The Rise of Sumerian City-States

1. Write this as the heading on your next blank page in your interactive notebook! The Rise of Sumerian City-States Write this too! How did geographic challenges lead to the rise of city states in Mesopotamia?

2. Preview • Think of a problem that you faced and what you did to solve it. In the problem box in the flowchart below, draw a simple illustration of the problem or challenge. Also, write a one sentence summary of the problem. In the solution box, draw a simple illustration of the illustration and a one sentence summary of the solution. Problem Solution

3. The Rise of Sumerian City States • Mesopotamia-Modern day Iraq, “Land between the rivers” • Sumer-The southern part of Mesopotamia where villages first were formed • City-States-Small independent countries with their own ruler

4. Mesopotamia: Difficult Environment • There wasn’t many building supplies to use • It rarely rained so it was hot and it was hard to raise crops and find water • They faced many hardships, including no wood for homes and attacks from neighboring villages

5. Food Shortages in the Hills

6. Problems Solution What were some of the advantages of living in the foothills of the Zagros mountains? How did farmers living in the foothill solve the food shortage? The people moved to a better, more open farming location called Sumer Mild weather and plentiful rain and the woods provided timber for building homes. There were plenty of stones to make tools. Draw and label a simple picture showing Mespotamians’ solution to the food shortage. Draw and label a simple picture showing the problem that occurred around 5000 BCE Who were the Sumerians? The Sumerians were the people who migrated to the new farming land: Sumer

7. Uncontrolled Water Supply in the River Valley

8. Problem Solution Describe the season weather changes in Sumer. How did the Sumerians solve the problem of an uncontrolled water supply? During the spring, rain, and melted snow from the mountains flowed into the Tigris & Euphrates Rivers causing them to flood across the plain. The Sumerians made an irrigation system to solve the problem of uncontrolled water Draw and label a simple picture showing a Sumerian irrigation system. Why was it difficult to raise crops in Sumer? It was difficult to raise crops because it was either too little or too much water Draw & Label a simple picture showing the problem caused by and uncontrolled water supply. In what other ways did the Sumerians control the water supply? Dug canals and dams

9. Difficulties in Building and Maintaining a Complex Irrigation System

10. Why could Sumerian farms no longer live apart, or in small groups? What new problem occurred after Sumerian farms created irrigation systems? Sumerian farms could no longer live apart because they needed to come together to keep the irrigation running The new problem that occurred after Sumerians created irrigation systems was maintaining the systems. Draw and label a simple picture showing how the Sumerians kept their complex irrigation system working. Draw and label a simple picture showing what could happen to an irrigation system that was not maintained. What was the long-term result of the Sumerians working together? They could maintain their farms and have a constant source of water

11. Attacks by Neighboring Communities

12. Draw and label a simple picture showing why Sumerian cities fought with each other. What did the Sumerians do to protect their cities? They built walls out of mud to protect the city Fought over water! Draw and label a simple picture showing how the Sumerians protected their cities. How did physical geography of Sumer leave its cities unprotected? Dug canals with deep holes There were no mountain ranges or rushing rivers to keep out enemies Why do historians call the cities of Sumer “city-states”? They called it that because the cities in Sumer were independent countries

13. From Small Farming Villages to Large City States

14. How did geographic challenges lead to the rise of city states in Mesopotamia? They moved to the river valley Food shortage in the foothills The system crossed village boundaries Built a complex irrigation system to control water supply Farmers had either too little or too much water They made larger communities-the first cities Often the cities fought with each other The Sumerians created walled cities