Mesopotamia

A condensed, point-by-point summary of the module, for reviewing right before a test or exam.

1. The Fertile Crescent and the Sumerian City-States. Irrigation in the Fertile Crescent drove the rise of the Sumerian city-states, organized around the ziggurat.
2. The Invention of Cuneiform Writing. Cuneiform writing, which emerged in Uruk around the fourth millennium BCE, conventionally marks the beginning of History.
3. Mesopotamian Religion and Mythology. Mesopotamian polytheistic religion combined a broad pantheon with myths such as the Epic of Gilgamesh.
4. The Akkadian Empire and Sargon of Akkad. Sargon of Akkad founded the first known territorial empire around 2334 BCE, unifying Mesopotamia.
5. Babylon and the Code of Hammurabi. Hammurabi unified Mesopotamia and issued his legal code of 282 laws, inscribed on a stele now in the Louvre.
6. The Assyrian Empire: Military Organization and Expansion. The Neo-Assyrian Empire expanded its rule through a professional army, until the fall of Nineveh in 612 BCE.
7. The Neo-Babylonian Empire and Nebuchadnezzar II. Nebuchadnezzar II glorified Babylon and conquered Jerusalem, before the empire fell to Cyrus II in 539 BCE.
8. The Legacy of Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia bequeathed the sexagesimal number system, astronomical advances, and, traditionally, the invention of the wheel.