Download Chapter 3 Section 1

Chapter 3 Section 1
Mesopotamia
Vocabulary
• Mesopotamia – “the land between two
rivers”, the area between the Tigris and
Euphrates rivers where present day Iraq is
located
• Sumerians – people of southern Mesopotamia
that lived about 3500 BC, they came from the
area called Sumer
• Levees – raise areas of land or a wall around a body
of water that are used to keep flood waters under
control
• Ur – A great Sumerian city
• City-State – cities and their surrounding territories
• Artisans – Skilled workers
• Ziggurat – “Mountain of God”, a Sumerian Temple
• Scribe – professional writers
• Priest-King – Sumerian religious and government
leaders, the same person filled both roles
• Gilgamesh – the most famous of the Sumerian
Priest-Kings, more god like than human
• Hereditary – passed down from parent to child
• Cuneiform – Sumerian writing
1. What was the earliest known
civilization on earth?
• Sumerian Civilization
2. How did Sumerians control the two
rivers?
• When the rivers flooded they added more soil
to the raised soil that was left behind on the
banks after the flood to form a levee.
3. How did Sumerians use flood water
to irrigate their crops?
• They poked holes in the levees to allow the
water to run out an make channels
• They widened these channels into canals
• They then used the water form these canals to
irrigate their crops
4. What was the main crop grown by
Sumerian Farmers?
• Barley
5. What did the Sumerians make their
buildings out of?
• Sundried Bricks made of mud and grass reeds
6. What groups of people made up the
upper class in Sumerian Society?
Where did they live?
• Priests and Merchants
• They lived near center city in two story houses
7. What groups of people made up the
middle class in Sumerian Society?
Where did they live?
• Government Officials, Shopkeepers, and
Artisans
• They lived behind the upper class homes in
one story houses
8. What groups of people made up the
lower class in Sumerian Society?
Where did they live?
• Farmers, Unskilled Workers, and Fishermen
• Towards the outside of the city
9. Describe how the ziggurats were
designed.
• They were a series of stacked layers that
became smaller at the top, they looked like
steps
10. What did the Sumerians believe
was at the top of the Ziggurat? Who
were the only people allowed inside?
• The Gods lived at the top so only priests were
allowed to enter the Ziggurats
11. What were the courts in a
Sumerian Village?
• The area outside the ziggurats where artisans
worked, children went to school, farmers
traded, and all public celebrations occurred
12. What were humans to Sumerian
Gods?
• Servants to help the male gods please the
female goddesses
13. What happened if the humans
made the gods unhappy?
• Crops would not grow and their lives would be
unhappy
14. What group of people was sent to
school in Sumerian Society? What did
they learn in school?
• Sons of wealthy families would go to school
• They often learned how to write and would
become scribes
15. How did the Sumerian men get
divorced?
• The husband would simply say “You are not
my wife!”
16. What famous bible story is similar
to a story involving Gilgamesh?
• Noah’s Ark