Sra: Imagine It!, Themes, Taking a Stand, Ancient Civilizations Ecology, Great Expectations, Earth in Action, Art and Impact, Level 6

While each Sumerian city was thought to belong to a god, it was ruled on the god's behalf by a king. According to Sumerian beliefs, the idea of kingship had come down to earth from heaven at the beginning of time. The king was a chief priest, whose main role was to serve the gods. He built and repaired the city's temples, and played a leading role in religious ceremonies, meant to ensure good harvests. He was also a judge, overseeing law and order, and a war leader, who led his city's army into battle. These roles, of judge and warrior, were also religious. Like kingship, the laws were believed to have come from the gods, and wars were seen as quarrels between rival city gods.

There were a number of different royal titles. A king of a single city was called the ensi, which is thought to mean "lord." Through warfare, some kings were able to extend their rule over a number of cities. Their title was lugal, which means "big man."

The beautiful box above was discovered in the 1920s by the British archaeologist, Leonard Woolley, in a royal grave at Ur. Unsure of its purpose, Woolley called it the "Standard of Ur." The box has two sides, showing the activities of a king in peace and in war. The peace side depicts a royal feast in the top row. At the top right, you can see a musician playing a lyre and a woman singing. The king, on the left, wears no special royal regalia, such as a crown. However, he can be recognized because he is much bigger than the other figures.

How Do we Know?

Sumerian kings wanted people to remember their achievements. So they had their names stamped on the bricks of the temples they built, and they set up inscriptions recording their victories in war. Lists of kings were also preserved, which help us to work out the sequence of rulers in different cities. Evidence of the daily life of courts comes from goods buried in royal graves, including jewellery, lyres, and the "Standard of Ur."

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The King's Laws

One of the most important duties of a Mesopotamian king was to oversee justice. Kings had to give decisions in quarrels over land or property, and they tried and punished criminals. They also wrote the first laws, in which they listed punishments for various crimes, and described how cases should be judged. The most complete early law list is that of King Hammurabi, ruler of Babylon from 1792-50bce. He had his laws carved on a 7 foot high cone-shaped stele.

Hammurabi's stele has forty-nine columns in which 282 laws are listed. Among them, a son who struck his father would have both his hands chopped off. A man who had put out the eye of another man would have his own eye put out. Most of these laws were not invented by Hammurabi, but were based on existing customs.

At the end of the list, Hammurabi explained that he had set the stele up as an example to later rulers: "To the end of days, forever, may the king who happens to be in the land observe the words of justice which I have inscribed on my stele ... let that stele reveal to him the accustomed way, the way to follow, the land's judgements which I have judged."

How Do we Know?

The stele of Hammurabi was discovered in the winter of 1901, by the French archaeologist, Jean-Vincent Scheil. He found it not in Babylon, where Hammurabi had it set up, but in Susa, capital of Elam, in present-day Iran. In 1165bce, the Elamites attacked Babylon and took the stele away with them as booty. When Scheil found the stele, it was broken into three pieces. He put them back together, and then spent six months translating the writing. Today, you can see Hammurabi's stele in the Louvre Museum in Paris.

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Peter Chrisp

Chrisp began writing professionally in the early 1990s. After studying English literature, teaching courses on the subject, and working as a researcher at the Mass-Observation Archive at Sussex University, Chrisp began writing about history. He has now written over eighty books for young readers. He writes about many different subjects, including ancient civilizations, Shakespeare, and the Victorian era.

Meet the Illustrator

James Edwards

Edwards says "my ideas come from research first." He scours old books for images and photos he can use to create his illustrations that reconstruct historical periods and figures. One of the things he most enjoys about his work is that he gets to depict many different areas of human culture. This allows him to investigate and learn as he creates his art.

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Ancient Civilizations: Theme Connections

Within the Selection

Across Selections

Beyond the Selection

Write about It!

Would you have liked to be trained as a scribe in ancient Mesopotamia? Why or why not?

Remember to look for pictures of ancient Mesopotamian artifacts for the Concept/Question Board.

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Genre

Feature

Metalworkers changed the physical state of metal to make tools. To alter the metal's shape, they could change it from solid to liquid. Mesopotamians used heat transfer to change the state of a metal.

The heat transfer began with a chemical change that released energy.

Atoms are one of the smallest particles of an element. Many substances are made of two or more chemically joined atoms, which form a larger particle called a molecule. During a chemical change, atoms join or separate from one another. Sometimes they separate from one molecule to form a molecule of a different substance.

When fuels are burned, the atoms separate and form gases, releasing stored heat energy in the process.

Once a fuel is burning, the heat it creates can be transferred to something else. Heat energy moves in three ways: conduction, convection, and radiation.

In conduction, heat moves from particle to particle through contact. Mesopotamians heated metal in a crucible. Heat transferred from the heated crucible to the metal, which melted. When hot metal was poured into cool stone molds, the heat moved from the metal to the stone.

