Crash Course Mesopotamia

Unit 3 Mesopotamia

How did Intensification Lead to the Development of Writing, Laws, and Centralized Governments in Early Civilizations?

1

Intensification

The action of making or becoming more intense:

"The intensification of the conflict"
"The intensification of agriculture"

"New technologies and lifeways that enabled humans to extract more resources from a given land area."

(David Christian, Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History [Berkeley: University of
California Press, 2004], 207).

With more resources from one area, more people could live in one area.

• What new problems do you think people faced with more people and more resources in one place?

• What solutions do you think people developed to solve these problems?

2

Open Ended

What new problems do you think people faced with more people and more resources in one place? 

Open Ended

What solutions do you think people developed to solve these problems?

3

Study the timeline to the left.

Turn and talk about the following
questions:

1. What is being compared in this
timeline? How do you know?

2. Why do you think we don’t see
the appearance of writing
anywhere in the world until AFTER
the development of cities?

3. What purposes do you think
writing served during this time
period?

4. Describe the political trend in
Mesopotamia between 3500 BCE
and 1200 BCE. Why do you think
this happened?

Multiple Choice

Why do you think we don’t see
the appearance of writing
anywhere in the world until AFTER
the development of cities?

• Writing was invented for artistic expression before cities existed.
• Cities developed as a result of writing being established first.
• Writing emerged independently in rural areas without any connection to urbanization.
• Urbanization made is necessary for record-keeping and communication.

Multiple Choice

What purposes did writing serve for early Mesopotamian cities?

• Writing was only used for religious rituals.
• Writing served for record-keeping, administration, communication, and cultural preservation.
• Writing served as a form of entertainment for the citizens.
• Writing was primarily used for artistic expression.

http://www.lost-history.com/images/Akkadian_Empire2.bmp

TURN AND TALK:

•What is the difference between these two maps? What changes do these maps show?

•What happened in this region between 2230 BC and 1400 BC?

•What do you think happened to the Akkadian Empire?

•Egypt increased its territory. By what means do you think Egypt achieved this?

5

Multiple Choice

Describe the political trend in
Mesopotamia between 3500 BCE
and 1200 BCE. Why do you think
this happened?

• The region was dominated by a single ruler for the entire duration.
• The political trend in Mesopotamia was the transition from city-states to larger empires.
• Mesopotamia remained a collection of independent tribes throughout this period.
• The political trend was a decline in trade and commerce.

Writing emerged in the region of
Mesopotamia, although it was not the
creation of any one people. It developed
because it was needed to keep track of
trade, production, and government. Writing started off in the form of small pictures and changed over time to more complex, less literal symbols.

8

Summarization

Evolution of Writing: Cuneiform

9

Stop and Jot:

•Pick one word and observe
how it changes. Describe the
changes you see (be sure to
write which word you are
analyzing).

•How did it start and how did it
end up?

•Which example for that word
shows when it became
cuneiform? (describe the
change)

Sumerian Script with Pictographs

Reed Stylus and Cuneiform

10

Turn and Talk:

•Which way of writing do you think would have been faster and easier?

• Which way could record more information in less space?

These are artifacts related to Hammurabi’s
Code….

11

Multiple Choice

How did Intensification Lead to the Development of Writing, Laws, and Centralized Governments in Early Civilizations?

• Intensification reduced the need for administration and social organization.
• Intensification created the need for complex administration and social organization.

• Writing, laws, and governments emerged independently of intensification.
• Intensification only affected agricultural practices, not societal structures.