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MESOPOTAMIA #2
Over thousands of years, some of the early ___________ villages developed into __________________, which are __omplex
__ocieties. They have __ities, organized __overnments, __rt, __eligion, __lass divisions, and a __riting system.
Why were river valleys important? The first civilizations arose in _________ valleys because the farming conditions made it easy to
__eed __arge __umbers of people. The rivers also made it easy to get from one __lace to another and to ___________. Trade
provided a way for __oods and __deas to __________ from place to place. It was no accident, then, that cities grew up in these
valleys and became the centers of ______________________.
As cities took shape, so did the need for _______________. Someone had to make __lans and __ecisions about matters of common
concern. People formed the ________________ to do just that. Their leaders took charge of __ood supplies and __uilding projects.
They made ______________ to keep order and assemble the ______________ to fend off the enemies.
With fewer worries about meeting their basic needs, people in the river valleys had more time to _____ about other things. They
developed __eligions in the __rts. To pass and __nformation, they invented the ways of _________________. They also created
_________________ to tell time.
Early civilizations shared another feature- they had a _____________ structure. That is, people held __ifferent places in __ociety
depending on what __ork they did and how much __ealth and __ower they had.
The Rise of Sumer: The earliest-known civilization arose in what is now Southern __________, on a flat plain bounded by the
____________ River and the _______________ River. This area was called ___________________, which is Greek for “the _and
_etween the _ivers”. Mesopotamia lay in the eastern part of the __________ _____, a curving strip of land that extends for the
_editerranean Sea to the _ersian Gulf.
Mesopotamia had a hot, dry ____________. In the spring, the rivers often ________________, leaving behind rich _oil for _arming.
The problem was that the flooding was a very ____predictable. It might flood of one year, but ________ the next. Every year,
farmers worried about their __rops. They came to believe they needed their __________ to bless their efforts.
Over time, the farmers learn to build __________ and channels to control the seasonal floods. They also built _alls, _aterways, and
_itches to bring water to their fields. This way of watering crops is called _________________. Irrigation allowed the farmers to
grow plenty of _ood and support a _arge _opulation. By __000 BCE many __ities have formed in southern Mesopotamia in a region
known as ______________.
What were City-States? Sumerian cities were _solated from each other by _eography. Beyond the areas of settlement lay _udflats
and patches of scorching ____________. This terrain made __ravel and __ommunication difficult. Each Sumerian city and the land
around it became a separate ________-state. It had its own _overnment and was ________ part of any larger unit.
Sumerian city-states often went to _____ with one another. They fought to gain _lory and to control more _erritory. For protection,
each city-state surrounded itself with a _________. Because stone and wood were in short supply, the _umerians used river _ud as
their main building material. They mixed the mud with crushed and ___________, formed bricks, and left them in the _______ to
dry. The hard waterproof bricks were used for __alls, as well as __omes, __emples, and other __uildings. Some still exist today.
Gods and Rulers: The Sumerian’s believed in ____________ gods. They were ________theistic. Each was thought to have power
over a _atural _orce or a human activity- _looding, for example. The Sumerian’s tried hard to _lease the _ods. They built a grand
temple called a __________________ to the chief god. The word ZIGGURAT means “_ountain of _od” or “hill of heaven”.
With tiers like a giant square _edding cake, the Ziggurat _ominated the city. At the top was a ________, or special place of worship
that only _riests and priestesses could enter. The priests and priestesses are powerful and controlled much of the _and. They may
even have _uled at one time. Later, ___________ ran the _overnment. They led the _rmy’s and organize _uilding projects. The first
Kings were probably war _____________. Their position became _ereditary. That is, after a king _ied, his _on took over.
What was life like in Sumer? While Sumerian Kings lived in large _alaces, ordinary people live in small _ud-brick _ouses. Most
people in Sumer _armed. Some, however, were _rtisans or skilled workers who made _etal products, cloth, or pottery. Other people
in Sumer worked as _erchants or _raders. They travel to other cities and towns and _raded _ools, _heat, and _arley for _opper, _in,
and _imber-things that Sumer did not have.
