ANCIENT TIMES
writing
- People were concerned with
transportation and navigation,
communication and record
keeping, mass production, security
and protection as well as health,
aesthetics and architecture
- TRANSPORTATION – going to places
and discovering new horizons
- COMMUNICATION – communicate
with natives to facilitate trade and
conflict
- RECORD-KEEPING – remember
places and document trades
GEOGRAPHY
- Earliest civilizations rose in the
valleys between the Tigris and
Euphrates Rivers
- Some say this Fertile Crescent was
the real Garden of Eden
SUMERIAN CIVILIZATION ANCIENT
MESOPOTAMIA
- Oldest known civilization
- Cradle of human civilization
- Old Testament
- Ziggurats Temples
- Hanging gardens
INVENTION OF WRITING
CUNEIFORM
o invented by Sumerians
whom used their writing skills
to write books about
history, poems, and math
o Involve use of sharp tools
called styluses and is written
on clay tablets
o world’s first system of
SCRIBES (writers)
o Kept track of items people
traded and wrote down
government records
o Could move up in social class
OTHER USES
o Wrote works of literature,
stories, proverbs, and songs
o Wrote poems about gods
and military victories
o Created epics
INVENTIONS THAT CHANGED SUMERIAN
LIFE
- Development of the wheel (used for
carts and wagons; Potter’s wheel)
- The plow increased farm production
- Sewers under city streets
- Math and Science (number system
based on 60; name of animals, plants
and minerals)
- Medicine for healing and
catalogued medical knowledge
SUMERIAN INVENTIONS
1. Wagon Wheel
2. Plow
3. Sailboat
4. Number system based on 60
5. Geometry
6. 12 month calendar
TYPES OF ART DEVELOPED IN SUMER
ARCHITECTURE
- Rulers lived in large palaces
 - Sumerians lived in houses with
many rooms around a small
courtyard
- Mud Bricks
- Ziggurat – pyramid-shaped temple
tower
ARTS
- Sculptors produced statues of gods
for their temples
- Jewelry made from imported gold,
silver, and gems
- Engraved cylinder seals – one of
Sumer’s most famous type of art
FOOD IN SUMER
- BARLEY – most valuable crop
- DATES - also valuable; either eaten
ripe, dried or made into wine
SOCIAL CLASSES IN SUMER
- Upper Class – kings, priests,
warriors, and government officials
- Middle Class – artisans, merchants,
farmers, and fishers
- Lower Class – enslaved people who
worked on farms or in the temples
THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH
- Most famous piece of literature in
Sumer
- Gilgamesh is a king who travels with a
friend and performs great deeds.
When his friend dies, Gilgamesh
searches for a way to live forever
SARGON
- In about 2340 B.C., he conquered all
of Mesopotamia creating the world’s
first empire
- An empire is a group of different
lands under one rule. Sargon’s lasted
for 200 years before falling to
invaders
BABYLON
- High point was the reign of King
Hammurabi (1792 – 1750 B.C.)
united Mesopotamia through
conquest
- Government controlled economy and
passed comprehensive laws called
Hammurabi Code
MESOPOTAMIAN LAW (CODE OF
HAMMURABI)
- Written on a steel in cuneiform
- Based on premise, “eye for an eye,
tooth for a tooth”
- Laws focused on property rights,
slaves, children and women’s
rights, murder, theft and marriage
- Punishment is based in social class
- Introduced for two reasons:
1. To establish order in a land in
constant conflict
2. To represent a king’s belief of
justice
- Several laws were written to protect
the poor and powerless from abuse
BABYLONIAN MATHEMATICS
- Used advance mathematics like
algebra and geometry
- Used linear and quadratic
equations
- Adopted Sumerian mathematics
- Studied and made observations of
natural phenomena
DOWNFALL OF BABYLON
- 1595 B.C. Hittites invaded Babylon
and conquered it
- Hittites introduced international
commerce by trading in the
Mediterranean region
- Modified Hammurabi Code and made
it more lenient
- A tribe called Kassites seized
Mesopotamia (Babylon) because the
region is hard to protect
- During rule of Kassites, Babylon
saw a period of no growth
- Adopted ziggurat, cuneiform, and
Law of Hammurabi
- Period of famines, disease and
nomadic invasions plagued Babylon
- Kassites will not hold Babylon as well
and it falls to the Assyrians
GEOGRAPHY OF ANCIENT EGYPT
- located on the Nile River
- Nile begins in the Highlands of
Ethiopa with two branches: White
and Blue Nile
- These rivers unite and flow north
EGYPTIAN SOCIETY
where they empty into the
Mediterranean Sea
- Where the river empties into the Nile,
it forms the Nile Delta, a rich are of
alluvial soil
- Most important thing about the Nile
to the Egyptians is the yearly flooding
- Nile floods each year in spring which
deposits a rich later of silt or soil on
either side of the river
- The rich soil around the Nile is called
the Black Land. The dessert was
called the Red Land.
- Egypt had several natural barriers
to protect it from invasion
PYRAMIDS AND SPHINX
HIEROGLYPHICS
- Pyramids were built during the Old
Kingdom
- They were designed to be tombs for
the Pharaoh
- The Pyramids were designed to
protect the mummies of Pharaoh,
but they were robbed and pillaged.
MUMMIFICATION
- Preserve body so it could stay in
afterlife
- It was expensive and a luxury of the
rich
- The body is washed and internal
organs removed except for the
heart as it is the center of emotion.
The brain was removed through the
nose and thrown away. The body is
packed in Natron (drying agent) and
left for 70 days. After that the body
was wrapped in linen with tree resin
for glue. Magical amulets and
treasures were buried with the
body.
- Monogamy was the rule and women
had more right sin the Ancient Egypt
more than the rest of the world
- Hierarchical social structure:
Pharaoh
Priest Nobles
Merchant
Class
Peasants
and Slaves
- Writing in Egypt began around 3000
B.C.
- Different type of writing for different
occasions
- Hieroglyphics were ideograms used
for formal writing
- Hieratic Script (Demotic) –
simplified version of Egyptian writing
- Egyptians carve writing on stone or
papyrus
- Papyrus – form of paper made from a
reed that grew along the Nile River

ROSETTA STONE

- Contained the same passage in three

languages: Hieroglyphics, Greek,
Demotic

EGYPTIAN ART

- The human body is usually shown or

partial profile

EGYPTIAN ADVANCEMENTS IN MATH

AND SCIENCE

- Used math to calculate area and

volume in building pyramids and
surveying flooded land for farming
- Developed accurate solar calendar
(365 days)
- Mummification led to advances in
medical knowledge like how to set
broken bones, wounds, and disease