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The Lorenz Educational Press Team
Ancient Mesopotamia
by Linda Armstrong
illustrated by
Corbin Hillam
Author
Linda Armstrong
Illustrator
Corbin Hillam
Book Design and Production
Good Neighbor Press, Inc.
Copyright © 2002
Milliken Publishing Co.
All rights reserved.
The purchase of this book entitles the individual teacher/purchaser to reproduce copies by any
reproduction process for single classroom use. The reproduction of any part of this book for use by an
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Table of Contents
Activities marked with an * can be used with one of the transparencies on the enclosed CD-ROM.
Activities
* Timeline of Ancient Mesopotamia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
* Mesopotamians Before History Began . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
* Land Between Two Rivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Water Without Rain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
The Sumerian Gourmet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
What Can You Make with Water and Dirt? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
* My City Is Better Than Your City . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
I’ll Trade You Copper for a Necklace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
What’s the Big Deal About the Wheel? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
* Putting the Bargain in Writing: Cuneiform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
* Make a Clay Tablet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
* Lead the Procession: Create a Standard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
* Babylonia vs Assyria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
* You Are the Architect: Design a Ziggurat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
* When 1 Is 60: Babylonian Math . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
It’s the Law: Hammurabi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
* Iron Power: Assyria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
* The New Year Festival in New Babylon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Medicine in Ancient Mesopotamia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Sing Me a Story: The Epic of Gilgamesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
* Who Was Who in Ancient Mesopotamia? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Ancient Mesopotamian News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Conqueror After Conqueror: Cyrus and Alexander . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Mesopotamian Trivia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Then and Now . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Mesopotamian Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26
Learn More About Ancient Mesopotamia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Answer Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Transparencies
Use with activities on . . .
Map of Ancient Mesopotamia
Mesopotamian Writing
The Standard of Ur
Ziggurat
Babylonian Numbers and Times Table
Assyrian Chariots and Iron Weapons
Architectural Wonders of New Babylon
Who Was Who in Ancient Mesopotamia?
pages 1, 2, 3, 7 and 13
pages 10 and 11
page 12
page 14
page 15
page 17
page 18
pages 16 and 22
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Copyright © 2002 Milliken Publishing Co.
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Teaching Guide for Transparency Pages
Map of Ancient Mesopotamia
The map may be projected onto a large sheet of white
or tan paper mounted on the bulletin board. Students
may trace map features onto the display. They may,
for example, start by tracing only the Tigris, the
Euphrates, the neighboring seas, and surrounding
mountain ranges. Using other sources, they may add
pictures of animals, trees, birds, fish, and insects
common to the area. Cities may be added to the map
as they are studied.
The transparency may also be projected next to a
pull-down map of the world. Students may compare
ancient place names to modern ones. Some
interesting locations include Babylon, a cultural
center and home to the Hanging Gardens; Baghdad,
the present-day capital of Iraq; Eridu, site of the first
ziggurat; Jarmo, the first permanent settlement;
Nineveh, the last capital of the Assyrian empire; Ur,
an ancient Sumerian city and site of the Royal Tombs
and Uruk, the home of Gilgamesh.
Mesopotamian Writing
The ancient Mesopotamians wanted to keep records
of things they bought and sold, so they drew
pictures of animals, grain, fish, and birds. As
different people copied the pictures the drawings
became simpler. When record keepers started using
reeds to press the drawings into soft clay, it was
hard to draw curves. Straight lines were faster and
easier. The pictures became symbols.
Over time written symbols came to stand for more
than one idea. The written word for foot could also
stand for the spoken word for walk. Later the pictures
stood for sounds. People used cuneiform to write
everything from tax records to recipes.
This transparency may be used to start a creative
lesson on inventing a simple writing system. Project
the transparency and have students choose one of
the symbols to copy through all of its stages of
development. Then have them create more symbols
of their own.
In a class discussion, have students suggest broader
meanings for each of the symbols on the
transparency. For example, a foot could mean
walking, and it could be expanded to mean traveling.
List the student suggestions on the board. Have
students use the cuneiform symbols to write
sentences on their own. Choose volunteers to write
their cuneiform sentences on the board. Call on
class members to try to guess the meanings of
the sentences.
The Standard of Ur
When scientists were excavating the ancient
Sumerian city of Ur they found a large group of
tombs. These burial sites have been called the Royal
Tombs of Ur.
Many beautiful pieces of art were found in the tombs.
One of them was this box, which is made of wood
and covered with tiles arranged to form pictures of
life in Ur.
Some scholars think this was the sounding box for a
musical instrument, but many think it was a
standard, a kind of sign to be carried on a pole at the
beginning of a procession.
In a class discussion, have the students point out
what each of the people on the Standard is doing. Call
on students to point out people from each of
Mesopotamia’s three classes depicted on the Standard.
One side of the Standard is called War and the other
side is called Peace. Ask students which side is
shown here.
Ziggurat
The Sumerians built platforms for their temples. They
wanted the city’s patron god to be closer to the sky.
Clay bricks did not last long, so the Sumerians had to
rebuild often. When an old temple crumbled, they
built a new one on top. Soon there were several
layers of platforms, one on top of the other.
Such temples, called ziggurats, towered over the low
mud houses and shops of Sumerian cities. According
to Mesopotamian religion, each ziggurat was home to
a different god. For example, the ziggurat at Ur was
home to the moon god, Nanna. The Babylonians, who
continued many Sumerian traditions, also built
ziggurats. The Tower of Babel was probably a ziggurat.
Project the transparency onto a sheet of white paper
and have students trace it. Using other sources, have
committees create a mural centered on the ziggurat.
One committee could research costumes and draw the
people at work in the town at the foot of the
ziggurat. Another committee could put in the homes
and shops. A third committee could add the farms
outside the city walls.
Point out that none of the walls of a ziggurat
is straight.
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Teaching Guide for Transparency Pages
Babylonian Numbers
Sumerians began counting to keep track of grain and
other goods. At first they used tokens. Then they used
marks in clay. Although Babylonians used place value
to write larger numbers just as we do today, their
system was different in some important ways. Our
place values are based on 10. Their place values were
based on 60. Multiples of 60 were also used for
measurement. For example, a surveyor’s rope was
3600 fingers long. A finger was about 2/3 of an inch.
Have the students use the number symbols on the
transparency to write a list of ten cuneiform numbers.
Tell them to exchange papers with a partner and
translate the numbers into standard Arabic script.
Have students make a multiplication table using
Babylonian numbers and base 60. It should be a
table of the multiples of just one number such as six.
Have students look around the room to find an
example of something with numbers using base 60.
When they name the clock, brainstorm other ways
we still use base 60 in measurement.
