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Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia . By: Myles Hollenberg , Scarlet Sparke , Amar Bhogal , Liron Krymolowki , and Celine El Abboud. CULTURE OF MESOPOTAMIA. Polytheistic Educational and law system Punishment and Order in School Beliefs that Gods created them The code of Hammurabi was their written law

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Mesopotamia

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  1. Mesopotamia By: Myles Hollenberg, Scarlet Sparke, AmarBhogal, LironKrymolowki, and Celine El Abboud

  2. CULTURE OF MESOPOTAMIA • Polytheistic • Educational and law system • Punishment and Order in School • Beliefs that Gods created them • The code of Hammurabi was their written law • There is no evidence of doctors or medical practices

  3. CULTURE OF MESOPOTAMIA • Festivals • Music and musical instruments were commonly found • Songs were even written for Gods • Kings hunted as a pass time while commoners wrestled in the streets • People were buried the same way as today

  4. MesopotamianArt • Art in Mesopotamia ranged from statues to music. • Mesopotamians made statues of gods as humans and human/animal creatures • Some human sculptures had long beards which represented power. • Paintings showed stories of battles or power of their ruler.

  5. Mesopotamian Art • Mesopotamian Art can be split into four different time periods. • Sumerian (3500-2300 BC)- Decorated ziggurats and palaces were elaborately built and designed with statues and sculptures. • Akkadian (2300-2150 BC)- Carved reliefs that showed stories and military campaigns. There were also artistic bronze sculptures. • Assyrian (1400-600 BC)- The biggest Assyrian type of art was relief carvings. These reliefs decorated many palaces. • Babylonian (625-538 BC)- Terraced gardens were built, such as the ‘Hanging Gardens of Babylon.’ Bright tiles were used to build relief sculptures.

  6. Mesopotamian Religion • Mesopotamians believed in many Gods. • 4 main Gods- • An, the sky god • Enil, god that could produce storms or help man • Nin-khursag, the earth goddess • Enki, water god and patron of wisdom • Although these are the four main gods, there are many others that make up a group of 50, called Annunaki.

  7. Mesopotamian Religion • The gods in this religion are believed to have helped the Mesopotamian people survive. • The people of Mesopotamia used to be convinced that on New Year’s, the gods would decide what would happen to mankind. • Each city-state was supposedly protected by their own god. • Dedicated to their god was a ziggurat, which is a pyramid like temple made of mud bricks. • Mesopotamians believed that the ziggurats were the connection between heaven and Earth.

  8. Mesopotamian Government • Sumerian and Akkadian- • Divided into city states • Priests ruled each city state • The city states faught with each other

  9. Mesopotamian Government • Persian- • Was divided into 20 different provinces • Each province had a governor • Each governor had people coming and checking that the province was well organized

  10. Law History in Mesopotamia • Death penalty and corporal penalties such as cutting ears and noses were very common, while forced labour was the most common punishments. One of the greatest achievements of Mesopotamians are the first written laws which show the level of social, political, and legal development of the Mesopotamians. • King Hamurabi was famous for his set of laws, The Code of Hamurabi (created 1780 BC), which is one of the earliest sets of laws found and one of the best examples of this type of document from Mesopotamia. • No one had ever set up a code of law before, but there had been many attempts over the past 400 years.

  11. Laws • When a man has bought a male or female slave, and the sale is fought by a third party (the real owner) and is in consequence thereof declared void, the seller of the slave has to pay for all damages. • When in an enclosed yard a disturbance occurs, or again, when a lion kills, his keeper shall pay all damages, and the owner of the yard shall receive the killed animals. • If a man sell a slave girl for money, and another party proves just claims to her, and takes her away from her present owner, the seller shall return the money to the buyer, to exactly the same amount that his receipt calls for; if in the meanwhile she has borne children, he shall in addition pay for each child one half shekel. • If a man, after having promised, either verbally or in writing, a certain dowry to his daughter, loses part of his property, he can give his daughter a dowry in accordance with the property as it is now, and neither father-in-law nor son-in-law shall go to law on that account. • If a man has given his daughter a dowry, and the daughter dies without an issue, the dowry reverts to the house of her father.

  12. Education in Mesopotamia • Education was not compulsory or universal. • Only rich kids went (very expensive) • Kids learned to read/write cuneiform. • Aim of school was to bring out more scholars ( people realized the educated people were needed in every day life) • Students learned math tables, wrote essays, worked out practical problems (of accounting), and were taught land measurement. • Text books were written by priests and included hymns, proverbs, theological poetry, learned of the fall of cities, and epics of legendary heroes. • Schools were usually situated in or connected to a temple. • Priest taught most-some of the classes (depending on which city-states you were in and availability of priests).

  13. Economy in Mesopotamia • Sumer created the first ever economy (using stones to trade) • Agriculture a big part of trade • Surplus of food • River main way to trade from north-south • Merchants traded to far way places in the middle east and had many agents to trade with. • Sumerians had a dairy industry, wove fine woolen goods, and raised flax for linen products. • Sumerians became very rich.

  14. THE LOST LANGUAGE OF MESOPOTAMIA • Language known as Sumerian • Spoken Around 2000 BC • Replaced by Akkadian as a spoken language • Used as religious and scientific purposes after that • Divided in several time periods: • Archaic Sumerian (3100-2600 BCE) • Classical Sumerian (2600-2300 BCE) • Neo- Sumerian (2300-2000 BCE) • Post Sumerian (2000-100 BCE) • Used in the same way as Ancient Greek and Latin after time periods

  15. Deciphered in the 19th Century • Cuneiform symbols were significantly reduced but not yet the alphabet • It is the oldest written and spoken language of Mesopotamia • Two Tenses • Constructed with large number of homophones

  16. CULTURE OF MESOPOTAMIA • Polytheistic • Educational and law system • Punishment and Order in School • Beliefs that Gods created them • The code of Hammurabi was their written law • There is no evidence of doctors or medical practices

  17. Festivals • Music and musical instruments were commonly found • Songs were even written for Gods • Kings hunted as a pass time while commoners wrestled in the streets • People were buried the same way as today

  18. Bibliography • http://www.huntfor.com/arthistory/ancient/mesopotamia.htm • http://newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Mesopotamian_Religion • http://www.talktalk.co.uk/reference/encyclopedia/hutchinson/m0029818.html • http://history101.com/lessons/art_history_lessons/mesopotamian_art_lesson.htm • http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/nemythology/a/mesopotamiarel.htm

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