Ancient Mesopotamia
Greek Translation - The Land Between the Rivers
Group Members
1. Nayeli G
2. Melissa S
3. Oakley O
4. Kelton G
5. Cale G
6. Jacob Knaust
7. Mason Kronzer
Geography
Mesopotamia is a large area in-between the Euphrates river and the Tigris river and is often called 'The Fertile Crescent' because when the rivers flood the land, the sediment from the mountains makes the land more fertile.
Civilization
The Sumerians were fairly a successful civilization. They used canals and levees as a way to farm the land and raised animals such as sheep and goats, but they lacked other necessities such as valuable minerals like copper, tin, and even timber. So in order to acquire these, Sumerians exchanged their agricultural goods with others, along the Mediterranean Coast. This large amount of trade allowed for the growth of their cities and temples along trade routes. The first civilization, Ancient Sumer, was mainly a collection of city-states that at times would be united by a powerful leader, creating a large empire. A city-state is a city that with its surrounding territory forms an independent state. Sumer was full of pyramid-like structures called Ziggurats. These were temples or shrines to their gods and goddesses, one of them being Inanna, or Ishtar the goddess of love and war. Some of the most large or powerful empires in Mesopotamia often had very strong leaders, many of them being Kings, such as Hammurabi, who at a time ruled Sumer and most of Mesopotamia.
Technology
In Sumer, writing began as a way to keep economical records, such as deliveries of goods to the temples, debts between merchants, sales of land, and many other things. Sumerian script or their style of writing was called 'Cuneiform'. Many of their most known inventions have been mentioned throughout this presentation, such as levees, ziggurats, cuneiform, and Hammurabi.
Babylonian Empire
Under Hammurabi's rule, which was 1792-1750 BCE, Babylon came to rule most of Mesopotamia. However, in 1595 BCE Babylon was ransacked by the Hittites but later, after the destruction of Assyria in 612 BCE, a neo-Babylonian Empire rose with its greatest ruler, Nebuchadnezzar II. The most famous law code was set by Hammurabi, and are known as the Hammurabi's Code. There are in total a number or 282 laws, and each law is very particular. Their currency was mentioned in one of the many Hammurabi codes, which was the Shekel.