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Heat energy can also be transferred through radiation. The sun's vast energy reaches Earth as radiation. Wax melts at lower temperatures than metal. In Mesopotamia, it would be possible to melt wax in the hot sun. The melted wax was then used to make clay molds.

When Mesopotamians changed the state or shape of metal, they were making a physical change. They also made chemical changes. They added a small amount of tin to copper, creating a new, harder metal called bronze.

How do the first and last headings help you understand how metal can be changed?

What type of change are you making if you shape bronze into a plate? Explain.

When you fry an egg, what type of heat transfer cooks the egg?

Try It!

As you work on your investigation, think about how you can use headings to organize your information.

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

I met a traveller from an antique land

Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand

Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown

And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,

The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed;

And on the pedestal these words appear:

"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:

Look on my works, ye Mighty and despair!"

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,

The lone and level sands stretch far away.
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Great Wall of China

Focus Question How does the poem reflect its subject? by J. Patrick Lewis

DATE: BUILT FROM 3RD CENTURY B.C.

TO 20TH CENTURY A.D.

LOCATION: JINSHANLING, CHINA

BUILDER: ABOUT HALF A MILLION PEOPLE

PHYSICAL FACT: 1,500 MILES LONG (2,400 KM)

Test-Taking Strategy: Analyzing Questions

Read each question on a test carefully. The question and answer choices have important words. Try to find these important words. They will help you answer the question correctly. You should also think carefully about what the question is asking. Try to understand the question before you choose an answer.

Read the item below. Think about the important words in the question and the answer choices. Decide which answer is best.

According to the article, which of these uses an outside force to move?

A an airplane

B a motorcycle

C a car

D a sailboat

The first part of the question reminds you to base your answer on the article, not on information that you might have heard or read. The other important words in the question are outside force. By reading the question carefully and thinking about what it is asking, you can figure out the correct answer. Now look at the answer choices. Which choice is the best answer to the question? Only the last answer is something that moves by an outside force--the wind. All the other answers are things that move by their own power.

It is very important that you read all the words in questions and answer choices carefully. Analyzing a question will help you understand it better and then choose the correct answer.

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Test Taking Practice

Read the article "The First Superdome." Then answer Numbers 1 through 4.

There is no denying that famous people get a lot of attention in today's world. Athletes, entertainers, and world leaders are on television and in the news daily. The most well-known people often end up in a "Hall of Fame" where they join their fellow stars. There are different halls of fame all around the world, but one of the oldest is in Rome. It is called the Pantheon.

The Pantheon was built more than two thousand years ago. At the time it was built, the Romans had many famous generals, politicians, and gladiators. The most well-known names were those of the gods and goddesses of the Roman religion. The Romans believed in a large number of gods and goddesses. Many of them are still familiar to us today. Venus, the Roman goddess of love, has a planet named after her. In fact, nearly all of the planets in our solar system have Roman names.

The ancient Romans built temples to their gods. The Pantheon was intended to be a temple devoted to all of them. In fact, the word pantheon means "all of the gods." So you might say that the Pantheon was a Hall of Fame for the Roman gods.

The Pantheon was built on the same spot where two earlier temples had burned down. Anxious for this temple to last a long time, the Romans chose a unique design.

First, the Pantheon was built on a colossal scale. Its front door alone is about twenty feet high. Upon entering the body of the temple, there is a huge circular space. The unexpected size is intended to take your breath away.

Looking up at the soaring domed vault above, you can see the heavens. That is because a nearly thirty-foot round opening called an oculus is at the top of the dome. This opens the building to the sky and brings in natural light. As the sun moves across the sky, sunlight from the oculus moves across the round interior of the Pantheon, highlighting a different part of its wall.

Over the centuries, the Pantheon has survived earthquakes, floods, and war--all with its round roof intact. Visitors from around the world view it daily. The Pantheon has influenced the ways that libraries, government buildings, and universities are built. The gods of the Pantheon are no longer worshipped, but the building has become a celebrity in its own right. If there were a Hall of Fame for buildings, the Pantheon would be among the first honored there.
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Use what you learned from the article "The First Superdome" to answer Numbers 1 through 4. Write your answers on a piece of paper.

The article says that the Pantheon was built on a colossal scale. This means it is --

A stone

B simple

C enormous

D expensive

The Romans built the Pantheon to --

A honor their gods

B remember the founders of Rome

C celebrate victories against enemies

D see gladiators fight

Why does the author include the detail about Venus in this passage?

A to describe the view from inside the Pantheon

B to show that names of Roman goddesses are still used today

C to explain how the Pantheon got its name

D to show the size of the Pantheon

The oculus of the Pantheon could best be compared to --

A a foot

B a hand

C an ear

D an eye

Test Tips

* Compare the answer choices with one another.

* Choose the best answer to the question.

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Unit 3: Ecology

Earth is like a giant jigsaw puzzle. Every piece connects to other pieces. It takes all the pieces to make the puzzle complete. What is your part in Earth's puzzle of life? What other pieces are connected to you? There are more than you think ... many more than you think.
Fine Art Theme Connection

Look at the painting The Serengeti by Jacob Lawrence.

