1. Today’s Aim: To understand the civilization of ancient Mesopotamia

3. Sumerian Civilization Cities that have organized governments, art, religion, class divisions, and a writing system
Government
City-States independent state with its own government
Art
Artisans made metal products, cloth, or pottery
Religion
Polytheistic:belief in many gods
Writing
Cuneiform

4. Class Divisions Upper Middle Lower
Kings, priests, & government officials
Artisans, merchants, farmers, & fishers
Enslaved people
*Men headed the households and could go to school.
*Women had limited rights, but could buy and sell
property and run businesses.

5. Discussion Questions
Civilizations are complex societies that have cities, organized governments, art, religion, class divisions, and writing. They developed along river valleys because rivers offered good farming conditions, freshwater, fish, and an easy way for trade and travel.
A government was needed to keep order in the society. Someone had to make plans and decisions about matters of common concern. Organization was extremely important.
The Tigris and Euphrates Rivers affected life in many ways. Mesopotamia had a hot, dry climate and the springtime floods left rich soil for farming. Floods were not only helpful, but harmful and unpredictable. Every year farmers worried about their crops getting destroyed and turned to the gods for help.
Mesopotamia means “the land between two rivers.” The fertile Crescent is a region that is shaped like a crescent and is extremely fertile.
Floods were very unpredictable and not only left rich soil for farming, but destroyed crops. Farmers had to learned how to build dams and channels to control these seasonal floods. They also built walls, waterways, and ditches to bring water to their fields. This way of watering crops is called irrigation.

6. Examples of cuneiform shown above
Read textbook pg. 21: Linking Past & Present