Ty Lowry

10/15/2024

Module 1 Assignment

Video 1: Ancient Mesopotamia Summary

Agriculture came to be found around river valleys because the rivers would flood

making the soil around the crops fertile. These rivers would also provide fresh drinking water

for the people to drink and plant crops. Mesopotamia is modern day Iraq and is called the

cradle of civilization. The area had technology, architecture, reading and writing as well. The

Sumerians were part of Mesopotamia but they were just South of Mesopotamia. Ziggurats

were at the centre of many Sumerian and Mesopotamian cities. There were two primary

languages and they were the Akkadian and Sumerian. Akkadian were mostly in the northern

region of Mesopotamia. The Akkadian Empire was the first empire to emerge from this

region. Sargon made the first Dynastic empire after the Akkadians. Babylonian was the next

empire to emerge from Mesopotamia after the Akkadians. The Assyrian Empire was the last

empire to emerge from this group of Empires. Eventually being taken over the

Neobabylonian empire. This created the middle east as we call it nowadays.

Video 2: Babylonian Civilization Summary

Babylonian was known to be the “Gate of the God” and one of the most splendid

cities. Babylonian stood on the river of Euphrates which is now South East of Iraq. A dynasty

was formed and founded in Babylon around 2000 BC. Hammurabi was the ruler of the

dynasty for 42 years. Hammurabi gave his city prices, wages and taxation while in rule.

Slaves could conduct business, borrow money and even buy their own freedom with

Hammurabi’s help. The Code of Hammurabi was known as the first law of codes for

Babylon. This code was found in 1801 in southern Iraq. The code was fixed to have

witchcraft, military service, land, business regulation, family laws, wages, loans, and debts
fixed into the law. This is how the rule, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth came to be.

When Hammurabi had passed the old Babylonian Empire was lost to the Assyrians.

Sennacherib had destroyed Babylon and then his son Esarhaddon rebuilt Babylon. After the

Mesopotamians and Akkadians came the Greek and they made the Hanging Gardens.

Temples became schools and eventually a more modern civilization was formed. This when

the Greeks took control and formed a more modern look to the East.

Video 3: Ancient Persia Summary

Iran is home to the largest and oldest major civilizations. The people of Susa were

closely related to the Summerians. Susa would battle and fight in any form of weakness

shown by the neighbouring regions. Susa ranged from North to East with their economic and

technological advances which were shown through their years of fighting. Ecbatana had a

leader Cyrus the Great and he would go to fight the Susa’s and gain control of more land and

area. The Persian Achaemenid Empire was established in 550 BC. Mede and Persian were

combined and became close to each other. Babylon had fallen and Susa and Ecbatana became

the head of the city. Darius the Great came in and built roads for trading and soldiers for

walking. Darius was depicted as a Pharaoh. Greeks and Romans contributed to the old ways

of the previous regions. The Seleucid Empire came into the show and took over the old cities

and paid reparations. The Romans and Parthian Empire had neutralised and tried to gain

control of the region. Regions were peaceful and were fighting among themselves. The

Roman and Parthian war took place. The Sasanian Empire took over the old empires.

Rashidun Caliphate took over and started moving to take more regions for 20 years. This is

how the Persians tried to take back their region.

Human beings in one corner of the world or more were only food gatherers, tied to a

life of nomadic hunting and cropping of wild foods. They began living in stable settlements

of great size instead of tribes of a hundred. People were inhabiting villages but full sized

towns including thousands of people as well. Çatal Hüyük was between the rivers Tigris and

Euphrates, modern Iraq in the Old Mesopotamia. Çatal Hüyük had other settlements that

were eventually abandoned and not reoccupied and no one knows why that had happened in

the first place. Mesopotamian civilization started around 5000 BC and blossomed around

3000 BC and made a major influence on people. The systematic use of irrigation, the

cultivation of barley as a staple crop, the domestication of the date palm, the use of the

plough, the city-state as an organising principle of economic and political life made a major

difference for the Mesopotamian people and made a difference for the agricultural industry.

Reading 2: Babylonian Empire

Babylon was the largest city in the vast Babylonian empire and was more than 4,000

years ago. Babylon's city ruins are located in present-day Iraq, and became one of the most

powerful cities of the ancient world. A new line of kings, Hammurabi, established a Neo

Babylonian Empire that spanned the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea. Babylon became

a city of beautiful architecture, including the Hanging Garden, Ishtar Gate and the Tower of

Babel. Babylon was located about 50 miles south of Baghdad along the Euphrates River in

present day Iraq. Babylon became a major military power under Amorite King Hammurabi

creating an empire called Babylonia. Hammurabi turned Babylon into a rich, powerful and

influential city with the most complete written legal codes within the city's walls. The Old

Testament story mentions that humans tried to build a tower to reach the heavens. Then God

saw the tower and scattered mankind across the Earth.

The history of Egypt is divided into three “kingdom” periods: Old, Middle, and New.

"intermediate" refers to the times when Egypt was not a unified political power. During the

Old Kingdom period, the foundations of Egyptian civilization were being laid for thousands

of years. The Nile increasingly focused on sedentary agriculture, habitation in Egypt stretches

back tens of thousands of years. In 6000 BCE widespread settlement began in the region.

This expansion of the Sahara for human civilization pushed humans closer to the Nile River

in search of reliable water sources. The Nile River flooded annually, Egyptians set their three

seasons inundation, or flooding, growth, and harvest. Annual flooding was vital to agriculture

because it deposited a new layer of nutrient rich soil.

Reading 4: History of Minoan Crete

The Minoan civilization developed on and ruled the island of Crete from about 3600

to 1400 BC. Minoans established a great trading empire centred on Crete. The term Minoan

is a modern name and comes from the legendary King Minos. The most famous tale of the

Cretean king named Minos, kept a Minotaur. The ancient Greeks decided that all of them

could not refer to the same man, there were many kings named Minos who had ruled Crete.

Some of these settlements had grown into larger towns, which had trade and production

taking place. Some of the only surviving buildings from the Prepalatial period are tombs.

They are usually called tholos tombs, due to their round shape.