Mesopotamia

We are on round two of Ancient/World history, via Bob Jones University World History, and we always start in Mesopotamia. 

Quick facts:

~Mesopotamia is now known as Iraq. 

~The word Mesopotamia means the land between the rivers.  The two rivers are the Tigris (Dijla-Arabic) and the Euphrates (Furat-Arabic).  Today, these two rivers flow into the Persian Gulf.

~Together these two rivers are over 1,000 miles long.

~Mesopotamia is part of the Fertile Crescent.

~Major cities of Mesopotamia were Babylon (the capital), Nippur, and Baghdad.

~The majority of what we know about Mesopotamian history comes from the thousands of clay tablets that were discovered in the city of Nineveh.

~The buildings in Mesopotamia were constructed from sun-dried bricks which is why not much of Ancient Mesopotamian cities are left standing today.

~Ziggurats (aka-holy mountains) were created as the center of the cities.  These were places for people to met and worship.  Some Ziggurats were as tall as 200 feet.

~Did you know that the seeder plow, checkers, glass, cuneiform, irrigation systems, the Pythagorean Theorem, sailboats, and the wheel (3500 BC) were all invented in Mesopotamia?

~These geniuses also used a number system that was base 60 (we use base 10).  The Mesopotamians divided time by 60s-i.e. 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in one hour.  They also get credit for diving circles into 360 degrees.

~They also studied the phases of the moon and created the first calendar.

Enki

~Ancient Mesopotamians worshiped hundreds of Gods and each and every city in Mesopotamia had their own God.  This is called polytheistic (many gods).

~The major Gods include Anu-the father of gods and the sky, Enki-god of fresh water, magic, and wisdom, Ninhursag-goddess of earth, Nanna-the mood god, Inanna-the goddess of love and war, Enlil-the god of the air, and Utu-the god of the truth, justice, and the sun.  It is thought that some of the Greek Gods stemmed from the Mesopotamian Gods. You can learn more about the Gods and Goddesses here and here.

~Mesopotamia is where the first civilization was formed by the Sumerians. The Sumerians invented the first form of government and writing.  This form of writing is called cuneiform.  You can find more about cuneiform here.

~The first book was written by Mesopotamians.  The book is called Gilgamesh.  Here you can find a short, illustrated version of Gilgamesh.

~Money did not exist in Mesopotamia.

~Mesopotamia is the home of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

~Not long after the Sumerians arrived came the Akkadians.  The Akkadians replaced the language of the Sumerians with their own and throughout much of the history of Mesopotamia, this new language was used as the official language.

~The Babylonians came in to create vast empires.  These empires would rule much of the Middle East.

~The Babylonians were the first people to record their systems of law.

~The warrior society known as the Assyrians came in from Northern Mesopotamia.  They also ruled much of the Middle East but at different times over the history of Mesopotamia.


~And then arrived the Persians.  The Persians put an end to the Assyrian and Babylonian rule.  The Persians conquered a lot of the Middle East which included Mesopotamia.

~In 1792 BC, Hammurabi (1810 BC to 1750 BC) became the first "great king" of Babylon.  He was a mere 18 years old.

~King Hammurabi established the Code of Hammurabi.  There are a total of 282 laws.

~You may have heard the expression "An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth." That is an example from the code.  

~Hammurabi conquered the majority of Mesopotamia and established a new empire, the Babylonian Empire.

statue of Hammurabi's head.

~Hammurabi ruled for 43 years until his death in 1750 BC at which time the empire begins to crumble.

I have to stop here with Hammurabi, otherwise, I will just keep on going.  Please check out all of the great links that I have posted regarding this fabulous time period in Mesopotamia.

Crash course world history with John Green
A timeline of Mesopotamian history.Kids Konnect 
quiz from ducksters
Another great site
Mr. Donn
Pinterest