40008159-First-Civilizations

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 r

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¢.4 The first urban societies Division of work inside cities

ities need to buy food and supplies

Each person has a job and provided themselves with other necessities at the market

Trade adquire great importance

Each group live ina particular quarter of the city

arter: interchange of products

垄.5 Urban society in Mesopotamia Two most important buildings

Temple: where people worshipped gods

Palace: king路s residence

Mesopotamia路s society Society

Privileged (people with rights and owning the land)

Non privileged (people with or without rights and without any lands)

Privileged groups: had all the rights and possessed most of the riches

Aristocracy: king, his family & the nobility.

Possessed great part of the land and lead the government and the army

Scribes: from noble families had great power 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,ÂŤ Non privileged groups

Slaves

No rights. Treated as objects

Women

Belonged to men and when they worked 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路s Timeline

3.1 The Sumerians Arrived in Meopotamia in the third millenium BC

Irrigation: system of watering crops to grow more food.

Walls around city.

Farmland outside walls

Sumeria was composed of several city-states

Polytheistic.

Ziggurats, dedicated to a specific god.

The city of UR and its ziggurat [

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

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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 mudbrick 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.

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http://www.dearqueologia.com/traductor/ALFABETO.H TML

3.¢ Akkadian Empire Northern Semitic people who conquered the Sumerians ¢350 BC and ruled Mesopotamia.

The Akkadian Empire lasted from circa ¢350 BC to ¢150 BC³ 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 was the most powerful state in the ancient world after the fall of the Assyrian empire (61¢ BCE).

Its capital Babylon was beautifully adorned by in ebuchadne ar, who erected se eral famous buildin s.

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.

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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 and their arts from Sumeria, but modified them later into an almost undistinguishable similarity to the language and arts of Babylonia.

owever, unlike Babylon, from beginning to end they were a race of warriors, more crueler and more brutal that any other race before.

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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 Scribe training

Centre of Mesopotamian culture

Scholars, Scientists, Theologians, Linguists

Rich families路 children. Only men.

5. The first schools Cycles

Elementary

read

write

Advanced

Other subjects

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6. Mesopotamian Art Arch In ente ault Architecture

Materials

brick

a obe Decorate

Reliefs & frescos

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6. Mesopotamian Art Sumerians and Akkadians Statues of kings and gods Sculpture

Stone Assyrians figures of bulls with human heads

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?