1. 3.1 Reading Guide The Civilization of Sumer
Mill Creek Middle
6th Grade World History
Mr. Ames

2. Key Ideas:
Fertile land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers supported the earliest known civilization.
Priests and kings held great power in the city-states of Sumer.
Sumerian achievements included new technology, a written language, and epic poetry.

3. 1. Define the Fertile Crescent and Mesopotamia.
The Fertile Crescent is a region of the Middle East that stretches in a large crescent shaped curve from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea.
The Fertile Crescent includes Mesopotamia, a wide, flat plain in present-day Iraq between the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers.

4. 2. What does Mesopotamia mean? To what is that name referring?
In fact, Mesopotamia means “land between the rivers.”
It is named that because it is between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

5. Agriculture in Mesopotamia: Geography of Mesopotamia: 1
Agriculture in Mesopotamia: Geography of Mesopotamia: 1. How is the geography of Northern Mesopotamia different from Southern Mesopotamia?
Northern Mesopotamia includes the foothills of the Taurus and Zagros mountain chains. To the south, these foothills flatten into plains that stretch toward the Persian Gulf.

6. Agriculture in Mesopotamia: Geography of Mesopotamia: 2
Agriculture in Mesopotamia: Geography of Mesopotamia: 2. How do the rivers help make the soil fertile?
For many years the, the Tigris and Euphrates have carried fine, fertile soil called silt down from the mountains.

7. Agriculture in Mesopotamia: Geography of Mesopotamia: 3
Agriculture in Mesopotamia: Geography of Mesopotamia: 3. What kinds of problems did the geography present?
The heavy spring floods could wash away crops and even whole villages.
During the summer, the hot sun baked the ground tock hard. With little rain for months, plants died.

8. Farming the Land: 1. How did the Sumerians solve the above problems?
The Sumerians used technology to irrigate, or supply water to, their crops. They dug many miles of irrigation canals to bring water from the rivers to their fields.

9. Farming the Land: 2. Define irrigation.
To irrigate is to supply water to crops.

10. City-States of Sumer – Cities Emerge: 1. Define city-state.
A city-state is an independent state that includes a city and its surrounding territory.

11. City-States of Sumer – Cities Emerge: 2
City-States of Sumer – Cities Emerge: 2. What was included in a Sumerian city-state?
Each Sumerian city-state had its own government and laws, and each had its own main god.

12. Trade 1. Define barter.
Barter is a trading system in which people exchange goods directly without using money.

13. Trade 2. What kinds of technologies did the Sumerians develop to make widespread trade easier?
As they had done with agriculture, the Sumerians used new technologies to make widespread trade easier. For example, they used wheels on their carts. They used sails on their boats.

14. Social Classes 1. What were the three distinct classes in Sumerian society?
Upper class, middle class, and lower class.

15. Social Classes 2. Who was included in each group?
The upper class included the king, his top officials, powerful priests, wealthy merchants, and owners of large plots of land.
Farmers and skilled workers made up the middle class.
The lowest class was mostly slaves.

16. Sumerian Religion 1. Define polytheism.
Polytheism is the belief in more than one god.

17. Sumerian Religion 2. What did the Sumerian gods control?
Sumerians believed these gods controlled every aspect of life, including rain, wind, and other elements of nature.

18. Sumerian Religion 3. What did the Sumerian gods control
Sumerian Religion 3. What did the Sumerian gods control? What did the Sumerians believe the gods would do if they were happy? What if they were angry?
If the gods were happy with people’s prayers and offerings, they might bring good fortune to the city.
If not, they might bring war, floods, or other disasters.

19. Sumerian Religion 4. Why do you think the Sumerians believed this about their gods???

20. Sumerian Writing 1. What developed into cuneiform, the world’s first system of writing?
Pictographs are simple pictures that represent objects. In time, this way of keeping records developed into the world’s first system of writing.

21. Sumerian Writing 2. Define cuneiform.
Cuneiform is a system of writing that uses triangular- shaped symbols to stand for ideas and things.

22. Sumerian Writing 3. Why was cuneiform triangle-shaped?
Cuneiform involved pressing wedge-shaped marks into clay tablets.

23. Epic of Gilgamesh 1. What was the Epic of Gilgamesh about?
This poem tells about the adventures of a Mesopotamian hero named Gilgamesh.

24. Epic of Gilgamesh 2. Who do historians think Gilgamesh really was?
Some scholars believe that Gilgamesh may have been a real king. These scholars think that he ruled the Sumerian city-state of Uruk sometime after B.C.E./B.C.

25. Sumerian Government – Development of Kingship 1
Sumerian Government – Development of Kingship 1. What did people in different city-states argue about?
As city-states grew, people in different cities began to argue with one another over the control of land and water.

26. Sumerian Government – Development of Kingship 2
Sumerian Government – Development of Kingship 2. Who eventually became the first kings?
Military leaders became the first kings.

27. Kings and Priests 1. What is a law code?
Some rulers collected city laws into a law code, or a written set of laws.

28. Kings and Priests 2. What is the earliest known law code?
The earliest known law code was issued around BCE by Ur-Nammu.

29. Achievements 1. What technological improvements are the Sumerians known for?
Some Sumerian improvements include: the plow, the use of irrigation, the wheel, and the sail.

30. Achievements 2. How is bronze made and what did they use it for?
The Sumerians were one of the first cultures to make bronze by mixing copper and tin.
Bronze is a harder metal than copper, so it is better for making tools and weapons.