1. World History Ch. 2 Section 1
City-States of Ancient Sumer

2. Geography’s Impact
Fertile Crescent- fertile area in the Middle East known for its rich soils – around the Tigris and Euphrates rivers
Mesopotamia – inside the Fertile Crescent
“Between the Rivers” – area of land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers
Flows from Turkey, through present day Iraq into the Persian Gulf

6. Sumer
3300 B.C. – Worlds first civilization developed in South East Mesopotamia
Sumer = Sumerians
The Epic of Gilgamesh – first told orally in Sumer
Describes great flood that destroyed the world
The Tigris and Euphrates rivers often flooded washing away everything around – seemed like the flood waters washed away the world.
Does this remind you of another story you have heard of?

7. Sumer Problem: Flood Waters
Solution: build dikes to hold back flood waters and irrigation ditches to divert water into fields
Sumerians – not many natural resources available to them – no timber or stone
They did have a lot of clay – used it to make pottery and bricks
Used the bricks to make buildings – City of Ur
Trade helped to make Sumerians wealthy
Sumer thrived and in a few hundred years included 12 city-states

8. Sumerian Government Ruler is responsible to people for:
Maintaining Walls
Maintaining Irrigation
Enforcing laws
Collect Taxes - used Scribes for this
Keep Records – used Scribes for this
Ruler was seen as chief servant of the gods

9. Sumer Social Structure
Hierarchy – system of ranking groups
Social Hierarchy -
Top: Ruling family, Officials, High Priests
Middle: Lesser Priests, Scribes, Merchants, Artisans
Bottom:
Peasant Farmers – worked other peoples land
Slaves – most captured in war, some were sold to pay off debts

10. Religion Polytheistic – belief in many gods
Gods thought to control daily life
Believed gods and goddesses behaved like people – ate, drank, married, families,
Believed it was their duty to keep gods happy
Worship them in temples
Ziggurat – large, stepped platform topped by a temple dedicated to the city’s chief god or goddess
Afterlife – people lived in a grim world in which there was no release

12. Sumer Writing
3200 B.C.
Cuneiform – wrote by making wedge shaped marks on tablets
Grew out of a pictograph system
Scribe were trained very strictly
If they talked or were messy with their copying they were caned!!

14. Legacy of Sumer 2500 B.C. Armies came in and conquered Sumer
By 1900 B.C., Sumerian civilization had been replaced by other civilizations and Empires
Left behind cuneiform and it was used by the Akkadians, Babylonians and Assyrians
Sumer Scholars – developed astronomy and math
Established a number system based on dividing the hour into 60 minutes, and they divided the circle into 360”
Babylonians built upon this and created Algebra and geometry in order to create accurate calendars

15. HANDS-ON ACTIVITIES
CITY-STATE CREATION. Using posterboard and colored pencils, the student designs a Sumerian city-state based on the description in the textbook. Items that should be on the map include: a title, compass rose, scale of miles, legend, a ziggurat, city wall, farmland, irrigation system, narrow winding streets, government buildings, courtyards, and homes of the different social classes.