1. Unit 2 River Valley Civilizations Mesopotamia
Chapter 2 Section 1

2. Geography of the Fertile Crescent
A Desert climate dominates the landscape between the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea in South East Asia.
The Best land in the desert region is a curved region known as the Fertile Crescent

3. Geography of the Fertile Crescent
Fertile Plains
In the eastern part of the Fertile Crescent the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers flow southeastward to the Persian Gulf
Mesopotamia (which is Greek for “land between the rivers”) is a plain between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers
The Tigris and Euphrates Rivers flood once a year leaving behind a thick bed of mud called silt. Silt is a rich, new soil. It is a very fertile region.

4. Geography of the Fertile Crescent
Environmental Challenges
People began settling in southern Mesopotamia before 4500 B.C.
The Sumerians arrived in Mesopotamia around 3500 B.C. They mixed with local farmers and the Sumerian language became dominant.
The good soil of the flat, swampy land of Sumer attracted settlers.

5. Geography of the Fertile Crescent
Three disadvantages of the land:
Flooding of the rivers was unpredictable.
Small region about the size of Massachusetts and it lacked natural barriers for protection
Limited resources of stone, wood, and metal

6. Geography of the Fertile Crescent
Creating Solutions
To solve the problem of water
They dug irrigation ditches that carried river water to their fields
The irrigation ditches allowed them to have a surplus of crops.
These irrigation systems required planning and supervision. They also established laws to decide how the water would be distributed.

8. Geography of the Fertile Crescent
To provide protection to solve the problem of no natural boundaries
They built city walls made of mud bricks
Below you will find how to make mud bricks

9. Geography of the Fertile Crescent
To solve the problem of limited resources the Sumerians became traders.
The Sumerians traded grain, cloth, and crafted tools for stone, wood, and metal
In order to solve their problems the Sumerians had to work together. It required them to organize, cooperate, and have leadership. The need for leadership started their organized government

10. Sumerians Create City-States
A city-state: A city and its surrounding lands functioning as an independent political unit (much like a country)
Sumer was one of the first civilizations. Five key characteristics set Sumer apart from earlier societies. Those five characteristics were:
1. Advanced Cities
2. Specialized Workers
3. Complex Institutions
4. Record keeping
5. Advanced technology

11. Sumerians Create City-States
Other civilizations looked to Sumer for inspiration
The cities in Sumer shared a similar culture but had their own governments.
Major Cities in Sumer:
1. Uruk
2. Kish
3. Lagash
4. Umma
5. Ur

12. Sumerians Create City-States
The Power of the Priest
At the center of all cities in Ur were the walled Ziggurats. The priest would appeal to the gods for the well-being of the city at the Ziggurat.
Sumer’s earliest governments were controlled by the temple priest.
The farmers believe that the success of their crops depended upon the blessing of the gods.
The priest acted as an intermediary (or go between) between the people and the gods.

13. Sumerians Create City-States
The ziggurat was also like a city hall because the priests managed the irrigation system and also demanded a portion of every farmer’s crops as taxes.

14. Monarchs Take Control
In time of war, however, the priests did not lead the city. Instead, the men of the city chose a tough fighter who could command the city’s soldiers.
In the beginning the fighter would only control the city during times of war and then gave back power to the priests.

15. Around 3000 B.C. wars between cities became more and more frequent and therefore power gradually shifted away from the priests and gave power to the commander of the armies.
In time, some military leaders became full- time rulers, or monarchs. These rulers passed down their power to their sons who passed it down to their heirs. Such as series of rulers is called dynasty

16. Between 3000 and 2500 BC many Sumerian city-states came under the rule of dynasties.

17. The Spread of Cities
Sumer’s city-states grew prosperous from the surplus food produced on their farms.
The Sumerians traded the surplus over long distances. They traded the things they could make for the things they needed.

18. As their population and trade grew their influence on other cultures grew as well. By 2500 B.C. new cities were arising all over the Fertile Crescent, in what is now Syria, northern Iraq, and Turkey.
The Sumerians began absorbing ideas from the cultures around them. The process of new ideas or a product spreading from one culture to another is called cultural diffusion.

19. A Religion of Many Gods
The Sumerians, like the other societies in the Fertile Crescent, believed in many different gods that controlled the forces of nature.
The belief in many gods is called polytheism.
Enlil, the god of clouds and air, was among the most powerful gods. Sumerians feared him as “the raging flood that has no rival.”

20. The lowest of all the gods were demons known as Wicked Udugs, who caused disease, misfortune, and every kind of human trouble.
The Sumerians believed in about 3,000 gods
The Sumerians gave their gods human traits such as falling in love, having children, quarreling, and so on.
They saw their gods as immortal and all- powerful and that humans were nothing but their servants.