Assyrian Chariots and Iron Weapons
The Assyrians, whose home was northern
Mesopotamia, were fierce fighters, but that alone did
not win them the empire they built between 1000
and 612 BCE. They learned how to refine and shape
iron from the Hittites. Strong, sharp iron weapons
and chariots pulled by fast horses helped the
Assyrians conquer cities from the Nile River to the
Caucasus Mountains.
Call on volunteers to pretend to be the inventor of the
chariot or of one of the iron weapons. Have them try
to convince the class to use the new inventions.
Point out the wheels on the chariot. Ask why spoked
wheels were better than solid ones.
Point out the horses pulling the chariot. Explain that
the Assyrians took great pride in breeding beautiful
horses. Scholars think the horses came from the
Steppes. Have students find the Steppes in an Atlas
or on a world map.
Architectural Wonders of New Babylon
The old city of Babylon was destroyed by the
Assyrian King Sennacherib. When Nebuchadnezzar
became the King of Babylon a hundred years later, he
rebuilt the old capital and made it grander than ever.
He restored the ziggurat of the city god Marduk.
Called House of the Platform of Heaven and Earth, it
was seven stories tall. The walls and roof of the
temple at the top were covered with gold.
Although it was considered one of the Seven
Wonders of the Ancient World, scholars are not sure
the famous “Hanging Gardens of Babylon” really
existed. According to the story, Nebuchadnezzar built
a beautiful terraced garden for his wife, but
archaeologists have not found any ruins that fit the
description. Have students use other sources to find
the other six wonders of the ancient world.
One of the most amazing sights in New Babylon was
the Ishtar Gate and Processional Way. Dedicated to
the goddess of love, it welcomed travelers to the city
and provided a dramatic backdrop for the great New
Year celebration. Have students use paper to create a
gateway for either side of one of the classroom doors.
Point out that the Gate of Ishtar is decorated with
dragons. Have the class vote on two animals they
would like to use on their own classroom gate.
Who Was Who in Ancient Mesopotamia?
Three classes of people developed along with the
cities of ancient Sumer. Babylonia and Assyria
continued the tradition. At the bottom of the social
ladder were the slaves, servants, and day laborers.
On the next level were the farmers, traders, skilled
craftsmen, and educated scribes who lived and
worked within the city walls.
On the top level were the priests, the king and his
court, and wealthy land owners.
On the computer, make name tags for each class
member with the words lower, middle, or upper. Call
on students to name one thing they could do if they
belonged to that social class in Ancient Mesopotamia.
Have students form small groups and come up with
skits showing the interaction between the classes.
Possible situations involve buying things in a
marketplace, testifying in court, telling parents that a
daughter wants to get married, a boy telling his
friend he will have to become a slave because his
father is in debt. Have the groups perform their skits
for the class.
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Timeline of Ancient Mesopotamia
PREHISTORIC MESOPOTAMIANS LEARNED TO FARM.
about 7000 B.C.E.
about 5000 B.C.E.
between 5000 and 3500 B.C.E.
Farmers built a town at Jarmo. They grew wheat from stored
seeds and herded pigs, goats, and sheep.
Farmers moved from the crowded hills into southern
Mesopotamia. They learned to irrigate crops.
Villagers divided up work and became specialists. They built
houses with mud bricks.
THE SUMERIANS BUILT CITIES.
about 3500 B.C.E.
about 3100 B.C.E.
around 3000 B.C.E.
around 2700 B.C.E.
about 2300 B.C.E.
2218 B.C.E.
around 2000 B.C.E.
A priesthood developed and Sumerians built the Temple at Eridu,
a simple Ziggurat.
Cuneiform writing was invented.
Sumerians used carts with wheels. The first kings ruled. Trade
developed. Men from rival city-states fought each other using
lances and shields.
Gilgamesh ruled the city of Uruk. He became the hero of
many legends.
Sargon I conquered northern and southern Mesopotamia and
founded the Akkadian dynasty, the first empire in the world.
When tribes from the hills conquered the Akkadians, Sumerian
Ur rose to rule much of Mesopotamia.
Elamite tribesmen, from what is now Iran, destroyed Ur.
THE BABYLONIANS AND ASSYRIANS CREATED RIVAL EMPIRES.
around 1792–1750 B.C.E.
between 1595–1157 B.C.E.
between 1300 and 600 B.C.E.
883–859 B.C.E.
704–681 B.C.E.
612 B.C.E.
Hammurabi ruled Babylon. His Old Babylonian dynasty included
much of Mesopotamia. He established a detailed code of laws.
First the Hittites, then the Kassites conquered Babylon. The
Kassites ruled the city for four hundred years.
Using horse-drawn chariots and iron weapons, Assyrian soldiers
captured lands from the Nile to the Caucasus Mountains.
The Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II built a great palace in the
city of Kalhu.
The Assyrian king Sennacherib created a Royal Library.
Nineveh, the Assyrian capital, was destroyed by invading Medes
and Babylonians.
BABYLON ROSE AGAIN.
605–562 B.C.E.
539 B.C.E.
331 B.C.E.
Nebuchadnezzar II, King of Babylon, built “The Tower of Babel”
and the “Hanging Gardens of Babylon.”
Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon and made Mesopotamia part
of the Persian Empire.
Alexander the Great conquered the Persians and made Babylonia
his capital. After his death, the city fell into decay.
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Mesopotamians Before History Began
In prehistoric times small bands of people roamed the hills to the north and east of the Fertile Crescent.
They slept in temporary camps and hunted for food. About ten thousand years ago some of these
groups began to tame pigs, goats, and sheep. They also planted wheat and barley.
ATL
OCEAN
Around 7000 B.C.E. they started to build towns. Life was easier for babies and children in the new
settlements. More young people lived to adulthood. The villages grew until there were more people
than the fields could support.
Some farmers left to look for fresh land. At the base of the foothills they found a broad, fertile plain
bordered by two rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates. The northern and central parts of the plain were
hot and rainless most of the year. The southern delta, where the rivers flowed into the sea, was a
huge swamp.
The people who settled this harsh land had to be creative to survive. Their descendants built some of
the world’s first cities, developed irrigation, the wheel, and the written word.
1. Trace the Tigris River and the Euphrates River in blue.
2. Color the Persian Gulf blue.
3. Outline the country of Iraq in orange.
4. Why did the people who settled in Mesopotamia have to be good at problem solving?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
5. Use reference sources to find out what kinds of animals the first Mesopotamians hunted.
DID YOU KNOW?
Even with modern technology, the city of Baghdad on
the delta of the Tigris and Euphrates has unpredictable floods.
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Land Between Two Rivers
The name Mesopotamia comes from two Greek words that mean “middle” and “river.” It is a land
surrounded by rivers.
Both the Tigris and Euphrates begin in the mountains of Turkey. They take different routes south
toward the lands of ancient Mesopotamia, now Iraq. The rivers spread out when they hit the flat
valley. They meander and often change course. Ur, which once stood on the banks of the Euphrates,
is now 12 miles from the water.
