Mrs. Shaw's Social Studies page

Ancient Mesopotamia

The Fertile Crescent stretched from the Mediterranean coast through the Tigris-Euphrates River Valley to the Arabian Sea.

• Mesopotamia consisted of the lands of the Tigris-Euphrates River Valley. It means "the land between the rivers."
• A later Mesopotamian civilization, Babylon, developed Hammurabi's Code, which was a thorough set of written laws.
• Though they shared cultural beliefs and values, each Mesopotamian city-state was ruled by its own monarchy.
• Ancient Sumer was an advanced society that consisted of large city-states, fortified cities, and strong armies.
• Each Sumerian city-state had a ziggurat at its center. These large pyramids housed the priests and were the location for many important religious celebrations.
• Sumerians are credited with many advancements, including the first writing system called cuneiform (scribes wrote works on history, law, grammar, math, and literature), the wheel (used for vehicles and for making pottery), the plow & irrigation (which increased farm production), the clock, sewer systems, and the use of bronze to strengthen tools and weapons.
• Ancient Mesopotamians and ancient Egyptians both used irrigation and canals to help capture silt and water crops during the dry season. Their geographic differences, however, had a profound impact on the development of their cultures.

Ancient Egypt

• The Three Seasons of the Nile, including its' regular flooding every year, coupled with the isolation of the river valley at the edge of the Sahara Desert and the Red Sea, allowed Egypt to develop a technologically advanced, economically sound, and socially stable civilization.
• Because Egyptians believed that their rulers were gods, dynasties formed as the Pharaohs' power was typically passed down from generation to generation.
• The Pharaohs only represented one of the many gods in the Egyptians' polytheistic belief system.
• The Mediterranean Sea links Northern Africa, Southern Europe, Western Asia, and the Middle East.
• Ancient Egypt was an advanced society with a strong, theocratic dynastic system.
• The Nile River flows over several cataracts (large waterfalls) that prevent shipping from the Ethiopian highlands to the Nile Delta.
• The largest concentration of Egyptian settled the Nile delta where silt carried by the Nile formed islands of rich, fertile soil.
• The Egyptian's written language consisted of thousands of symbols called Hieroglyphs. They can still be found painted on the walls of buildings and their interior walls of the pyramids but were often used to record religious text and records on a paper-like material made from papyrus. Even so, it wasn't until the discovery of the Rosetta Stone that historians could translate this complex language.
• The Egyptians' preserved their dead as mummies based on their belief that they would need their bodies in the afterlife.

Ancient Greece

• Early Greek societies were heavily influenced by the topography and available resources of the region leading to the development of city-states and colonies rather than an expansive empire based on a particular river valley.
• The acropolis a fortified, or strengthened, hill of an ancient Greek city served as the religious center.
• The Golden Age of Greece brought important advances in government, art, architecture, and philosophy. These advances are foundational components of Western civilization to this day.
• Aristotle, Plato and Socrates were all notable Greek philosophers. The ideas of these men had a lasting effect on modern learning and thinking.
• Homer is an ancient Greek Epic Poet. He wrote the Odyssey, an epic poem about Odysseus 10 year struggle to return home after the Trojan War (a mythological war waged by the Greeks against the city of Troy).
• Greek architecture can still be seen today. They developed 3 different types of building columns Ionic, Doric and Corinthian.
• The Greek Mythology was polytheistic and portrayed gods and goddesses with human-like emotional states such as anger, jealousy, and joy. The Greeks believed that their deities took an active and constant role in their lives.
• All Greek City-States practiced polytheism (a belief in many gods). Zeus was king of the gods.Athena was Zeus' daughter and patron goddess of Athens. Poseidon is Zeus' brother and god of the ocean. Hades is Zeus' brother and god of the underworld. Greek mythology tells us that the Greeks worshipped twelve great gods.
• Greek city-states developed radically independent political and cultural systems, the most obvious example being Athens and Sparta.
• Athens was a city-state in ancient Greece and the capital of modern day Greece. During the golden age of Athens, philosophy and the arts flourished and democracy reached its highest point. Pericles, an Athenian politician, introduced reforms that strengthened the democracy. Athenians practiced direct democracy (the people decided - not representatives).
• Sparta was a very different city-state from Athens. Located in the southern portion of Greece, Sparta was a city-state devoted to war. Sparta's form of government is an oligarchy - rule by a small group of people. Some city-states practiced an aristocracy (rule by a small ruling class).
• The war between Sparta and Athens weakened the city-states and opened them up to conquest by Alexander the Great and later by the Romans.
• Alexander the Great conquered Persia and Egypt. He invaded India. He was king of Macedonia from 336 BC to 323 BC. When Alexander took control of lands, he hoped the local cultures would mix with Greek culture. Greek history and culture after the death of Alexander is referred to as Hellenistic.
• Ancient Greek influences in today's world include democracy, art, architecture, literature, philosophy, mythology and the Olympics.

Ancient Rome

• Ancient Rome was built utilizing many cultural influences, and has contributed to "Western Life"
• Know how to compare and contrast the Roman Empire vs. The Roman Republic
• The rise and fall of the empires result from many factors, including religion and economics.
• What were the factors that led to the rise and fall of the Roman Empire?
• How did the Roman Empire change the way we live today?
• What affects did the Roman Empire have on different roles in government and religion?
• How did the geography of Italy and Rome help it to gain control over its neighbors?
• How did the development of Christianity affect the Roman Empire?