Transcript Sumerian City-States Lose Power

Mesopotamian Civilization
Chapter 1, Section 2
Mesopotamia
• Means “the land between the rivers”
• A land that lies between the Tigris and
Euphrates Rivers
• Earliest civilization. Arose in what is now
Southern Iraq.
Tigris River in Iraq
What is a Civilization?
• Complex societies that have…
- cities
- organized governments
- art
- religion
- class divisions
- writing system
Why were river valleys important?
• Good farming conditions
• Provided fish and freshwater to drink
• Provided easy transportation routes for
trade
FARMING
• Floods often ruined crops.
• Farmers built irrigation systems to control
floods.
IRRIGATION
• Farmers built walls, waterways and ditches to
bring water to their fields.
• Helped food growth
An ancient irrigation system
Modern irrigation
Rise of Sumer
• A region in southern Mesopotamia
• Many cities formed there by 3000 B.C.
• Sumerian cities were isolated from each other
because of Geography
• Each Sumerian city became a separate CityState with its own government.
City-State
ANY REGION THAT HAS ITS OWN
GOVERNMENT AND IS NOT PART OF A
LARGER UNIT.
Sumerians at War
• Sumerian city-states often went to war with
each other.
• Fought for glory and control of territory.
• To protect their lands, each city-state
surrounded itself with a strong brick walls
made of river mud and crushed reeds.
Sumerian Beliefs
• Believed in many gods.
• Each god had power over natural forces or
human activity (flooding, basket weaving)
• Each city-state built a temple called a
ziggurat to honor its chief god.
• Ziggurat means “mountain of god”
Ziggurat
Life in Sumer
• Kings lived in palaces
• Ordinary people lived in mud-brick houses.
• Some people were artisans. Artisans are
skilled workers who make metal products,
cloth or pottery.
• Most people farmed and others worked as
merchants or traders.
Social Classes in Sumer
• People were divided into three classes.
• Rarely could one move up in class.
Upper Class
•
•
•
•
Kings
Priests
Warriors
Government Officials
Middle Class (the largest class)
•
•
•
•
Artisans
Merchants
Farmers
Fishers
Lower Class
• Enslaved people who worked on farms or in
the temples
• Forced to serve others
Men and Women in Sumer
• Men headed the households
• Men decided whom their children would
marry.
• Only males could go to school.
• Women could buy and sell property.
• Women could run businesses.
Sumerians invented writing!
• Their writing was called cuneiform.
• Only a few people learned how to write,
mostly boys from wealthy families.
• These boys became scribes, or record keepers.
Sumerian cuneiform tablet
Sumerian Literature
• Oldest known story comes from Sumer
• Epic of Gilgamesh
• An epic is a long poem that tells the story of
a hero.
Other Inventions
•
•
•
•
•
•
Wagon Wheel
Plow
Sailboat
Geometry
Number system based on 60
12 month calendar
Sumerian City-States Lose Power
• The Akkadians from Northern Mesopotamia
launched attacks on Sumerian City-States.
• Sargon, king of Akkadians, conquered all of
Mesopotamia and created the worlds first
empire.
• An empire is group of many different lands
under one ruler.
• Sargon’s empire lasted 200 years.
Babylon
• A new group of people took over
Mesopotamia in 1800s B.C. and built the city
of Babylon.
• The Babylonian king was Hammurabi.
• Hammurabi created the Babylonian empire.
Code of Hammurabi
• Hammurabi is best known for his law code,
or collection of laws.
• The code covered crimes, farming and
business activities, and marriage and the
family.
• Hammurabi’s code influenced later law
codes, including those of Greece and Rome.
Statue of King Hammurabi