1. Chapter 2
The Fertile Crescent

2. Section 1 Land Between Two Rivers

3. What 2 rivers? Mesopotamia – Greek = between 2 rivers
Tigris
Euphrates
Make up the Fertile Crescent – region in Southwest Asia that was the site of the world’s 1st civilization
Named that because it is shaped like a crescent moon
Great area to farm
Present Day Iraq

4. Good rivers…Bad rivers
Spring – snow in mountains melted = rushing water with topsoil in it – floods = rich soil = farming
Also provide:
Fish
Clay for buildings
Reeds for boats
Floods not same time - water sweeping away:
People
Animals
Houses
Crops

5. Lets Start Cities Farming success = surplus of food = cities
By 3500 B.C. earliest known cities grew
In region of Sumer

6. How did the cities work? Cities shared a common language & culture
No single ruler
Stayed independent – city-states – a city that is also a separate, independent state
In Sumer each had their own:
god or goddess
Army
Government
king

7. What did they look like? Public square – busy
Merchants display goods
Musicians, acrobats, beggars, water sellers in streets
For a fee scribes – professional writers, would read and write letters
Houses faced away from crowded streets onto inner courtyards – families ate and children played
Hot nights – slept on flat roofs
Oil lamps - light

9. What about religion?
At center of every city – ziggurat – temple to main gods or goddesses of the city
Made of terraces one on top of the other
Steps and ramps linked each level
At top – shrine
They thought gods used it as a way to get to Earth
Believed in many gods – polytheism
Poly = many in Greek
Theism = belief in a god or gods
Myth – stories about gods that explained people’s beliefs – warned gods would punish
Those who angered them
Also promised rewards

10. Ziggurats

11. What did they do for the gods?
Honor them with religious ceremonies
Priests washed statues before and after each meal offered to them
Incense burned
Huge plates of food – then food eaten by people
They would gain qualities of those goods

12. Bye-Bye Sumer Its wealth was the down fall
City-states fought over land and use of river water
2300 B.C. Sumer conquered by Akkad – area near by
King Sargon united the Sumerian city-states
Improved government and military
100 years later fell apart again
After 2000 B.C. no longer major power
Fell to Babylonia in 1700 B.C.