1. City-States in Mesopotamia KEY IDEA The first civilization in the world arose in Mesopotamia. It took the form of city-states.

2. Geography of the Fertile Crescent There is an arc of rich land in Southwest Asia that is called the Fertile Crescent. Two of its rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, flow southeast-ward toward the Persian Gulf. Each spring the snow in nearby Turkish mountains melts, swelling the rivers.

3. use back button to return to chapter.

4. Fertile Plains This flooding leaves rich mud (silt) in the plain between the rivers. Because of this, many thousands of years ago humans began to settle in that plain, known as Mesopotamia (“land between the rivers”). The ancient Mesopotamians grew huge surpluses of wheat and barley which led, in turn, to the emergence of the first civilization.

5. Environmental Challenges About 3500 B.C., the Sumerians moved into this region and settled. They faced three problems. 1 st : the floods were not regular. One year they would come in April, and the next year they might come in June. 2 nd : the small farming villages had no protection against enemies. 3 rd : the area lacked stone, wood, and metal to use for tools

6. Creating Solutions The Sumerians solved these problems. They dug ditches from the river to their fields so they could bring water to their crops. They built walls of baked mud around their villages for defense. Because they could grow more food than they needed, they traded the extra for stone, wood, and metal from other lands.

7. Sumerians Create City-States Several large city- states were at the center of the Sumerian world. These cities had control over a surrounding area and could act independently much like a country does today.

8. The Power of the Priests Initially, the city-states were controlled by the priests because the people understood that the gods could bring them either prosperity or ruin. The priests served as go-betweens to the gods. They also controlled the storehouses where the surplus grains were stored. “Those who control the food, control the people.”

9. Monarchs Take Control In time of war, the most powerful warriors took over control of the city-states. Eventually, as a result of almost constant warfare, the military commanders took over permanent control of the area. These were the first kings. As time went on, control was handed from father to son, keeping the rule within the family, creating the first dynasties.

10. The Spread of Cities Because of the surpluses of food, the Sumerians began trading with people from very far away. As they came into contact with others, ideas, technology and culture began to spread. The Sumerians also absorbed some of the customs from these people. This process is called “cultural diffusion”. The Egyptians were greatly influenced by their contact with Sumerians.

11. Sumerian Culture The Sumerians believed in many gods, each of whom had power over different forces of nature or parts of their lives. People, they thought, were just the servants of the gods. They believed that the souls of the dead went to a joyless place under the earth’s crust. These views spread to other areas and shaped the ideas of other peoples.

12. Sumerian Religion The Sumerians were polytheistic, they believed in as many as 3,000 gods. Their gods had human characteristics and emotions. The Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the earliest works of literature in the world, offers a glimpse into the myths and legends of the Sumerians. These same legends resurfaced in other ancient cultures of the Hebrews and Egyptians.

13. Life in Sumerian Society Society was divided into social classes. At the top were the priests and kings, Next were the wealthy merchants. Next were ordinary Sumerian workers in fields and workshops. Slaves made up the lowest level. Women could enter most careers and could own property, but there were some limits on them.

14. Priest & Kings Wealthy Merchants Ordinary Citizens Slaves Sumerian Social Structure

15. Sumerian Science and Technology The people of Sumer invented the following: sail wheel plow bronze writingmaps columns arithmetic geometrynumber system based on 60 architecturemud bricks w/mortar archesramps

16. Sargon the Great In 2350 B.C., the conqueror Sargon defeated Sumer and captured other cities to the north. By bringing together many different groups, he made the world’s first empire. It spread the culture of Sumer to a wider area.

17. Sargon of Akkad Sargon of Akkad, the first empire builder, was a renowned military leader and ruler who became the subject of epic tales and poems. One of the poems tells how he became king: Sargon’s mother was too poor to take care of him so she put him in a basket and let him drift down the Euphrates River. Sargon was rescued by an irrigator who raised him and trained him to be a gardener. A goddess fell in love with Sargon and made him king

18. Babylonian Empire In 2000 B.C., The Babylonians conquered the Sumerian region. These people were led by a king named Hammurabi, who is famous for his code of laws. This 1 st set of written laws. It was a harsh code that punished people for wrongdoing; however, it also made it clear that the government had some responsibility for taking care of its people.

19. Hammurabi’s Code King Hammurabi created his code of laws to unify the people under his control. There were 282 specific laws dealing with everything from crime and punishment, business and family. The code applied to everyone in the empire but it was not evenly applied. Often the punishment for the poor or for women was less harsh that punishment for the wealthy. The principle behind the legal code was “an eye for an eye”.

20. King Hammurabi Many of the punishments were severe, for example: If a surgeon accidentally kills a patient during surgery, he would have his hands cut off. If a son strikes his father in anger, the son shall be put to death.