1. Life in the Fertile Crescent

2. The Fertile Crescent was a quarter moon shaped area between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.

3. This rich land supported many farming villages
This rich land supported many farming villages. In the region called Mesopotamia “ the land between two rivers” several villages grew into cities.

4. The people of Sumer (Sumerians) built dikes and dug canals to hold back the flood waters from the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.
Life in the cities posed new problems for the Sumerians, and they had to find creative ways to solve them.

5. Mesopotamia’s earliest cities rose up in an area called Sumer
Mesopotamia’s earliest cities rose up in an area called Sumer. People lived and worked together and formed a complex society or civilization.
A civilization is a culture with well developed forms of government, religion, and a written language.

6. These people used technology - (the use of tools and skills) to build their cities.
One technological advancement made by the Sumerians was the invention of the wheel.

7. Wheel technology made other inventions possible, including the wheeled cart. They used domesticated oxen and donkeys to pull heavy loads using the wheeled carts. Wheeled carts were important in moving construction materials.

8. They were able to build seven-story temples called ziggurats
They were able to build seven-story temples called ziggurats. This is where they worshiped their gods.
The Sumerians believed that each city had a god to watch over and protect them. They also believed that the gods controlled the winds and the rain, the sun and every part of nature important to agricultural society.

9. The Sumerians believed that large harvests were a sign that the gods were pleased with them. They also thought that floods and other natural disasters were signs that the gods were very angry with them.

10. When large numbers of people live and work together, laws are needed to keep order. In large societies this can be achieved through a system of government.

11. A government is an organized system that groups use to make laws and decisions.

12. Sumerian farms produced a surplus (extra supply) of food
Sumerian farms produced a surplus (extra supply) of food. This meant they had enough to barter or trade for things they needed.

13. Not everyone in Sumer, including the kings could read or write
Not everyone in Sumer, including the kings could read or write. Those who could write were called scribes. Often they kept records, wrote letters for other people. They also copied down stories and songs.

14. The needs of a large complex society led to new ways of doing things, or innovations.
Acre (unit of measuring land)
Quart to measure wheat and barely
Cuneiforms (writing system of wedge shaped symbols)
Cargo ships with sails for trading

15. The people of Phoenicia sailed the waters of the Mediterranean Sea in search of goods they needed. As a result they developed highly advanced sailing techniques.

16. The Phoenicians borrowed ideas from the different cultures with whom they came into contact.

17. The earliest alphabet was developed by the Phoenicians based on writing systems of other ancient civilizations.
The Phoenician alphabet made writing easier because their written symbols stood for single sounds.

18. Citizens from another early civilization, the Lydian, were the first to use coined money.
Their first coins were the size of red beans. They were made from a mixture of gold and silver.

19. These new coins were used and accepted in other civilizations.
……. And they were not so heavy that they’d sink the trading ships!

20. The Code of Hammurabi
Hammurabi was the ruler who chiefly established the greatness of Babylon, the world's first metropolis. Hammurabi’s most important innovation was a collection of 282 laws called the Code of Hammurabi.

21. Hammurabi improved each city-state of Babylon under his rule by promoting trade and by building and keeping up dikes and canals.

22. + = To pay for these projects Hammurabi charged taxes to his citizens.
People could pay taxes in crops or other goods they produced.

23. Hammurabi appointed tax collectors to gather taxes
Hammurabi appointed tax collectors to gather taxes. If the tax collector could not get a payment from a person, he was forced to pay it HIMSELF.

24. (Remember there were 282 of them)
Hammurabi wrote laws about marriage, divorce, adoption, slaves, murder, stealing, military service, land and business practices, loans, prices and wages!
(Remember there were 282 of them)

25. The code of Hammurabi made people responsible for their actions
The code of Hammurabi made people responsible for their actions. The code said that whoever cause an injury should be punished by given the same injury. The most famous of those laws was ….
“an eye for an eye” 4

26. What do I need to remember about the Fertile Crescent?
Mesopotamia
scribes
civilization
innovations
technology
Phoenicians
inventions
Lydians
ziggurats
Hammurabi
government
Code of Hammurabi
surplus
Cuneiform