Living in Mesopotamia

1. Living in Mesopotamia The Life

2. The life on Mesopotamia • Environment • Food • Shelter • Religions • Shelter • Clothing • Technology • Inventions

3. Mesopotamia is a land of hills and low plains. It is a Greek word the means “The land between the rivers”. There are two rivers that the land sits between called the Tigris River and the Euphrates River. The first cities that were there, are called Sumer dated back to the 3500 B.C.E. City-states was what they called the cities that had their own ruler and farmland to provide food. There was a northern part and southern part. The northern part which was the high hills would get lots of rain were the southern part which was the lower part or the flat plain will not. Living in the southern part of Mesopotamia was hard. It was like what we call the desert. The sun shines every day and is very hot, it makes the land dry and hard all the time. There were only a few trees for shade and lots of dry weeds. To make weapons they needed rocks and stones, which there were only a few of them too. So they had no protections for enemies that will come from other cities. Mesopotamians are farmers, they need the water to grow their food, and help trees grow to get wood for shelter, and some weapons. The water that they will get will come from the river, but only when it rained and the river would flood. That was not to often. The northern part of Mesopotamia got plenty of water for farming. It was the woody area that had all the trees and stones for building shelter, tools and weapon. And they barriers needed to keep out unwanted enemies.

4. By 5000 B.C.E populations grew. The farmers in the foothills, the northern part did not have enough land to grow food. And the cities were short of food. The southern part, flat plains, was a large area of land, and had no one living there. The land was the hottest, and very dry, but people from the foothills began to move there. They were called the Sumerians. They had the problems with getting water. When the farmer would plant there food the rivers would flood from the rain and snow that melted from the northern mountains. That water will come and wash away the plants that were planted. For the rest of the year farmers would be faced with dry land and high winds of dirt blowing. Farmers had no control over that. The farmers had to figure out how to control the water through the different times to keep at all times. The Sumerian figured out how to make irrigations systems to keep water from running over into the fields. They began to build walls called levees, around the sides of the of the river, that when it will rain the water from the river and the will flood the water will run into the levees, and not all over the land. During the time when there was no rain or the land will get dry they could get water from the levees by putting holes in it to run in the dry land. As time went on they (Sumerians) found other ways to keep control of the water needed to keep farming for food. They dug canals and dams, to put water in pools to store for future use. Now that the Sumerians had irrigations systems they also had to keep it working right. By doing that the system needed to kept clean from being clogged by mud.

5. Since the canal ran through all villages everyone needed to help to keep it flowing. So this means that all the villages had to come together to work out a plan. They started to work together keeping the water balanced, and the canals unclogged. As they came together the villages grew larger and the would become communities and from that they grew more and more to become town and between 3500 and 3000 B.C.E became cities with thousand of people. As the lower cities worked together the upper cities were creating problems. They will build new canals to block the water from flowing down to the lower cites. That lead into fights and people getting killed. The Sumerian had to protect themselves by building walls that surrounded their cities. The walls were made up of mud and with the hot sun it got hard. Their homes at one time were build with reeds knows as weeds. But as the cities grew the started being build with mud. It was called sun dried brick, cause the sun was so hot that it will bake the mud. They had to really use a lot so that the mud will not crumble down. The houses were build to were they shared walls. Mestopotamians ate food that they planted. They ate vegetable stew, fish, cheese, dates and butter. They ate fruits like pears and apples. They are meat from pigs, wild bulls, boars, hares, sheep, Oryx ducks, cows, and onagers which is a type of donkey. The rich ate leeved bread The Sumerians wore clothes that they made. Their clothes were made of natural resources that were around them. Clothing was made from wool or flax which they raise and harvest. Flax is a plant with blue flowers. The stem from the plant is what they used. In the winter they wore thick clothes and in the summer the clothes were lighter.

6. The women wore gowns that dovered them from their shoulders to their ankles.  The right arm shoulder were left uncovered. The women wore their hair long and braided and wrapped around their heads.   When they had parties they would place headdressed in their hair. The men were bare chested and wore skirt-like garments that tied around the waist.    The men had either long hair and beards, and some had a shaved face.  Both men and women wore earrings.  The Sumerians believed in multiple gods.  They also believe in demons that were created by Gods.   These demons coul be good and bad.   They believe that if something bad happened that it was the God angry with them.  It did not matter what the bad thing was, at times it was the weather.  An(Anu) -Sky God as well as father of gods, and the King of all Gods.  Enki(Ea)= God of fresh water, klnown for his wisdon.  He was Depicted as a brearded mand with that was flowing through him.   Inanna(Ishtar)-   Goddess of love, fertility, and war.  She was the most importan of the females.   Nanna(Sin) God of the moon and the son of Enlil and Ninlil.  He travels across the sky in his small boat of woven.  Utu(Shamash)-  God of the sun and justice.  Between the time when the sun sets in the west and rises in the east he is the underworld, where he decrees the fate of the dead. As the populations grew the Sumarians cultured developed.  For birth and marriages they would celebrate with a banquet.  Which will have music, dancing, and food.  The choice of food was determined by the social status of the family.  The men that worked  as builders or musician would walk today everyday.  The women would stay home and take care of the home and raise the kids.    They would usually have about 3 to 4 childrens.