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MESOPOTAMIA The First of the Ancient Civilizations FERTILE CRESCENT VOCABULARY • Mesopotamia : country between 2 rivers: the Tigris and Euphrates • Embankments: build up of soil from river run offs that create very fertile soils • Floods: rise in water levels • Sediment: deposits left by water after flooding • Civilization: Societies that share social, religious artistic and scientific elements • Cuneiform: wedge shaped writing • Scribe: someone who writes THE BIRTH OF CIVILIZATION • The first great Civilizations were 1) Mesopotamia 3500 BCE 2) Ancient Egypt 3000 BCE 3) Indus Valley(India) 2500 BCE 4) Chinese Civilization 2000 BCE • All of these civilizations had one thing in common, they were born in long valleys crossed by major rivers • Every year these rivers would flood their shores and leave sediment that formed embankments • These Civilizations are known as fertile valley civilizations MESOPOTAMIA • Often called the “cradle of civilization,” Mesopotamia is where civilization began • Uruk, Ur, Lagash and Nippur were some of the first cities in the world • As societies developed their needs changed i.e.. Keeping track of rules, calculations and stories became necessary • Writing was created to aid in these things THE BEGINNINGS OF WRITING • Writing emerged in the Sumer area • Earliest writing was the drawing of real things and the use of tokens to count things • As time went on they created symbols to represent these ideas and writing was invented • Over time the symbols began to represent sounds • The Mesopotamians used cuneiform writing THE ALPHABET • In 1400 BCE the Ugarit system composed of letters emerged. This is the beginning of the Alphabet • Several centuries later the basis of this letter system was used by the Phoenicians to create their alphabet of 22 letters • Since the Phoenicians were great explorers and traders they spread this alphabet around the world to other languages • It gradually replaced other forms of writing • The Phoenician alphabet gave birth to the Greek, Hebrew and Arabic alphabets • Later the Romans used the Greek alphabet to form the Latin alphabet • our present day 26 letter alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet