SOCIAL STUDIES NOTES

 

CHAPTER 2              THE FERTILE CRESCENT

 

Section 1: Land Between Two Rivers

 

I. Writing

 

-The first known schools were set up inSumer over 4000 years ago.

 

-Sumerian schools taught boys-and possibly a few girls - the new

 invention of writing.

 

-Graduates of the school became scribes, or professional writers.

 

-Scribes were important because they kept records for the kings and

 priests.

 

-The writings Sumerian scribes left behind help to tell the story of

  this early civilization. 

 

II. The Geographic Setting

 

-Sumerwas located in a region calledMesopotamia.

 

-Mesopotamiahad rich soil and life-giving rivers.

 

-Sumer’s central location within the ancient world drew many traders

 from other regions.

 

-Sumerbecame one of the most prosperous areas of the ancient

 world.

 

-Mesopotamia’s name describes its location. The wordMesopotamia

 comes from two Greek words that mean ‘between the rivers.

 

-Mesopotamia lay between the Tigris andEuphratesrivers

 

- Mesopotamia is part of theFertile Crescent, a region in Southwest

 Asiathat was the site of the world’s first civilization.

 

-The area eastward from theMediterranean Seato the coast of

  Mesopotamia to thePersian Gulfis shaped like a crescent moon.

  The rivers of this crescent-shaped region helped to make it one of

  the best places inSouthwest Asiafor growing crops.

 

-The Tigris andEuphratesrivers were the source of life for the

  peoples ofMesopotamia. In the spring, melting snow picked up tons

  of topsoil as it rushed down from the mountains and flooded the

  land. Farmers grew crops in this soil.

 

-The rivers also supplied fish, clay for building, and tall, strong reeds

  used to make boats.

 

-The floodwaters, racing down without warning, also swept away

  people, animals, crops, and houses.

 

III. The First Cities

 

-As farming succeeded inMesopotamia, food surpluses encouraged

 the growth of cities.

 

-By 3500 B.C., some of the earliest known cities arose in the

 southern region ofSumer, along the Tigris andEuphratesrivers.

 

-Each Sumerian city acted as a separate state, with its own special

 god or goddess, its own government, and, eventually, its own king.

 

-Sumerian houses faced away from the crowded streets onto inner

 courtyards where families ate and children played. On hot nights,

 people slept outdoors on their homes’ flat roofs. Oil lamps supplied

 light for Sumerian homes.

 

 

 

 

IV. Sumerian Religion

 

-Religious, social, and economic activities all took place at the temple

  sites.

 

-Ziggurats were pyramids made of terraces and some were more

  than seven stories high. At the top of each was a shrine. The

  Sumerians believed that gods descended to the earth using the

  ziggurat as a stairway.

 

-The people ofSumerwere polytheistic, that means they worshiped

  many gods and gods and goddesses.

 

-Poly-, a Greek prefix, means “many.” Theism means “belief in a god

 or gods.” 

 

-The Sumerians honored their gods in religious ceremonies.Temple

  priests washed the statues of gods before and after each meal was

  offered.

 

-Food was often eaten after it was presented to the gods. Perhaps

 the worshippers thought that by eating the offering, they would be

 taking in the qualities they admired in the gods.

 

-Unfortunately forSumer, its wealth became its downfall.

 

-Sumerian states fought each other over land and the use of river

 water.

 

-Around 2300 B.C.,Sumerwas conquered by the armies of

 neighboring Akkadia. Their ruler, King Sargon, united the Sumerian

 city-states and improvedSumer’s government and its military.

 

-Sumerremained united for about 100 years. It fell to a northern

 rival,Babylonia, in the 1700s B.C.

 

 

 

Section 2: BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA

 

I. The Two Empires of Mesopotamia

 

-The biggest and most important Mesopotamian civilizations were the

  empires of Babylonia andAssyria.

 

-The beautiful city ofBabylonwas the center of the Babylonian

  empire. This empire reached its height around 1750 B.C.

 

-The Assyrians, named after the northern city ofAssur, began

  expanding their lands in the 1300s B.C. By the 600s B.C., they

  controlled a large empire.

 

-The Babylonians and Assyrians had two things in common. In their

  quest for riches, they were vicious warriors. And in the enjoyment

  of their riches, they built grand cities where culture and learning

  were highly valued.

 

II. The Babylonian Empire

 

-A Babylonian king named Hammurabi created the Babylonian Empire

 by uniting the cities ofSumer. Then he conquered lands all the way

 to Asia Minor (Turkey).

 

-Under Hammurabi’s steady rule,Babyloncreated a system of roads

 throughout the empire.

 

-Babylon’s location made it a crossroads of trade.

 

-In about 1760 B.C., Hammurabi conquered the city ofMariand

 seized war chariots, weapons and tools.

 

-By about 1600 B.C., the empire first conquered by Hammurabi had

 shrunk and was finally destroyed. 

 

 

 

III. The Empire of the Assyrians

 

-Since they were constantly defending themselves, the Assyrians

 became skilled warriors.

