Unit 5 The Fertile Crescent
Important Dates
06 January 2015 - Unit 5 Fertile Crescent Begins
All materials are emailed to
both students and parents.
Hard copy (paper) given to students
in class on Friday after completion
of presentation of material
16 January 2015 - Vocabulary and Study guide work
due. Late submissions will suffer
late penalties.
Unit Vocabulary Test
19 January 2015 NO school. Martin Luther Kings Day
30 January 2015 Unit 5 The Fertile Crescent Test (This
date could be sooner if we finish the
material early)
Introduction
Stretching from the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in present day Israel to the Persian Gulf, the Fertile Crescent was the birthplace of many early civilizations. The Tigris and Euphrates rivers provided ideal conditions for human settlement, with the first civilizations rising in Mesopotamia "the Land Between Two Rivers".
We have left Prehistory behind after learning about early hominids such as Cro-Magnon man, Homo Erectus (upright man), Homo Hablis (handy man), Homo Sapien Neandrethalis (the Neanderthal) and of course Homo Sapien (intelligent man), us.
We will now turn our attention to the early civilizations after mankind stopped wandering the Earth as hunter/gatherers and learned to farm and domesticate animals to his/her benefit. The early civilizations we will study in this unit are Mesopotamia (the land between two rivers), Babylonia, Assyria and Phoenicia.
In addition we will introduce the first of many religions we will learn about as the year progresses and is considered the first monotheistic religion and would be the basis of both Christianity and Islam. I am speaking about the religion Judaism.
Important Dates
06 January 2015 - Unit 5 Fertile Crescent Begins
All materials are emailed to
both students and parents.
Hard copy (paper) given to students
in class on Friday after completion
of presentation of material
16 January 2015 - Vocabulary and Study guide work
due. Late submissions will suffer
late penalties.
Unit Vocabulary Test
19 January 2015 NO school. Martin Luther Kings Day
30 January 2015 Unit 5 The Fertile Crescent Test (This
date could be sooner if we finish the
material early)
Introduction
Stretching from the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in present day Israel to the Persian Gulf, the Fertile Crescent was the birthplace of many early civilizations. The Tigris and Euphrates rivers provided ideal conditions for human settlement, with the first civilizations rising in Mesopotamia "the Land Between Two Rivers".
We have left Prehistory behind after learning about early hominids such as Cro-Magnon man, Homo Erectus (upright man), Homo Hablis (handy man), Homo Sapien Neandrethalis (the Neanderthal) and of course Homo Sapien (intelligent man), us.
We will now turn our attention to the early civilizations after mankind stopped wandering the Earth as hunter/gatherers and learned to farm and domesticate animals to his/her benefit. The early civilizations we will study in this unit are Mesopotamia (the land between two rivers), Babylonia, Assyria and Phoenicia.
In addition we will introduce the first of many religions we will learn about as the year progresses and is considered the first monotheistic religion and would be the basis of both Christianity and Islam. I am speaking about the religion Judaism.
Mesopotamia in the ancient past was located between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers. These two rivers and the rich, fertile soil found her drew the first farmers after they discovered that they could grow food instead of gathering it. The early people of Mesopotamia became farmers and then builders of great cities. The most successful and advanced cities belong to the city-states of Summer.
After the fall of Summer, the biggest and most important civilizations were the empires of Babylonia and Assyria. These civilizations built magnificent cities and encouraged the growth of both culture and learning. The citizens of these cities valued both highly.
The Legacy of Mesopotamia - The Mesopotamians were probably the first to develop two of the key components that all civilizations have in common and this was a system of writing and a set of written laws.
Mankind then began to spread off the continent of Africa to other areas such as the Mediterranean where many civilizations flourished and we will explore the importance of the Phoenician civilization. The Phoenicians developed into a great sea power (the first to learn to sail) along the Mediterranean region. Trade is an important aspect of exchanging both ideas and culture. These trade routes brought great wealth and knowledge to the Phoenicians. They developed a system of writing with an alphabet of 22 letters. This alphabet formed the basis of the alphabets that many cultures use today.
After the fall of Summer, the biggest and most important civilizations were the empires of Babylonia and Assyria. These civilizations built magnificent cities and encouraged the growth of both culture and learning. The citizens of these cities valued both highly.
The Legacy of Mesopotamia - The Mesopotamians were probably the first to develop two of the key components that all civilizations have in common and this was a system of writing and a set of written laws.
Mankind then began to spread off the continent of Africa to other areas such as the Mediterranean where many civilizations flourished and we will explore the importance of the Phoenician civilization. The Phoenicians developed into a great sea power (the first to learn to sail) along the Mediterranean region. Trade is an important aspect of exchanging both ideas and culture. These trade routes brought great wealth and knowledge to the Phoenicians. They developed a system of writing with an alphabet of 22 letters. This alphabet formed the basis of the alphabets that many cultures use today.
Another important aspect of all societies and is often the cultural influence of the greatest importance in a civilization is the development of some form of religion or social concept. There had been some attempts made at creating a polytheism religion (the belief in many gods) to help explain mankind's surroundings and natural occurrences (god of storms is a common early belief as is the belief in a mother goddess who creates and cares for all living things. The biggest religious event in this period was the appearance of the first monotheistic religion, Judaism.
Judaism, still one of the world's major religions, had an important early influence on two later religions as we discussed earlier and that is a direct influence on the development of Christianity and Islam.
Specific Goals for this unit are:
· Explain the connection between
geography (location) and the success of
Mesopotamian societies
· Identify the first cities in the Sumerian
civilization
· Identify the three most important empires
in the Fertile Crescent (Mesopotamia,
Babylonia and Assyria)
· Describe the characteristics of life in
Mesopotamia
· Describe the characteristics of the
Babylonian Empire
· Describe the characteristics of the
Assyrian Empire
· Identify the achievements of the Persian
Empire
· Explain the importance of Hammurabi's
Code and the connection to modern laws.
· Describe how writing was first developed
in Mesopotamia
· Define Cuneiform and the impact it had
on developing a writing system
· Explain the importance of sea power in
trade and the spread of civilization
· Identify the major historic events of the
tribes of Israel
· Identify the basic belief system of Judaism
· Identify the religions that Judaism has
influenced and explain the results
· Explain the importance of Phoenician
culture and the development of modern
day alphabets.