Download WHICh2Meso-Sec3-Sumer-Notes-2016

WHICh2, Sec3 p. 30-33
1. What is the “Fertile Crescent”? What is “Mesopotamia”?
2. What two rivers are the major geographical features of the Fertile Crescent and Mesopotamia? Where do
they begin? Into what body of water do they flow?
3. Label: Fertile Crescent, Mesopotamia, Tigris River, Euphrates River, Mediterranean Sea, Red Sea, Persian
Gulf, Nile River, Black Sea, Caspian Sea.
4. How was the flooding of the T& E Rivers like the flooding of the Nile?
How was it different from the flooding of the Nile?
5. How did this difference in the flooding of the rivers lead the Egyptians and Mesopotamians to have a
different outlook on life and a different view of their gods.
6. How was the geography of the lands surrounding the Fertile Crescent & Mesopotamia different from the
lands surrounding Egypt?
7. How did this difference in geography make the early history of this region different from the early history
of Egypt? (What problems did the people of this region often have that the people of Egypt rarely had?)
8. What did the flooding of the T & E Rivers bring to the lower part of Mesopotamia? What was the lower
part of Mesopotamia called & what was the culture that grew up in this region called? Label this region on
your map.
9. How did the big projects like the irrigation system and the dikes help push the people of Mesopotamia
toward civilization?
10. What had Mesopotamians accomplished by 3500BC? What had they accomplished by 3100BC?
11. What is the Mesopotamian writing system called?
12. How did the symbols of cuneiform develop? What did the symbols come to look like? What does cuneus
mean?
13. What writing material did they use?
14. What were Sumerian temples called, and what were they shaped like? What was at the top?
15. How were they ziggurats different from Egyptian pyramids?
16. Explain what a city-state was. Label the Sumerian city-states of Kish, Lagash, Uruk, Eridu and Ur on your
map.
17. How was the political organization of Sumer different from that of Egypt?
18. Who were the leaders of these city-states? Describe the levels of society in a Sumerian city-state.
19. Describe the social classes:
20. Describe farming in Sumer.
21. Describe trade in Sumer.
22. Describe education in Sumer.
23. What kind of number system did the Sumerians have? Although in general our number system is different (
base 10 system), what kind of measurements do we use that are like the system Sumerians used?
24. Describe the Sumerian religion and list the most important Sumerian gods. What was the Sumerian view of
what happened to a person after death?
25. What important things were (probably) invented first in Sumer?
Look at “Case study-Ur in Sumer”
26. Where was Ur located, and how many people lived there?
27. Who excavated Ur?
28. Look at the map of Ur. Name the most important features.
29. What was significant about Queen Puabi’s tomb?
30. What was found in this tomb that makes us think that servants were sacrificed/killed to accompany her in
death?
31. Describe several things found in Queen Puabi’s tomb.
32. Sketch the shape of the ziggurat of Ur as it originally was.
33. Where did agriculture take place? What did the farmers use to plow their fields? What did the farmers
dig to carry water to their fields? Who planned and oversaw this system?
34. What were the houses of most of the people of Ur like?
35. What metal was used to make sharp spear points? What devise did potters use to make their pots?
36. What was the bazaar? What happened there? What was barter?
37. What was Ur’s most important building? What does the term ziggurat mean?
38. What took place on top of the ziggurat?
39. What is the Epic of Gilgamesh.