Mesopotamia: A Difficult Environment
What were the Mesopotamians?
Farmers
Because of food shortages, people moved to...
the plains
What was the biggest problem for the farmers when they moved to Sumer?
Uncontrolled water supply
Canals became clogged with...
silt
As Sumerian cities grew, what happened?
they fought over the right to use more water
What is another name for Mesopotamia?
Fertile Crescent
People in some areas of the world began farming in what Age?
Neolithic times
How did farmers solve the problem of the uncontrolled water supply?
farmers began creating irrigation systems for their fields
irrigation systems provided...
enough water for Sumerian farmers to grow plenty of food
What was the effect of the disputes between the Sumerians and the water?
war and bloodshed
The rivers overflowed onto the plains during...
flood season
What was one of the areas that had good conditions for growing crops?
Zagros Mountains
How did farmers solve the flooding problem?
they built levees
Why did Sumerians stop living apart?
To work together to maintain the complex irrigation system
How did the Sumerians prevent enemies from entering cities?
they dug moats outside city walls
What rivers ran through Mesopotamia?
Tigris River and the Euphrates River
What did the plains region become known as?
Sumer
What happened during the spring in Sumer?
rain and melted snow from the mountains flowed into the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, causing them to flood across the plains
What was the cause of the Sumerians working together?
Maintaining the irrigation system became easier and they created larger communities.
Sometimes, people in cities located upriver (closer to where the river begins), built new canals or blocked other cities' canals. Which would cause...
prevent water from reaching the cities that were downriver (farther from where the river begins).
On the plains, what was hard to find?
Materials
The nearby wooded hills provided...
timber for building shelters, and plenty of stones for toolmaking
what was the cause of the dramatic seasonal changes?
farmers were constantly struggling to raise crops with either too little or too much water
Some towns in Sumer became...
cities with populations as large as several thousand people.
Why did the Sumerians begin constructing strong walls?
to protect their cities from neighboring communities.