The Euphrates is about 600 miles longer than the Tigris, but the Tigris carries more water. In ancient
times, both rivers were used for transportation, fishing, and irrigation.
Mesopotamia’s rich soil was a gift from the rivers. If you have ever seen a stream after a rainstorm
you know that it looks muddy. It is carrying fine dirt called silt. When a stream runs fast it can carry
a lot of silt, but when it slows down, the silt sinks to the bottom. The Tigris and Euphrates dropped a
lot of silt in the valley, especially during floods that came at least twice a year.
Today dams and reservoirs control the rivers. They store water and produce electricity, but silt no
longer renews the land and countries argue about water rights.
1. Mix dirt with water in a plastic bottle with a lid. Shake it up, then let it sit for at least a day.
What happens?
2. Make a chart showing at least two ways the Tigris and Euphrates are the same and at least
two ways they are different.
Same
Different
_____________________________________
_____________________________________
_____________________________________
_____________________________________
_____________________________________
_____________________________________
3. Look up the word meander in the dictionary. Write the meaning on the back of this page.
PUZZLER
If Mesopotamia means “between rivers”
and hippo means “horse,” what does
hippopotamus mean?
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Water Without Rain
The plain that became Mesopotamia was good
farmland. The rivers carried soil down from the
mountains. There was a long season of sunshine.
There was only one problem. There was hardly
any rain. Plants need water to grow.
There was plenty of water in the Tigris and
Euphrates Rivers. Sumerian farmers learned to
dig ditches and make water flow into the thirsty
fields. The result was almost magical. Enough
wheat and barley thrived in the warmth of the
desert sun to feed hundreds of people. This was
one of the first uses of irrigation in the world.
With irrigation, farming became easier. People had time to learn new skills. Some made pottery
for carrying water, storing seed, and preparing food. Others made better tools for digging, planting,
and harvesting.
1. Why was the land on the plains good for farming?
________________________________________
________________________________________
2. How did irrigation make cities possible?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
3. Name three ways farmers could use pottery.
_________________________
_________________________
_________________________
4. Name three modern tools you would use for digging, planting, or harvesting vegetables in
a garden.
_________________________
_________________________
_________________________
For Info Archaeologists: Use reference sources to dig up the answers to these questions:
5. What tools did Mesopotamians use to make farming easier?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
6. Find at least one problem caused by irrigation.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
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The Sumerian Gourmet
Mesopotamians ate a lot of barley. Mesopotamian cooks ground barley seeds into flour. They mixed
the flour with other ingredients to make flat bread, which they served with olive or sesame oil.
Sometimes they boiled the grain to make gruel or mush.
Farmers also grew grapes, peas, garlic, beans, lettuce, cucumbers, apples, and figs. Groves of date
palms provided sweet fruit.
Large herds of sheep and goats contributed milk and cheese. There were also pigs, chickens, and
cows, but meat was considered a special treat.
Mesopotamians hunted wild creatures including doves, ducks, geese, gazelles, oryx, ibex, wild bulls,
boars, hares, wild sheep and onagers, a kind of donkey. They fished in the rivers and in the Persian
Gulf. In addition to using hooks and lines, they trained pelicans to catch fish. Some farmers raised fish
in ponds. Since there were no refrigerators, fishermen dried, salted, or pickled their catch.
Mesopotamians used many spices including mustard, coriander, and cumin to flavor their food. They
loved garlic and onions.
As in most cultures, the rich and powerful were served the most interesting dishes. Most middle
and lower class people ate simply. Beer was a favorite drink. People of all classes enjoyed it with
their meals.
1. List three of your favorite foods. If you lived in ancient Mesopotamia, would you be able to get
those foods? Why or why not?
2. Make up a menu for breakfast, lunch, or dinner using foods available to wealthy ancient
Mesopotamians.
DID YOU KNOW?
Wood was very scarce so food was cooked over dung fires.
(If you don’t know what dung is, look it up in the dictionary.)
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What Can You Make with Water and Dirt?
When people came to live in Mesopotamia they found mud, reeds, sun, and not much else.
Building houses without wood or stone was a problem until Sumerians learned to make mud bricks.
Sometimes they baked the bricks in ovens to make them harder. More often they just dried them in
the desert sun. From these simple blocks of clay Mesopotamians constructed great cities. They built
temples and palaces that were wonders of the ancient world.
Sumerian potters used water and dirt in a different way.
They pounded and squeezed it until it was smooth and free
of air bubbles. Then they formed it into cups, bowls, plates,
and jars. They decorated their pots with painted designs and
baked them in special ovens to make them stronger. With
pottery wheels, much like the ones we use today, they
manufactured containers for cooking, storing grain, and
carrying water.
With experience, these potters learned to add minerals to the
coating of the pots. These glazes created shiny surfaces with
bright colors. Later, in Babylon, glazed tiles were used to
decorate buildings.
Clay was also used to form the counting tokens that led to
the development of trade. All of the “books” in Assyria’s great libraries were made of clay. What can
you make with dirt and water? The Mesopotamians built empires.
1. What items in your house are made of clay?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
2. Pretend you invented the brick. On the back of this page write a description of your invention.
Draw a picture. Give measurements and describe how it would be used.
3. Today archaeologists use styles in pottery design to help them decide the age of buried
cities. List some things in our culture that have changed styles over time.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
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My City Is Better Than Your City
About 3500 B.C.E. the Sumerians moved into Mesopotamia. These people, who may have come from
the area around the Caspian Sea, had some very good ideas. They built better roads. They created
wheels and put them on carts. They improved the canal system and introduced new farming methods.
With improved irrigation, farmers produced more food than townspeople could eat. In their new carts,
they carried the harvest to storehouses to be saved from one season to the next. Traveling over new
roads, they exchanged extra food with neighboring peoples for wood, metal, and stone.
Farming was still important, but other jobs became important too. Bakers made bread for many
families. Weavers spun wool and wove it into cloth. Leather crafters made sandals. At least 12 of
the towns grew into true cities where thousands of people lived and worked.
Cities such as Ur, Uruk, and Nippur were similar. They spoke the same language—Sumerian. They
worshiped many of the same gods. Each one had a temple in the center of town. Orchards and fields
stretched out beyond the city walls. These cities did not all belong to one nation, however. Each one
was a city-state, a separate country.
The ruling classes of these city-states were rivals. They argued over trade, land, and water rights.
Armies marched out to fight against their neighbors. The middle and lower classes did not always
support these battles.
1. Is Los Angeles a city-state? Explain your answer.
___________________________ because _________________________________________________.
2. The word civilization comes from an old word for city. Why are cities a mark of civilization?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
3. On the back of this page, name five special jobs people do in the city. Why aren’t there as
many different kinds of jobs in small towns or in the country?
DID YOU KNOW?
