Evolution of City-States in MesopotamiaFour Key Problems faced by Ancient Mesopotamians

Rivers and Settlements of Mesopotamia in 2500

B.C.

In this activity you wil l learn about and respond to problems faced by people in ancient

Mesopotamia!

Euphrates

Tigris

Mesopotamia

What does Mesopotamia mean?

Activity Directions We will examine 4 problems faced by people in Ancient Mesopotamia.

The way these people responded to these problems contributed to the development of city – states in Sumer

For each problem - You will view an imageRead information Respond to critical-thinking problems

Event A - Zagros Mountain – Located in Western Iran along the Iran-Iraq border

Read the Information about food shortage – 4.1a hand-out

1. Examine the picture and use the information you read to choose the option you think best solves the shortage problem.

2. You must justify your choice with two specif ic reasons

Around 5000 BCE, the food shortage in the Zagros foothills may have forced people to

move in search of more land to settle and farm. People gradually moved onto the

Mesopotamian plains located below the foothills and settled along the Tigris and

Euphrates Rivers. Farming was difficult on the new land, but people were able to

cultivate crops and build new settlements, which eventually grew into villages. In

addition to farming, people also fished in the rivers and swamps to help maintain a

stable food supply.

In this picture we see the Euphrates River at Anah in Northwestern Iraq

1. Read Event B – Uncontrol led Water Supply2. Complete the drawing for Critical-Thinking

Question B3. Follow al l directions!

To provide a year-round supply of water for their crops, some members of the villages on the Mesopotamian plains designed an irrigation system. Peoples dug ditches and built complex waterways that could direct water from the rivers to farmers’ fields, some of them several miles away. Alongside the rivers, farmers also built up the rivers’ natural earth walls, or levees, to protect villages from flooding.

After reading the information card and examining the picture answer the Critical

Thinking Question C. Provide two reasons to support your choice.

Event C - Irr igation Canal running through farmland on the banks of the Euphrates River in

Iraq

Some scholars believe that farmers from different villages on the Mesopotamian river plains cooperated to maintain the complex irrigation system. People may have joined village work teams to clean and repair irrigation canals, reservoirs and dams. Although conflicts likely arose over the amount of water each village received, many villages gradually formed strong ties as they worked together to maintain the irrigation system.

Remember – Your

plans can only include weapons

and defenses that

were avai lable in 3000 B.C – Such

as spears and mud

bricks!

Event D: Ruins of Mari, a Sumerian city from the early third mil lennium B.C. – located along the banks of the

Euphrates River on the border between Iraq and Syria

After reading and examining the picture, complete Critical-thinking Question D

By 3000 BCE, Sumerian cities were constantly fighting over water usage. People built thick walls around their cites to protect themselves from attack, and built strong gates at the cities’ entrances. Cities also gradually grew larger and more highly organized, with organized armies and systems of government. This new form of city and its surrounding villages and farmlands is called a city-state. City-state members were almost always prepared for war. They each appointed a “big man”, or a lugal, to lead the city-state during times of emergency warfare. The lugal eventually gained power and began to rule the city-state permanently as king.

Artists rendition of a Sumerian city-state surrounded by a wall

How is the Sumerians ’ defense plan different from yours?