Remember the Wurm Glaciation Write what you know

Remember the Wurm Glaciation? Write what you know on your white board. . • It began around 100, 000 years ago, ending around 10, 000 years ago. • During that period of time the great masses of ice had thickness of 3, 500 to 4, 000 meters, covering a third of the land area of the world

• The affects of the earths cooling motivated the migration of early humans from Africa. • It created land bridges out of Africa allowing the early humans to eventually get to the rich Mesopotamian region. • Wait, what’s Mesopotamia? ?

MESOPOTAMIA

Mesopotamia 8, 000 BC Start with a story: imagine you are a farmer living near Southwest Asia. The yearly flood which makes farming possible has not come. Now the village is fighting for it’s life…!

The Land between Two Rivers… • The word “Mesopotamia” means the land between two rivers. – Mesopotamia is between the: • Tigris River • Euphrates River

Where in the world are we? ? ?

Let’s ZOOM in! Asia Africa

Tiny bit closer….

The Tigris and Euphrates River created extremely fertile land in the space between the two rivers.

The Tigris & Euphrates • Fertile Soil – Every year it would rain and melt the snow in the mountains, this caused the river to overflow! • As the water flowed down the mountains it picked up soil. • When the rivers reached the plains water overflowed onto the FLOOD PLAIN. • The flood plains would then become perfect land to farm on.

• Last week you learned… – As people became better farmers, they settled in large villages. Some settlements developed complex villages with NEW ways of life! • You just learned… - Why the land was perfect for their new farming lifestyle. • We will learn. . – How farming grew and developed into complex societies and powerful civilizations.

Irrigation 6, 000 BCE

Floods and droughts! • A long period when too little rain falls is called a drought. • Mesopotamia was ARID (dry) • Drought is BAD because durnig a drought the Tigris & Euphrates water level would drop making it hard for famers to water their crops! • IF CROPS FAIL…the people Starve!

Irrigation As early as 6000 BCE Mesopotamian farmers took steps to control water they built walls to control water during floods they built canals to carry water from rivers to the fields This system of watering dry land is called IRRIGATION! http: //player. discoveryeducation. com/index. cfm? guid. Asset. Id =1 E 160 BFC-BBCA-43 F 8 -B 10 F 63102046 DF 34&bln. From. Search=1&productcode=US#

What are the downsides of this great land Mesopotamia? • Lack of natural resources • No forests for wood so they couldn’t build advanced homes • Limited protection- not surrounded by mountains or other natura barriers – Built brick walls – They did trade because they had a SURPLUS of crops! This lead to a very diverse society.