1. Early Civilizations
Mesopotamia

2. Things all Shared.
People begin to settle along rivers because of the need for fresh water.
Need water for: crops, animals, themselves, everything you use water for
The first four civilizations to show up are located in Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, and India
they all developed along rivers and used them to help survive
they all farmed and used irrigation to get water to the crops
they all had to worry about flooding and figure out some sort of defense and when to harvest their crops

3. Mesopotamia: The land between 2 Rivers
Civilizations are complex societies
Rivers were very important
Used for transportation
They could water enough crops to feed large groups of people
Without having to worry about basic needs, people had time to think of other things and do other jobs; Specialization
The 2 rivers are the Tigris and the Euphrates
Irrigation: the building of walls, canals, and ditches to water crops and control flooding
Flooding is both good and bad
Good: brings fresh soil
Bad: washes crops away if not harvested in time

4. Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia is not a civilization. It is a region where a bunch of different peoples lived.
Many different groups came to power over time.

5. Sumer The first group to come to power Organized into city-states
City-state had its own government (was its own country) Sumerian cities were not united.
The city-states were often at war with one another
Polytheistic-believe in many gods and goddesses
Ziggurat-religious temple
Kings and leaders were probably war heroes

6. Sumer 3 main classes of people Slavery was not based off of skin color
Upper: kings, priests, gov. officials
Middle: artisans (skilled workers) merchants, farmers and fishermen
Lower: enslaved people
Slavery was not based off of skin color
They were prisoners of war or simply owed money

7. Mesopotamia-the cradle of civilization
Invented many things
Cuneiform- the first system of writing using wedge shaped marks
Scribes- people that were taught to write, only boys, held honored positions in society
Oldest known story Epic of Gilgamesh
Some of them we still use today
Wagon wheel, plow, number system (based off of 60), 60 minute hour, 12 month calendar

8. Empires of Mesopotamia
Sumer was not united and therefore was vulnerable to attacks from large armies
The Akkadians eventually under King Sargon conquered Sumer and all of Mesopotamia
He set up the world’s first empire- a group of many lands under one ruler
After Sargon’s death the Akkadians lost power to the Babylonians.
Their leader Hammurabi created the Babylonian Empire.
Hammurabi is best remembered for creating his code of laws.
It was the first set of written laws, everyone knew them