3.5,3.6 Mesopotamia - The Bronze Age, The Sumerians

Bronze Age

The __________ was the second phase in the development of material culture among the peoples of Mediterranean Europe

Bronze Age

The ________ was the first period in which metal was used, although, before this, copper was already being made into smaller, often decorative objects.

bronze

an alloy of copper and tin

cradle of civilization

Mesopotamia was often referred to as the ____________

Tigris-Euphrates

Mesopotamia was a sizeable ancient land that occupied the area of the ___________ river system

Mesopotamia

____________ was the site of first system of writing

Sumer

earliest known civilization in the historical region of southern Mesopotamia

Sumer

also one of the first civilizations in the world, along with Ancient Egypt, Norte Chico, Minoan civilization, Ancient China, Mesoamerica, and the Indus Valley.

Sumerians

The __________ were the first civilizing people to settle in the lands

theocracy

Sumer was divided into many independent city-states, which were divided by canals and boundary stones. Each was centered on a temple dedicated to the particular patron god or goddess of the city and ruled over by a chief priest or by a king who was intimately tied to the city's religious rites

Uruk

One of the most important city-states in ancient Sumer

Uruk

One of the most important city-states in ancient Sumer

Cuneiform

• Meaning “wedge-shaped,”

• one of the oldest forms of writing known.

Epic of Gilgamesh

• best-known piece of literature from ancient Mesopotamia

• oldest surviving epic poem and the longest piece of literature in Akkadian

• written in cuneiform

offerings

Cuneiform (top-left) was a system of writing invented in ancient Mesopotamia to keep records of __________ made to the patron city gods.

reed stylus

cuneiform was made by making indentations onto soft clay using a __________

Eanna; Anu

Uruk was divided into two sections, the ______ District and the older ____ District

Inanna; Anu

Eanna District and Anu District was named for and dedicated to the goddess _____ and her grandfather-god ____, respectively.

Stele of the Vultures

• a war memorial by King Eannatum.

• believed to be the earliest known instance of a story told in pictures of sustained visual art:

The Standard of Ur

a hollow wooden box inlaid with a mosaic of shell, red limestone, and lapis lazuli.

Mask of Warka

Also known as The Lady of Uruk, the mask was most possibly that of Inanna.

Tell Asmar Figures

• figurines discovered in a temple dedicated to the god, Abu,

Ziggurats

• mudbrick pyramidal structures with rough exteriors bearing tiers

• were not only visual focal points but were symbols of the theocratic political system

Stone-Cone Temple

• named for the mosaic of colored stone cones driven into the adobe brick façade was the first building built in Eanna.

Ziggurat

greatest monument dedicated to Anu, built in the Anu District.

White Temple

• Surmounting the ziggurat

• walls were plastered in white gypsum and built in the typical tripartite Sumerian style.

Ziggurat of Ur

• Built during the Sumerian Renaissance by King Ur-Nammu of the Third Dynasty of Ur after the fall of the Akkadian Empire.

• dedicated to the moon goddess Nanna, the patron deity of Ur.