It’s the first group of Civilizations! Awesome! Ancient Mesopotamia! It’s the first group of Civilizations! Awesome!

Where we live affects how we live…. The first civilization arose in the region we call “Mesopotamia,” which means “between the rivers” in Greek. The two rivers were the Tigris and Euphrates.

Floods! So, rivers tend to flood from time to time, and the Tigris and Euphrates flooded a LOT! The floods were devastating and would sometimes wipe away entire villages! “The Epic of Gilgamesh” was a traditional story that told of a great flood that destroyed the world…..

Survival In order to survive, everyone had to work together. This led to specialization of labor. Since people were helping each other out to survive, cities began to form!

Governments Lots of cities started popping up in Mesopotamia and they became “city- states,” which meant that they operated like little mini countries. Each city-state had a ruler who was responsible for maintaining the city walls and irrigation systems. He would lead religious ceremonies as well.

Social Hierarchy This is like what “class” you are, and some people have more status than others. In Sumerian city-states the highest class was the ruling family and religious priests. Then a middle class of merchants. Then lower class of peasants.

Religion Sumerians had an organized polytheistic religion which meant they believed in more than one god. They believed that their many gods controlled all aspects of life, like nature. They believed it was essential to keep them happy.

Writing The Sumerians invented the first form of writing called cuneiform. It was a system of symbols that represented things.

30-34, Checkpoints and 3-5 on page 34. Thursday’s Homework 30-34, Checkpoints and 3-5 on page 34.