Intro/Section 1 Mesopotamia: A difficult environment
what does City-state mean?
An early city that was like a small, independent country with its own laws and government
What does Irrigation mean?
A means of supplying land with water.
What does Maintaining mean?
To keep something in good condition by making necessary repairs.
What is Silt?
Fine particles of rock.
What does Constucted mean?
To build something
What types of challenges or difficulties did the Mesopotamians face??
Food shortages in the hills,
What made the foothills a good place to farm??
Mild weather and plentiful rains made it a great place to farm.
What did they do about the flooding of the rivers?
They started to build levees along the sides of the river to prevent flooding
What did the Sumerians do to keep enemies out?
They dug moats and built walls around their cities.
What did they do to control the water??
To control the water supply, Sumerians built a complex irrigation system.
What is one of the biggest challenges to the people who lived there??
Food shortages along with water shortages.
What 2 rivers ran through Mesopotamia??
Euphrates and Tigris
What happened to the soil so that they couldn't produce crops anymore?
Sumer's sunbaked soil was dry and hard as stone and they couldn't use it to farm.
How to maintain the irrigation system across village boundaries.
To defend themselves what did they do?
The Sumerians built walls and dug moats around their cities.
What is one challenge farmers faced in Mesopotamia??
Not having enough water to grow their crops.
Who were the Sumerians??
Sumer was an ancient civilization founded in Mesopotamia. They were known for their innovations in language And Architectural things.
What happened to the Euphrates and Tigris rivers in the spring?
During the spring, rain and melted snow from the mountains flowed into the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, causing them to flood across the plains
What did they do to fix their problem with the irrigation system??
Villages came to depend on one another to build and maintain this complex irrigation system.
How did they control the water supply?
They built levees and canals to keep the water flowing and getting to them for farming and drinking purposes.
It was not easy to live in Mesopotamia, Why?
Because the northern part was hilly and received rain. The southern part had low plains or flat land. The sun beat down fiercely on the plains between the Tigris River and the Euphrates River.
What do some Historians believe about the Zagros Foothills?
Some historians believe that by 5000 B.C.E., farmers in the Zagros foothills did not have enough land to grow food for the increasing population
What other things did they build to prevent and use the water and floods?
Over time, the Sumerians learned other ways to control the supply of water. They dug canals to shape the paths the water flowed. They also constructed dams along the river to block the water
What did the Sumerians Cities fight over??
As Sumerian cities grew, they fought over the right to use more water, It often became so intense that it often led to bloodshed.
How did they go from farmers to city-State people?
They built walls around their cities and built moats and became more wealthy.