Hey kids, guess what time it is
It's time for some world history learning
Welcome to hip hughes
We're going to be hitting you up with a little bit of history dealing with one of the earliest civilizations
That develops in a region of the world called Mesopotamia
[and] I'm not messing with you. This is perfect if you're in school. Maybe you're doing an assignment
Maybe you have a test tomorrow or maybe you're just cray-Cray on the internet either way
We're gonna get you up for the learning and we're gonna go get her done, right?
So as we discussed in the previous lecture on the neolithic revolution
Kind of the end of the Caveman [as] people begin to sit down and settle and relax and build stuff
We really get different pockets around the world in one of those
Earlier pockets is in the crescent Valley in the middle East [and] a land called Mesopotamia
[now] it's not like it's a contrary it's not like people like hey, I'm from Mesopotamia
Where are you from just kind of the area of the world that?
Archaeologists and historians are going to be able to refer to so we know what we're talking about, but a lot [of] different
civilizations in City-States which we're going to talk [about] are going to develop in this area because of
Geography geography is [weawy] importante
because really you're dealing in the middle east with like a lot of sand and it's [a] hot sun and
You can get real thirsty
But [luckily] there are two Rivers [count'em]
Do two Rivers that flow through this crescent Valley and as you can [see] from the map. It looks like a crescent
we're stretching from the
mediterranean Sea and the West across the Middle east in that
crescent shape until you get to the persian gulf and [the] two rivers [that] flow south
Eastward across that desert sand are the tigris and the euphrates?
[maybe] you should write that down and these two Rivers the land in between it is
Pretty groovy man pretty good land that you're going to want to settle on because it is fertile
Once a year both of these rivers flood and when the water washes away, it leaves what's called silt?
Which is very moist awesome soil that you can grow lots of Barley lots of wheat
Fill your granary fill your belly and have a good civilization. How about that kids, so
Mesopotamia is about their large area and as we move forward we're really going to be focusing on the
Sumerians which is closer on the Eastern side [of] Mesopotamia as they're going to build City-States and one of the earliest civilizations
[you're] ready to start a civilization all right make sure you understand
mesopotamia which literally means the land between two Rivers tigris and euphrates all right let's see if we can't build a
Civilization, I'm ready. Are you ready?
So we have a winner we have the first earliest
Civilization that archaeologists and historians agree is sumer and of course the people living in sumer are
Sumerians never met a sumerian but they did exist, and you have to remember that it took a long time
To get to the point where we could have a civilization the end of the neolithic age the neolithic age is 10,000 bce to around
3500 Bce
so that's about six thousand years or so kind of where people are building small communities and trying to figure things out, but by
3500 Bce
Sumer is going to be able to check off all five
Boxes now sumer itself will go through those five boxes and a second I promise kids the sumer itself is about the size of Massachusetts
[it] was located on the Eastern Edge of what we call
Mesopotamia Present-Day Iraq [Breath] the persian gulf area right where the tigris and euphrates
come together to pour into that persian gulf but they were able [to] do five things that nobody else could do that gives them the
title of [their] earliest civilization now number one you need to have advanced cities and
sumer certainly had numerous cities that were called
[City-states] they had her and [Eric] and uma and quiche and
lagash now these cities shared trade routes
They're going to share languages and technologies and religious customs, but in a sense
They're like separate little you know countries all by themselves. They're going to have their own
You know kings in a sense and rulers and different personalities that are going to fight with [each] other
But they are under the [umbrella] of having these commonalities things in common that make them all
Sumerians now we also are going to need for civilization
Specialized workers and certainly having city-States and different jobs
You have to build walls and you have to [irrigate] and raise animals
And there's going to be people that are going to write things down and invent new things
So that box is going to be checked off lots of specialized workers in Sumer you also have complex institutions that develop
That's another requirement if you ever building a civilization you want to have complex institutions. So we're going to have
governmental bureaucracies military bureaucracies religious bureaucracies
Organizations that are going to lay out the rules and how things are done, we're going to have
[record-keeping] a cuneiform is the earliest writing system
That was ever developed and in the beginning it was more
Pictorial like pictures little cows and such that develops into an actual written language with even sounds and you know
phonetics and all that groovy stuff
So they're going to be able to actually have the first recorded history in the world about that kids and the fifth box
And they're going to be able to check this off is advanced
Technologies wait till you see all the wonderful things they invent sir some of them are simple like the wheel how could you not think?
Of [the] wheel, I don't know but they're also going to invent mathematical systems based on 60 ever wonder
Why [there's] 60 seconds in a minute circle is 360 degrees. Thank you sumerians
So now that we've checked off all five boxes
Let's take a little bit of a closer look at the people of sumer you know the sumerians
so now [that] we know what a
Civilization is the next question is why why are they going to build a civilization?
