Title: 02 - Lesson: First Words
Course: English 4A SU15 > Section: Unit: First Words

Why Bother?

When reading stories it is important to understand the culture which wrote the stories. That can give us a glimpse into why they might tell the types of stories they do. Keep that in mind. Things like climate, environment, population and agriculture all influence the people of those places. When you are trying to determine character motivations or why something is the way it is the reason might very well be from one of those aspects. Consider how some of those details may change if the same type of story was told in another time or place.

In the case of the Babylonians, they were some of the first humans to form a civilization. They were also the first group of humans we know of that had a written form of communication (cuneiform) and a system of laws. One of the oldest stories ever recorded by humans is one that is still very popular among some today. It is called the Gilgamesh Epic (you'll read some of it later) and it is the very first reference to a disastrous flood that destroyed almost all of mankind (sound familiar?) Since you may need some background information, the Enuma elish is also included so you can get a sense for the religion of the time in that place.

Question time: You don’t have to answer them all but you should read over them and consider them for class or small group discussion...

What do you already know about the development of early human civilization? Where did you learn it and do you feel any kind of connection with our early ancestors? Do you have any questions about how humans developed culture and how their society was structured? How did your social group form and why does it stay together? What kinds of things change the dynamic of your group of friends?

One of the themes of this course will be to analyze how ideas spread and how those ideas can change perception and attitudes.

What is Mesopotamia?

Mesopotamia is the place between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers (modern day Iraq). Its name comes from the Greek root words mesos (middle) + potamos (river). This is also why the area is often referred to as the Fertile Crescent.^1

This place is thought to be one of the oldest human civilizations and is often referred to as the Cradle of Civilization since there are signs of human settlement going back to 12,000 BCE. (There is still some debate as to whether or not this is the oldest.)

This is where the Babylonian civilization started over 5,000 years ago. It's capital is Babylon. This is where the oldest form of human writing can be found (cuneiform); and it is here that the story you'll read in this unit (The Epic of Gilgamesh) was written. As far as we now know, it is the oldest recorded copy of any story humans have told. You will find some similarities in this story with others that you have heard in terms of events and style. We are still telling stories in this format today. The Epic of Gilgamesh is somewhat fragmented as you can imagine though every effort has been made to make a complete translation.

Many of these place names may not be familiar to you (maybe none of them are); look at the next page for a more modern look at the territory we are talking about here...

^1Source: Kassite Babylonia EN by MapMaster Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic license.

 This page from English/Language Arts Grade 12 by MN Partnership for Collaborative Curriculum is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

Modern Mesopotamia

The countries in this map should look more familiar to you. We’re looking at an image of modern day borders of Syria and Iraq superimposed over Mesopotamia. Now that you've got a brief understanding of the place it's time to dig in.

Image Source: Map of Mesopotamia by Goran tek-en Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

 This page from English/Language Arts Grade 12 by MN Partnership for Collaborative Curriculum is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License.