The Land and the Rivers
This area in the south was very flat and dry, with a hot sun that made farming a big challenge
What is the plains of Sumer?
Farmers built these tall walls of earth along the river to stop water from flooding their crops.
What are levees?
As cities grew, they often got into "bloody" fights over this important resource.
What is water?
A city-state was like a tiny version of this, with its own leader and its own rules.
What is an independent country?
The solution to the food shortage in the foothills.
What is people moved down to the plains (Sumer)?
Mesopotamia is a Greek word that means ____.
What is the "land between the rivers"?
This is the name for the bits of rock and soil that got stuck in the canals and had to be cleaned out.
What is silt?
People living upriver sometimes did this to stop water from reaching cities further down.
What is blocking the canals or stopping the water from flowing?
This is where city-states had to go to grow their food.
What is the farmland outside the walls?
The solution to the rivers flooding at different times every year.
What is farmers built irrigation systems to control the water?
Farmers first lived in these hilly areas because there was plenty of rain for farming and wood for building.
What are the foothills (Zagros Mountains)?
Sumerians dug these long ditches to move river water to their dry farm fields.
What are canals?
Sumerians built these thick structures out of mud bricks to keep enemies away from their homes.
What are city walls?
Sumerians did not have wood or stone, so they used these to build their houses and walls.
What are mud bricks?
The solution to silt clogging up the canals.
What is people from different villages had to work together to clean them?
These are the names for the two major rivers that provided water for the people of Mesopotamia.
What are the Tigris and Euphrates rivers?
To save water for later, Sumerians built these to block the river and keep water in large pools.
What are dams and reservoirs?
These are wide ditches filled with water that surrounded the city walls for extra protection.
What are moats?
***DAILY DOUBLE***
This is the time period (year) when the very first Sumerian cities began to appear.
What is 3500 B.C.E.?
The solution to the flat plains having no natural barriers (mountains or big rivers) to prevent attacks.
What is people built walls and moats for protection?
Because there were no trees or stones on the plains, Sumerians used these two things to build their homes.
What are reeds and mud bricks?
This is the main reason villages had to work together instead of living alone.
What is maintaining (fixing) the irrigation system, clearing out silt, making sure the water got to all city-states?
When an enemy attacked, this is where the farmers would go to stay safe.
What is inside the city walls?
This is the main reason that small villages eventually turned into large, walled cities.
What is the need for cooperation and protection? Or to have water and protect against attacks.
The effect of villages working together to manage water and stay safe.
What is the villages grew into large city-states?