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The cradle of civilization
General Overview
5000 BC Sumerian culture flourished
Life was shaped by two factors:
*Flooding of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers,
*The extreme richness of the river valleys
The Sumerians Invented:
*Cereal Agriculture
*Cuneiform
*The wheel and the first plow in 3700 BC
*A math system based on the numeral 60
*The alphabet by 3000 BC
*Banking
*Literature, Poetry and epic literature were produced. The most famous Sumerian
epic and the one that has survived in the most nearly complete form is the epic
of Gilgamesh. The story of Gilgamesh, who actually was king of the city-state of
Uruk in approximately 2700 BC.
Acadian Empire The Sumerian
*2340 BC, the great Acadian leader Sargon conquered
Sumer and built the Acadian Empire stretching over most of the Sumerian
city-states and extending as far away as Lebanon.
*Sargon based his empire in the city of Akkad.
*The Akkadian empire lasted for only short time in the long time spans of
Mesopotamian history.
*In 2125 BC, the Sumerian city of Ur rose up and the Acadian empire fell.
Babylon I
*Ruled for 200 years, until 1530 BC
*The Empire extended from the Arabian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea
*Hammurabi’s Code, ((1792-1750 BC), ("An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.")
*Established schools.
The Assyrians Timeline
1760 Assyria was a province of Babylon under
Hamurabi
1500 BC Assyria re-gains it independent
830 BC Control of Mediterranean trade routes
722-705 BC Sergon II extends rule over Anatolia and the Gulf.
689 BC King Sennacherib destroys Babylon
612 BC Babylonians and Medes invade Ninawah.
Babylon II
*Established by Nebuchadnezzar in the 6th century
BC who in (586 B.C.), conquered Judea (Judah), destroyed Jerusalem; Solomon's
Temple was also destroyed; Nebuchadnezzar carried away an estimated 15,000
captives, and sent most of its population into exile in Babylonia.
*Nebuchadnezzar II (604-562 BC) built the Hanging Gardens, one of the seven
wonders of the ancient world.
The Age of the Invaders
Various invaders conquered the land after
Nebuchadnezzar's death, including:
*Cyrus the Great in 539 BC
*Alexander the Great in 331 BC. He died there in 323 BC in Babylon
*In the 2nd century BC Iraq became part of the Persian Empire, who build their
capital in Cetsaphon near Baghdad, remaining thus until the 7th century AD, when
the Muslims captured it.
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