empire, Indian, and Medieval).
6.5.12	WH 1, 2	Recognize the possible causes of change in civilizations (i.e., environmental change, political collapse, new ideas, warfare, overpopulation, unreliable food sources, and diseases).

Economy SPIs

6.2.4

Recognize the importance of economic systems in the development of early civilizations around rivers (i.e., Tigris and Euphrates, Huang He, Nile, and Indus).

Government and Leaders

6.4.2	GC	Recognize the steps that give rise to complex governmental organizations (i.e., nomadic, farming, village, city, city-states, and states).
6.4.1	GC	Recognize types of government (i.e., formal/informal, monarchy, direct/indirect democracy, republics, and theocracy).
6.4.3	GC	Identify the development of written laws (i.e., Hammurabi’s Code, Justinian Code, and Magna Carta).

Lesson Plans (6 Days)

Day 1

Using a World Continent Map color in the location of the Mesopotamian Empire. 6.3.3
Blank Map of Mesopotamia http://highland.hitcho.com.au/acmesopotamiamap.pdf
Create a Timeline 6.5.1, 6.5.7 (Early Civilizations)

Mesopotamia Timeline

3500	3200	2900	2600		2300	2000		1700	1400	1100		800
Sumerians 3500-2340 BCE							Babylonian Empire 1900 - 1100 BCE
				Akkadian Empire 2370-1900 BCE							Assyrian 1100-612 BCE

5000 BCE Earliest Evidence of Man
4000 BCE Many farming villages
3500 BCE Sumerian city-states from
3300 BCE Sumerian writing on clay tablets
3250 BCE Cuneiform writing
3250 BCE Wheel used
2750 BCE Gilgamesh rules Uruk
2500 BCE First Sumerian Dynasty of Ur
2350 BCE Sargon established the Akkadian Empire
2000 BCE Sumerians developed symbols into a complete writing system called Cuneiform
1790 BCE Hammurabi conquers Babylon and reunites Mesopotamia
1758 BCE Hammurabi write Code of Hammurabi
721 BCE Assyria conquers the kingdom of Israel
490-489 BCE Darius I invades Greece - Persian Wars
480-479 BCE Invasion of Greece by Xerxes
479 BCE Defeat of Persian armies by the Greeks
334-330 BCE Conquest of Persia by Alexander the Great

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Add to Mesopotamia Organizer throughout unit.

Environment

very hot summers

little rain

dry land

spring rains brought flooding to rivers which made rich soil for wheat and barley

Government

city-states which included a city or village and farmlands around it

city-states had own leaders

Sumer formed new government called monarchy (one person had complete authority to rule)45

in 1900 BCE Amorites conquered Sumer - Hammurabi became powerful king of Mesopotamia and introduced an important code of law

Social Class System

highest class - nobles (king, priests, leaders)

merchant, craftworkers, and managers (middle class)
- carpenters
- scribes (writing valuable skill)
laborers (unskilled workers) and slaves (prisoners of war)

Religion

believed by pleasing gods they would get large harvests

thoughts natural disasters were signs that gods were angry

chief gods of Sumer were Enlil (god of winds, storm, and rain) & Ea (god of waters and wisdom)

Money

became traders - farmers produced more food than needed

used riverboats called turnips to transport goods

developed a system of recordkeeping to manage trade

Mesopotamia

Entertainment

Inventions

wheel
plow
built dikes and canals
sailboat

Architecture

homes were huts built from bundles of reeds -later homes built from sun-baked mud bricks

temple in center of each city-state housed city-state's patron god or goddess

first platform temple - then became temple-towers called ziggurats - made from sun-baked bricks-facings made of colorful glazed bricks

built system of sewers & flush toilets

Traditions and Common Values

clothing made from wool or flax

men were bare-chested & wore skirtlike garments tied at waist

women wore gowns that covered from shoulders to ankles - right arm & shoulder left uncovered - braided hair and wrapped it around head - wore headdresses for important occasions

wore gold and silver jewelry set with precious stones

Form of Writing/Language

developed a system of recordkeeping to manage trade

set up formal contracts on clay tablets using wedge-writing called cuneiform

Art

Sumerian (3500-2340 BCE)
built temples on top of vast ziggurats - Sculptures - produced many small, finely carved cylindrical seals made of marble

Akkadian (2370-1900 BCE)
bronze sculpture

Assyrian (1100-612 BCE)
relief sculpture

Babylonian (1900 - 1100 BCE)
King Nebuchadnezzar II built the Hanging Gardens of Babylon
brightly colored glazed tiles, used to create relief sculptures

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Day 2 - Location

Map Activity (History Pockets: Ancient Civilizations pages 26-28) 6.3.1, 6.3.2, 6.3.5
Introduction (History Pockets: Ancient Civilizations pages 21-23)
Lecture Notes 6.3.4 & 6.2.4
- Fertile Crescent
  - eastern shore of Mediterranean Sea in SW Asia
  - shaped like quarter moon
  - curves around Syrian Desert
  - reaches south to Persian Gulf
- 4000 BCE farming villages
- Tigris and Euphrates rivers Mesopotamia means "the land between two rivers"
- by 3500 BCE cities rose
- earliest cities grew up in a region called Sumer
- built dikes and dug canals to control flooding on rivers
- invented the wheel
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Day 3 - Government & Social Class System 6.4.5 & 6.5.11

