1. Mesopotamia

2. The Fertile Crescent & Mesopotamia
Fertile Crescent: area located between the Mediterranean Sea and Persian Gulf that has fertile soil for farming.
Mesopotamia: area of land located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers
Rivers would overflow and deposit silt- a thick bed of mud that was good for growing food
Region was settled by groups like the Sumerians who practiced agriculture and had permanent settlements

5. Environmental Challenges
Despite having good soil for farming, there were several challenges settlers faced in Mesopotamia
Unpredictable flooding & little rainfall
No natural barriers to prevent invasions
Limited natural resources for building

6. Overcoming Challenges
Irrigation ditches were built to deliver water from the river to the farms to provide water to crops
Walls were built out of mud bricks to defend cities
People traded grain, cloth, and tools to gain raw materials for building
This led to cultural diffusion- process in which new ideas or products spread and exchange from one culture to another

7. Sumerian City-States
Although cities shared a common culture they lived in independently run city-states
City-state has its own government and ruler
At first, priests ruled city-states to keep the gods happy
Sumerians were polytheistic- the belief in more than one god.
Then, military rulers leaders dynasty
Dynasty is a family of ruler who rule over a country for a long period of time
The center of all Sumerian cities is a walled temple with a ziggurat in the middle.

9. Social class & Women Ranking: Kings, landholders, and priests
Wealthy merchants
Ordinary people such as farmers, artisans
Slaves
Sumerian women had more rights than women in many later civilizations

10. Technology historians believe that Sumerians invented the wheel
among the first to use bronze by combining copper and zinc

11. Writing--Cuneiform
By 3200 BC, the Sumerians/Mesopotamians had invented the earliest form of writing, called Cuneiform.
Cuneiform grew out of a system of pictograms (small pictures) that priests used to record goods brought to their temples.
Later, priests developed symbols to represent more complicated thoughts.
Sumerians used it to record grain harvests, myths, prayers, laws, treaties, and business contracts.

12. Babylonian Empire
Empire: An empire brings together several peoples, nations, or previously independent states under the control of one ruler.
The Babylonian Empire took over the Sumerians and reached its peak power under Emperor Hammurabi ( BC)
Legacy: Hammurabi’s code

13. Code of Hammurabi
A uniform code of written laws that were designed to help unify the diverse groups in the empire.
Copies of laws were carved in stone and displayed throughout the empire
Laws governed behavior and applied to all people, but punishments were different for rich and poor people, as well as men and women
Principle of retaliation: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth

15. Homework 1. Review and organize notes for today
2. In your notebook, answer the question:
In your opinion, can a civilization advance without written laws? Why or why not?