1. What does the ancient world have to do with you? A LOT!
Have you…
Ever ridden in a vehicle with wheels?
Used a clock to tell time?
Read or written anything?
Used coins to pay for something?
Flushed a toilet?
Put a letter in the mail using the post office?
What does the ancient world have to do with you? A LOT!
We have inherited the best achievements of all those who have come before us.

2. How do we define a “civilization?”
Writing system
Religious system
Art/Monumental architecture
Social hierarchy
Job specialization
Cities with large populations (+50,000)

3. Geography of the Fertile Crescent

4. The Rise of Civilizations
How do people move from hunting and gathering to creating complex
civilizations?
Where do civilizations arise? Why?
RIVERS=GOOD SOIL= GOOD FARMING

5. Mesopotamia
-Mesopotamia lies between the Tigris & Euphrates Rivers, in the Fertile Crescent
Fertile Crescent - a large arc of
rich, or fertile, farmland in southwest Asia
-Mesopotamia is Greek for “between the rivers”

6. Fertile Crescent

7. Tigris and Euphrates - IRAQ

8. The Rise of Civilization
-First people to settle Mesopotamia were hunter-gatherers (~10,000 BC)
What caused this area to be so fertile?
Silt- a mixture of rich soil and tiny rocks

9. Farming & Cities
-Because of the fertile soil, farming settlements began in Mesopotamia around 7,000 B.C.
-Problem: rivers often flooded

10. Controlling Water
To combat flooding the early people of Mesopotamia used irrigation & canals
(Geography theme?)
Irrigation- a way of supplying
water to an area of land
Canals- human-made waterways

11. More Food = Special Jobs
Irrigation = increased production of food
= food surplus = special jobs
Surplus- having more than you need
Division of Labor – workers specialize in a particular task or job

12. -More food = more people = cities developed
Appearance of Cities
-More food = more people = cities developed
-Most people still farmed
-Cities become centers of trade, politics, religion, & culture

13. The Rise of Sumer – The World’s First Civlizations

14. Sumer Sumerians developed the world’s first civilization
By 3000 B.C., they had
settled in southern
Mesopotamia (Sumer)

15. City-States of Sumer
-Centers of Sumerian societies = cities -Sumer was organized into city-states (Hunger Games?) City-State- a central city and all of the countryside around it -City-states had their own armies and built walls around their cities

16. Powerful City-States
-city-states gained and lost power over time -more farmland=more power -The most powerful = Uruk & Ur

17. Sumerian Religion
-Sumerians practiced polytheism Polytheism- worship of many gods -Each city-state considered one god to be its special protector (They believed that these gods were very powerful & could bring huge harvests or disastrous floods)

18. Priests Priests- people who performed or led religious ceremonies
Very important people in Sumerian society
Priests interpreted wishes of the gods and made offerings to them in temples - ziggurats

19. Sumerian Social Hierarchy
Social Hierarchy- the division of society by rank or class
Priests
Artisans/Merchants
Farmers/Laborers
Slaves (3 years)
King

20. Sumerian Men and Women Men - held political powers & made laws
Women - took care of home & children
Mostly only men were educated, but some upper-class women were educated as well
Some educated women were priestesses in the temples of Sumer