Because of bad debts, many Mesopotamians worked for the temples.
In exchange for what they grew or made, they were given rations of barley and beer.
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I’ll Trade You Copper for a Necklace
From the beginning the people of Mesopotamian city-states
were great traders. At first all deals were made by simple
bartering. Farmers gave craftsmen barley in exchange for
sleeping mats, tools, and pottery. The grain was measured
out according to standard weights.
Around 2500 B.C.E., wealthy people started paying their
bills with silver coils called “hat” or “ring money.” The
silver was cast into long thin pieces and rolled into spirals
of different values. A shekel, about the weight of three
pennies, was worth a month’s labor on an estate. Large
silver coils weighed 60 shekels.
To get silver and other needed materials such as copper, tin,
bitumen, and wood, Mesopotamians traded with people as
far away as India. They provided pottery, jewelry, and
other finished goods. As the centuries passed, Babylonians
and Assyrians took more from their neighbors than they
gave back. Then they sent armies out to conquer the
people in lands with valuable resources.
1. Look up barter in the dictionary. On the back of this page write the definition and give an
example of how we use bartering today.
2. Why would it be hard to buy a piece of land or a new cart with measures of barley?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
3. Name three things Mesopotamians needed to get from other places.
_________________________
_________________________
_________________________
4. What do we use today instead of measures of grain or “hat”? ______________________________
5. Why did the Babylonians and Assyrians want to conquer other lands?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
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What’s the Big Deal About the Wheel?
Returning from trips was easy. Mesopotamian traders built rafts out of cedar logs, loaded them with
cargo and floated downstream. Carrying grain, pottery, and woolen cloth up into the mountains was
hard. Traders needed a land vehicle.
The flat sledges they tried first would not carry much. Around 3500 B.C.E. Sumerians put logs under
the sledges. That made them easier to pull. Next they attached runners to the loads, which helped
even more. Over time the runners wore notches in the logs. When someone carved away the wood
between the notches, the first cart was created.
Next someone thought of cutting holes through the sides of carts. When an axle was threaded
between the holes, it turned with the wheels. Later, axles were fastened to the bottoms of carts and
only the wheels turned.
With carts farmers could harvest and store large amounts of grain more quickly and easily. Traders
could carry more goods and travel farther. Soldiers, in chariots, could carry more weapons.
1. On the back of this page, describe how you could use a piece of cardboard to show how a
sledge worked. What would you have to add to keep things from falling off? How could you
show logs being used under a sledge? (Hint: Use some things you have in your desk.) What
problem would you have when the sledge moved? How could this be solved?
2. Complete this analogy: wheels are to sledges as sails are to _______________________________.
3. Make a cart out of light cardboard. Use drinking straws, cardboard circles, and glue to create
wheels and an axle. Be sure to punch holes in the sides of your cart and push the straw
through before you glue on the wheels.
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Putting the Bargain in Writing
Mesopotamians needed to keep track of their deals. When farmers traded animals or measures of
grain, they dropped clay tokens one by one into a container.
This did not provide a lasting record, so some people made lists of the goods they exchanged. Using
reeds, they drew simple pictures of the items on flat pieces of clay. Then they made marks to show
how many goats or measures of barley were traded.
Drawing pictures of items on tablets took a long time and not everyone drew the same way. People
who were good at creating tablets started making them for other people. Soon, when a record was
needed, one of these experts, a scribe, would be called.
As decades passed, pictures and numbers became reed-shaped lines pressed in the clay. The tablets
improved, too. Important documents were enclosed in clay envelopes sealed with special picture
signature stamps called “cylinder seals.” When these decorated metal or ceramic cylinders were rolled
across the smooth surface of the wet clay, they left the same mark every time. Most people, including
the kings, were illiterate. This was a good way for them to sign their names.
Through scribes, people wrote letters to each other. They also shared knowledge. Doctors wrote down
treatments for diseases and formulas for medicines. Cooks wrote down recipes. Farmers wrote down
the best ways to plant their fields. In the last centuries of Mesopotamia, the Assyrians wrote down
stories, poems, and hymns that had been passed down for generations.
1. Choose a partner. One of you will pretend to be a metal trader who can neither read nor write.
The other will assume the role of the trader’s scribe. The metal trader wishes to write a letter to
his wife at home in Ur telling her of his adventures in the Taurus Mountains. The scribe will
write the trader’s words on a piece of paper. Keep in mind that Mesopotamians did not have the
luxury of paper and pencil but would have written on clay using a reed as a writing instrument.
2. Draw a design for a personal cylinder seal. Choose pictures that represent your personality.
The royal house of the King of Assyria had one that showed the king on a lion hunt. Put all
the pictures on the bulletin board. Try to guess who designed each seal.
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Make a Clay Tablet
Not very many children were lucky enough to go to Mesopotamian schools or Tablet Houses. Of those
who were, most of them were the sons of rich and powerful men. We know this because they often
wrote their fathers’ jobs after their names when they did assignments.
The classes lasted a long time and were not much fun. The students had to copy the same exercises
over and over again until they were perfect. Discipline was very strict. If a student was late to class or
did not do his assignment, the future scribe was beaten.
Cuneiform writing began as pictures, but over the years the
pictures were sorted into 500 or so symbols that stood for
sounds and ideas as well as things. Students had to learn to
make all of these symbols quickly, neatly, and in a way
other scribes could read.
Scribes did not go down to the local office supply store to
buy clay tablets. At first their teachers made them. Then
they learned to make their own.
Study the cuneiform chart on the transparency, the symbols
on this page, or a chart in another reference book. Smooth
out a piece of clay. Form it into a small tablet. Copy some
cuneiform symbols on your tablet using a small stick or the
side of a pencil tip.
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Lead the Procession: Create a Standard
When the great British archaeologist, Sir Leonard Woolley, was digging up the ruins of the ancient
Sumerian city of Ur, he found an unusual cemetery.
While we do not really know who was buried in the tombs, the ornate jewelry found there suggests
that the people were royalty—a king, his queen, and the servants of their court. Because the buried
king’s name is not listed on Sumer’s list of rulers, some scholars think the man and woman were ritual
substitutes.
Though the people themselves remain a mystery, the items buried in these tombs tell us a great deal
about life in a Sumerian city.
In one room archaeologists found many colored pieces of shell and semiprecious stones lying together.
Woolley, suspecting an original wood base had rotted away, ordered that wax be pressed down on the
scattered bits. When the wax was picked up, the pieces formed a picture.
With wood and bitumen (a kind of pitch), the original design was restored. Some scholars think this
reconstructed two-sided box-like item was part of a musical instrument. Woolley called it a standard, a
sign carried at the start of a procession. There are Mesopotamian pictures of processions led by men
carrying standards.
