Download What was at the center of Sumerian City-States?

Ancient Mesopotamia
Duncan Winburn
9/30/2011
Vocabulary
3. Fertile Crescent – a piece of fertile land
shaped like a crescent. It was fertile because
of the water.
4. Mesopotamia – the first civilization in Sumer,
between the Tiger and Euphrates rivers
5. Irrigation – a way of taking water to crops
6. Canals – waterways people made
7. Surplus – having more than what they
needed
Vocabulary
8. City-State – a city and all the land around it
9. Social Hierarchy – organizing people by what
they do, by rank, by class
10.Polytheism – worshipping a lot of gods
11.Ziggurat – a big temple for the priests and
the gods
12.Cuneiform – a form of writing that the
Sumerians used, which was the first writing
language used
Vocabulary
13.Scribe – a person who writes things, like
things people traded
14.Sargon I – an Akkadian emperor.
15.Epic of Gilgamesh – the first epic poem
16.Chariot – a horse drawn cart with just two
wheels used in battle
17.Hammurabi’s Code – a set of 282 rules that
dealt with daily life
Vocabulary
18.Nebuchadnezzer II – as king, he made
Babylon better by rebuilding the city
19.Phoenician Alphabet – the Phoenicians made
the world’s first alphabet that made writing a
lot easier
20.Carthage – the most famous city that the
Phoenicians founded, in Africa
21.Hanging Gardens of Babylon – a famous
garden on top of Nebuchadnezzer’s palace.
Short Answer Questions
• 1. Describe the major bodies of water around
the Fertile Crescent
• The Tigris and Euphrates rivers
Short Answer Questions
• 2. List and explain each of the five major
characteristics of civilizations.
• Writing – you have to have writing to remember
your bartering deal
• Art – you need art to make architecture
• Technology – you need technology to make clocks
and calendars
• Cities – you need cities to survive in a civilization
• Highly Organized Society – you need highly
organized society to keep a civilization together
Short Answer Questions
• 3. Why was Mesopotamia an ideal place for a
civilization to develop?
• All of the water made the land fertile and
made it easy to grow crops
Short Answer Questions
• 4. What were the majors social classes of
Sumerian society? Who belonged to each?
• The Upper class – kings, priests, government
officials, nobles, scribes
• The Middle class – artisans, merchants
• The Working class – farmers, laborers
• The Lower class – slaves
What was at the center of
Sumerian City-States?
• A ziggurat was in the center
of the Sumerian City-State
What does this tell us about
them?
• This tells us the Sumerians
like to worship gods.
Describe the gender roles of
Sumerian society.
Men did most of the work, while
most women stayed home and took
care of the house and the children.
Why did writing first develop?
Writing made remembering bartering
deals easier.
Explain at least one Sumerian
advancement in mathematics.
The Sumerians advanced architecture,
and architecture requires math, like
understanding angles.
Name one Sumerian technical
advancement and detail how it
made people’s lives easier.
The Sumerians invented the wheel.
This made moving large things easier.
Describe at least two characteristics of each of
the following Mesopotamian civilizations:
• Sumer
– They made writing.
– They made the wheel.
• Akkad
– Sargon was from there and he was a brilliant military leader.
– They conquered Sumer
• Babylonia
– Hammurabi created the first law code.
– Nebuchadnezzar II made the hanging gardens of Babylon
• Phoenicia
– Phoenicia became talented in trade because there were located
right on the Mediterranean Sea.
– They also made the first real alphabet.
What led to the end of the
Assyrian Empire?
In 652 BCE, a lot of wars started.
Therefore, the Assyrian Empire lost
most of its strength. Because of this,
the Chaldeans attacked it and won.
Why was farming a challenge in
Mesopotamia, and how did the people
overcome it?
• Either there was a drought, or there was a
flood, that made farming difficult.
• They learned how to control water by making
waterways, called irrigation. They also
learned how to store their food so they could
keep it for a while.
How did the Sumerians link
religion and government?
Priests, god pleasers, had a high rank
in social hierarchy. Along with the
kings, they made the laws.
Describe two military technologies of
the:
Hittites
• The Hittites were the first
people to use iron weapons.
• They also used the chariot,
a horse-drawn cart that
people rode in.
Assyrians
• The Assyrians also used iron
weapons and chariots.
For which resource was Phoenicia
well-known, and why did they use
the sea to trade?
The Phoenicians had plenty of cedar, but
they had trouble trading because of high
mountains and unfriendly neighbors.
Because of this, they had to trade by sea.