Chapter 3 North Africa and Southwest Asia Early Cultures

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Chapter 3North Africa and Southwest Asia Early
Cultures
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Section 3.1Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt (pages
8286)
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Did you know???

• One of the most important technological
  achievements of the Sumerians was the invention
  of the wheel. Before wheeled carts were invented,
  goods were carried by boats or donkeys. The first
  wheels were made from solid wood, but eventually
  spokes were designed to reduce the weight.

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I. Mesopotamia (pages 8284)

• A. Civilization is a term historians use to
  describe a culture that has reached a certain
  level of development. This development includes a
  system of writing, building cities, and
  specialized workers.

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I. Mesopotamia (pages 8284)

• B. One of the first civilizations grew in the
  fertile crescent of land between the Tigris and
  Euphrates Rivers. Its name was Mesopotamia, and
  it was what is now Syria and Iraq.

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I. Mesopotamia (pages 8284)

• C. Around 4500 B.C. wandering peoples settled in
  large numbers here and began farming. They
  created a 12-month calendar, based on the phases
  of the moon, and they created the plow.

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I. Mesopotamia (pages 8284)

• D. Some of the villages and towns became
  city-states, which were made up of the city and
  farmland around it.

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I. Mesopotamia (pages 8284)

• E. The city-state was a theocracyit was ruled by
  an individual who was both the religious leader
  and the king.

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I. Mesopotamia (pages 8284)

• F. The earliest of the city-states rose in an
  area called Sumer. The Sumerians created a form
  of writing known as cuneiform.

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I. Mesopotamia (pages 8284)

• G. Around 2300 B.C. the warlike kingdom of Akkad
  conquered Sumer and several other city-states to
  create the first empire, or group of states under
  one ruler.

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I. Mesopotamia (pages 8284)

• H. Hammurabis Code was an attempt to bring some
  justice and fairness to the idea of law.

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I. Mesopotamia (pages 8284)

• I. Among the most important traders were the
  Phoenicians, who were located mainly in what is
  now Lebanon. The Phoenicians developed an
  alphabet that gave rise to the Hebrew, Greek, and
  Latin alphabets still in use today.

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Discussion Question

• How did the Babylonians contribute to the field
  of mathematics?

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Discussion Question

• (The Babylonians contributed to the field of
  mathematics by developing a number system based
  on 60. From them, we have borrowed the 60-minute
  hour, 60-second minute, and 360-degree circle.
  They also used a clock controlled by drops of
  water to tell time.)

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II. Ancient Egypt (pages 8486)

• A. Like Mesopotamia, Egypt grew out of a river
  valleythe Nile, the longest river in the world.

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II. Ancient Egypt (pages 8486)

• B. The two kingdoms of Upper Egypt and Lower
  Egypt were united in 3100 B.C. under a great
  ruler called a pharaoh.

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II. Ancient Egypt (pages 8486)

• C. Egyptians had a polytheistic religion, meaning
  they worshipped many gods.

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II. Ancient Egypt (pages 8486)

• D. Egyptians believed in life after death. To
  preserve the body for the next life, it was
  embalmed, or preserved immediately after death,
  as a mummy.

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King Tut
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Ramses II
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II. Ancient Egypt (pages 8486)

• E. The biggest tombs belonged to the pharaohs and
  were called pyramids.

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II. Ancient Egypt (pages 8486)

• F. Hieroglyphics is a form of picture writing
  with about 800 signs. In 1820, the Rosetta Stone
  provided the key that cracked the code for
  hieroglyphics.

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II. Ancient Egypt (pages 8486)

• G. Egypt expanded as far as Mesopotamia in the
  north and southward to the present-day Sudan.

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II. Ancient Egypt (pages 8486)

• H. Along with trade goods, the Egyptians spread
  ideas and accomplishments.

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Discussion Question

• Even in ancient times, how were people and
  nations able to dominate one another?