And I think that the answer really rests in the challenge that the geography
Presented to the sumerians. You know the geography in a sense is wonderful
[I] mean, they're in Mesopotamia the land between two rivers like I could throw stuff down there and grow stuff
But the flooding created a problem
You know it would leave the silt behind but then the sun would come and everything would dry up
So the sumerians are presented with this challenge of how to deal with all of this dry land
But having the flooding, so they're able to figure out that they are able to irrigate
They're able to take the water from the river and move it to where the crops are growing so they can grow lots and lots
Of wheat and Barley they love their cereal
But this gave them a surplus of food which is going to help them deal with the second problem?
Which is they have a lack [of] natural resources?
[I] mean
There's not a lot [of] stuff other than what they're growing at that area
so with this surplus food they can create trade routes they can go and get metal to create weapons and tools and new
Technology they're able [to] take that next step and the third kind of natural geographical
That's kind of a bummer is that they don't have any natural defenses, and they're able to figure out with all this mud silt
They can make little bricks and walls they built a wall
I kid you not and this kept them safe, but doing these three things requires
Organization you need to control workers and give them jobs and have
taxes and do all of the things that you know are required for a
civilization to grow and that's where you're going [to] get government and
Religion and
politics and really the fundamental building blocks of civilization
Let's talk about the city state just for a few minutes here kids because it's really really
Important now the City states in a sense are like little [nations] unto themselves that do share some commonalities
But some of those commonalities are really important now because of cultural Diffusion. They had trade routes
They bring back this kind of religious idea from outside of sumer of being
Polytheistic of worshipping many gods, and I'm not talking about three or four gods
I'm talking about like three thousand cots
but because of the importance of religion and the crops and the weather and this focus on
religion the priest becomes the leader in the beginning of
Sumerian life of the civilization itself at the center [of] every sumerian City-State is what's called a ziggurat?
You are vocab
there's the dumbo cap is ziggurat write it down like ten times and you can see that this kind of rectangle or pyramid kind of
Structure which [has] a temple in the middle is really going to be in a sense like the religious City hall of sumer life
But as time goes on and warfare increases not only [between] city-States and outside nomadic you know tribes
Barbarians that are fighting them but between themselves
City-States fighting City-states these city-states begin to have standing armies, so it's going to be the
Strongman that takes the front seat with the priests taking the back seat and of course
This is where we get the king idea as the strong man passes their power on a to their son
So that's the very very basics of kind of what a City was
Ziggurat being the most important vocabulary word and now let's take a look a little bit at their cultural life in
sumer where the sumerians live
So we go back to religion really as being culturally the most significant thing in the life of a sumerian
Who lived in Sumer and again? They were polytheistic they had about [3,000] gods the number one
God was enlil and
Enlil was the god of the air and the clouds and you probably could figure out why?
Because their crops are life, and if it doesn't rain, or the flood doesn't come or the ground dries up you die
So enlil was at the top of the food chain in terms of the the gods and the wicked [uh] dogs
were the demons in the lowest form [of] gods that were responsible for
Bad things that occurred to you if you got sick or your house burned down or your kid died it was the wicked uh [dougs]
So people were constantly praying and giving
Sacrifices and giving gifts to the priests in order to get the gods on their side they lived for the day
they didn't live for death this isn't a religion where you die and you go to heaven [you] die and you go to like the
Underworld beneath the Earth where it's all dark and nasty and in fact they used cuneiform to write their ideas down
that's how we'd know this and one of the first pieces of
Literature in Human history was the [epic] of [Gilgamesh]
Who is one of the early Kings of a City-state in?
Sumer where the sumerians land you can hear from this passage how they viewed life itself gilgamesh
Whither are you wandering life which you look for you will never find for when the gods created [man]
They let death be his share and withheld life in their own hands
Immortality you're not going to find it gilgamesh
But we also have a social class that is emerged. It's important
Who you are when you're born so of course at the top of that pyramid are going to be the leaders the rulers the [Kings]?
The strongmen of society and then underneath them a nice cozy life it could be a priest
How about that be a priest?
