Geography of Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia is the region that flows between these two rivers
What are the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers?
1) What is a belief in many gods and goddesses?
2) What were the four main gods the Sumerians believed in?
1) What is polytheism?
2) Who are the gods of sky, wind, foothills, and fresh water?
1) Sumerians used this sharp reed to press markings into a clay tablet.
2) Symbols made entirely of wedge-shaped writing
1) What is a stylus?
2) What is cuneiform?
What were people who specialized in writing called?
What is true?
Who were scribes?
What is the Tigris and Euphrates rivers?
When rivers reach the plains, water overflows onto the _________, the flat land bordering the banks. The fine soil deposited by rivers is called _______.
1) What are floodplains?
2) What is silt?
1) (True/False) Sumerians thought of gods as rich landowners who created humans to work for them.
2) (True/False) Sumerians believed the souls of the dead went to a place similar to heaven.
3) (True/False) Sumerians did not believe that the gods could prevent troubles, such as floods, droughts, and invasions.
4) (True/False) The largest and most important structure in a Sumerian city was the ziggurat.
1) What is true?
2) What is false?
3) What is false?
4) What is true?
1) (True/False) Women in later Sumer had more rights than they did earlier in Mesopotamia.
2) What were most slaves in Sumer?
3) (True/False) A person could become a slave until they worked off their debt after borrowing more money than they could repay.
4) Did slaves have rights?
1) What is false?
2) What were prisoners from war?
3) What is true?
4) What is yes? The could conduct business, borrow money, and buy their freedom.
Name two mathematical advances in Sumerian society.
1) What is the development of arithmetic to keep records of crops and trade goods. Number system based on the number 60 (60 seconds, 60 minutes in an hour, 360 degrees, etc.). Measurement of time helped with creation of calendars.
2) Sumerians used a triangle and measuring rope to set land boundaries. Geometric shapes used to make bricks, build ramps, and dig canals.
Why was trade important to Mesopotamia?
What was Mesopotamians had to trade surplus grain for things they didn't have in Sumer, such as wood, metal, and stone?
Name 3 characteristics of a Mesopotamian region with a semiarid climate.
What are:
1) Less than 10 inches of rain a year
2) Hot summers
3) Still able to grow crops because of the rivers and fertile soil?
What are priests?
As city-states became wealthier, they came under attack. Powerful men who could protect the city-states became kings.
1) Who made up the upper classes of Sumer?
2) What other 3 groups of people were part of the upper class?
3) Who did the in-between classes include (3)?
4) Who made up the lowest class?
1) Who are kings and priests?
2) Who were landowners, government officials, and rich merchants?
3) Who were all free people, farmers, and artisans?
4) Who were slaves?
How did the flooding of the rivers near Sumer help and hurt farmers?
What is the flooding enriched soil but also damaged crops. The flooding was unpredictable so farmers had a difficult time predicting what crops to plant.
1) What is the highest-ranked leader of a group of people called?
2) Why were priests still important after kings came to power?
3) The people believed that who allowed the kings to rule?
1) What is a king?
2) What is people believed the priests' job was to keep the gods happy and keep evil away?
3) Who are the gods?
1) A ______ is a period when not enough rain and snow fall.
2) What kind of canals did farmer build to carry water from rivers to their fields?
3) Name one challenge to maintaining these canals.
4) How did farmers hold back excess waters during floods?
1) What is a drought?
2) What is an irrigation system?
3) What is silt in the river water often clogged canals, requiring workers to clean it out to keep water flowing?
4) What are building dams?
1) Where was Sumer located?
2) What were 3 things cities became the center for?
3) What is a community that included a city and its nearby farmlands?
4) Ur was the hometown of ________, an important person in the following 3 religions: _________, _______, _______.
1) What is southern Mesopotamia?
2) What is trade, learning, and religion?
3) What is a city-state?
4) What is Abraham? What are Judaism, Christianity, and Islam?
1) What are the plow, the wheel, and the potter's wheel?
2) The plow, digging sticks with handles, broke up hard soil and made planting easier. Water could also more easily sink into plowed soil, allowing roots of plants to receive more water.
The wheel helped farmers transport crops to market more easily and quickly on wagons. Also made transporting goods on the river more efficient.
The potter's wheel helped Sumerians make pottery faster. Pots were important storage containers for surplus food.
Bronze was stronger than copper so tools lasted longer and stayed sharper. Sumerians also traded bronze tools.
How did advances in agriculture contribute to the rise of cities?
What are advances in agriculture led to food surpluses, which allowed some people to focus on work other than farming. People then began specializing in jobs that fostered the development of cities.
What roles did women and slaves have in Sumerian religion?
What are: Women could serve as priestesses and slaves could work in the temples?
1) What did Mesopotamians use for buildings?
2) Why were building materials a challenge for Mesopotamians?
3) Why was Mesopotamia easy to invade?
4) How did Mesopotamians protect their villages?
5) How were Mesopotamians able to obtain resources outside of their land?
1) What is mud for bricks and plaster?
2) What is Mesopotamia had no forests to provide wood and lacked stone/minerals?
3) What is Mesopotamia lacked mountains and other natural barriers?
4) What is people built mud walls around their villages?
5) What is Mesopotamians obtained stone, wood, and metal from outside of their area by growing a surplus of grain and trading it?
Name the 5 traits of civilization. (Be ready to discuss them on the test!)
What are:
1) Advanced Cities
2) Specialized Workers
3) Complex Institutions
4) Record Keeping and
5) Advanced Technology?
How did Sumerians invent writing? (3)
1) Sumerians began writing by using symbols called pictographs to keep track of trade goods
2) Over time, these symbols started standing for ideas as well as objects
3) Later, symbols made of wedge and line drawings replaced pictures (cuneiform)
Give FIVE descriptions of what Sumerian houses looked like.
What are:
1) Mud walls that were several feet thick to keep out heat
2) Narrow tunnels running through walls to carry fresh air from the outside into the house
3) Doorways were formed by placing a horizontal beam over 2 vertical posts, then mud walls were built around doorways
4) A house consisted of several rooms arranged around a courtyard covered with a loose roof of palm leaves over wooden planks
5) Cooking area usually in the courtyard so smoke could escape through gaps in the roof
1) What 2 other functions did the ziggurat serve in cities?
2) How did priests control the wealth in city-states?
1) What are the center of city life and as a city hall?
2) What are:
- Priests ran the irrigation systems and people came to the ziggurat to pay priests for their services with grain and other items
- As a result, priests controlled the surplus grain and much of the wealth of city-states?