Ancient River Valley Civilizations

Civilization Arose in the

Fertile Crescent
Why is it important for people (especially
farmers) to settle near rivers & streams?
Farmers need their villages near water
because they need it for their crops.
Mesopotamia
The region between
the Tigris River and
the Euphrates River
is known as
Mesopotamia.
One of the first
villages to emerge
was Sumer. The
villagers were
called Sumerians.
Kingdoms of Mesopotamia

Sumerians
Babylonians
Assyrians
Persians
Sumer was neither a city nor a country. Rather, it was a
collection of separate cities with a common way of life.
They shared a common culture.
Historians believe
that Sumerians
built the world’s
first civilization.

Right: Artistic view of

what Sumer might have
looked like.
Five Traits Essential for a
Civilization Cont.
4. Advanced Technology
• The Sumerians were skilled in
science & technology.
– Ex. Invention of the wheel,
plow, sailboat.
– Use of bronze (mixture of
copper & tin).—”Bronze Age”
5. Complex Institutions
• Having an organizational
system to run a city. (This is a
key trait that is essential for a
civilization.)
– Government is an example of
a complex institution.
 System of Writing
Cuneiform Tablet
Imprints of the signs, called cuneiform, were made by
pressing a wedge-shaped stylus into wet clay.
 The Beginnings of Writing
Farmers needed to keep records.
The Sumerians were very good farmers. They raised animals such as
goats and cows (called livestock). Because they needed to keep
records of their livestock, food, and other things, officials began
using tokens.
Tokens were used for trade.
Clay tokens came in different shapes and sizes. These represented
different objects. For example, a cone shape could have represented
a bag of wheat. These tokens were placed inside clay balls that were
sealed. If you were sending five goats to someone, then you would
put five tokens in the clay ball. When the goat arrived, the person
would open the clay ball and count the tokens to make sure the
correct number of goats had arrived. The number of tokens began to
be pressed on the outside of the clay balls. Many experts believe that
this is how writing on clay tablets began.
 A system of writing develops.
The earliest form of writing dates back to 3300 B.C. People back
then would draw "word-pictures" on clay tablets using a pointed
instrument called a stylus. These "word-pictures" then developed
into wedge-shaped signs. This type of script was called cuneiform
(from the Latin word cuneus which means wedge).

Who used cuneiform?

Not everyone learned to read and write. The ones that were picked
by the gods were called scribes. Boys that were chosen to become
scribes (professional writers) began to study at the age of 8. They
finished when they were 20 years old. The scribes wrote on clay
tablets and used a triangular shaped reed called a stylus to make
marks in the clay. The marks represented the tens of thousands of
words in their language.
THE ORIGINS OF WRITING:
Tokens are small geometric clay
objects (cylinders, cones, spheres,
etc.) found all over the Near East
from about 8000 B.C. until the
development of writing. The
earliest tokens were simple
shapes and were comparatively
unadorned; they stood for basic
agricultural commodities such as
grain and sheep. A specific shape
of token always represented a
specific quantity of a particular
item.
 With the development of cities came a more complex
economy and more complex social structures. This cultural evolution
is reflected in the tokens, which begin to appear in a much greater
diversity of shapes and are given more complicated designs of
incisions and holes.
Below: Irrigation
ditches are still
used today as a
means of getting
water to crops.

Above: Mud brick homes are still

built today in the Middle East
because of the lack of timber.
Fertile Crescent Disadvantages
1. Water Problems-
Unpredictability of floods and
water dries up quickly.
2. Defense Problems- Very
flat land…there were no
natural defensive barriers to
prevent raids by nomads.
3. Limited Natural Resources-
Lack of resources to create
tools. (Stone, Wood, Metal)
Sumerian Solutions
1. Sumerians created irrigation
ditches.
2. Sumerians built city walls with
mud bricks to discourage raids.
3. Sumerians created an
extensive trade network with the
surrounding people.
Polytheism- A belief in many gods.
The Sumerians were polytheists. They believed that their gods were
a lot like them except they were immortal and all-powerful.
Anu- “God of Heaven”
Enlil- “God of Clouds & Air”
Ea- “God of Water & Floods.
Afterlife: Sumerians believed that their souls went to “the land of no
return,” a gloomy place between the earth’s crust & the ancient sea.
Who ruled Sumer?
Priests & Kings
Priests had power
because they “knew how
to please the gods” and
keep the city safe.
Sumerians began by
choosing a strong warrior
to lead them into battle.
These leaders eventually
became kings. Kings
became a hereditary
position.
 Priests & Kings