 

-By 650 B.C.,Assyria had conquered a large empire that stretched

 across the Fertile Crescent, from the Nile River to the Persian Gulf.

 

-The Assyrians were clever warriors. They invented the battering

  ram and had expert archers and armed charioteers.

 

-Assyria’s capital of Nineveh became a city of great learning.  It had a

 remarkable library that held thousands of clay tablets with writings

 from Sumer and Babylon.

 

-The Medes and Chaldeans joined together to defeat the Assyrian

 Empire in 612 B.C.

 

IV. Babylonia Rises Again

 

-Under the Chaldeans,Babylonrose again to even greater splendor.

 It became the center of the New Babylonian Empire.

 

-King Nebuchadnezzar II rebuilt the city of Babylon which the

 Assyrians had destroyed.

 

-Under the rule of the Chaldeans, the New Babylonian Empire

 became a center of learning and science. Chaldean astronomers

 charted the paths of the stars and measured the length of a year,

 

-In 539 B.C., the New Babylonian Empire fell to the Persians led by

 Cyrus the Great, but the city of Babylon was spared.

 

 

 

 

 

 

SECTION 3: THE LEGACY OF MESOPOTAMIA

 

I. Hammurabi’s Code

 

-Hammurabi ruled Babylon from about 1792 to 1750 B.C. He set

 down rules for everyone in his empire to follow. These rules are

 known as Hammurabi’s Code. The code told the people ofBabylonia

 how to settle conflicts in all areas of life.

 

-Hammurabi’s Code, which was based partly on earlier Sumerian

 codes, contained 282 laws organized into categories such as trade,

 labor, property, and family.

 

-Hammurabi’s Code was based on the idea of “an eye for an eye.” In

 other words, punishment should be similar to the crime committed.

 

-However, the code did not apply equally to all people. The

 harshness of the punishment depended on how important the victim

 and the lawbreaker were. The higher the class of victim, the greater

 the penalty was. 

 

II. The Art of Writing

 

-Writing first developed in Mesopotamia around 3100 B.C. Long

 before Hammurabi issued his code, the people of Sumerhad

 developed a system of writing.

 

-Writing met the need Sumerians had to keep records.

 

-Since only a few people could write, it was one of the most valuable

 skills in the ancient world. Scribes held positions of great respect in

 Mesopotamia.

 

-The scribes of Sumer recorded sales and trades, tax payments, gifts

 for the gods, and marriages and deaths.

 

 

-None of these records were written on paper, however. Paper had

 not yet been invented. Instead, the scribes of Mesopotamia kept

 their notes and records on clay.

 

-The Tigris andEuphratesrivers washed clay down from the

 mountains each year, and scribes shaped the soft, wet clay into

 tablets. When the clay dried, it was a permanent record.

 

-Like most inventions, writing developed over time. Long before the

 Sumerians invented writing, they used shaped pieces of clay as

 tokens or symbols to keep records of how many animals were

 bought and sold or how much food had been grown. By 3100 B.C.,

 this form of recordkeeping had developed into writing.

 

-At first, written words were symbols that represented specific

 objects. As people learned to record ideas as well as facts, the

 symbols changed.

 

-Eventually, scribes combined symbols to make groups of wedges

 and lines known as cuneiform.

 

 

SECTION 4: MEDITTERRANEAN CIVILIZATIONS

 

I. Phoenician Sea Power

 

-Tyrewas the major city in a region calledPhoenicia.

 

-Phoenicians had settled in a land that had limited but very important

 resources. Besides the murex snails from whose glands they

 extracted purple dye to color clothes, they had a great amount of

 dense cedar forests. They sold their dyed cloth and wood to

 neighboring peoples.

 

-In time, the Phoenicians controlled trade throughout much of the

 Mediterranean. From about 1100 to 800 B.C.,Phoenicia was a great

 sea power.

 

-Trade brought valuable goods from lands around theMediterranean

 Sea to the Phoenician cities of Tyre and Sidon.

 

-The Phoenicians relied on writing to help them conduct trade. They

 developed a writing system that used just twenty-two symbols to

 represent the sounds of the language. It forms the basis of many

 languages used today, including English.

 

-In the Phoenician alphabet, each letter stood for one consonant

 sound.

 

-The simpler Phoenician alphabet was far easier to learn than

 cuneiform. Before the alphabet, only highly educated scribes were

 skilled in writing. Now many more people could write using the

 new alphabet.

 

-The alphabet simplified trade between people who spoke different

 languages. The Phoenician sea trade, in turn, helped the alphabet to

 spread. 

 

II. The Rise of the Israelites

 

-South of Phoenicia, a small band of people settled in the hills around

 theJordan Rivervalley. Called Hebrews at first, they later became

 known as Israelites. 

 

-Much of what is known about the early history of the Israelites

 comes from stories told in the Torah or Hebrew Bible.

 

-The Israelites traced their beginnings to Mesopotamia. For hundreds

 of years, they lived as shepherds and merchants who grazed their

 flocks outside Sumerian cities.

