1.Students will be able to identify:

•What “Mesopotamia” means.

•The location of Mesopotamia.

•The names of the two rivers.

•Sumerians as the first civilization.

2.Identify key terms: city-state, ziggurat, polytheism, theocracy, cuneiform and scribe.

3.Be able to read and understand a social structure chart.

4.Identify the accomplishments of the Sumerians.

•Mesopotamia – Called the “Fertile Crescent,” this was the first agrarian civilization in the

world.

Archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolley.

•Mesopotamia – the “Land between two rivers.” The land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. (Modern day Iraq).

“The land between two rivers.”

3000 BC3000 BC 2340 – 2100 BC 1792-1750 BC 900 BC – 600 BC

SumerSumer Akkad Babylon Assyria

600 – 539 BC

Chaldean Babylon Persia

559 – 330 BC

How many civilizations controlled the Mesopotamian region?

•Empires in Mesopotamia fought for control over the land and water.

•Civilizations in the region - Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians, Assyrians, and

Persians. (Sumerian army pictured above).

•Dates back to 3,000 BC. Oldest of the

civilizations.

•Key cities were Ur, Eridu, and Uruk.

•Cities formed city-states that acted like

an independent nation.

Above: Archaeologists Sir Charles Leonard Woolley

•Each City-state -surrounded by walls. Defense towers posted every 30-35 ft.

•Sun-dried bricks used to form buildings and houses.

Capital city in the East and sun-

dried bricks.

•Vicious weather patterns- floods, heavy rain, scorching winds, famine and drought.

•Floods of the Tigris and Euphrates were unpredictable.

Sites from Ancient Ur

•Early civilizations will create irrigation and drainage ditches.

•Serious efforts to control the flow of the rivers.

•Enables them to grow crops regularly.Sumerian farmers irrigate and

work the fields.

•Economy was primarily based on farming.

•Trade and Industry – imported copper, tin, and timber. Exported fish, wool, barley and wheat.

•Traded by land and sea.

Sumerian farmer and tradesman on a raft.

•Polytheistic – the belief in many gods.

•Priests and priestesses were powerful and may have been the 1st rulers.

•Gods owned the cities. Over 3,000 gods.

Statues of worshippers.

In Sumerian religions, the gods created man to serve him and work the fields.

•Believed the gods ruled the cities.

•Theocracy – a government by divine authority. (Rule by god).

•Left-Marduk, the god of the city of Babylon.

•Their religion was very gloomy.

•The gods were unpredictable, like their weather.

•Upon death, they would go to a terrible underworld or “land of no return.”Image of Lilitu or the first

wife of Adam. Courtesy of Wikipedia Commons.

•Ziggurat – temple set atop a stepped tower.

•Temple was the center of the city and its economic and political life.

•This was the most important building in the city.

The Ziggurat or Temple of Ur in Ancient Sumer.

This temple was the central focus of life in the city of

Ur.

Above: Artist’s rendering of the city of Ur. In the background, you can see the temple or ziggurat. Courtesy of Wikipedia

Commons.

1.What does Mesopotamia mean?

2.Name the two rivers that encircle Mesopotamia.

3.How did most men earn a living in Sumer?

4.Where did the people of Sumer worship?

5.What is polytheism?

King

Nobles

Commoners

Slaves

90% - Temple officials, Farmers, merchants, craftsmen and fishermen.

Royals and Priests – Officials and Families.

Slaves – work on

buildings, grind grain, weave cloth.

Nobles and Slaves

make up less than

10% of the total pop.

•Kings were divine.

•Led armies.

• Oversaw the building of public works and structures.

•Organized irrigation projects.•Picture: Standard of Ur Chariots. Courtesy of Wikipedia Commons

•Priests kept calendars, time, and reported on harvesting and planting.

•Scribes wrote careful records of natural events on the earth and in the skies.Statue of a priest of

Sumer.

•Men who recorded all aspects of Sumerian life.

•Educated, copyists, teachers and jurists.

•Upper class, successful, leaders of cities, temples and armies.

Sumerian scribe above.

•1st written language was the wedge-shaped writing of the Sumerians called cuneiform.

•Scribes wrote on clay tablets with a reed stylus.Wedge-shaped Sumerian

writing or cuneiform above.

Shelves of a tablet library in Babylon.

•Epic of Gilgamesh – 1st Epic poem.

•Oldest poem in the history of the world.

•Sumerian tales about a hero named Gilgamesh.

•1st system of writing – cuneiform.

•Invented the wagon wheel.

•Invented the potter’s wheel.

•1st to make copper tools.

•Sundial to keep time.

•Astronomy –chart constellations.

•Math – number system based on 60. (60 minute hour).

•Geometry – measure fields and plan buildings.

•Designed the arch and the dome.

Ishtar Gate

1.What was the writing style of the Sumerians called?

2.What is the oldest Epic poem in the history of the world?

3.Who invented the wheel?

4.What was a scribe?

5. The Sumerians were the first to accomplish many things. Name two.