Download Tigris & Euphrates River Valley

Tigris & Euphrates River Valley
Map
SUMER
Fertile Crescent
=Located in present day Iraq
=Areas
1. Mesopotamia
- Cities: Akkad, Babylon
2. Sumer
-City: Ur
Farming
• T & E flooded at least once a year,
left a thick bed of mud called silt
• Used irrigation to produce a
surplus of wheat and barley
• Surpluses allowed for growth of
villages and specialized jobs
City-States and power
• city-state-a city and its surrounding lands
functioning as an independent political unit
(like a country functions today)
• Features: surrounded by a high wall, ziggurat
(temple) in the center
• Priests ruled at first, during war time power
was given to military commanders who
eventually became rulers
Population growth
• More surplus=>more people=>more trade
• Cultural diffusion-process of a new idea or a
product spreading from one culture to
another
Polytheism
• Believed in many
different gods
• Various forces in nature
were controlled by gods
(ex. Floodings and
droughts)
• Epic of Gilgameshearliest work of
literature, told myths
and legends of
Mesopotamia
Social Structure
PRIESTS
& KINGS
WEALTHY
MERCHANTS
FARMERS AND WORKERS
SLAVES
Science and Technology
• Wheel
• The sail
• Plow
• 1st to use bronze
• Writing system: Cuneiform
Early Rulers
• Hammurabi was the ruler of
Babylon
• Created a single code of laws and
engraved them in stone, placing
copies all over Babylon
• 282 laws that dealt with
everything from family relations to
crime
• WHAT WOULD YOU DO?