Download Interactive Story Elements

18 October 2016
Objective – Determine how Mesopotamia fits elements of a civilization.
On your Desk – Cornell Notes- Packet page 2 –
A highlighter & a Pencil
• Bellringer: Write down your homework!
• Mesopotamian Rap 
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdblRch6m3g
• Is Mesopotamia a Civilization?
– Interactive Story
• Fill in Packet page 3
• HW: None (if you read Section 3.1)
Vocabulary Word
Sumerians
Silt
Surplus
City-state
(2 students)
Stable Food Supply
Division of Labor
(3 Students)
Memory Helper
The World’s First Civilization
“Flood, Flood, Flood! Evaporation! Silt!”
More than is needed
Dad: Go to your room!
Child: You can’t tell me what to do!
I have a surplus of food!
1. “I’m a farmer!”,
2. “I work in government,”
3. “I’m a slave…that stinks!”
System of Government
Social Hierarchy
(sung to the Farmer in
the Dell)
Highly Developed Culture
“I’m the King of the World! Bow to me!”
“The kings are at the top, the priests are under them,
skilled workers and scribes are next, with farmers and
slaves at the bottom”
(said very snotty )“I have a lot of culture!”
Polytheism
Cuneiform
“Bless you sun! Bless you moon! Bless you air!”
Wedged symbols
Evidence
Stable Food
Supply
Division of
Labor
Evidence
System of
Government
Social
Hierarchy
Highly
Developed
Culture
Is Mesopotamia a
Civilization?
Stable Food Supply
• Irrigation increased the amount of food
farmers were able to grow
• Farmers could create a surplus of food
• Foods included: fish, meat, barley and
dates
Division of Labor
• Since there was a surplus of food, not
everyone had to be a farmer
• Each worker could specialize in a
particular job
• People could become
– Crafters
– Religious leaders
– Government workers
System of Government
• Organized into city-states (city &
countryside around it)
• King is in control
Social Hierarchy
King
Priests
Skilled Workers/Scribes
Merchants & Traders
Farmers & Laborers
(Working Class)
Slaves
Highly Developed Culture
•
•
•
•
•
•
Writing – Cuneiform
Works of literature – poems & stories
Invented the wheel and plow
Statues of gods
Gold jewelry
People sang, danced & played musical
instruments