Download Mesopotamia: The Land Between the Rivers

Mesopotamia: The Land
Between the Rivers
Mr. Ornstein
Willow Canyon High
School
Answer???
 Why
is it good for students to know
their student handbook? How
does it protect you from teachers
and administrators?
What does Mesopotamia Mean?
 Land
Between the Two Rivers
 Greek
 Between the Tigris and
Euphrates
Where is Mesopotamia?
Between the
Tigris and
Euphrates Rivers
 Modern Day Iraq
 Part of the Fertile
Crescent

Fertile Crescent
 Arc
of Fertile Land from the
Mediterranean Sea to the
Persian Gulf
 Rich Soil and Abundant Crops
Made It Possible to Sustain the
Earliest Civilizations
Fertile Crescent
Crescent NOT Croissant
The Oldest Cradle of Civilization
 Mesopotamia
Was the Oldest
Cradle of Civilization
 The First Cities Developed in
Mesopotamia
Location not Civilization
Mesopotamia is a
Location and Not
One Single
Civilization
 A Number of
Different
Civilizations Lived
in Mesopotamia

Who Lived in Mesopotamia??
 Sumerians
 Babylonians
 Assyrians
 Persians
The Sumerians
 3000
BC
 Separate City-States (City that is
its own country)
The Sumerians
 Cuneiform-one
of the earliest forms
of writing
 Ziggurats- pyramid like structures
 First Cities
 Mud Brick Walls
 Irrigation Systems
Cuneiform
 How
was Cuneiform like
Egyptian Hieroglyphics?
Ziggurats
Mesopotamians Were
Polytheistic
 Mesopotamians
Believed in Many
Gods.
 City-States Worshipped Their Own
Gods
 Ziggurats Were to honor the God
of the City-State
Babylonians
 Great
Ancient City of Babylon
 One of the First Large Empires in
History
 Great King Hammurabi
 First Law Code
Code of Hammurabi
 First
Known Written Law Code
 282 Laws
 “Eye for an Eye”
 Unequal Penalties for Rich and
Poor
Sargon of Akkad
 Created
First
Empire
 Empire-Large
Amount of Land
or People
under One ruler
Answer
 How
are city-states different
from Empires?
Achievements of Mesopotamia






First Civilization
First Cities
First Law Codes
Epic of Gilgameshone of the first great
books
Cuneiform
Ziggurats
The Wheel
 First Empire
 Irrigation
Systems
 Mud Walls
 Achievements in
Math and
Science

Answer for Collection
 Which
Achievement is most
significant and why?
 Why is Hammurabi’s Code
Important?
 What two geographic features
made life possible in Mesopotamia