On the back of this paper draw a design for a standard for your class. The Standard of Ur shows
people at work. Your design should include various aspects of your school day. What materials would
you need to make your design into a real standard? Write your suggestions. When, during your
regular school day, do you have a procession? Could your standard be used to lead the way?
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Babylonia vs Assyria
Mesopotamia was not all one flat desert. The north was hilly. It was closer to sources of metal,
wood, and wild game. The south had palm trees, reeds, water birds, and rich fishing grounds on
the Persian Gulf.
As the centuries passed, the people in northern and southern Mesopotamia developed separate
cultures. They became rivals.
When Elamite tribesmen conquered the Sumerians around 2000 B.C.E., Assyria and Babylon inherited
the Fertile Crescent. In the north, the Assyrians, already master hunters, became masters of war. In
the south, Babylon became a cultural center, continuing many of the old traditions. At first, the
Babylonians controlled most of Mesopotamia.
Around 1300 B.C.E. the Assyrians started to gain power. In addition to Mesopotamia, they conquered
parts of Egypt and Anatolia. Wealth and slaves poured into their capital cities. The Assyrians built
temples and palaces. They created great sculptures and libraries of clay tablets.
Meanwhile, the Babylonians formed alliances with Assyria’s enemies. They destroyed the Assyrian
capital, Nineveh. Then they rebuilt Babylon, which the Assyrians had leveled.
1. List two ways Assyria and Babylon were the same and two ways they were different.
Same
Different
_____________________________________
_____________________________________
_____________________________________
_____________________________________
2. Power shifted often in Mesopotamia. Use the timeline to list the dates when:
a. the Elamites defeated the Sumerians _________________________________________________
b. the Hittites conquered Babylon ______________________________________________________
c. the Medes and Babylonians destroyed Nineveh _______________________________________
d. Babylon was rebuilt _______________________________________________________________
3. Use the timeline to list invaders who conquered
a. the Babylonians ___________________________________________________________________
b. the Assyrians _____________________________________________________________________
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You Are the Architect: Design a Ziggurat
The Sumerians, Babylonians, and Assyrians believed their gods
liked to live in the mountains close to the sky. They made their
temples as high as possible.
The early city of Eridu created an artificial mountain. Workers
constructed a platform, then placed their temple on top of it. The
city lasted a long time, but the original mud brick temple did not.
Every rain weakened it. Eventually it had to be rebuilt. Bricks
from the original temple were used as filler for a second smaller
platform on top of the first.
Later, a powerful leader named Ur-Nammu used these ideas to
build temple mountains, or ziggurats, in other Sumerian cities.
Archaeologists have excavated the ruins of a ziggurat at Ur. It
had three platforms. Stairways led to the temple on top.
Each city’s ziggurat was dedicated to the patron god and had a
name. The one at Ur was the home of the Sumerian moon god,
Nanna. The one at Nippur was called “The House Binding
Heaven and Earth.”
Study pictures of ziggurats.
1. Pretend you are an ancient architect. Design a ziggurat for your city. It should have platforms,
ladders, and a special small building at the top. The rest is up to you. Make your drawing on
the back of this page.
2. Give your ziggurat a name. Dedicate it to something.
3. If you wanted to build a model of a ziggurat for a classroom display, what materials would you
use? Make a list of suggestions.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Challenge: Build a ziggurat model using your ideas.
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When 1 is 60: Babylonian Math
Most of the tablets we have from ancient Sumer, Babylonia, and Assyria are not stories, histories,
poems, or letters. They are records of taxes, land sales, loans, and inheritances.
Numbers were so important to ancient Mesopotamians that written methods of counting probably
developed before written language.
Babylonians used two symbols to write all numbers. These symbols used place value in a way that
combined base 10 and base 60. There were 59 combinations of symbols to represent numbers from
1 to 59. The symbol
(a wedge turned sideways) meant 10, and the symbol (a vertical wedge)
meant 1. For example,
would mean 36 in our numbers.
1. Write the following numbers in Babylonian:
28
42
57
14
2. When Mesopotamians wanted to write the number 60, they put one mark in the column to the
left of the “ones” column. What number does this tablet represent?
1 x 60 x 60 x 60 =
1 x 60 x 60 =
1 x 60 =
1x1=
_________________
_________________
_________________
_________________
3. A “three” mark in the 1 x 60 column would stand for 3 x _____ which equals _______.
DID YOU KNOW?
Sixty can be divided evenly by 12 different numbers. How many of them can you list?
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It’s the Law: Hammurabi
In 1750 B.C.E. a king named Hammurabi rose to power in
Babylon. He united much of Mesopotamia under one rule for
the first time in centuries.
He was a powerful military leader, but that is not why we
remember him. Hammurabi is known as a lawgiver. Actually,
many Mesopotamian rulers created codes of law, but we do
not have them because they were written on clay tablets
which crumbled. Hammurabi had his laws engraved on a
column of polished black rock over seven feet high. The
stone, or stele, was set up in the middle of the city. The 282
decisions tell us much about justice at the time.
There were no police to arrest offenders. Victims had to drag
wrong-doers into court. Both sides swore to tell the truth. A
judge listened to testimony and made a decision.
The phrase “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” comes
from one of Hammurabi’s punishments, but it was not his
idea. It was an old Sumerian concept—exact revenge.
Another way to put it would be, “What I take from you, you
may take from me.” For example, if a builder used poor
materials and the house he constructed killed someone when
it collapsed, he could be executed. Some offenses were
punished by fines. Jails were not mentioned.
Answer the following questions true or false:
1. Hammurabi was the first king to write and enforce laws in Mesopotamia.
_______________
2. Police arrested offenders and brought them to court.
_______________
3. Witnesses swore to tell the truth.
_______________
4. Some of Hammurabi’s laws originally came from ancient Egypt.
_______________
5. Hammurabi was a good military leader.
_______________
6. Hammurabi expanded Babylonia’s empire.
_______________
7. Hammurabi kept the stele with the laws on it in his palace.
_______________
DID YOU KNOW?
According to Hammurabi’s Code, a person could not be forced
to work more than three years as a slave to pay off a debt.
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Iron Power: Assyria
Around the middle of the ninth century B.C.E. the
Assyrian army swept into Babylon. After overcoming
their conquerors, the Hittites, the Assyrians were ready
to win. They had iron weapons and chariots pulled by
horses.
They were ruthless fighters with a personal stake in the
battle. They did not want to be the servants of Babylon.
They wanted to be the masters. They easily conquered
the proud capital. Because they respected it as a center
of culture, the Assyrians did not destroy Babylon at
first. After suppressing several rebellions, however, they
returned and leveled the city.
The Assyrians went on to conquer cities outside of
Mesopotamia. Attacking and plundering without mercy,
they marched entire populations into slavery. They used
the labor to build temples and palaces in their cities.
