Mesopotamia Mesopotamia = the land between two rivers Geography * About 9,000 years ago, wandering tribes settled in the river valley between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. * This area, also known as the Fertile Crescent, is now part of the countries of Iraq, Turkey, and Syria. * The plains were flooded each year by the two rivers making the soil fertile and creating valuable farmland. * The climate is semiarid, which means is gets some rain, but remains fairly dry. * Sumerian civilization is the oldest known on Earth. * For the first time, people began to control their environment. * Because flooding of the rivers was unpredictable, farmers began building canals to irrigate during droughts, and to build dams to control flooding. * Mesopotamia lacked resources, such as wood, stone and minerals, they built their homes out of mud bricks. * They also had few mountains or natural barriers to prevent invasions, and so built mud walls around their villages for protection. * They began to grow surplus grain, which they were then able to trade for resources.
The First Civilization * Villages grew into cities, and became more complex. As populations grew, there was a need to organize workers to solve problems. * Over time, society and culture grew more complex. These changes led to an advanced form of culture called civilization. * The first civilization rose about 3300 B.C. in Sumer, a region in southern Mesopotamia. *Traits of a Civilization -refer to your notes on Traits of Civilization * Each Sumerian city was a city-state and included the city and nearby farmlands. * Houses and public buildings were made of bricks made from mud and crushed reeds. * Each city was protected from invaders a high wall with a bronze gate, built for protection from invaders. * Each Sumerian city had narrow winding streets leading from the gates to the center where the ziggurat was located. * Ziggurats were centers of religion, but also where they stored surplus grain. *Priests controlled not only the religion, but much of the wealth. Religion * The Sumerians were polytheistic, meaning they believed in many gods
* The Sumerians believed that the forces of nature were gods. (they had more than 3000 gods). * Humans were made by the gods to be the servants of the gods. * The goal of each Sumerian was to please the gods so that their crops would grow. * The priests were very powerful because only they knew the will of the gods and would speak for them to the people. * At first, Sumerian priests were also the kings of the city-states. * Sumerian priest-kings received advice from an assembly made up of free men, who would choose a military leader to serve during a war. * Eventually, military leaders stayed in charge and this became hereditary. Sumerian Society * As Sumerian society became more complex, it divided into several social groups, or classes. * the upper class: kings, priests and government officials, landowners, and rich merchants. * the middle/lower class: all other free people (shopkeepers, artisans, farmers, fishermen, etc.) * slaves made up the lowest class; they had some rights, and could buy their own freedom
* Women could buy and sell property, run businesses, and own and sell slaves. * They invented the wheel and the plow and the potter s wheel, and were among the first people to use bronze * They developed a number system based on 60 and divided days into hours, minutes, seconds (60 sec. 60 min. 360 circle) * They understood and used geometric shapes (rectangles, triangles and squares) Writing * Their writing was called cuneiform which means wedge-shaped * At first they used pictures to represent objects (pictographs), then ideas, then sounds and finally later, syllables and words * They wrote with a stylus (a sharp-ended reed) on clay tablets * The priests ran schools called tablet houses to teach students how to write. Schools were only for the sons of the rich * When a student graduated from school he became a Scribe, which was a professional record-keeper. A scribe was respected highly in Sumerian society. * Sumerians developed the first system of writing, which makes it easier for people to pass on knowledge from generation to generation.