Download Notes from sept3 A

Directions
 Please find the folder with your
name on, take it, and have a seat.
At this time…
 Please make sure your cell phones are on silent. 
 Please make sure your electronic devices are put
away and out of your ears. 
 Thank you!
Mesopotamia
SEPTEMBER 3, 2013
5 Components of civilization
1. ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY
1.
Things that make life easier
2. ADVANCED CITIES
1.
An area that is settled permanently by
people
3. COMPLEX INSTITUTIONS
1.
To maintain order of society
4. RECORD KEEPING
1.
Storing of information
5. SPECIALIZED WORKERS
1.
People trained for a specific job
So why farming?
 Humans learned they could control the growth of
plants
 This meant they no longer had to travel from place to
place to find just enough to get by
 NOW they could stay in one place and grow EXTRA
food that could be stored or even traded for other
goods or needs
Fertile Crescent
 Between the Persian Gulf and the
Mediterranean Sea
 Area of land BEST for farming
 Arc of fertile land surrounded by
desert
Mesopotamia
 The “land between 2 rivers”
 Between the TIGRIS River and the EUPHRATES
River
 Rivers flooded every year  fertile soil left behind
WATER!
 Need water to live…
 Transportation
 Drinking
 Fishing
 Irrigation
Irrigation
 Rain was unpredictable
 Dig irrigation ditches that carried water to the fields
for crops
 Required organization and leadership
City-State
 Each city and the surrounding
land it controlled
 Multiple cities developed
 Cities shared same culture, but
not leaders
 Center = TEMPLE (Ziggurat)
 Priests- most important
Dynasty
 Military leaders became more important
 Military leaders  full time leaders
 Dynasty- When rulers pass power down to their
sons (power kept in the family)
Polytheism
 Polytheism- The belief in many gods
 Gods controlled everything in nature (people wanted
to please them)
 3,000 gods
 Gods = human-like, but immortal
 Afterlife- “the land of no return”