People in Sumer were _____________ into _____ social __lasses. The _pper class included _ings, _riests, and governmental _fficials.
In the _iddle class were _rtisans, _erchants, _ishers. These people made up the _____________ group. The _ower class was _nslaved
people who worked on _arms or in the temple.
Enslaved people were forced to serve others. Slaveholders thought of them as _______________. Some slaves were _risoners of
_ar. Others were _riminals. Still others were enslaved because they had to pay off their _______.
In Sumer, men and women had _eparate roles. Men headed the _ouseholds. Only males go to _______. Women, however, did have
_ights. They could buy and sell _roperty and _______ businesses.
The Sumerian’s left a lasting mark on World History. Their _deas and _nventions were _opied and _mproved upon by other peoples.
As a result, Mesopotamia has been called the “____________________________.”
Why was writing important? The people of _________ created many things that still affect our lives _____________. Probably their
greatest invention was _riting. Writing is important because it helps people keep _ecords and pass on _deas to others.
People in Sumer developed writing to keep track of _usiness deals and other events. Their writing was called _______________. It
consisted of hundreds of a _edged-_haped _arks cut into damp _lay tablets with a sharp-ended _eed. Archaeologists have found
thousands of these Cuneiform ____________, telling us much about Mesopotamian ________________.
Only a few people- Mostly __________ from wealthy families-learn how to _rite. After years of training, they became
_______________, or record keepers. Scribes held honored positions in society, often going on to become _udges and _olitical
leaders.
Sumerian’s literature: The Sumerian’s also produced works of _iterature. The world’s oldest known story comes from ___________.
It is called the _________ of ____________________________. An epic is a long ________ that tells the story of a __________. The
hero _ilgamesh is a _ing who travels around the world with a friend and performs great deeds. When his friend dies, Gilgamesh
searches for a way to live _______________. He learns that this is possible only for the ________________.
Advances in science and math: Them Mesopotamia’s creativity extended to __echnology too. You learned earlier about the
Sumerian _rrigation _ystems. Sumerian’s also invented the wagon __________ to help carry _eople and _oods from place to place.
Another breakthrough was the __________, which made farming easier. Still another invention was the _________________, which
replaced muscle power with wind power.
Sumerian’s developed many _athematical ideas. They used to _eometry to measure _ields and put up _uildings. They also created a
number system based on ___. We have them to thank for our __ minute hour, and __ second minute, and _____° circle.
In addition, Sumerian people watched the ______________ to learn the best times to _lant _rops and to hold _eligious _estivals.
They recorded the _ositions of the _lanets and _tars and developed a _____-month __________________ based on the cycles of the
__oon.
Sargon and Hammurabi: Over time, __onflicts weakened __umer’s __ity-states. They became vulnerable to attacks by outside
groups such as the _______________ of northern Mesopotamia.
The king of the Akkadians was named ______________. In about 2340 B.C.E., Sargon conquered ______ Mesopotamia. He set up
the world’s first ____________. An empire is a group of many different lands under __ ruler. Sargon’s empire lasted for more than
________ years before _alling to _nvaders.
In the 1800s BCE, a new group of people became powerful in Mesopotamia. They built the city of _______________ by the
__uphrates River. It quickly became a center of ____________. Beginning in 1792 BCE, the Babylonian king,
______________________, began conquering cities to the north and south and created the __abylonian _______________.
__ammurabi is best known for his __________, or collection of _aws. He took what he believed were the best laws from each _itystate and put them in one _ode. The code covered _rimes, _arming and business _ctivities, _arriage and the _amily- almost every
area of life. Although many _unishments in the _ode of _ammurabi were ___________, his laws mark an important step toward a
_air system of ____.