4.1-4.2
What was the northern part of Mesopotamia like?
The northern part was hilly and received rain.
What challenges did the farmers who moved to Sumer face?
Uncontrolled water supply.
What new problem arose after irrigation systems provided enough water?
Maintaining the irrigation system across village boundaries.
What was the result of Sumerian cities growing?
They fought over the right to use more water.
What did food shortages do in Mesopotamia?
Food shortages had forced settlers in Mesopotamia to move from the foothills down to the river valley.
What was the southern part of Mesopotamia like?
The southern part had low plains.
What happened when farmers were faced with such dramatic seasonal changes?
Farmers were constantly struggling to raise crops with either too little or too much water.
What happened to the canals?
Canals became clogged with silt, so farmers had to clean them regularly.
What did disputes over water result in?
Disputes over water became so intense that they often led to bloodshed.
What problems did there farmers face?
There, farmers faced the problem of having either too much water or too little.
What started to happen in Neolithic Times?
People in some areas of the world began farming.
In order to grow food, what did they need?
They needed a way to control the water so they would have a reliable water supply throughout the entire year.
What happened when farmers could no longer live apart, or in small groups?
They had to work together for the common good.
What did Sumerians began doing around the cities?
Sumerians began constructing strong walls out of mud bricks that were baked in the sun until hard.
What did they do to control the water supply?
Sumerians built a complex irrigation system.
What did some historians believe what would happen by 5000 B.C.E?
Farmers in the Zagros foothills did not have enough land to grow food for the increasing population.
Why did they build irrigation systems?
To control the water.
What happened when the canals were clogged with silt?
Villages came to depend on one another to build and maintain this complex irrigation system.
Why did The Sumerians dig moats outside?
To help prevent enemies from entering their cities.
What happened when the system crossed village boundaries?
Sumerians had to cooperate with one another.
What happened by the need to grow food for farmers?
They moved out of the foothills and onto the plains.
What did farmers do when the land was dry?
Farmers poked holes in the levees, allowing the water to flow through the holes and into the thirsty fields.
What happened as the Sumerians worked together?
They began to create larger communities.
What did people in cities located upriver do?
They built new canals, or blocked other cities' canals.
What did cooperating with each other lead to?
This led them to live in larger communities—the first city-states.