Download first historical civilizations

I.E.S. Llanes Sevilla
Departamento de Ciencias Sociales
FIRST HISTORICAL CIVILIZATIONS
MAIN IDEAS

Six thousand years ago (in the beginning of the 4th millenium before
Christ) some people chose big rivers to settle.

Some valleys were very rich, for example, the Nile, Tigris and
Eufrates’ valley. This area is called The Fertile Crescent (lecture
on page 7). So the people who settled there got big crops. Lots of
people began to settle in these areas.

Some villages grew and then we had the first cities.

When farmers got a big crop, they exchanged a part of it, so trade
appeared.

Trade became very important and they needed to build boats, roads
and channels. They were the first public works.

Kings were very powerful. They built big monuments to show their
power. The great temples, palaces and graves are some examples.

The King paid for these works and he also paid for the army. He got
the money from the people. This obligatory payment is called tax.

Some people began to write symbols on bricks or stones to follow the
accounts. History and Writing were born.
VOCABULARY:
To choose ( past chose): elegir / to settle: asentarse / valley : valle / crop: cosecha
/ to grow ( past grew ) : crecer / farmer: agricultor / to exchange : intercambiar /
to appear : aparecer / to build ( past built) : construir / channel: canal / powerful
: poderoso / grave : tumba / tax: impuesto / brick: ladrillo / account :
contabilidad / symbol: símbolo
EXERCISES
Fill in the gaps with the correct words:
________________ and __________________ are the main first civilizations.
Both of them appear in the _____________________ millennium BC.
When the villages grow the ____________________ appear.
The ________________ appear when people exchange a part of their crop.
When trade increases, people need to build public works like ___________, _____________
and ___________
The amount of money that people must pay the king is called ____________
I.E.S. Llanes Sevilla
Departamento de Ciencias Sociales
Some people write the accounts on ________________ and _______________
SELF-ASSESSMENT
FIRST HISTORICAL CIVILIZATIONS
1. I know the meaning of these words:
To settle
Valley
Crop
Farmer
to exchange
to build
Powerful
Grave
Channel
Valley
Tax
Account
Brick
Symbol
2. I have a basic idea of the following concepts:
 How the first cities appeared.
 How trade appeared.
 Why the first public works were built.
 Why the first big monuments were built.
 When, how and why History and writing were born.
3. I can write a short composition describing when, how, where
and why the first historical civilizations appeared.
I.E.S. Llanes Sevilla
Departamento de Ciencias Sociales
MAIN IDEAS ABOUT MESOPOTAMIA

Six thousand years ago (4 milleniums before Christ) farmers
began to settle in the area between the Eufrates and Tigris
rivers.

This area was called Mesopotamia by the ancient Greeks. It
means “between two rivers”. It is the area where Irak is at the
moment.

It is situated in the middle of the desert: The Arabian desert in
the West Side and the Persian desert in the East side. The
weather is hot and dry there, but the rivers bring a lot of water
and the land is fertile.

When people work the fields properly they cropped big
harvests. Very soon, a great civilization called the Sumer was
born in the South.

Later, another civilisation called Akkad was born in the middle
part. Assyrian people lived in the Northern mountains.
 The Sumerians built canals to water the fields. So they got
bigger harvests and built houses with sun-dried mud bricks.
VOCABULARY:
To settle: asentarse / desert: desierto / side: parte / dry: seco / to bring:
traer / properly: adecuadamente / field: campo / to crop: cosechar / harvest:
cosecha / to grow ( Grew) : crecer / to build : construir / to water. Regar /
sun-dried mud bricks : ladrillos hechos de barro secado al sol /
I.E.S. Llanes Sevilla
Departamento de Ciencias Sociales

There were a lot of towns. Every town had its own king and its
own laws. Every town was protected by a god or goddess who
lived in a temple. The temple was situated in the middle of the
city and the priests were very powerful. Every temple had a big
tower called a “Zigurat”.

Every town was independent, so they were called “city states”.
The main buildings in the city were the palaces and the temples.
Sumerian God
Vocabulary:
Law: ley / to protect: proteger / god: dios /
goddess: diosa / priest: sacerdote: / powerful:
poderosa / city-state: ciudad-estado /
Sumerian Temple and zigurat
ect: proteger
I.E.S. Llanes Sevilla
Departamento de Ciencias Sociales
SOCIETY
Vocabulary:
Underneath. debajo / leader: lider
/ trader: comerciante /
shopkeeper : vendedor /
craftsman: artesano / free: libre/
to belong: pertenecer / tablet:
tablilla / clay: arcilla / wedgeshaped: forma de cuña / code:
código / guilty: culpable / to
punish: castigar/ punishment:
castigo / commoners: gente
corriente /

The most powerful person in these societies was the king. He
made the laws, but he wasn’t considered a god.

Underneath the king, the most important people were the
priests and the leaders of the Army. The great traders and the
great owners of the fields were very important too.

The farmers, shopkeepers and craftsmen were free people, who
were called commoners in the Mesopotamic society.

The slaves belonged to other people or establishments such as
the king or the temple. They had to work hard and they didn’t
have any rights.
CULTURE

Sumerians wrote on tablets of clay.
Their
writing
was
called
“cuneiform”. It means “wedgeshaped” because their letters were
like a wedge.

They had a lot of libraries. Every palace and
every temple had a library of clay tablets.

The most important book was the
Hammurabi code. It was a penal code of the
king Hammurabi . It stated that every guilty
person must have exactly the same
punishment that he caused.
I.E.S. Llanes Sevilla
Departamento de Ciencias Sociales
EXERCISES
1. Mesopotamia is a Greek word that means
a) abundant natural resources
b) fertile crescent
c) great pottery
d) between the rivers
2. The Tigris and Euphrates are (or were)
a) city-states b) mountains c) rivers d) gods
3. The Sumerians wrote on
a) paper b) clay tablets c) stone c) wood e) papyrus
4. The most important people in Sumer were
a) slaves b) scribes c) farmers d) priests
5. Circle either true or false:
a) Sumerian writting is called hieroglyphics.
TRUE FALSE
b) The Sumerians trusted in many gods
TRUE FALSE
c) Sumerian temples were called Ziggurats
TRUE FALSE
d) Hammurabi was an important priest
TRUE FALSE
e) Hammurabi’s Code is based on the principle “An eye for an
eye, A tooth for a tooth”
TRUE FALSE
6. In addition to inventing the first written language and the
penal code – a written set of laws- the Mesopotamians invented
many other things we use today. Look up in your dictionary the
meening of the following Mesopotamian inventions:
Wheel__________ Chariot________ Sailboat____________
Plough__________ Irrigation________ Hoe_______________
I.E.S. Llanes Sevilla
Departamento de Ciencias Sociales
7.- Draw the Mesopotamia’s social pyramid
MR DOWLING’S LECTURE
The Fertile Crescent
Civilization developed slowly in different parts of the world. People
began to settle in areas with abundant natural resources. A section of the Middle
East is called the Fertile Crescent. The Fertile Crescent is a rich food-growing
area in a part of the world where most
of the land is too dry for farming. The
Fertile Crescent is a quarter-moon
shaped region that extends from the
eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea
to the Persian Gulf.
Some of the best farmland of
the Fertile Crescent is on a narrow strip
of land between the Tigris and
Euphrates Rivers. The Greeks later
called this area Mesopotamia, which means “between the rivers.” Many
different civilizations developed in this small region. First came the Sumerians,
who were replaced in turn by the Assyrians and the Babylonians. Today this
land is known as Iraq.
MR. DOWLING
To know more about Mesopotamia click here:
http://www.mesopotamia.co.uk/