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Name: Date: 65-71 Mesopotamia: Cradle of Civilization You know the drill! After reading pages 65-71 in your socials text book Ancient Worlds 7, answer the following questions to help you build and organize your notes. Feel free to fill in your notes using your own words but make sure you answer each question fully, carefully, and most importantly accurately! This package and others like it become your study packages for unit tests like the one we just had! 1) Why was Mesopotamia created where it was? What made this area such a great place for a civilization to live? -Fertile crescent for farming -Between rivers for irrigation -Rivers provided transportation (trade and travel by boat) -Near Delta: hunting and building supplies 2) What is the Fertile Crescent? What makes it so fertile? Mesopotamia was built on an area known as the fertile crescent which is a flood-plain between rivers. When the water floods each year, nutrients are settled into the land from the waters silt and debris. This leaves the land very fertile and a great place to farm. 3) What is a Delta? How is it formed? How did the presence of a delta make life easier for the ancient people of Mesopotamia? -A delta is an area where a river meets the ocean. When this happens the speed of the water slows down and all the dirt and silt suspended in the water drops forming a natural muddy dam where animals can live -Provided hunting (many animals live there) as well as reeds for papyrus and other construction supplies 4) What is a climate? What was the climate like in Mesopotamia? -The weather patterns and temperature of an area over time (at least a year) -The climate of Mesopotamia was hot and dry 5) How did the climate of Mesopotamia effect the lives of those living in the area? Provide both positive and negative effects. -Positive: hot and sunny is good weather for growing crops. Also no need for excessive clothing or complicated structures. -Negative is over watering is needed which results in capillary action (salting of the soil so nothing can grow). 6) Explain the benefits and drawbacks of living in a flood plain: Benefits: natural fertilizer for land every year. Drawback: area floods where you live! 7) What does Irrigation mean? Why was it important? -Irrigation is: watering of farmland with complex systems like dikes, dams, ditches ect.. -It is important because it allows for mass farming. Water can be taken or diverted from rivers to water large crops. 8) How did the ancient Mesopotamians use the following technologies to assist their irrigation efforts? Dams: -Wall or blockage of a natural water way. Allows for control of water (flow and location) -Structure that stops water Dikes: -Stone or solid wall which builds up the river’s edge so when it floods, the water doesn’t go over the sides of the river Ditches and Canals: Used to divert water to water crops or prevent seasonal floods from entering settled areas 9) What is Capillary action? How did this end up forcing people to move away from Mesopotamia? (diagram on page 71) -Over watering of farm soil brings salt from beneath the earth up to the surface. Nothing can grow in salty soil. -The people created too much capillary action and their farm land was useless. The people starved and moved on. Much of the city was abandoned because it could no longer support great numbers. 10) Fill in the chart below: Word Definition Flood Plain An area that is flooded each year due to rivers in the area Domesticate -Make useful/tamed for human use (refers to animals) -To use animals/plants for human usefulness Dike -Stone or solid wall which builds up the river’s edge so when they flood it doesn’t go over the sides of the river Example Sentence Picture The farms below my school are sitting on a flood plain If we domesticate the wild horse, we can use it on our farm. The dike built along the Frazer river keeps it from flooding in the spring. 10) As Mesopotamia grew it experienced ‘growing pains’. Explain some of the problems that came about as a result of Mesopotamia’s population increase (pg 71) -As more people became settled in ancient Mesopotamia, the need for more food followed. -Excessive farming in a hot, dry climate creates Capillary Action -The salt destroyed the farm land, and people starved or moved on.