* How do the animals relate to their environment?

* What ecosystem is represented?

* What other life forms could be added to the painting?

Tempera and gouache on illustration board. 17 26 inches. Collection of Champion International, Stamford, Connecticut.

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Big Idea

Why is careful interaction among life forms important?

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* vital

* nutrients

* inhabitants

* classify

* diversity

* affect

* quality

* variety

* alarming

* mimic

Vocabulary Strategy

Skip's goats are his pride and joy. They give milk, and they make great friends. These goats will even eat his junk mail and cracker boxes.

How can goats eat paper and cardboard? They are browsers. In the wild, they can eat such foods as bark and branches. Their digestive systems can get vital nutrients from woody substances.

Like other milk goats, Skip's goats are descended from the pasang . These goats were inhabitants of Asia.

Scientists classify goats as mammals. They are warm-blooded with a hairy covering. Part of the basis for classifying goats as mammals is that they give milk to their young. If they were not mammals, they could not do this.

The goats do not live on paper and cardboard alone; they like diversity in their diets. Skip finds that the foods he feeds the goats affect the taste of their milk and its overall quality . They always eat a variety of food, but he tries not to feed them foods with particularly strong flavors.

One day, Skip came home to an alarming sight. The goat pen was empty! The goats had never jumped the fence before.

Skip found the goats beside the house. They were standing outside the living room window. The cage of his pet parrot stood in the window. The bird had learned to copy the noise the goats made. It was such a good mimic that the goats had come to find their new friend!

Game

Concept Vocabulary

The concept word for this lesson is fragile. Fragile means "easily broken." How does fragile connect with ecology?
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Tree of Life

by Rochelle Strauss

Genre

Comprehension Skill: Classify and Categorize

Focus Questions

How are the various leaves and branches on the tree of life connected? Why is it important to become a "guardian" of the tree of life?
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Production note: this image crosses the gutter to appear both on page 268 and page 269 in the print version.

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The Tree of Life

Do you have a family tree that shows how the members of your family--aunts, cousins, grandparents and so on--are related?

The Tree of Life is like a family tree for all living things. It shows us biodiversity, the incredible variety of life on Earth. And it shows us how all living things--from bacteria too small to see with the naked eye to the largest mammal, the blue whale--are related.

So far, scientists have discovered and named 1,750,000 different species (groups of living things that share similar characteristics). If each species were represented by a leaf, there would be 1,750,000 leaves on the Tree of Life.* And all those leaves would be related, some closely on the same branch, others more distantly.

Each part of the Tree of Life is important. A problem with one branch, one twig or even just one leaf may affect the whole tree. Perhaps by climbing the Tree of Life and exploring its branches, we will come to better understand our place within the Tree of Life and our impact on it.

*Note: Scientists do not agree on the exact number of species--there are just too many to be sure. The numbers in this book are based on their best estimates.

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The Five Branches

The Tree of Life is a way to organize, or "classify," all life. By organizing living things into different branches, we can better understand how closely-- or distantly--they are related.

The Tree of Life is often divided into five main branches called "kingdoms."

Kingdom Monera

bacteria

mushrooms, yeasts, lichens ...

paramecia, amoebas, algae ...

flowering plants, mosses, ferns ...

Each kingdom on the Tree of Life has a story to tell us about biodiversity and life on Earth.

You can't see them, but they're out there--the 10,000 species of bacteria that make up the Kingdom Monera.

Bacteria are the smallest life forms on Earth. They are made up of just a single cell and are so tiny that 1,000 of them would fit on the period at the end of this sentence. They're everywhere--on land, in water, even inside you. And there may be hundreds of thousands more to be discovered, including in the harshest environments on Earth--hot springs, sea vents and areas deep beneath the soil.

Do you like beans? Or peas? Without bacteria, such as Rhizobium, these legumes--and many other plants--couldn't survive. Some bacteria live in the roots of plants and help the plants get the nutrients they need to survive.

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The world's oldest and heaviest fungus is an Armillaria bulbosa that lives beneath a forest floor in Michigan. This 1,500-year-old fungus may be far heavier than an African elephant, but all that's visible are its tiny shoots poking up above the ground.

Is there a fungus among us? Chances are pretty good that you've seen or even eaten one today. Every time you bite into a piece of bread, you are eating yeast, a species of fungus. Scientists believe that as many as one million more fungi species have yet to be discovered.

Some fungi are parasitic --they grow on other living plants and animals and get their nutrients from them. But most fungi are decomposers -- they get nutrients from dead plants or animals. Decomposers are the recyclers and cleaners on the Tree of Life.

Imagine a forest in the fall, with billions of leaves falling to the ground. Where does all this "litter" go? Fungi (and some bacteria) help break it down and absorb it as food. And as they do, they create carbon dioxide, which plants use to make their own food.

Without fungi, the Tree of Life would become buried under its own litter.