chapter 2 section 2 notes - renweb · chapter 2 section 2 notes author: gambrel created date:...
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S U M E R A N D A K K A D
Chapter 2 section 2 notes
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/watch?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