The more land Assyria conquered, the richer her kings and nobles became and the more they called
for new conquests. At last, the kingdom was so spread out that there were not enough soldiers to
protect it.
In 612 B.C.E. Babylonians and other groups that did not like the Assyrians banded together to attack
Nineveh. They destroyed the city and the center of power in Mesopotamia moved south again.
Fill in the blanks to complete these sentences.
1. Assyrian weapons were made out of ______________________.
2. Assyrians pulled their chariots with ______________________.
3. Assyrian prisoners of war became ______________________.
4. Assyrians got materials they needed by ______________________ other cities.
5. Assyrian defenses became less effective because they were too __________________ _________.
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The New Year Festival in New Babylon
There were many festivals in Babylon, but the most important was the New Year festival or Akitu. Held
every spring in the Babylonian month of Nissan, it celebrated the beginning of the growing season.
Events were scheduled for each of the festival’s 11 days. The first days were spent in preparation. On
the fourth evening the Enuma Elish was read. The Enuma Elish was a creation story that went back
to the days of ancient Sumer. The version read in Babylon said Marduk, the city’s patron god, created
Earth and sky when he defeated an angry goddess in battle and split her body in half.
On the fifth day of the festival the Babylonian king went to the temple and stood before the high
priest. The priest took away everything that marked him as a king, and then slapped him. The king
said, “I have not sinned, O lord of the lands. I have not destroyed Babylon.” After the priest gave back
the king’s clothes and jewelry, he slapped him again even harder or pulled his ears. If the king let a
tear fall, it was a sign that the coming year would be prosperous.
On the twelfth day visitors returned home and everyone went back to work.
1. Why did the Babylonians have their New Year festival in the spring?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
2. Why do you think the priest slapped the king and took away the signs of his power?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
3. Who was the patron god of Babylon? ___________________________________________________
4. Why would the reading of a creation story be an important part of a New Year celebration?
List some things we do to celebrate New Year’s Day.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
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Medicine in Ancient Mesopotamia
Mesopotamians believed that gods and spirits controlled most things that happened in their lives,
so it is not surprising they believed gods, demons, ghosts, and spirits caused disease.
Just as there were specialized metal workers, bakers, and weavers, specially trained people served
as doctors.
There were two types of doctors. One type was an ashipu, or spiritual doctor. The ashipu performed
sacrifices, searched for omens, chanted spells, and prescribed rituals. Mesopotamians believed these
doctors could help and sometimes the belief was enough to cure them.
For certain problems, patients were sent to an asu, or physician. The asu knew how to combine many
kinds of herbs into skin creams, syrups, and poultices. By 2100 B.C.E. physicians knew how to heal
wounds by washing them with water, applying a “plaster” similar to soap and bandaging them.
We know Mesopotamian doctors performed surgery because Hammurabi mentioned it in his famous
laws. If an upper-class patient died after an operation, the doctor had his hand cut off.
1. What was the difference between the two kinds of doctors in ancient Mesopotamia?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
2. Which kind of Mesopotamian doctor was more like the doctors we have today?
Give a reason for your answer.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
3. If you were a skilled Mesopotamian doctor, would you want to perform surgery on
someone who was very sick? Why or why not?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
DID YOU KNOW?
Dogs were associated with the healing goddess. A sign with a picture
of a dog drove bad spirits away and welcomed good spirits into the home.
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Sing Me a Story: The Epic of Gilgamesh
Accompanied by the music of harps and flutes, Mesopotamian poets lamented their losses and praised
their gods. They also told stories. Sumerians composed one of the world’s first epic poems, Gilgamesh.
Modern scholars have pieced together tablets from Ashurbanipal’s famous library in Nineveh and
translated the poem for us. It tells about King Gilgamesh of Uruk, and Enkidu—a wild man who had
lived with the animals until he was tamed by a woman. Gilgamesh and Enkidu were enemies at first,
but became close friends. Together they had many adventures. Once they went to a forbidden cedar
forest to get wood.
Humbaba, a horrible monster that guarded the forest,
killed Enkidu. Overcome by sadness, Gilgamesh went to
the underworld to talk to the only man who had become
immortal, the hero of Mesopotamia’s flood story,
Utnapishtim. Gilgamesh asked him how to overcome
death. Utnapishtim gave him a plant which had the
power to restore his youth. Overjoyed, Gilgamesh
started home, but when he stopped to bathe in a pool of
cool water, a snake ate the plant. The snake shed its
skin and became young again. (To this day, snakes shed
their skins.) Gilgamesh returned to Uruk empty-handed.
He felt his life had been wasted until he saw the city
wall he had helped his people build. He decided there
was a kind of immortality in accomplishment.
Thousands of years later we know Gilgamesh’s name.
Archaeologists have uncovered the ruins of a wall he
built to protect his people from invaders, and we still enjoy a wonderful poem about his courage.
1. Usually the treasure in a story is gold, silver, or jewels. Why would Gilgamesh and Enkidu
risk their lives to get cedar trees?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
2. Write and illustrate a story about two friends who have an adventure while searching for
a treasure.
3. Stories and poems were not read silently in Mesopotamia. They were read aloud. Share the
adventure story you wrote with a group.
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Who Was Who in Ancient Mesopotamia?
Children in ancient Mesopotamia did not go to school unless they were studying to be scribes. Even
kings and priests seldom knew how to read and write. In most cases, children learned the jobs of their
parents. Boys learned from their fathers and girls learned from their mothers.
Mesopotamian society was made up of three major social classes. At the very top of the social
structure were the kings, the priests, wealthy landowners, and military leaders.
The middle class included farmers, traders, shopkeepers, and skilled craftspeople.
Servants and slaves belonged to the lower class. Some Mesopotamian slaves were prisoners of foreign
wars, some were paying off their own debts or the debts of family members. Being a slave was not
necessarily a permanent condition. Slaves were paid a small amount and were allowed to buy their
own freedom.
On another sheet of paper, make three columns and label them Upper Class, Middle Class, and Lower
Class. Place the following occupations in the proper column.
architect
chariot maker
fisherman
goat
general
soldier
harpist
ox handler
queen
artist
doctor
jeweler
herder
sandalmaker
brickmaker
slave
maid
priest
astronomer
engineer
maid
weaver
scribe
tailor
pearl trader
gardener
baker
farmer
furniture maker
king
sculptor
ferryman
teacher
carpenter
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Ancient Mesopotamian News
Our motto: If it’s not more than 3,000 years old, it’s too new for our news.
Cylinder Seals for Sale
Sign all of your documents with the
very best. Visit Asur’s Gallery today
to order your custom seal.
Cart and Onager for Sale
My cucumber crop failed and I need
barley for the winter. My loss is your
gain. Meet me outside the city gate at
sundown tomorrow.
1. Write a headline in six words or less for each event.
The wheel was invented in Sumeria.
______________________________________________________________________________
King Hammurabi introduced a tough new law code.
