Human Resources (Occupations/Jobs)
Natural Resources
(Things from nature)
Human & Capital
Resources
Trade & Specialization
Human vs. Capital
Resources
100

This human resource grew crops that fed Mesopotamian communities.

Who were farmers? They used plows to grow grain in fertile soil.

100

These three natural resources helped crops grow.

What are fertile soil, water, and sunlight.  These three natural resources are necessary for growing crops.

100

A persons's work, knowledge, or skills used to make goods or provide services.

What is a Human Resource?

100

To obtain needed materials and to exchange surplus goods they produced.

Why did Mesopotamian cities trade?

100

These resources are people who use their skills and labor to produce goods and provide services.

What are human resources?

200

This human resource shaped clay into useful containers.

Who were potters? They use a potter's wheel to shape clay pots and fire harden them using an oven (kiln).

200

Potters use this natural resource to make pottery.

What is clay? Potters used a the natural resource clay along with a potter's wheel to make pottery more easily. 

200

A tool made by people that helps a potter produce goods more easily.

What is a potter's wheel? A capital resource. 

200

Finished pottery, if another trader or farmer agreed to the trade.

What could a potter trade for grain?

200

Plows, pottery wheels, and other man-made tools used by Sumerian workers are examples of these resources.

What are capital resources?

300

This human resource wrote records using cuneiform.

Who were Scribes?  They recorded transaction and trade information on a clay tablets using a wedge shaped stylus.

300

These natural resources supplied water for irrigation and deposited fertile silt that helped Mesopotamian farmers grow crops.

What are the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers?

300
This tool let the scribe press wedge-shaped marks into soft clay. 

How did a stylus help a scribe? The tool, a stylus is a capital resource that scribes use to make their job easier.

300

They recorded quantities, deliveries, debts, and exchanges.

Why where Scribes important to trade?

300

A Mesopotamian farmer represents this type of resource, while the plow used to prepare the soil represents another.

What are human and capital resources?

400

This human resource made mud-bricks used to construct buildings.

Who were Mud-brick makers? They mixed mud and straw; then formed and dried or fired the bricks to make them durable.

400

The scarcity of the natural resource Stone might change a construction plan because

Builders might need to trade for stone further away or substitute more available materials, like mud-brick?

400

Firing mud-bricks could make them more durable than sun-dried bricks.

How could a kiln change brick making?  A kiln or oven, a capital resource made to fire mud-bricks making them more durable than sun-dried bricks.

400

Workers (human resources) produced different goods and services (capital resources), creating interdependence and more trade.

How did specialized jobs support city growth?

400

This capital resource allowed Mesopotamian potters to shape clay into pots more quickly and produce more goods for trade.

What is the potter's wheel?

500

This human resource helped build and maintain levees?

Who were Stone workers? They used metal tools to cut, shape, and transport stone to be used to reinforce levees and other structures.  

500

Drought might affect  both farming and trade because

Less water could lower harvests, reducing food surpluses and goods available to trade

500

Potter, clay, and wheel; 3 resource types.

The potter=human, clay=natural; wheel=capital  Together they produce pottery to trade.

500

If clay became scarce, what chain reaction might follow?

Potters and mud-brick makers could produce less; builders and traders would have fewer goods or higher costs if the pottery and bricks are harder to get.

500

By using tools such as brick molds, Sumerian workers could produce more goods in less time, demonstrating this important relationship between two types of resources.

How do human resources use capital resources to increase production and make trade more efficient?