The Early Harvest
Where did small farming villages develop?
Between two rivers
What did settlements include over time?
increasingly complex architecture
What advanced technology allowed farmers to practice larger-scale farming?
irrigation
What did challenges from growing communities require?
organized leadership
In what area were the farmers who first celebrated their bounty of crops?
Fertile Crescent
What was another element of a civilization that divided up work in a civilization?
division of labor
What made the soil in the valleys good for farming?
minerals carried from the water the flowed from the rivers.
Who played a central role in organized leadership?
Religious figures like priests
What did settled societies share?
customs and language
What was the purpose of early written Sumerian?
to keep track of taxes and laws
What is another element of a civilization that includes structures that a town or city needs to function?
What was a big conflict faced by Mesopotamian city-states?
irrigation systems
Looking at the Cuneiform writing on page 23, what does that tell you about these people?
They share a similar language or way of communicating
Explain the social structure order.
Merchants on top
craftsman and artists in the middle
farmers at the bottom
How did people adapt to weather and climate changes?
They recognized weather patters and prepared by storing food and water
Looking at the image on page 29, what were early forms of writing like this used for?
land and property records
What was the effect of the Agricultural Revolution?
Surpluses, specialization of work, and bartering
Looking at the image on page 25, what does that tell you about the Mesopotamian civilization?
They had a specialized civilization
Looking at the map on page 26, what was the most common geographical features that the earliest civilizations had?
rivers and floodplains
What makes early civilizations unique compared to those that followed after?
They did not have any other model to follow