______________________________________________________________________________
Babylon and its allies destroyed Nineveh.
______________________________________________________________________________
2. Complete the want ads in your own words.
Government Positions Available
Tax collector. Duties include . . .
Benefits include . . .
To apply . . .
Wanted
Young men to study to be scribes.
Must be willing to . . .
Duties include . . .
Apply at the tablet house at
sunrise tomorrow.
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Conqueror After Conqueror: Cyrus and Alexander
The leaders of New Babylon spread their empire too far out
across the lands surrounding Mesopotamia. When the
conqueror Cyrus united two great tribes, the Medes and the
Persians, Babylon could not stand against him. The Persians
controlled lands from Egypt to the borders of India. Later
Persian kings wanted to capture the city-states of Greece.
In 334 B.C.E. Alexander, a brilliant young Macedonian led his
soldiers into what is now Turkey. The Persian army marched
up to meet him. Although outnumbered, Alexander’s forces
won. By the time he was 25, Alexander had taken all of the
Persian lands, including the former great cities of Mesopotamia.
After a disastrous campaign in India, Alexander returned to
Babylon where he died of a fever.
Over the centuries, others tried to bring Mesopotamia’s farms
and cites back to life, but the center of civilization had shifted
to other parts of the world.
REVIEW
Match.
1. _____ the Tigris
A. Mesopotamian writing
2. _____ ziggurat
B. known as a lawgiver
3. _____ base 60
C. a cultural center
4. _____ Assyrians
D. a temple with platforms
5. _____ cuneiform
E. a river in Mesopotamia
6. _____ Hammurabi
F. hero of an epic poem
7. _____ Sumerians
G. clay counters
8. _____ Gilgamesh
H. warriors of the north
9. _____ tokens
10. _____ Babylon
I. Mesopotamian place value
J. inventors of the wheel
11. _____ clay
K. made cities possible
12. _____ scribes
L. a Persian conqueror
13. _____ Cyrus
M. a basic resource
14. _____ irrigation
N. people who could read and write
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Mesopotamian Trivia
We still use the Mesopotamian base 60 system for
counting minutes in an hour and degrees in a circle.
When the Egyptians first saw the Euphrates they
thought it was flowing backwards. The Nile flows
toward the north and the Euphrates flows south.
Even though girls did not go to school in Mesopotamia,
the world’s first famous author was a Mesopotamian
woman, a priestess named Enheduanna. Tablets with
copies of her poems and hymns have been found in
several Sumerian cities.
Wood was so valuable in Mesopotamia that when
people sold their houses they took their doors with
them. Many houses did not have doors.
On hot summer nights Mesopotamians slept on the roof.
One of the world’s first drinking straws was found in the Royal Tombs of Ur. It was made of gold and
lapis lazuli, a beautiful dark blue stone.
Sargon the Great had indoor toilets with seats in his palace. They emptied into drains.
Rabid dogs were a serious problem in Mesopotamia. The treatment was a dog bite incantation.
1. Of the items listed above, which surprises you the most? Why?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
2. Use the internet or other reference sources to write two other interesting tidbits of information
about ancient Mesopotamia.
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Then and Now
Life in ancient Mesopotamia was very different from what it is today.
Life in ancient Mesopotamia was very similar to life today.
How can both these statements be true?
1. Fill in the chart by making an X in the correct column following each item.
Then
Now
Both
Grow crops
Play baseball
Bakers make bread
Government collects taxes
Enjoy music and stories
Celebrate New Year’s
Have laws and courts
Write letters
Cook with electricity or gas
Doctors prescribe medicine
Most children attend school
Wages paid in money
2. List 10 other ways that life in ancient Mesopotamia was similar to life today.
1. _____________________________________
6. _____________________________________
2. _____________________________________
7. _____________________________________
3. _____________________________________
8. _____________________________________
4. _____________________________________
9. _____________________________________
5. _____________________________________
10. _____________________________________
3. From what you’ve learned of life in ancient Mesopotamia, what do you think was most
different about life then and life today?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
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Mesopotamian Projects
Complete one of these projects. Include maps, illustrations and other appropriate graphics.
• Create a time machine: Photograph or scan your own drawings to create a Mesopotamian
slide presentation.
• What would you need to open an Ancient Mesopotamian Café? Design a menu and the interior
décor. Create a display of ingredients.
• Plant birdseed in Styrofoam™ cups. Design experiments to show what grain has to have to
grow. Research the kinds of grain grown in Mesopotamia and how the needs of the plants
affected the culture.
• Read some Mesopotamian stories and poems. Illustrate them and tell how they relate to the
religion or history of the people. Write a lament or a hero tale, choose background music and
perform it for the class.
• Have a Mesopotamian fashion show. Explain the differences in clothing between various social
classes. Make beads out of air-dryable craft clay and string them to create jewelry. Use
authentic designs.
• Use squares of construction paper to make a mosaic of either the dragon or lion from the Ishtar
Gate of Babylon. Draw a map of the city showing the location of the gate and other
monuments.
• With a partner, create a late-night interview show. The interviewer prepares interesting
questions for the guest, who is a famous archaeologist. Visit the British Museum Mesopotamia
site for ideas.
• Design a race that will show the advantage of the wheel. The whole group should be involved
and it should be fun. Before the race, give a presentation showing different kinds of
Mesopotamian methods of transportation.
Write a three- to five-page report on one of these topics:
Hammurabi
Sargon I
Nebuchadnezzar II
Gilgamesh
Sennacherib
Ashurnasirpal II
Babylon
Nineveh
Ur
Uruk
Cuneiform
The Tigris and Euphrates
Food and drink
Mesopotamian schools
Inventions
Ziggurats
Sumeria
Assyria
Medicine
Clothing
Religion
The Hanging Gardens
Assyrian chariots
Hunting and herding
Slavery
Sumerians and Semites
Akkadia
Sammuramat
Darius
Assyrian Libraries
Houses and furniture
Plumbing and waste
Native plants
Southern Mesopotamia
Northern Mesopotamia
Farming techniques
Craftsmen
City-states
The Royal Tombs of Ur
Musical instruments
Metalworking
Laws and crime
Painting and sculpture
Pottery and archaeology
Cyrus the Great
Alexander the Great
Measurements
Trade
Invaders of Mesopotamia
City planning
Taxes and contracts
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Learn More About Ancient Mesopotamia
RESOURCES FOR STUDENTS
Great Civilizations of the East: Discover the Remarkable History of Asia and the Far East by Daud
Ali, Fiona MacDonald, Lorna Oakes, Philip Steele
Ancient Near East (Coloring Book) by Bellerophon Books
Book by Karen Brookfield (Part of the Eyewitness Books series)
Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others edited by Stephanie Dailey
The Children’s Atlas of World History by Neil DeMarco
Mesopotamia by Tami Deedrick
Slavery in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia by Jacqueline Dembar
Cultural Atlas for Young People: Early Civilizations by Erica C.D. Hunter
Books and Libraries by Jack Knowlton
Women Warriors by Marianna Mayer
Ishtar and Tammuz: A Babylonian Myth of the Seasons by Christopher Moore
Science in Ancient Mesopotamia by Carol Moss
The Assyrian Empire (World History Series) edited by Don Nardo
Empires of Mesopotamia by Don Nardo
They Lived Like This in Ancient Mesopotamia by Marie Neurath
Mesopotamia by Lorna Oakes
Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia by Michael Roaf
Prehistory and the First Civilizations by J.M. Roberts
The History of Making Books, Scholastic, Inc.
