Ancient Mesopotamia: UNIT STUDY GUIDE

The area known as Mesopotamia lies between these two rivers: Tigris River Euphrates River

fertile soil from the rivers. The most important geographical feature in the development of the early river valley civilizations was fertile soil from the rivers.

plan their crops to avoid floods Calendars were important to the development of cities and agriculture because they helped farmers plan their crops to avoid floods which allowed them to grow more food and feed more people.

Cuneiform means wedge shaped writing. Cuneiform was developed by the Sumerians because they needed a system for recording history and record keeping.

Cuneiform started as pictures, but over time it developed into a series of symbols similar to our current alphabet.

Mesopotamian people built canals because they needed a way to control the river’s flow to prevent flooding and increase farming.

plant faster, plant larger areas, and have more grains to trade. The metal plow impacted trade between Mesopotamia and other civilizations because farmers could plant faster, plant larger areas, and have more grains to trade.

too large The Assyrian Empire fell because it became for the military to protect it.

The city of Ur had temples dedicated to worshipping the goddess of Ishtar and god of Enki. This is evidence the Mesopotamian people were Polytheistic.

Fertilizing crops to increase production was not necessary in Mesopotamia because the location between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers provided fertile soil.

The ancient Babylonian king who created the first written laws was named Hammurabi.

Division of labor amongst the people in Mesopotamia was a result of high yielding crops.

Mesopotamian traders shared their goods with traders from India and Egypt.

Vocabulary to Know: Mesopotamia Hammurabi’s Code Agriculture Irrigation Systems Canals Peninsula Mediterranean Sea Cuneiform Polytheism