Mesopotamian Civilization Chapter 1 Section 2 Mesopotamias Civilization

Mesopotamian Civilization Chapter 1 - Section 2

Mesopotamia’s Civilization

Early farming villages developed into civilizations. What are civilizations?

Civilizations are complex societies that include cities, organized governments, art, religion, class divisions, and writing systems.

Why are river valleys so important to early civilizations?

Rivers provided good soil for farming, fish, freshwater, the ability to trade and travel.

The new cities located on the rivers began to take shape as civilizations. What does that mean?

Government with leaders Community buildings Armies Religions developed Class structure

Mesopotamia was the earliest know civilization that developed around the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers - aka “the land between the rivers” and the Fertile Crescent.

What brought about the need to develop irrigation?

Unpredictable, flooding rains made it necessary to build dams and ditches, allowing farmers to develop ways to control the water to their crops, bringing about irrigation.

The idea of city-states developed with the formation of the southern Mesopotamian city of Sumer.

Were Sumerian city-states united? Did they share the same government?

Why did Sumerians work so hard to please their gods?

What is a ziggurat?

Priests and priestesses were very powerful, they may have also ruled the city-state. Ruling was later passed onto others, with the position being passed down.

The Sumerian’s had 3 social classes…what is a social class?

Upper class - kings, priests, and government officials People in this group, particularly kings, lived in large palaces.

Middle class - artisans, merchants, farmers, fishers This was the largest social class. They lived in small mudbrick houses.

Lower class - enslaved people Enslaved people were thought of as property. They were generally prisoners of war or criminals.

A Skilled People

Why is Mesopotamia considered the “cradle of civilization”?

The greatest invention of the Sumerians was writing. They developed cuneiform to keep records and pass on ideas.

Sumerians used a sharp-ended reed to cut wedge shaped marks into a damp clay tablet.

What were scribes?

Scribes were record keepers, often from wealthy families. They held a high position in the social class.

Sumerians are responsible for the oldest known work of literature, the Epic of Gilgamesh. It is the story of a hero that sets out to do good deeds and tries to find a way to live forever.

Sumerian advances… Wagon wheel, farming plow, geometry, base 60 number system, crop schedule, positions of the planets (12 month calendar)

Sargon and Hammurabi

The Akkadians of Northern Mesopotamia took advantage of the weak Sumerian citystates. Sargon took over all of Mesopotamia creating the world’s first empire.

Babylon was built in Mesopotamia and quickly became the center of trade.

Hammurabi became the Babylonian king and began to take over areas around Mesopotamia.

Hammurabi is best known for his collection of laws. He combined laws from each citystate and forced everyone to follow the same code.