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Chapter
3
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia
Turkey
Israel
Iraq
Egypt
Saudi Arabia
Around 15,000 B.C.,
people began
migrating.
Why?
People began migrating
in search of…
•Water
•Land
•Fertile soil
•Climate
Also… about
15,000 B.C.,
farming began
to evolve.
Where did this
“revolution” begin?
Tigris & Euphrates
Rivers
Indus
River
Nile River
Huang He River
Section 1
The Rise of
Sumer
The Fertile Crescent
The Fertile Crescent
• Area of land in SW Asia
• Fertile because of rivers:
Tigris & Euphrates
• Little rainfall
• Must irrigate crops
Mesopotamia
•Greek: Meso – between
+Pot – river
“land between the
rivers”
• Located between Tigris & Euphrates
• Present day Iraq
• “Cradle of Civilization”
The Rise of Sumer
• Earliest known civilization
• Located in Mesopotamia
• People built up natural levees
higher to control flooding
• Built canals and used them to
irrigate crops
• Crops included: barley (chief
crop), wheat, sesame, flax,
fruit, dates
5 Characteristics of
Civilization
• Food Surplus
• Specialization of Labor
• Government
• Social Classes
• Signs of Culture
Ur – Food Surplus
• Grew crops using irrigation
• Used surplus to trade for
other goods
• Ur was major center for
trade and commerce
Specialization of
Labor
• Houses made of mud and
crushed reed bricks (no
stone or timber available)
• City was surrounded by
wall
Government
• Made laws
• City-states: city and
farmland around it
• Priests ran city-states
Signs of Culture
• Religion
• Language
• Dress
• Customs
• Social Classes
Religion
• Ziggurat – temple in the
middle of each Sumerian
city
• Ziggurat – “mountain of
god” or “hill of heaven”
• Only priest entered
ziggurats
Religious Beliefs
• Forces of nature were
gods
• Humans were created
from mud of rivers to
serve gods
• Only priest knew will of
became very
gods
powerful.
• Priests………
Social Classes
•Upper Class
•Middle Class
•Lower Class
Upper Class
• Houses in center of city
• Priests and merchants
• Priests controlled land,
schools, etc.
• Only rich males could go
to school
Priest makes account of
supplies
Middle Class
• Houses outside upper
class houses
• Government officials,
shop keepers, artisans
(skilled workers)
Lower Class
• Houses outside middle class
• Farmers, unskilled workers,
fishermen
Sumerian
Schools
•Called tablet houses
•Students were
taught to write
cuneiform
Cuneiform
• Sumerian writing using hundreds
of markings shaped in wedges
• Writing was developed to keep
track of business dealings
• Students became scribes
(writers) in the temple, palace,
government, army, for merchants
,or became public writers
Cuneiform
Pictures to represent
objects
Pictures to represent ideas
Pictures to represent syllables
The Round School Tablet from
the Babylonian city of Nippur
during Hammurabi Dynasty
The Philadelphia Tablet found
near Baghdad, Iraq 3100-2900
B.C.
Vargy’s monogram
http://www.upennmuseum.com/cuneiform.cgi
Women’s Rights
• Women could….
…buy and sell land
…run businesses
…buy and sell slaves
• Women could…
…be divorced
…be sold or rented for 3
Priests or Kings?
• Sumerian priests were
kings over city-states
• Received advice from an
assembly
• In time of war, city-state
would choose a military
leader
• About 3,000 B.C., this
military leader took the
place of priests as
permanent kings.
• Kingship became hereditary
(passed on from parent to
child)
Gilgamesh of Uruk
• Famous priest-king
• Story written about 1700
B.C.
• Gilgamesh searches for a
way to live forever after
the death of his friend
Enkidu.