 

-According to the Torah, a leader named Abraham taught his people

 to practice monotheism, a belief in one god.

 

-The Torah says that God told Abraham to leave Mesopotamia and

 settle elsewhere.

 

-The Torah goes on to say that Abraham led the Israelites from

 Mesopotamia to settle in the land of Canaan.

 

-According to the Torah, a famine then spread across Canaan. The

 famine caused the Israelites to flee south toEgypt.

 

-InEgypt, the Israelites lived well for a few hundred years. But then,

 an Egyptian king forced them into labor after he got suspicious of

 their power.

 

-According to the Torah, an Israelite leader named Moses led his

 people out ofEgypt. The Israelites departure out of Egyptis called

 the Exodus.

 

-For the next forty years, the Israelites wandered through the desert

 of the Sinai Peninsula.

 

-The Torah says that while in the desert, God gave the Israelites the

 Ten Commandments, a code of laws.

 

-Eventually, the Israelites returned to Canaan. As they moved farther

 north, they were able to settle in many parts of Canaan.

 

-They united under their first king, Saul, who defended them against

 their enemies.

 

-The next king, David, established his capital in the city of Jerusalem.

 

-After David died, his son, Solomon, inherited the kingdom. After

 Solomon’s death, the country split into two kingdoms. The northern

 kingdom was called Israel. The southern kingdom took the name of

 Judah.

 

-The divided kingdom was ripe for invasion. Its neighbor,Assyria,

 conquered the Israelites and gained control ofJudah.

 

-In 722 B.C., the Israelites resisted Assyrian rule. In response, the

 Assyrians exiled thousands of people to distant parts of their empire.

 

-The Assyrians controlledJudahuntil 612 B.C., when Assyria was

 conquered by the Chaldeans.Judah then fell under the control of the

 Chaldean Babylonians.

 

-Later, in 587 B.C., the King of Judah rebelled against the Chaldeans.

 King Nebuchadnezzar responded by destroying the capital city of

 Jerusalem and exiling the people of Judah to Babylonia.

 

 

SECTION 5: JUDAISM

 

I. The Beliefs of Judaism

 

-The early Israelites came to believe that God was taking part in their

 history.

 

-The Torah records events and laws important to the Israelites. It is

 made up of five books. They are called Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus,

 Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Later, Christians adopted these books

 as the first five books of the Old Testament.

 

-Most ancient people thought of their gods as being connected to

 certain places or people. The Israelites, however, believed that God

 is present everywhere. They believed that God knows everything

 (omniscient) and has complete power (omnipotent).

 

-According to the Torah, God promised Abraham that his people

 would become kings and build nations.

 

-At the heart of Judaism are the Ten Commandments. The Israelites

 believed that God delivered the Commandments to them through

 Moses.

 

-Some Commandments set out religious duties toward God. Others

 are rules for correct behavior.

 

 

-In addition to the Ten Commandments, the Torah set out many

 other laws. Some had to do with everyday matters, such as how

 food should be prepared. Others had to do with crimes.

 

-Some laws protected women. One of the Commandments, for

 instance, requires that mothers be treated with respect. But, as in

 many other religions, women were considered to be of lower

 social status than men. 

 

-Prophets are religious teachers who are regarded as speaking for

 God.

 

-The Israelites were told by their prophets that all people were equal

 before God. In many ancient societies, a ruler was seen as a god. To

 the Israelites, however, their leaders were human. Kings had to

 obey God’s law just as shepherds and merchants did.

 

 

II. The Effects of Judaism

 

-After their exile from Judah in 587 B.C., the Jews, or people who

 followed Judaism, saw their homeland controlled by various foreign

 powers, including the Romans.

 

-The Romans drove the Jews out of their homeland in A.D., 135. As a

 result, the Jewish people scattered to different parts of the world.

 

-The Romans carried on the Jewish diaspora, the scattering of a

 group of people begun by the Assyrians and Chaldeans.

 

-Wherever they settled, the Jews preserved their heritage. They did

 so by living together in close communities, taking care to obey their

 religious laws, worshipping at their temples, and following their

 traditions.

 

-Passover marks a time when Israelites believed their children were

 spared from destruction. Death “passed over” them, and they were

 led out of Egypt by Moses. 

 

-Judaism had an important influence on two later religions,

 Christianity and Islam. Both religions have their beginnings in

 Judaism.

 

-Both faiths originated from the same geographical area.

 

–Both were monotheistic.

 

-Jews, Christians, and followers of Islam all honor Abraham, Moses,

 and the prophets.

 

-The first five books of the Torah are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

-Genesis comes from a Greek word that means "origin or in the beginning."

 

-Exodus comes a Greek word that means "the way out."

 

-Leviticus means "pertaining to the Levites." It was an instruction manual for the Israelite religious leaders or priests.

 

-Numbers comes from the Greek word "arithmoi," which means "numbers." It is called this because it contains the figures for a census, or a counting, of the Israelites.

 

-Deuteronomy comes from a Greek word that means "second." To some it is the second giving of the law.