Download Mesopotamia “Mesopotamia” = “the land between two rivers

Mesopotamia
“Mesopotamia” = “the land between two rivers”
Geography
* About 9,000 years ago, wandering tribes settled in the river valley
between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
* This area, also known as the “Fertile Crescent”, is now part of the
countries of Iraq, Turkey, and Syria.
* The plains were flooded each year by the two rivers making the soil fertile
and creating valuable farmland.
* The climate is semiarid, which means is gets some rain, but remains fairly
dry.
* Sumerian civilization is the oldest known on Earth.
* For the first time, people began to control their environment.
* Because flooding of the rivers was unpredictable, farmers began building
canals to irrigate during droughts, and to build dams to control flooding.
* Mesopotamia lacked resources, such as wood, stone and minerals, they
built their homes out of mud bricks.
* They also had few mountains or natural barriers to prevent invasions, and
so built mud walls around their villages for protection.
* They began to grow surplus grain, which they were then able to trade for
resources.
The First Civilization
* Villages grew into cities, and became more complex. As populations grew,
there was a need to organize workers to solve problems.
* Over time, society and culture grew more complex. These changes led to
an advanced form of culture called civilization.
* The first civilization rose about 3300 B.C. in Sumer, a region in southern
Mesopotamia.
*Traits of a Civilization -refer to your notes on Traits of Civilization 
* Each Sumerian city was a city-state and included the city and nearby
farmlands.
* Houses and public buildings were made of bricks made from mud and
crushed reeds.
* Each city was protected from invaders a high wall with a bronze gate, built
for protection from invaders.
* Each Sumerian city had narrow winding streets leading from the gates to
the center where the ziggurat was located.
* Ziggurats were centers of religion, but also where they stored surplus
grain.
*Priests controlled not only the religion, but much of the wealth.
Religion
* The Sumerians were polytheistic, meaning they believed in many gods
* The Sumerians believed that the forces of nature were gods. (they had
more than 3000 gods).
* Humans were made by the gods to be the servants of the gods.
* The goal of each Sumerian was to please the gods so that their crops
would grow.
* The priests were very powerful because only they knew the will of the
gods and would speak for them to the people.
* At first, Sumerian priests were also the kings of the city-states.
* Sumerian priest-kings received advice from an assembly made up of free
men, who would choose a military leader to serve during a war.
* Eventually, military leaders stayed in charge and this became hereditary.
Sumerian Society
* As Sumerian society became more complex, it divided into several social
groups, or classes.
* the upper class: kings, priests and government officials, landowners, and
rich merchants.
* the middle/lower class: all other free people (shopkeepers, artisans,
farmers, fishermen, etc.)
* slaves made up the lowest class; they had some rights, and could buy their
own freedom
* Women could buy and sell property, run businesses, and own and sell
slaves.
* They invented the wheel and the plow and the potter’s wheel, and were
among the first people to use bronze
* They developed a number system based on 60 and divided days into
hours, minutes, seconds (60 sec. 60 min. 360 circle)
* They understood and used geometric shapes (rectangles, triangles and
squares)
Writing
* Their writing was called cuneiform which means “wedge-shaped”
* At first they used pictures to represent objects (pictographs), then ideas,
then sounds and finally later, syllables and words
* They wrote with a stylus (a sharp-ended reed) on clay tablets
* The priests ran schools called “tablet houses” to teach students how to
write. Schools were only for the sons of the rich
* When a student graduated from school he became a Scribe, which was a
professional record-keeper. A scribe was respected highly in Sumerian
society.
* Sumerians developed the first system of writing, which makes it easier for
people to pass on knowledge from generation to generation.