Download Mesopotamia Study Guide

Mesopotamia Study Guide
Characteristics of a civilization:
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2.1 Geography of Ancient Mesopotamia
 Fertile Crescent is the name for the area of land where the first cities came about. It is named for its
crescent moon shape and its fertile soil.
 Fertile Crescent is bordered by the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea and is located where Iraq
exists today.
 Mesopotamia is a Greek word meaning The Land Between Two Rivers: the Tigris and Euphrates.
 When the rivers flooded, they left behind bits of rock and soil called silt. This created good soil for
farming.
 Thanks to the development of agriculture, people in Fertile Crescent could stay in one place and create
settlements.
 Because droughts were common, farmers developed a system of irrigation, or canals, ditches and
dams to get water from the rivers to the farmland. Irrigation also helped solve the problem of
flooding. Canals and ditches carried away water that would otherwise destroy villages.
 Mesopotamians grew crops such as wheat, emmer, barley, cucumbers, figs, apples, and onions. They
kept goats, sheep and cattle for milk, meat and wool.
2.2 Civilization in Mesopotamia
 Sumerians created not only irrigation, but also the wheel (potters’ wheel, cart, chariot, water wheel),
the sail boat and a form of writing called cuneiform.
 Ziggurats were large mud-brick temples . At the top of each ziggurat was a shrine to the city’s god. The
ziggurat was the center of each city.
 The Sumerians believed the gods would give them a large harvest if they pleased them.
 With large numbers of people living together, laws were needed to keep order.
 Sumer was made up of independent city-states. A new form of government, called a monarchy, was
developed to provide stronger leadership. A monarchy is ruled by a king.
 Sumerians believed that their gods selected their rulers.
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Agriculture led to a surplus of food. This meant people had as much food as they needed and they
could do jobs other than farming. Some jobs were merchants, craftworkers and scribes. This is called a
division of labor.
Sumerians traded their crops and other things for wood, salt, stones, copper and tin.
Scribes were people who could read and write for other people.
The people of Sumer developed a highly developed system of writing called cuneiform. It was made up
of wedge shaped characters.
Aside from writing and irrigation, the Sumerians invented systems for measurement, sail boats, the plow.
Social Hierarchy
“The Pyramid of Power”
Upper Class
Kings,
leaders,
priests
Middle Class
Scribes
merchants
craftworkers
farmers
Lowest Class
slaves
2.3 Conquests and Empires
 City states often went to war over water and land rights.
 These wars led to new innovations in weapons, such as the war chariot.
 The first known conqueror in Mesopotamia was a warrior named Sargon. Sargon killed the king of Kish and took
control of the city-state. He then went on to conquer other lands to build an empire. Sargon became the
region’s first emperor.
 Hammurabi was the king of Babylon. He was an effective ruler and he built up the great Babylonian Empire.
Hammurabi developed a system of taxation. He also created 282 laws with an “eye for an eye” philosophy. This
became known as the Code of Hammurabi.
 The Assyrians eventually conquered and controlled much of the region.
2.4 The Ancient Israelites
 Abram (Abraham) believed in monotheism, or one god. Most Mesopotamians believed in polytheism, or the
belief in many gods.
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When famine hit their land, the Israelites left for Egypt. There they found food and jobs. Later, Egyptian rulers
enslaved the Israelites.
Moses, the leader of the Israelites, led a revolt against the Egyptians. Enslaved Israelites followed Moses from
Egypt to Canaan. This large movement of people is called an exodus.
Moses presented the Ten Commandments, a set of rules he says were told to him by God during the exodus.
Judaism is the religion of the Jewish people. The first five books of the Old Testament are referred to as the
Torah by Jewish people.
The settling of Jews outside of Israel is known as diaspora. It comes from the Greek word for “sowing.”
2.5 The Phoenicians and the Lydians
 Phonecia was located in the northwestern part of Fertile Crescent. The Phoenicians traveled and traded all over
the Mediterranean Sea and beyond. In their travels they saw how other cultures were developing systems of
writing. Borrowing those ideas, they created a simplified alphabet using 22 letters. Now many people could
learn to read and write, not just scribes. Later, the Greeks borrowed this system to create the alphabet we use
today. This borrowing of cultural ideas is called cultural diffusion.
 The Lydians lived to the northwest of Phoenecia. At first, their economy was based on bartering. Then, around
600 bc the Lydians became the first to used coined money put out by their government.