Lecture
- Sumer made up of several independent city-states (included a city or village and farmland around it)
- Each city-state had its own leaders and own government
- in early days government led by small group of leaders with complete authority
- rulers called "big men" or kings
- Sumerians believed kings were almost like gods
- Gilgamesh (stories of Sumerian "big man")
- because farms produced surplus of food some people were able to do other jobs
  - craft workers in stone, clay, wool, leather, or metals
  - others were managers (directed the work of others)
  - merchants (bought and sold goods)
- social classes- groups with different levels of importance emerged
  - highest class - nobles (king, priests, leaders)
  - merchant, craft workers, and managers (middle class)
    - carpenters
    - potters
    - bricklayers
    - doctors
    - scribes (writing valuable skill)
  - laborers (unskilled workers) and slaves (prisoners of war)
- Most property owned by men and men held leaderships roles - women were allowed, however, most did not
Read stories of Gilgamesh.
Make a Cylinder Seal

Have students create a cylinder seal that represents a celebration such as a wedding or harvest. Students can sculpt images on a piece of Styrofoam shaped like a cylinder and roll it onto a piece of modeling clay.

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Day 4 - Religion

Lecture
- largest building in most Sumerian cities called ziggurat
  - temple made from mud-bricks
  - constructed in layers, each one smaller than the one below
  - highest level stood a shrine to the city's special god
- people believed that by pleasing their gods, would get large harvests in return
- floods and natural disasters were signs the gods were angry
- chief gods of Sumer were
  - Enlil (god of earth)
  - An (god of heaven)
  - Ereskigal (god of atmosphere)
  - Enki (god of water)
- later ziggurat became more than shrine
  - around the base building from different kinds of workshops where crafts-workers made clothing and metal goods
  - other building were temples where priests performed religious ceremonies
  - enclosed in great walls
Build ziggurat temple (History Pockets: Ancient Civilizations pages 30-31)

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Day 5 - Cuneiform & Daily Life

Lecture
- Scribes marked picture symbols in pieces of wet clay (attached to baskets as tags to identify the contents) baked to harden
- By 2000 BCE Sumerians developed symbols into a complete writing system
- cuneiform based on wedge-shaped symbols
- economy
  - became traders - farmers produced more food than needed
  - used riverboats called turnips to transport goods
  - developed a system of recordkeeping to manage trade
- common values
- traditions
  - clothing made from wool or flax
  - men were bare-chested & wore skirtlike garments tied at waist
  - women wore gowns that covered from shoulders to ankles - right arm & shoulder left uncovered - braided hair and wrapped it around head - wore headdresses for important occasions
  - wore gold and silver jewelry set with precious stones
- art
  - Sumerian (3500-2340 BCE)
    built temples on top of vast ziggurats - Sculptures - produced many small, finely carved cylindrical seals made of marble
  - Akkadian (2370-1900 BCE)
    bronze sculpture
  - Assyrian (1100-612 BCE)
    relief sculpture
  - Babylonian (1900 - 1100 BCE)
    King Nebuchadnezzar II built the Hanging Gardens of Babylon
    brightly colored glazed tiles, used to create relief sculptures
- literature
  - Gilgamesh (stories of Sumerian "big man")
- lifestyles (Discuss clothing using Mesopotamian puppets History Pockets - Ancient Civilizations page 25.)
Words to Know (ziggurat, flax, grains, and city-state) Make study guide History Pockets - Ancient Civilizations pages 19 & 11
Students create a clay tablet with cuneiform inscriptions that must be decipherable. http://mesopotamia.lib.uchicago.edu/lessons_PDF/writing_a.pdf (Hands-On! The Invention of Writing contains alphabet.) & worksheet from Activity Book page 8 "Sumerian Culture"
http://mesopotamia.lib.uchicago.edu/lessons_PDF/architecture_a.pdf
Mesopotamian Art Lesson http://www.historylink101.com/lessons/art_history_lessons/mesopotamian_art_lesson.htm

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Day 6 - History - The Rise and Fall of the Empire 6.5.12

PowerPoint Presentation

FIRST SUMERIANS www.tarleton.edu/~cguthrie/AW3.ppt
Lecture

Sumerian (3500–2300 BC)
- city-states competed with one another to control fertile land and water sources
- wars started between city-states -put up pillars to mark borders
- often city-states would move or destroy another's pillars
- this led to war
- war led to the invention of war chariot
Akkadian (2300–2150 BC)
- first know conqueror in region of Mesopotamia was named Sargon (from city-state of Kish)
- Sargon killed king and took control of Kish
- established a vast empire becoming first emperor
- Sargon built capital city called Akkad (AH-kahd)
- ruled for 55 years
- by 2300 BCE the Akkadian Empire stretched from Iran to Mediterranean Sea
- when Akkaddian Empire ended the Mesopotamian city-states caught between 2 strong centers of power Assyrian & Babylonian
- between 1790 - 1750 BCE Hammurabi was king of city-state of Babylon
- conquered and reunited Mesopotamia
- most important achievement was reorganization of Mesopotamia's system of taxation
- collected all rules and laws from each city-state and came up with one complete listing of laws called Code Hammurabi
  - consisted of 282 laws
  - some of the laws followed the idea of "an eye for an eye" - punished with same injury a person caused another
- After collapse of Hammurabi's empire Mesopotamia ruled by several different people
- By 1600 BCE Kassites (from what is now Iran) ruled for 400 years
Assyrian (1400–600 BC)
- Assyrians Empire gained control - wanted to better control trade routes in SW Asia
  - made improvements - built palace in Nineveh
  - built a system of roads throughout empire
Worksheet from Activity Book pages 9-10 "The Code of Hammurabi"

Make a Cylinder Seal