Chapter 2 section 2 notes S U M E R A N D A K K A D
Sumer and Akkad Both city state regions in Mesopotamia Sumer was in the south Akkad was in the north Both had similar beliefs, traditions and customs Sumer was home to the Sumerians Akkad was home to the Akkadians Sumerians spoke Sumerian Akkadians spoke a language similar to Hebrew
Sumerian map Interpret the map: what is it telling us? What does the orange stand for? What does the blue stand for?
Sumer Uruk was one of the most powerful city-states in Sumer Outside the city, people used irrigated farms to supply the city with food Protection: Mudbrick walls were built to protect the city from enemies Ziggurats: a series of stacked rectangular platforms that formed a pyramid-shaped structure Mesopotamians believed the gods lived there The higher the structure the closer to god Link between heaven and earth Earthly homes for the gods
Sumerian irrigation Needed a way to control the floods They also needed to get water to their fields Used canals and levees to control the water
Religion Both Sumer and Akkad had temples to worship the gods The temples were a sign of the importance of religion on society Society: an organized community with established rules and traditions Sumerians and Akkadians were polytheistic Belief in many gods Anu- heavens Enlil- wind Enki water Ninhursag- mother of the gods Believed when life was pleasant, the gods were pleased with them Made sacrifices and paid tribute to the gods with food and burning incense
Government Religion and government were closely linked Sumerians came up with the idea and believed that the leader was chosen by god divine kingship (right to rule was chosen by god) The Sumerians were also divided into a caste system that helped organize society into sections 1:30 https://www.youtube.com/w atch?v=pvhwf8qmqp8 This system was used in many other civilizations to come Gods King Then division of labor: wealthy business class landowners government workers then artisans farm workers slaves
Apply it to yourself What are some traits that you posses? What caste do you think you would belong to?
Writing Cuneiform: a form of wedge-shaped writing Stood for objects and actions Used as a way for traders to communicate Scribe: the person who was in charge of writing things down What did they write on? Wet clay tablets People also used this to write down agreements and arguments The Akkadians adopted cuneiform just like SMS adopted the idea to use ipads in the classroom from STA This writing system was HUGE for civilization development. Why?
Cuneiform
Epic of Gilgamesh read aloud summary
Rise and fall of the Akkadian empire Ruler: Sargon Attacked Sumer around 2334 B.C. Akkadians conquered (defeated) the Sumerians and overthrew their king Sargon UNITED all of the city-states of Mesopotamia under his rule forming the FIRST EMPIRE (large territory) Legend: his empire stretched from sunrise to sunset. Gave his daughter, Enheduanna, the title of high priestess of the city-state of Ur Made offerings to nanna, the moon god She sang songs to goddess of the morning and the evening star. Other kings followed Sargon and also made their daughters high priestesses
Akkadian conquering map Interpret the map: What does the light yellow represent? What does the faded orange represent? What does the orange represent?
The decline Sargon gave his empire to his son, creating a dynasty(passing of the rule form father to son) remember he s Akkadian But there were revolts by the people Sargon s family remained in power 150 years, but then Ur rose up and took over the south rose up! From 2100 B.C. to 200 B.C. Ur (Sumerian, the south) held power in over Mesopotamia
Ur The city-state took power away from the Akkadians Last and most successful dynasty was founded by the Sumerian king Ur-Nammu and his son Shulgi Under Shulgi, business, farming, literature, and the arts flourished (spread greatly) Responsible for building the Ziggurat of Ur largest ever built Decline: invaders from the Northeast took over and famine broke out Famine: a long period of time without food
Sumerian impact Cuneiform Ziggurats Wheel Writing Religion Plow All of these helped advance all of the civilizations that followed