I) Sumer (continued)

C) Emotional Fulfillment
  1)Religion
    i) polytheistic (gods represent the forces of nature)
    ii) Gods could be cruel / Egyptians believed that the gods were nice
     a) forces of nature in Sumer were not a forgiving as Egypt
      1) Floods were unpredictable
    iii) Religion was base on the explanation of the world
     a) the worse things got, the more people needed a religion to explain
    iv) An - Ki - Enlil
     a) An - was the father god
     b) Ki -  was the mother god
     c) Enlil - was the son of An / Ki
      1) father of mankind and many gods
      2) created people so the gods didn't have to do work
       i) this explains why life is hard - people were created to do the gods work
    v) each city / state worship one specific god in addition to the other gods
    vi) Ziggurat
     a) was a large structure with a temple on top
     b) the Ziggurat was the tallest structure of the city
     c) Believed that gods would visit the Ziggurat from time to time
     d) the Ziggurat was always visible to people when they were working
      1) this reminded the people that they were working for the gods - Emotional fulfillment
    vii) When bad things would happen, Sumer wanted to feel as if there was something they        could do to improve their situation
     a) people could gain satisfaction through sacrifices
     b) Death - Sacrifice
      1) sacrifices in a ritual way helped Sumerians to deal with death
      2) Sumerian life meant alot of sacrifices
    viii) Religion = hard work for the gods = creates wealth for the society
  2) Beer
   i) many of the crops of Sumer were turned into beer
 D) Problems of Sumer
   1) war between city / states
    i) frequent wars
    ii) due to warfare, city states increase the power of the Ensi ( head govt. position)
     a) makes people feel more secure with a strong leader
     b) eventually the Ensi turns into a Lugal
      1) more of a king position
      2) succession becomes hereditary
     c) Ensi / Lugal might start wars with other city states to retain or gain more power
 E) Sargon becomes the most powerful Ensi in Sumer
  1) able to stop the warfare among the city / states
    i) no war = free trade = stronger economy = more wealth
 F) Sargon's successors were  not as well qualified
  1) they behaved tyrannically
    i) rebellions occur due to tyranny
     a) Sumer becomes more vunrable to outside attacks
 G) End of Sumer
   1) Amorite invasion
     i) Babylonians take advantage of lack of Sumer unity
     ii) Overthrow the Sumarians
     iii) Babylonians don't destroy Sumer
      a) they adopt the gods of Sumer
      b) Improve upon many aspects of Sumer

II) Babylonians ( 2000 - 1550 b.c.)
 A) Hammurabi  ( c. 1750 b.c.)
   1) able to unify all of Mesopotamia
   2) benefits of a large unified empire
     i) no interior threats, only threats from outside forces
     ii) Free trade
      a) creates a good economy
     iii) surplus wealth goes to art and cultural things
      a) emotional fulfillment
 B) Improvements on Sumer
  1) Math
    i) inherited Sumer's math system, then improved upon it
     a) used quadratic equations
    ii) able to study astronomy?
  2) Religion
    i) adopted the same gods as Sumer
    ii) They worshiped a special god Marduk

[Note from Art--the following story is from the Babylonian poem The Enuma Elish. You might find it interesting to read through the poem itself]

     a) Tiamat and her evil son Kingu ( god of chaos ) threatened the security of the gods
     b) Marduk slays Tiamot, thus saving the gods
      1) Marduk becomes the main god due to his saving of the other gods
     c) Represents the forces of order
     d) Babylonians wanted to feel like they were on the same side as order
     e) Marduk creates people out of the blood of Kingu
      1) this gives an explanation as to why people can be evil
      2) Babylonians see that everyone has the ability to be evil
      3) Babylonians see that the place to stop evil is within yourself
  3) Written law ( Code of Hammurabi )

[Another note from Art: The complete text ofThe Code of Hammurabi may also be of interest to some students.]

* note - Hammurabi had a code of laws written to provide ethical guidance for Babylonians
    i) Code # 1 syllabus- promotes honesty / punishes false accusations
    ii) Code # 2 syllabus - Equal retribution
    iii) Code #3 syllabus - Professional competence
    iv) Code # 4 syllabus - dissuades people from cheating others by doing shoddy work