And then we have merchants the people that sold and traded and we're able to accumulate
You know in a sense some wealth and then below them
We have the workers themselves the people that are digging the ditches building the walls you know
Carrying the rocks and then even below them we have slavery in the land of sumer
Slaves were normally captured from outside of the kingdom, but they were also sometimes sold by their parents into slavery
But you could free yourselves
I guess if you worked hard enough, but I certainly wouldn't want to be a slave in any circumstance now
There is a slight difference in the way that men and women were viewed in sumer they're going to be viewed
Afterwards it certainly is a patriarchal society in a sense. It's run by men. That's what patriarchy means
It's run by men
But unlike civilizations that occur afterwards women could basically have any job they could be priests
They could be merchants
They could be artisans they couldn't learn to write that was one negative of being a woman, but they could own property
which is unheard of after that maybe the [sumers] were a little more advanced than the
civilizations that are going to occur after them and finally I'd like to talk about [science] and
[technology] so they invented lots and lots of things not only do they invent some pretty simple stuff like the wheel
And to the wheel, but they're going to be the first ones really to invent sales for you know navigational purposes
[they're] the first ones that recorded maps they invent plows the first ones to use
Bronze of course they had writing systems again. That's the word cuneiform
Write down that ten dimes
They're the first ones to investigate astronomy and medicine and chemistry and because of the ziggurats you know
Architecture becomes really important, and you need ramps and you need arches
And you need Columns which means you need brace yourself kids you need math, so they come up with a mathematical system
That was based on 60. That's why we have 60 seconds
That's why there's 360 degrees in a circle, so I'm going to give a shout out to the sumerians. Thank you for having the first
Civilization, but like all great peoples you're going to be invaded and conquered by somebody a little bit stronger
So let's look at some of the other civilizations that are going to pop up in kind of that an area of sumer and in
Mesopotamia in General, and then we'll close up shop and your brain will [be] a lot bigger about that big
Nothing lasts forever now the sumerians themselves had a really good run at it. Remember they start around
3500 Bce and about A
Thousand years later a little more than a thousand years although [they] were on the fighting downfall for [a] while
they're finally going to be overtaken by the akkadians a cade was a city-state that was north of where sumer [was] and
their leader was the Sargon of akkad and
Sargon of akkad is going to have the distinct pleasure of being the first leader of an empire
Not just the city-state not just the civilization, but an empire a real empire so around
2,350 Bce. They're going to invade they're going to adopt to the sumerians a lot of their customs and their beliefs
but they're going to be the top dogs running the show and their
Empire that means that it's not just going to be sumer, but it's going to be expanding northward and Westward
As well and eventually that's going to stretch from the mediterranean you could see from the map right there all the way through iran
So that's a pretty big empire that they had it lasted for about two [hundred] years again
these were the acadians under the [sargon] of [akkad] who invaded Sumer [and] the
Sumerians and created the first empire good for him, but eventually those folks are going to be replaced around
[2,000] Bce by the amorite and the [Abba] [rites] are going to Overrun the sumerians
They were a numeric kind of barbaric tribe that came in and are going to run the show [now]
And they're going to make their capital at Babylon, and that's why they're known as
Babylonians and the babylonians are going to last for about 500 years to about
1500 Bce their crowning achievement their golden age around 1750 Bce is going to be when they had the leader
Hammurabi and Hammurabi is best known for not only being a very powerful [end] in a sense
Peaceful leader he really tried to look after his people, but he believes in law and order. So here's some more vocabulary
Called Hammurabi's code and we have a video [that] you can go check out
We've already made if you want to learn more about hammurabi's code its link down in the description below
but it's going to be a set of
282 laws that were etched in stone and put across all of the [empire] so everybody had a standard eyes
Book of rules to follow in a sense. It's an eye for an eye. It's very gangster in a sense
you're gonna hear a couple of them really quickly right now [if] a man has stolen an
Ox [a] sheep a pig or a boat that belongs to a temple or palace he shall repay
30 times its cost if it is a private citizen he shall repay ten times if the feet
Cannot pay he shall be put to death
If a woman hates her husband and says to him you cannot be with me
The authorities in her district will investigate the [case]
If she has been chaste and without fault even [though] her husband has neglected or belittled her
She will be held innocent and may return to her father's house
If the woman is at fault she shall be thrown in the river
[I] told you it's pretty gangster, and that's hammurabi's code
but eventually everything comes to an end even the
Babylonians couldn't stay in power with all their nifty rules and such and around 1500 Bce
They're going to be kicked out [of] town as well. All right guys
We hope that you understand the very basics of Mesopotamia remember. This is an intro lecture
You're probably going to have to learn a little bit more by maybe
I don't know reading a book or something
But we certainly hope that you have enough to make yourself comfortable in class pass that test
And maybe your brains a [little] bit bigger as well, so giddyup the lord in one more time skies
I say it at the end of every lecture because I mean it with all my heart where attention goes energy flows
Make sure you check out the growing world playlist down in the description below and if you haven't checked out the home page
We have over 400 videos
Across the social studies. [we] certainly hope they could check that [I] I'm not even from Canada. I say [ow], [all] right [guys]
We'll see you next time you press my buttons!!!!!!