Download Clement Middle School - Clement - Mr. Ferguson : English Overview

Notes for chapters 3 & 4
Mesopotamia and
Ancient Civilizations
Ancient Sumerian farmers
They built canals to bring river water
to the fields
 The canals enabled them to grow
crops.
 Using the canals to help irrigate the
crops helped them develop surpluses
of food.

Sumerian farmers produce food
surpluses



Food surpluses allowed some to
specialize in other types of work. No
longer did everyone have to farm.
Food surpluses led to a growth in trade.
Growth in trade led to the development
of writing system. They needed to keep
records and writing them down worked
best.
Mesopotamia


Historians named the land between the
Tigris and Euphrates rivers Mesopotamia.
It was a good area for growing crops
because the flooding rivers deposited
silt on the land.
Mesopotamia (cont.)

Human settlement was encouraged in the
southern part of Mesopotamia because of
the fertile soil
Early Sumerians develop a
plow

The plow helped farmers grow crops by
breaking up hard soil to help water get
to the roots of plants.
Sumerian society


Sumerians practiced a form of polytheism
- the worship of many gods. The gods
played the role of protecting people
from troubles and danger.
Priests had the greatest influence in
early Sumerian society.
Sumerian society (cont.)

Kings gradually replaced priests as
rulers of Sumer. They became the
person everyone else answered to.
Sumerian society (more)


Ziggurats were at the center of towns - the
focal point - and became both the
religious and government center.
The job of record keeping was done by
scribes.
Early writing systems


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The first writing system developed used a
system of symbols called Pictographs.
Then the Sumerians developed wedgeshaped symbols to write. This was called
Cuneiform.
These writing systems were developed at
first to keep business records.