Mesopotamia: A Difficult Environment and Food Shortages in the Hills
In Neolithic times, people in some areas of the world began to?
Farming
One of the biggest problems was
the uncontroled water supply
Irrigation systems provided enough water for Sumerian farmers to
grow plenty of food
As Sumerian cities grew
they fought over the right to use more water
As you've seen, beginning around 3500 B.C.E., the Sumerians progressed from living in small farming villages to
building large, walled city-states
Some historians believe that by 5000 B.C.E.,farmers in the Zagros foothills did not have enough land to
grow food
During the spring, rain and melted snow from the mountains flowed into the
Tigris and Euphrates rivers and Euphrates rivers
The irrigation system passed through a number of villages as it
carried water from the river to the fields
Disputes over water became so intense that they often
led to bloodshed
Food shortages had forced settlers in Mesopotamia to
move from the foothills down to the river valley
in the spring both of the rivers in Zagros
flooded so the farming ideas might work
If it happened after farmers planted their crops the young seedlings would be
washed away
Since villages were connected for miles around by these canals, farmers could no longer
live apart, or in small groups
The Sumerians looked for ways to protect their cities from
neighboring communities
There, farmers faced the problem of having either
too much water or too little To control the water supply
the northern part was
was hilly and receievd rain
Sumerian farmers began creating irrigation systems for their
fields
Gradually, villages came to depend on one another to
build and maintain this complex irrigation system
There were no mountain ranges or rushing rivers to
keep out enemies Around the cities
so the Sumerians had to
cooperate with one another
The rivers overflowed onto
the plains during flood season
Sumerian farmers began creating irrigation systems for their
supply of water
As the Sumerians worked together, they began to
create larger communities.
The Sumerians also dug moats outside city walls to
help prevent enemies from entering their cities
These independent city-states often
fought with one another