21. They believed their gods sent disaster if they were angry
The Sumerians build ziggurats for them and made sacrifices of animals, food, and wine to keep them happy.
Sumerians worked hard to please their gods while they were alive in order to gain protection in this life.

22. Sumerians viewed after life negatively
Sumerians viewed after life negatively. They believed you received very little help from the gods after death. The Sumerians believed that the souls of the dead went to the “land of no return” which was a dismal, gloomy place between the earth’s crust and the ancient sea. There was no joy in the after- life. A Sumerian poem describes the afterlife as “Dust is their fare and clay their food.”

23. The long Mesopotamian poem, the Epic of Gilgamesh, gives a glimpse in the beliefs and concerns of the Ancient Sumerians. In the poem Gilgamesh, a legendary king, has an unsuccessful quest for immortality. Many other later cultures would be influenced by Sumerian beliefs found in the Epic of Gilgamesh.

24. Life in Sumerian Society
Social classes began to emerge
The highest level of Sumerian Society was made up of priest and kings.
The next highest level of Sumerian Society was made up of the wealthy merchants
Below the merchants were the people who worked with their hands in the fields and workshops. This level of society made up the majority of Sumerians

25. The lowest class of Sumerian society was the slaves
The lowest class of Sumerian society was the slaves. Slaves were usually captured foreigners or people who had been sold into slavery as children in order to pay off their parent’s debt.
Slaves in Sumerian society could obtain freedom if they worked hard and paid off their debt
Social class affects the lives of both men and women in Sumerian society.

26. Women in Sumerian society
Sumerian women could pursue most occupations in city life (ex merchant, farmer, artisan, etc)
Women could hold property in their own name
The could join the lower ranks of the priesthood
Women were very rarely scribes and therefore scholars have concluded that girls were not allowed to attend the school where upper-class boys learned to read and write.
Sumerian women had more rights than in many later civilizations

27. Sumerian Science and Technology
Sumerians invented the wheel, the sail, and the plow
First to use bronze (the combination of tin and copper)

28. Developed cuneiform. The scribes were the educated part of society and recorded important events and laws in cuneiform. Cuneiform was also used to record scientific research and advancements in mathematics.

29. Scientific investigations into astronomy, chemical substances, and symptoms of disease.
They developed arithmetic and geometry in order to help them build city walls and buildings, irrigations systems, and survey flooded fields.
They developed a math system in base 60, from which stem the modern units of measuring time (60 seconds = 1 minute) and the circle (360 degrees around).

30. Architectural innovations include the ziggurat which included arches, columns, ramps, and the pyramid-shaped design

31. The First Empire Builders
. From 3000 – 2000 B.C. the city-states of Sumer were almost constantly at war with each other. This lead to weakening in the city-states. Because they were so weak they could no longer ward off attacks from the people of the surrounding deserts and hills. Although the Sumerians never recovered from the attacks on their cities, their civilizations did not die.

32. Sargon of Akkad
In about 2350 B.C. a conqueror known as Sargon defeated the city-states of Sumer. Sargon led his army from Akkad, a city-state north of Sumer
The Akkadians were Semitic people (that is, they spoke a language that was related to Arabic and Hebrew).
The Akkadians had long before adopted much of the Sumerian culture.

33. Sargon’s conquests helped spread the Sumerian culture beyond the Tigris and Euphrates.
By taking control of the northern southern parts of Mesopotamia Sargon created the first empire.
An empire brings together several peoples, nations, or previously independent states under the control of one ruler.

34. At its height the Akkadian Empire extended from the Mediterranean Coast in the west to present day Iran in the east.
The empire lasted about 200 years and declined due to internal fighting, invasions, and famine.

35. Babylonian Empire
In about 2000 B.C., nomadic warriors known as Amorites, another Semitic group, invaded Mesopotamia.
Within a short time, the Amorites overwhelmed the Sumerians and established their capital at Babylon, on the Euphrates River.
The Babylonian Empire reached it’s peak under Hammurabi, from 1792 to 1750 B.C. Hammurabi’s most enduring legacy is the code of laws he put together.

36. Hammurabi’s Code
Hammurabi recognized that a single, uniform code would help to unify the diverse groups within his empire. He therefore collected the existing rule, judgments, and laws into the Code of Hammurabi
The code listed 282 specific laws that dealt with everything that affected the community, including family relations, business conduct, and crime.

37. It was a law based on retaliation basically “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”
Despite being severe, Hammurabi’s code reflected the idea that the principle that government is responsible for the community.