Download Two Rivers Mesopotamia means = “land between the

Copyright © Clara Kim 2007. All rights reserved.
Why River Valleys?
• Offered rich soil for
agriculture
• Water was plentiful
• Often located in places that could
offer protection from invaders
The Fertile Crescent
• Arc of land
between the
Persian Gulf and
the Mediterranean
Sea in Southwest
Asia
One Land…Two Rivers
• Mesopotamia means = “land
between the rivers”
– Tigris and Euphrates Rivers
• Both rivers flooded once a year
and left thick bed of silt.
– Silt: rich, new soil farmers
could plant and harvest
enormous quantities of wheat
and barley
Political
Power of the Priests
• Sumer’s earliest governments
were controlled by temple priests
– Farmers believed they needed
blessings for success of their
crops
– Priests were the “middle man”
for the gods
– Priests demanded portion of
farmer crops as tax
Political
• Later followed
hereditary rulers:
when the power is
passed down to
family members
Sargon
Economy
• Metal tools and weapons
(bronze, iron)
• Increasing agricultural surplus
due to better tools, plows, and
irrigation
• Increasing trade along rivers traded with Egypt
• Development of the world’s
first cities
• Specialization of labor
Religion
Polytheism: belief in many gods
(3,000+)
Gods could be angered at any
moment and to keep them
happy, the Sumerians built
impressive ziggurats or
temples to sacrifice food, wine
and animals
On the top was the temple to the god of that city.
Around the base were other temples and priests’ private
rooms.
Sumerian Society
Kings and Priests
Wealthy merchants
Ordinary Sumerian people
Slaves
Women
• Could hold property
• Join lower ranks of
priesthood
• There were few women
scribes
– Scholars think that girls
were not allowed to attend
schools
Intellectual
Epic of Gilgamesh
• Myths and legends
recorded in this epic (a
long poem
• One of the earliest
works of literature in
the world
Sumerian Proverbs
• “Wealth” is hard to come by but
poverty is always at hand.
• “The poor man nibbles at his silver.”
“Gilgamesh, whither are you
wandering?
Life, which you look for, you will
never find.
For when the gods created man,
they let
Death be his share, and withheld
life
The Epic of Gilgamesh
In their own hands”
Achievements
Science & Technology
• Invented the wheel, the sail, and
the plow
• First to use bronze to make
tools
• System of writing called
cuneiform (wedge- shaped
writing)
• Built irrigation systems,
buildings, surveyed flooded
fields.
Pictures Cited
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Slide 1 - http://www.mayfairgames.com/mfg-shop/phalanx/pics/pha6016-cl.jpg
Slide 3 - http://www.hawaii.edu/ahead/Iraq%20General/mesopotamia.jpg
Slide 4 – http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~patters/culinary/media/fertilec.jpg
Slide 5 – http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en-commons/thumb/a/a5/288px-Tigr-euph.png
Slide 6 – http://individual.utoronto.ca/CLA160Y/Images/TellAsmarFig.jpg
Slide 7 – http://www.mysteriousworld.com/Content/Images/Journal/2003/Autumn/Osiria/Sargon180.gif
Slide 8 – http://www.cetis.ac.uk/members/accessibility/meetings/2006/sig14/sig14images/ah5jpg
Slide 9 – http://questgarden.com/52/41/5/070613164641/images/ziggurat1.gif
Slide 10 – http://www.meridianmagazine.com/ideas/images/ur3.jpg, http://todoweb2002.iespana.es/ceramica/mesopotamia/ziggurat.jpg
Slide 11 – Made by Clara Kim
Slide 12 – http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/m/images/mesopot_sumer_asmarfigs_lg.jpg
Slide 13 – http://www.allaboutarchaeology.org/images/epic-of-gilgamesh.jpg
Slide 14 – www.archaeology.org
Slide 15 –http://siteresources.worldbank.org/NEWS/Images/071506-Mtwango-Irrigation.JPG