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Discussion Question

• (Even then, people and nations that could use
  technology were able to dominate, or control,
  other cultures.)

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Section 3.2Religions of the Middle East (pages
8893)
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Did you know????

• The Quran, the holy book of Islam, is believed
  to be the exact and precise word of God, revealed
  to Muhammad by the angel Gabriel over a period of
  approximately 23 years. Although the Quran has
  been translated into many languages, only the
  original Arabic is considered the literal word of
  Allah.

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I. Judaism (pages 8890)

• A. Judaism was first practiced by a small group
  of people from Mesopotamia called Hebrews. The
  followers of Judaism today are known as Jews.
  Their holy book is the Torah.

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I. Judaism (pages 8890)

• B. The Jews believe that they are Gods chosen
  people and will remain so for as long as they
  follow Gods laws. The most well-known of these
  laws are the Ten Commandments.

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I. Judaism (pages 8890)

• C. Israel became an important and prosperous
  state under its first three kings Saul, David,
  and Solomon.

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I. Judaism (pages 8890)

• D. Eventually, the Jewish people spread to many
  countries throughout the world. Jewish scholars,
  writers, artists, and scientists have greatly
  increased the worlds knowledge.

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I. Judaism (pages 8890)

• E. Because they follow their own religion and
  customs, Jews have sometimes been viewed
  suspiciously. Some governments have used Jewish
  communities as a scapegoat, or someone to blame
  for their troubles. In the 1940s, more than 6
  million Jews were murdered in Europe during the
  Holocaust.

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I. Judaism (pages 8890)

• F. The United Nations voted in 1947 to create a
  Jewish state in Palestine.

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Discussion Question

• From whom do the Jewish people believe they are
  descended?

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Discussion Question

• (According to Jewish belief, the Hebrew people
  are descended from Abraham and Sarah, who first
  worshipped the one god, or Yahweh.)

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II. Christianity (pages 9092)

• A. Christianity is made up of people, called
  Christians, who are followers of Jesus Christ.

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II. Christianity (pages 9092)

• B. Christians believe Jesus is the Son of God and
  that he was the Messiah that the Jews were
  awaiting.

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II. Christianity (pages 9092)

• C. The holy book of the Christians is the Bible.

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II. Christianity (pages 9092)

• D. The disciples of Jesus spread His teachings
  across the Roman world and beyond. They were
  often persecuted until the emperor Constantine
  the Great became a Christian and made
  Christianity the official religion of the Roman
  Empire.

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II. Christianity (pages 9092)

• E. The most famous universities of Europe were
  begun by Christian scholars.

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Discussion Question

• What is Easter?

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Discussion Question

• (Easter, believed to be the day that God raised
  Jesus from the dead, is the most important day of
  the Christian calendar.)

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III. Islam (pages 9293)

• A. The followers of Islam are called Muslims, or
  Moslems.

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III. Islam (pages 9293)

• B. Muslims believe that Muhammad is the last and
  greatest prophet of Allah, or God.

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III. Islam (pages 9293)

• C. The Muslim holy book is the Quran (Koran).

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III. Islam (pages 9293)

• D. The Quran describes the five pillars of faith,
  or the five obligations all Muslims must fulfill.

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III. Islam (pages 9293)

• E. The Muslim calendar begins in A.D. 622, the
  year of the Hijrah, when Muhammad was forced to
  flee for safety from Makkah to Madinah. Since the
  time of Muhammad, the Islamic faith has spread
  widely.

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III. Islam (pages 9293)

• F. Under Islam, knowledge in art, architecture,
  mathematics, medicine, astronomy, geography,
  history, and other fields was greatly increased.

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Discussion Question

• What is Ramadan?

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Discussion Question

• (Ramadan is the month, according to Muslim
  beliefs, in which God began to reveal the Quran
  to Muhammad. Muslims observe Ramadan by fasting
  and refraining from any acts that take their
  attention away from God.)

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The End