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