Mesopotamian Geographic Region (4000-1000 BCE) – The West’s first large-scale civilization – Government • Monarchy/priest-king • Cities containing large public buildings • Crop diversification and diverse crafts • Organized central governments • Writing • Influenced all the later culture groups that conquered the region.
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Mesopotamian Geographic Region (4000-1000 BCE) –The West’s first large- scale civilization –Government Monarchy/priest-king Cities containing large public.
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Mesopotamian Geographic Region (4000-1000 BCE)
– The West’s first large-scale civilization
– Government• Monarchy/priest-king• Cities containing large
public buildings• Crop diversification
and diverse crafts• Organized central
governments• Writing• Influenced all the later
culture groups that conquered the region.
Religion and Mythology
• Polytheistic• religious belief reflected
harshness of war and struggle with unpredictable environment
• War-like gods who possessed total control over human lives
– Located on the Mesopotamian plain, close to the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers
– Earliest cities in southern Mesopotamia
– Not unified under one leader, made up of several city-states
– Constantly at war with one another over resources
– Common language, culture, religion
– Agriculture and trade (as far away as India)
Epic of Gilgamesh • ancient poem written in Mesopotamia more than four thousand years ago.
• tells of a great flood that covered the earth
• similar to the story of Noah in the Old Testament of the Jewish and Christian holy books.
• Modern science has discovered that there was a marked increase in the sea levels about 6,000 years ago as the last ice age ended. The melting ice drained to the oceans causing the sea level to rise more than ten feet in one century.