Wealthy
Merchants

Artisans & Farmers

Slaves: By working obediently day &

night…they could hope to earn their
freedom.
Social and political organization:
• The King: he had military powers.
• The Governors: they governed the territories of the kingdom.
They were generals and judges at the same time.
• The aristocracy: they were priests and traders.
• The peasants: the people who work the land.
The King

The Governors

The Aristocracy

The Peasantry
 Kish was one of the twelve city-states of ancient Sumer
civilization. In this city lived the famous and magnificent Akkadian
King Sargon of Agade, founder of the first Empire in history.
One of the earlier kings in Kish was Etana who "stabilized all
the lands" securing the 1st dynasty of Kish and establishing rule over
ancient Sumer and some of its neighbors. The title King of Kish
became synonymous with King of Sumer.

Ruins of Kish
Ziggurat of Kish
Sumer’s Downfall
Turning Point In History: “Hammurabi’s Code”
Around 2,000 B.C. a group of
nomadic warriors known as the
Amorites invaded Mesopotamia.
The Amorites established Babylon
as their capital city.
Hammurabi (1792-1750 B.C.)
was a powerful and influential
king.
Babylon’s civilization was
becoming so complex that there
was a need for written laws to
help resolve disputes.
Hammurabi established a
collection of laws that became
known as “Hammurabi’s Code.” Carving shows the sun god
Shamash giving the laws to
Hammurabi.
Purpose of Hammurabi’s Code
“To cause justice to prevail in the land, to destroy the wicked & evil,
and to prevent the strong from oppressing the weak…to enlighten the
land and to further the welfare of the people.”
There are 282 specific laws.
88 Laws deal with marriage, family,
property.
3 Fundamental Principles:
1. Principle of Retaliation to punish
crimes. (Eye for an Eye)
2. Principle of Punishment (Double
Standards existed between social
classes).
3. Principle that the Government
had a responsibility for what
occurred in society.
 The ancient city of Babylon, under King
Nebuchadnezzar II, must have been a wonder to
the traveler's eyes. "In addition to its size," wrote
Herodotus, a historian in 450 BC, "Babylon
surpasses in splendor any city in the known
world."
Rising above the city was the famous
Tower of Babel, a temple to the god Marduk,
that seemed to reach to the heavens
 For thousands of years, Nippur was the religious center
of Mesopotamia. According to Sumerian religion, it was at
Nippur where Enlil, the supreme god of the Sumerian
pantheon, created mankind. Although never a capital city,
Nippur had great political importance because royal rule over
Mesopotamia was not considered legitimate without
recognition in its temples.
Thus, Nippur was the focus of pilgrimage and building
programs by dozens of kings including Hammurabi of
Babylon and Ashurbanipal of Assyria.
 These carved stone figures, their eyes wide with awe and
their hands clasped in reverence, were placed in Mesopotamian
temples by worshippers to stand in perpetual prayer on their behalf
before the god or goddess to whom the sanctuary was dedicated.

There were many gods. For

example, Anu was the father of the
gods and the god of the sky; Enlil
was the god of the air; Utu was the
sun god and the lord of truth and
justice; Nanna was the moon god;
Inanna was the goddess of love and
war; Ninhursag was the goddess of
earth; and Enki was the god of fresh
water as well as the lord of wisdom
and magic.
 While they served and revered
the great gods, most people felt little
connection with these distant beings.
Ordinary people depended on a
relationship with their own personal
god - a kind of guardian angel - who
protected individuals and interceded
for them with the great deities.
 Apsu: the fresh waters (male principle)
Tiamat: the salt waters (female principle)
Ea, the god of intelligence and
wisdom, puts Apsu in a trance and
then kills him.

The statue of the god

Marduk with his dragon,
from a Babylonian cylinder
seal. Marduk killed Tiamat.
Sargon of Akkad unifies Mesopotamia:
world’s first empire, ca. 2240 B.C.
Other civilizations is on the next
lesson....