Transcript The Fertile Crescent

The Fertile Crescent
Stretched in an arc from the
Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf,
sight of the first civilizations
P. 29 Look at the Map
What kind of geographic features do
you notice?
Which area might attract invaders?
First Schools
 Set up in the land of Sumer over 4000
years ago
 Taught mainly boys
 New invention of writing
 Graduates were called scribes or
professional writers
Scribes
 Kept records for the king and Priest
 Very hard work
 Began school age 8 finished 10 years
later
 Helped people leave behind the story of
early civilizations
Sumer
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In Mesopotamia
Had rich soil and rivers
Farmers
City Builders
Central location which drew many traders
Most Prosperous areas
Mesopotamia
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Between two rivers
Tigris and Euphrates
Mesopotamia map skills
Part of the Fertile Crescent
One of the best places in SW Asia to
grow crops
Rivers of Life and Death
 In the spring, snow melted and picked up
the tons of topsoil as it came down the
mountain
 It deposited the rich soil onto the plain
below the mountains to plant in
 Also supplied fish, clay for buildings, tall
strong reeds to make boats
Rivers of Life and Death
 But it also brought danger
 Floods did not happen the same time
each year
 Without warning floods could carry
away animals, people, crops, and houses
 Survivors would rebuild
 Why do you think they stayed?
First Cities
 Surplus of food leads to increase in
population and leads to city development
 3500 BC Earliest known cities in
southern Sumer (present day Iraq)
 This was in the Fertile Crescent
A Sumerian City
 Marketplace- Merchants
 Very busy
 Scribes write letters for those who could not
read or write
 Houses face away from crowded streets, into
inner courtyards where families ate and played
 Oil lamps were used for light
 Well developed with high walls to keep out
invaders
 Marketplaces were very busy with merchants,
musicians, beggars, etc
Independent Cities Form
 Cities of Mesopotamia shared a common
culture BUT they did not unite under a single
ruler
 Remained politically independent city states
 City-state that is also a separate, independent
state
 Each city had its own god or goddess, own
government, own King
Religion
 Giant brick building at the heart of the city
called ziggurat
Site of main temple to the main god or
goddess of the city
Sumerian Temples
 Religious, social, and economical
activities
 Ziggurates were pyramids made of
terrace, one on top of another, linked by
ramps or stairs
 Some more than 7 stories high
 At the top was a shrine
 Believed gods used them as a stairway
Ancient Religious Beliefs
 Polytheism-worshipped many gods
 Myths are stories about the gods that
explained the beliefs, warned them what
made the gods angry, and they received
rewards for good behavior
Honoring the Gods
 Religious ceremonies
 Priests washed the statues of the gods
before and after each meal offered
 Music, incense, and huge food plates
 People would eat the food afterwards
thinking that they would then embody the
qualities of the gods
Fall of Sumer
 Wealth
 City states fought one another over land and use of
river water
 2300 B.C. Sumer was conquered by the armies of
Akkadia
 Ruler of Akkadia-King Sargon-united sumerian city
states and improved the government and military
 Remained united for 100 years until it split again
 No longer a large power or threat
 Sumerian fell to a northern rival, Babylonia.
Questions
 How did the geography help civilizations
to develop in the area?
 How where the cities alike? Different?
 What was the religion like?