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Ancient Mesopotamia I. The Fertile Crescent Main Idea- The Sumerians organized the first city-states, which consisted of a city and the area around it that the city governed. A. Mesopotamia means “land between the rivers” in Greek B. Mesopotamia covers the same area as modern day Iraq, northeast Syria and southeast Turkey C. This region is often called the “Fertile Crescent” because of its shape and fertile soil D. Around 3000 BC the Sumerians, the first inhabitants of the area, began to organize into city-states E. A city-state is a city and the area it controls II. The Mesopotamian City-State A. 3 major challenges influenced the development of city-states. i. One was the threat of hostile invaders. To protect themselves the Sumerians surrounded their cities with strong, high walls ii. The 2nd challenge was a lack of water. There was very little rainfall in the region. City-states built and maintained irrigation canals for local use, like the Egyptians iii. The 3rd challenge involved trade. The Sumerians lacked stones, metals and timer for building and had to import these materials. B. The Sumerians wanted to export grain, dates and cloth but trade was risky because of bandits, pirates and wild animals. C. Mesopotamian city-states were center for religious worship D. The Sumerians believed in many gods, the most important were Enlil and Utu, Enlil controlled the rain and Utu controlled the sun E. Each city-state built a temple to a specific god. The people believed this god was the city’s special guardian F. The temple was built on a pyramid shaped tower called a ziggurat G. From the winding terraces people could watch celebrations honoring their god III. Government by Priests & Kings A. Temple priests were the first governors of Mesopotamian city-states B. Later on kings would rule city-states, the kings would choose who would lead the city-state after the king died C. From then on priests ruled over religious and economic life D. Kings ruled over political and military life E. Occasionally kings would conquer other city-states, many kings built empires from the land that they conquered. F. An empire is a group of countries under one ruler’s control. G. These emperors demanded that their people worship them as living gods. IV. Class System A. Mesopotamia had a class system B. A class system means that society was divided into different social groups C. Each group or class possessed certain rights and was protected by the law D. The more favored classes enjoyed more rights that anyone else Kings, Priests, Wealthy Land Owners Skilled workers, merchants and farmers Enslaved workers E. Some slaves were captured in wars but some had to sell themselves into slavery to pay off debts. Once they had worked enough to pay off the debt, they were no longer slaves. V. A culture based on Writing A. The Sumerians developed one of the first systems writing called cuneiform B. The Sumerians recorded their history, their religious beliefs and their knowledge of medicine, mathematics and astronomy C. These records were recorded on clay tablets D.Very few people in Mesopotamia ever learned to read or write VI. Educating Scribes A. The only people who learned to read and write in Mesopotamia were called scribes B. Scribes were children of the extremely wealthy that were sent to schools to learn to read and write C. Most scribes were children of wealthy merchants, government officials or priests D. The school day lasted from sunrise to sunset and the students had to memorize 600 different characters E. Students who misbehaved were punished by the man in charge of the whip