Land Between Two Rivers
What does Mesopotamia mean?
Land between two rivers.
Why did Sumerians create City-States?
For protection due to the lack of natural barriers in the area.
Sargon created an empire called ___________.
The Akkadian Empire.
What was so special about Mesopotamia- why were the world's first civilizations created in this area?
Fertile soil- good farming and rivers
What are the names of the two rivers that form Mesopotamia?
Tigris and Euphrates Rivers
What is the name of the first city-state?
Uruk.
Which Sumerian invention made farming much better and more efficient than it had been before?
The Funnel Plow.
Sargon was a vicious warrior who kept control through _____________.
Fear and intimidation.
Complete this song lyric: "Akkadians long ago conquered _______ took control."
Yearly floods brought ______ that made the farmland fertile.
Yearly floods brought silt that made the farmland fertile.
What is the name of the large temple in the center of Sumer City-States?
Ziggurat.
Copper mixed with tin creates a strong metal called ______ that was used by Sargon and the Akkadian military to conquer Sumer.
Bronze.
Sargon conquered the Sumer City-States and created the world's first ___________.
Empire.
What job did Sargon have before he rose to power?
Cup Carrier
What three irrigation systems did Sumerians make in order to control the flooding of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers?
Canals, Dams, Levees.
True or False: Sumerians had a shared religion, government, and military.
False.
Sumerians did not have _________ so they had to trade crops to get these resources.
Sumerians did not have _________ so they had to trade crops to get these resources.
Sargon put ______________ in political positions to maintain loyalty and control.
Family and friends.
Name of the first writing system.
Cuneiform.
As farming improved, people had more free time to specialize in jobs other than farming.
_______ originally ruled the city-states; however, as war broke out, _______ started to take control.
Priests, Kings.
What city-state became very wealthy because of its location along the Persian Gulf at the mouth of the Euphrates River?
Ur
Provide two reasons for the fall of the Akkadian Empire.
Weak leadership- rebellion of city-states, drought, invasion.
Name five Sumerian City-States.
Ur, Uruk, Nippur, Lagash, Kish, Umma, Akkad, Babylon.