1. The Worlds First Civilization
Mesopotamia
The Worlds First Civilization

2. Early civilizations developed after a revolution. What was it?
From Hunter-Gatherers
to Farmers
It was the Neolithic Revolution!

3. What is a civilization?
Civilizations (SIH•vuh•luh•ZAY• shuhns) are complex societies. They have cities, organized governments, art, religion, class divisions, and a writing system.

4. Why were river valleys important?
Farming - large amounts of people could be fed
Trade - goods and ideas to move from place to place.
Cities - grow up in these valleys and became the centers of civilizations.

5. The invention of Agriculture changed the way people lived.
Agriculture (Farming)
Growth of Cities (more peeps)
Division of Labor (Specialization)
People available for large projects
Government and laws developed to organize life

6. Mesopotamia
The land between two rivers.

7. Mesopotamia Mesopotamia was the worlds first civilization.
The two rivers that allowed Mesopotamia to succeed were the Tigris and Euphrates.

8. What is the Fertile Crescent?
The region from the Arabian Sea to the Mediterranean Sea that had rich soil and a crescent moon shape.

9. The fertile crescent
In the spring, the rivers often flooded, leaving behind rich soil for farming. The problem was that the flooding was very unpredictable. It might flood one year, but not the next. Every year, farmers worried about their crops.

10. Why was it called Mesopotamia? Mesopotamia Babylonia Iraq
Greeks called the Fertile Crescent
which means, “Between Two Rivers.”
In this case, they were the Tigris River and the Euphrates River.
The southern part of Mesopotamia was called
Babylonia was first called Sumer.
Which country is Mesopotamia today?
Mesopotamia
Babylonia
Iraq

11. Irrigation
Over time, the farmers learned to build dams and channels to control the seasonal floods. They also built walls, waterways, and ditches to bring water to their fields. This way of watering crops is called irrigation. Irrigation allowed the farmers to grow plenty of food and support a large population.

12. Young Mr. Ames

13. Sumer - Sumerians (modern Kuwait) circa 3500 to 3000 BC.
Sumer gave us the city-state.
What is a city-state?
A city-state is made up of a city and its surrounding lands. Each city-state has its own government, even when it shares a culture with neighboring city-states.

14. Sumer
The first major civilization in Mesopotamia was in a region called Sumer.

15. Food in Sumer
The Sumerians grew several kinds of crops. The most valuable one was barley, which was used to make flour and bread. Dates were also very valuable to the Sumerians. They were eaten once ripe or else they were dried for future consumption. Dates also made an excellent wine.

16. Barley and dates

17. City-states
Each Sumerian city and the land around it became a separate city-state.
Each city-state had its own government and was not part of any larger unit.

18. Social Classes in Sumer
Upper class - kings, priests, warriors, and government officials.
Middle class - artisans, merchants, farmers, and fishers. These people made up the largest group.
Lower class - enslaved people who worked on farms or in the temples.

19. Writing The most important invention of the Sumerians was writing.
The writing of the Sumerians was called cuneiform.

21. Cuneiform alphabet

22. TheEpic of Gilgamesh
The most famous piece of literature from Sumer is the Epic of Gilgamesh.
An epic is a long poem that tells the story of a hero. The hero Gilgamesh is a king who travels around the world with a friend and performs great deeds. When his friend dies, Gilgamesh searches for a way to live forever.

24. What were Sumerian cities like?
Sumerian cities were often rectangular in shape, surrounded by high, wide walls. Inside the city gates were broad avenues used for religious processions or victory parades. The largest buildings were ziggurats.

25. Ziggurat means “holy mountain”
Ziggurats are pyramid-temples that soared toward the heavens. Their sloping sides had terraces, or wide steps, that were sometimes planted with trees and shrubs. On top of each ziggurat stood a shrine to the chief god or goddess of the city.

26. Sumerian Inventions wagon wheel plow sailboat
number system based on 60
geometry
12 month calendar

27. wagon wheel
plow
sailboat

28. Sumerian Religion
If Mesopotamia
means the land
between two
rivers, what do
you see in the
picture of this
god?
What do
you see
between
the two
critters?
The Sumerians were polytheistic (“poly” means “many” and “theistic” means “gods”) and worshipped gods of nature.
Each city-state had its favorite god or goddess, with special holidays and feasts.
They believed in an afterlife, but it was a grim one: after death, one descended to an underworld from which there was no release.

29. Sargon
In about 2340 B.C., Sargon conquered all of Mesopotamia creating the world’s first empire.
An empire is a group of many different lands under one ruler. Sargon’s empire lasted for more than 200 years before falling to invaders.

30. Hammurabi
Hammurabi is best known for his law code, or collection of laws.
Law 5: If a judge makes an error through his own fault when trying a case, he must pay a fine, be removed from the judge’s bench, and never judge another case.
Law 195: If a son strikes his father, the son’s hands shall be cut off.