Download The Rise of Sumerian City-States 4.1 Introduction Small Neolithic

The Rise of Sumerian City-States
4.1 Introduction
 Small Neolithic villages grew into large, complex cites.
 These villages were located in Mesopotamia, now modern day Iraq.
 Mesopotamia means, “Land between two rivers.”
 The two main rivers of the Fertile Crescent are the Tigris and Euphrates.
 Early cities had their own rulers, and farmland, which provided food for the city.
4.2 Mesopotamia: A Difficult Environment
 The northern part of Mesopotamia was hilly and received rain.
 The southern part had low plains, was flat and had little rain.
 On the plains it was very hard to find building supplies.
 Four main problems for Mesopotamians were:
1. Food shortages
2. Uncontrolled water supply on the plains
3. Problems maintaining and building systems that provided water
4. Attacks from neighboring communities
4.3 Food Shortages in the Hills
 Zargos Mountains in northern Mesopotamia is where people began farming.
 The foothills were a good place to farm because of the mild weather and plentiful
rain.
 Lots of stones for tool making and timber for building shelters.
 All of these good conditions made Mesopotamia grow.
 Because there were so many people there wasn’t enough food.
 To the south of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers ran the flat plains. Most of the
time the plains were a very hard place to live but in the spring the rivers flooded.
 Farms might be successful here.
 People moved out of the foothills and onto the plains. This was called Sumer.
 The people who lived here were called Sumerians.
4.4 Uncontrolled Water Supply in the River Valley
 One of the many problems in Sumer was the uncontrolled water supply.
 Unexpected floods from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers could wash away crops
that had been planted.
 Most of the year the sun baked the soil and it was hard stone.
 Farmers needed a way to control the water supply.
 The invented irrigation systems ( a means of supplying land with water) for their
fields.
 They built levees ( a wall of earth built to prevent a river from flooding its banks)
to prevent flooding.
 Over time they built dams, canals. These helped store water for later use.
4.5 Building and Maintaining a Complex Irrigation System
 Problems arose: how to maintain irrigation systems.
 Irrigation systems carried water through villages from the rivers to the fields.
 Canals became clogged with silt and often had to be cleaned.
 Farmers now had to live close together so they could care for the irrigations
systems.
 As Sumerians worked together, communities grew larger and turned into towns
and cities of thousands.
4.6 Attacks by Neighboring Communities
 As cities grew people fought over water.
 People upriver built new canals and blocked other canals
 People in the cities downriver did not get the water they needed.
 Disputes started and were often very serious.
 Sumerians began to build strong walls made of mud bricks, they also dug motes
to prevent enemies from entering their cities.
 Most people lived inside the city walls but farms were outside the city walls.
Farmers fled their fields for protection inside the city walls.
 The walled cities of Sumer were called city-states and they were like independent
countries.
4.7 From Small Farming Villages to Large City-States
 Beginning about 3500 B.C.E., Sumerians went from living in small farming
villages to living in large, walled cities.
 Mesopotamia moved from the foothills to the river valley.
 Problem: To much or too little water.
 To control the water Sumerians built irrigations systems.
 In order to build these complex water systems they had to work together
 They lived in larger communities leading to the first cities.
 City-States were like their own countries and sometimes they fought each other.
 They built walls and moats around their cities.