1. Mesopotamia: The World’s First Civilization
(Began c BC)

3. Geography Literally “land between two rivers” (Tigris, Euphrates)
-Soil is fertile
-Food supply is stable
-Flooding is unpredictable
-Few natural barriers

4. The Sumerians
By 3000 BC, villages grew into city-states (ex.: Ur, Erech, Kish)
-Each was independent
-Controlled surrounding farmland
-Constantly battled w/each other for resources and control

5. Sumerian City-States

6. Sumerian City-State of Ur

7. Lugals (leaders)…
were the representatives of the gods on earth
commanded absolute power

8. Religion Sumerians believed… -in many gods (polytheistic)
-that a council of gods and goddesses ruled the earth
-that the gods decided the fate of individuals and cities
-in an unhappy afterlife

9. Ziggurats- temples to
the gods of the city-states

11. Written Language
Need for accurate records led to the development of writing
-System began with pictograms and ideograms
-Later simplified with the use of symbols to represent sounds and syllables (cuneiform)

12. A stylus was
used to make
wedge-shaped
symbols on
tablets of wet
clay.

13. Babylonians Hammurabi Hammurabi’s Code Abolishes local government
Collects more taxes
Hammurabi’s Code
282 laws
Property rights, crime, marriage, contracts, etc

14. Legacy World’s first civilization
First to use the wheel, sail, and plow
Developed a base 60 number system
12 month calendar
Ziggurats may have influenced Egyptian pyramids