2. Mesopotamia: The land between the rivers Tigris &
Euphrates Rivers Modern-day Iraq 1st cities appear In Sumer LINK:
Interactive Timeline & Map
3. City-States Earliest cities date back to 3500 BCE Each city
was like a small, independent country Each had its own ruler Each
had its own farmlands
4. A Difficult Environment Mesopotamians were farmers Farms
need water 4 Key Problems: 1. Food shortages in the hills 2.
Uncontrolled water supply on the plains 3. Difficulties building
and maintaining irrigation systems to serve several villages at
once 4. Attacks by neighboring communities Q: What might neighbors
fight over?
5. Food Shortages By 5000 BCE there is not enough land in the
foothills to grow enough food for everyone Q: Why did people move
to the plains? Climate: Foothills: mild weather, plentiful rain,
timber for building Plains: dry, little rain, no trees or stones
for building, rivers that flood The plains were called Sumer and
the people who lived there were called Sumerians
6. Uncontrolled Water Supply in the River Valley Spring: rain
and melted snow from the mountains flood the Tigris and Euphrates
Rivers Rest of the year: sunbaked soil, dry, hard as stone Either
too much water or not enough Sumerians built levees & dams
7. Euphrates river canal
8. Building and Maintaining a Complex Irrigation System Canals
bring water from the river Irrigation passed through many villages
Silt clogs canals Working together helped communities grow SILT
VERY FINE MUD
9. Village Town City
10. Attacks by Neighboring Communities Cities fought over the
right to use water. The plains offer no natural barriers for
protection. Sumerians build walls to protect their cities.
11. Was Ancient Sumer a Civilization? CivilizationWriting
Technology Stable Food Supply Social Structure Government Religion
The Arts
12. Sumerian Civilization SUMERCuneiform Wheel Plow Social
Class King Ziggurat Music
13. Summary 1. The people of Mesopotamia solved problems in
order to live successfully in their environment 2. Their solutions
led to building large walled city states 3. Sumer had a complex
social structure, government, religion, and culture 4. Sumer was
one of the worlds first civilizations