HIST110 Lecture 2: Mesopotamian Civilization
5 Feb 2015
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Geography and climate: geography, environmental problems, flooding, salinization. Civilization: hittites and kassites (1600 1000 b. c. e. ) Hittite raiders from asia minor (1595 b. c. e. ) Left mespotamia to kassites: assyrians (1100 612) Darius the great extended the empire from mediterranean to the indus valley. Xerxes failed to conquer the greeks, 479. Political and social history: the sumerian paradigm. Sargon, king of a universal dominion : babylonian empire. King hammurabi"s code of justice: unequal, retribution (lex talonis: eye for an eye", semi-private. Government: kings reigned through city-state governors, assyrian empire. Severe penalties for homosexuality and sexual deviance". Science and technology in mesopotamia: sumerian invention of writing (cuneiform) Phoenician spread of alphabet: sumerian mathematics. Sexigesimal numbering system (base value = 60) 12 months of 30 days in weeks of 7 24-hour days. 2000 b. c. e: gods war to control the earth, king uruk tried to escape death, divination (learn the will of the gods, chaldean. Zoroastrianism, founded by iranian prophet zoroaster (a. k. a.
