Hammurabi’s Code - the Fertile Crescent

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tablets. The tigris and Euphrates river provided scribes with the clay they wrote on. Each spring, these rivers washed down clay from the mountains. To use this clay to write, scribes shaped the soft, wet clay into smooth, flat surfaces called tablets. They marked their letters in the clay with sharp tools and when the clay was dry it became a permanent record. After time, the Phoenicians developed their own alphabet to help them conduct trade. The Phoenician alphabet was a set of symbols that represented the sounds of a language. This alphabet formed the basis of many languages used today, including english! This writing system used only 22 symbols and was far more easier to learn. Now many people could write using the new alphabet. The alphabet simplified trade between people who spoke different languages. The Phoenician sea trade helped the alphabet spread through Mesopotamia.

The Fertile Crescent had a unique system of trade that was made up of three main parts, the masters of trade, the spread of ideas, and phoenician sea power. The Phoenicians controlled trade throughout much of the Mediterranean Sea. People throughout the Fertile Crescent traded with Phoenicia because of their very important but limited resources, such as their dye cloth, wood,and foods. Trade also brought honorable goods from different lands by the Mediterranean Sea to the cities of Tyre and Sidon (located in Phoenicia.) These foods were then brought to nearby bazaars for people to buy and enjoy. The foods inculded figs, olives, honey, and spices.After time, the Phoenician trade became knows as Phoenician sea power and Phoenicians were then known as Masters of Trade.By around 3500 B.C. , some civilizations had developed an amazing invention called the wheel and axle (an axles is a rod which a wheel turns.) With this invention, trade goods could be transported through the city to market. More good could also be loaded into carts and pushed farther and more easily. With the spread of ideas trade over water was also developed. Merchant ships carried goods across seas and rivers. With all this travel, people of many different cultures came into contact with one another. New tools and ideas were spread to other societies as people traded information along with goods.

In conclusion, the Fertile Crescent was made up of three major elements. These three elements are the Code of Hammurabi, Trade, and Writing. Because of these elements the Fertile Crescent was made up more significantly. These elements also had a huge impact on later civilizations and Earth today.