G8 Module 6 Document Investigation

The First Farmers

Archaeologists use artifacts to learn more about life in ancient Mesopotamia. Bones, metals, and other materials were used to create tools for many different purposes in ancient Mesopotamia. Archaeologists believe that these sickles are from between 4700 BC and 4500 BC. They were found in what is now southern Iraq. These farming tools were made out of clay, an abundant resource in the area.

How do you think these farming tools might have been used?

The Standard of Ur

Sumerian society was divided into different groups. This ancient artifact, referred to as the Standard of Ur, shows Sumerian leaders celebrating a military victory while a musician plays an instrument.

How are the leaders shown differently from the musician in this image?

Babylonian and Assyrian Empires

Nomadic warriors invaded Mesopotamia in about 2000 BC and eventually established their capital at Babylon, on the Euphrates River. The Babylonian Empire reached its peak during the reign of Hammurabi, from 1792 BC to 1750 BC. Later, between 850 and 650 BC, the kings of Assyria defeated Syria, Israel, Judah, and Babylonia. Eventually, the Assyrians ruled lands that extended far beyond the Fertile Crescent into Anatolia and Egypt.

What can we generalize about human activities and trends by comparing the areas settled by the Babylonian and Assyrian empires?

The Afterlife in Ancient Egypt

The ancient Egyptians believed that a person’s soul was judged when he or she died. This papyrus shows how that judgment occurred.

Where is Osiris in this drawing? Explain the details that help identify him as the god of the underworld.

The Rosetta Stone

After the Egyptians were conquered, hieroglyphics fell out of use. For thousands of years, no one could read ancient Egyptian writing. In 1798 a French army officer found a black stone near the city of Rosetta in the Nile Delta. The stone was inscribed with a royal decree written in ancient Greek, Egyptian hieroglyphics, and another Egyptian script. Using the Greek text, scholars were eventually able to decode the Egyptian writing systems. The text describes celebrations over the coronation of Ptolemy V.

“It has pleased the priests of all the temples . . . to set up a statue to the immortal King Ptolemy, . . . by which shall be placed the most honored god of the temple, presenting to it the weapon of victory. . . . And to make for King Ptolemy . . . a portable statue and a shrine of gold in each of the temples, and to place them in the sanctuaries with the other shrines; and on the great festivals, when the going forth of the shrines takes place, the shrine . . . shall go out with the others. . . . Upon those days shall be celebrated a feast in the temples of Egypt monthly, and shall be performed in them sacrifices and libations, and the other rites, as in the other festivals, and held in the temples; and also there shall be a feast and a festival to the immortal and beloved by Ptah, King Ptolemy, . . . yearly through the region.”

—from the Rosetta Stone

How does the Rosetta Stone increase our understanding of the value the ancient Egyptians placed on their leaders?

Geography of Nubia

The Greek geographer and historian Strabo wrote about the land of Nubia to inform Europeans about other lands. In this excerpt, Strabo relayed what he observed on his visit to Nubia.

“Their largest royal seat is the city of Meroë. . . . It is very mountainous, and contains great forests. The inhabitants are nomads, who are partly hunters and partly farmers. There are also mines of copper, iron, gold, and various kinds of precious stones. . . . On the north is the continuous course of the Nile to Egypt. . . . The houses in the cities are formed by interweaving split pieces of palm wood or of bricks. They have fossil salt, as in Arabia.”

—Strabo

The Geography, 22 BC

According to this primary source, what natural resources were available to the people of the land described?