The First Civilizations:

1. The First Civilizations:

2. The Fertile Crescent:

3. Land Between Two Rivers • In what is now Iraq, two rivers offered fertile soil, good for farming. • The land between the Tigris & Euphrates rivers is known as the Fertile Crescent, this is where the first human civilizations began to flourish. • The Greeks called this area Mesopotamia, or land “between the rivers”. Page 37

4. Rivers of Life • The Tigris & Euphrates often overflowed, when snow on mountains to the north melted--providing silt to fertilize the soil--but these floods were unpredictable. • Large-scale farming worked, only after irrigation and drainage ditches made it possible to control the floods. • The ability to grow large amounts of food made the emergence of civilization in Mesopotamia possible. Pages 37-38

6. Peoples of Mesopotamia • Mesopotamia was not a united kingdom, people or culture, but included three different areas: • Assyria • Akkad • Sumer • Sumerians were the first Mesopotamian people to flourish. Page 38

7. City-States of Mesopotamia • Nobody knows where the Sumerians came from, but by 3000 B.C. many independent cities popped up around southern Mesopotamia, including: • Ur • Eridu • Uruk • Each Sumerian city was its own separate kingdom, with unique laws and traditions. • City-States were the basic unit of Sumerian civilization Page 38

8. Right: The lands of Mesopotamia as they were in 2500 B.C.; including Akkad, Sumer and Assyria (Assur) Left: The Fertile Crescent with red lines indicating the boarders of today’s nations of Iraq, Jordan, Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey and Iran

9. The Sumerians

10. Sumerian Cities • Cities in Sumer were surrounded by walls • Walls and buildings were built of sun-dried bricks and mud • Sumerian contributions to architecture include arches and domes. Page 39

11. Sumerian ReligionPage 39 • Sumerians were polytheistic, meaning they believed in many gods and goddesses • Sumerian cities were believed to belong to the favorite god of the people living there • Temples, were the most prominent buildings in these cities, and were placed atop massive towers called a ziggurat

12. Religion & Government • Sumerians not only believed cities belonged to a god, but the gods were thought to govern city-states by divine authority--this form of rule is known as theocracy • Sumerians believed their kings’ authority came straight from the gods • Rich people built elaborate temples and houses for the city priests and priestesses Page 39

13. Sumerian Economy & Society Page 40 • Sumerian economies were based mostly on farming, but trade and industry were also important. • Sumerian traded their metal work, woolen textiles, food stuffs and pottery in exchange for timber, copper and tin. • Society was divided into three groups: nobles, commoners and slaves

14. World Changer: The Written Word • Around 3000 B.C. the Sumerians created a system of writing • Cuneiform, was a style of writing words, using a reed stylus to leave impressions on wet clay tablets left in the sun to dry • The dry tablets lasted a very long time