Mesopotamia: The Mighty Kings Time-Life Books
Gilgamesh the King, The Revenge of Ishtar, and The Last Quest of Gilgamesh by Ludmila Zeman
WEB SITES
Three great sources of information about ancient Mesopotamia are:
Mesopotamia at the Electronic Passport, http://www.mrdowling.com/603mesopotamia.html is a
great introduction.
The Mesopotamian Display at the British Museum, http://www.mesopotamia.co.uk/menu.html is an
interactive experience with beautiful graphic exhibits.
More technical information and an outstanding collection of links can be found at The Oriental
Institute at the University of Chicago, http://www.oi.uchicago.edu/OI/default.html.
You can search for other sites using key words like Mesopotamia, Sumeria, Babylonia, cuneiform,
Gilgamesh, ziggurats, and Assyria.
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Copyright © 2002 Milliken Publishing Co.
MP4822
MP8822
Answer Key
Mesopotamians Before History Began, page 2
1.–3. See map.
4. There were not many natural resources and it was a difficult
climate.
5. May include: geese, ducks, doves, wild bulls, gazelles, oryx,
ibex, boars, hares, wild sheep, and onagers.
Land Between Two Rivers, page 3
1. It settles to form a layer at the bottom.
2. Same: begins in Turkey, used for transportation, fishing, and
irrigation in ancient times. Different: Tigris carries more
water, Euphrates is longer.
3. See dictionary; Puzzler: River horse
Water Without Rain, page 4
1. lots of sun, good soil
2. created enough crops to feed many people, allowed
specialization
3. to carry water, to store seed for planting, to carry crops
to market
4. shovel, hoe, clippers, rake, trowel, etc.
5. Answers will vary. Might include plow, planting stick
6. increasing salts in the soil
The Sumerian Gourmet, page 5
1. Answers will vary.
2. Answers will vary.
What Can You Make with Water and Dirt?, page 6
1. Answers will vary. Might include toilet, plates, sinks,
figurines, tiles.
2. Answers will vary.
3. clothes, cars, appliances, homes, signs
My City Is Better Than Your City, page 7
1. No, because it is part of the USA.
2. Answers will vary. Might include specialization, arts and
culture, architectural development, more free time.
3. Answers will vary, but might include aspects of:
entertainment, publishing, business and government
leadership, large retail stores, auto sales, special industries
such as oil refining, docks, airlines, amusement parks,
transportation.
I’ll Trade You Copper for a Necklace, page 8
1. Definition will vary. Barter is used at
yard sales, flea markets. Services traded between friends.
2. It would be too much barley to haul in
a wagon.
3. tin, copper, wood, silver, gold, bitumen
4. money
5. So they could get all the raw materials they needed.
What’s the Big Deal About the Wheel?, page 9
1. You would have to add sides. You could show it by putting
pencils under the cardboard. The problem is, the sledge
would roll past the pencils. You could solve it by moving the
last pencil up in front of the sledge before you push forward.
2. boats
Babylonia vs Assyria, page 13
1. Answers will vary. Possibilities include:
Same:
Both were in Mesopotamia and depended on the Tigris and
Euphrates Rivers.
Both were attacked by outsiders.
Each destroyed the other's capital city.
Both used clay tablets and cuneiform writing.
Both built empires.
Both built wealth by trading with other cultures.
Different:
Assyria was hillier and closer to sources of metal, wood, and
wild game.
Babylonia had palm trees, swamps, reeds, water birds, and
richer fishing grounds.
2. a. 2000 B.C.E.; b. 1595 B.C.E.;
c. 612 B.C.E.; d. 605-565 B.C.E.
3. a. Hittites, Kassites, Assyrians, Persians
b. Hittites, Babylonians, Medes
When 1 Is 60: Babylonian Math, page 15
1. 42
28
57
14
2. 219,661
3. 60, 180
Did You Know? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, 30, 60
It’s the Law: Hammurabi, page 16
1. false
5. true
2. false
6. true
3. true
7. false
4. false
Iron Power: Assyria, page 17
1. iron
4. capturing or attacking
2. horses
5. spread out
3. slaves
The New Year’s Festival in New Babylon, page 18
1. It was the start of the growing season.
2. So the king would remember that he was just a human being
and his authority came from the gods.
3. Marduk
4. It is a time of beginnings. Sing “Auld Lang Syne,” make
noise, have parties, make resolutions, have parades, watch
football.
Medicine in Ancient Mesopotamia, page 19
1. Ashipu were spiritual; asu were practical or physical.
2. Asu, because they prescribed medicines, cleaned wounds,
and did operations.
3. No, because if the patient died you could have your hand cut
off. (Yes if you really thought you could save the person.)
Sing Me a Story: The Epic of Gilgamesh, page 20
1. Because good wood was very rare in Mesopotamia.
Who Was Who in Ancient Mesopotamia? page 21
Lower class: slave, maid, (gardener: could be in middle class)
Middle class: everyone else except the following:
Upper class: king, queen, priest, general
Conqueror After Conqueror: Cyrus and Alexander, page 23
1. E; 2. D; 3. I; 4. H; 5. A; 6. B; 7. J; 8. F; 9. G; 10. C; 11. M;
12. N; 13. L; 14. K
Then and Now, page 25
Grow crops: both
Baseball: now
Bakers: both
Taxes: both
Stories: both
New Year’s: both
Laws: both
Letters: both
Gas and electricity: now
Doctors: both
School: now
Wages: now
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Copyright © 2002 Milliken Publishing Co.
MP8822
Illuminating
History
The following color images (transparencies)
The Standard of Ur
are included on the enclosed CD-ROM.
© Milliken Publishing Company
1
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2
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3
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Assyrian Chariots & Weapons
Mesopotamian Ziggurat
iron scimitar
iron axe
straight sword
found at ashur
© Milliken Publishing Company
4
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5
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6
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Architectural Wonders of
New Babylon
ziggurat
hanging gardens
of babylon
ishtar gate
© Milliken Publishing Company
ISBN 978-1-4291-1495-0
7
MP4822
Milliken Publishing Company, a Lorenz company
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