1. Mesopotamia
Ancient Mesopotamia refers to the place where humans first formed civilizations. It was here that people first gathered in large cities, learned to write, and created governments. For this reason Mesopotamia is often called the "Cradle of Civilization". Mesopotamia is part of the larger fertile cresecent. The flooding of the rivers created a wonderful nourishin rich soil.
Geography The word Mesopotamia means "the land between rivers". When people say Mesopotamia they are referring to a section of land in the Middle East between and around the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Today this land is located mostly in the country of Iraq. There are also portions in southwestern Iran, southeastern Turkey, and northeastern Syria. The heart of Mesopotamia lies between the two rivers in southern Iraq. The land there is fertile and there is plenty of water around the major two rivers to allow for irrigation and farming.
The Persian Gulf was much further inland than it is now. Sumer was an easy boat ride to the gulf during this ancient time.

2. YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki8S5I83Ccc
This cartoon video is a very simple overview of what we will cover in the first 2 units.
Great intro to what life was like and how the people depended on the river.

3. From Nomads to Farmers
With the growth of large cities, things changed. There were all sorts of jobs and activities. While many people still worked as farmers in the country, in the city a person could grow up to work in a number of different jobs such as priest, scribe, merchant, craftsman, soldier, civil servant, or laborer. Can you think of any other cultures that relied on flooding?

4. Mudhif http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rh_NbU7n3Rg
These are reed houses along the rivers of the Tigris and Euphrates. They are still made the same way even now! You get to see inside them in one of the linked videos.
The commentator speaks french during the interviews. I just fast forwarded to the next English narration. It only took 1-2 minutes of each 10 min video. Worth watching!

5. First City States The farmers began to grow more than they needed.
Some people were able to begin trading instead of farming.
Began to create trade centers known as villages.
These villages became cities and choose rulers that controlled the city and the farmland around the city.
This is called a city-state.
It also created a caste system
Do you remember the city states of ancient greece? How they also became city states. The strong or wealthy controlled the land and trade.
Different Classes of People With people moving to towns and governments being formed, society was dividing into different classes of people for perhaps the first time. At the top of society was the king and his family. The priests were considered near the top as well. The rest of the upper class was made up of the wealthy such as high level administrators and scribes. Below the upper class was a small middle class made up of craftsman, merchants, and civil servants. They could make a decent living and could work hard to try and move up in class. The lower class was made up of laborers and farmers. These people lived a harder life, but could still work their way up with hard work. At the bottom were the slaves. Slaves were owned by the king or bought and sold among the upper class. Slaves were usually people who were captured in battle.

6. Food Used irrigation Used food as medicine and poulitices and salves
The raw materials of the Sumerian diet...were barley, wheat and millet; chick peas, lentils and beans; onions, garlic and leeks; cucumbers, cress, mustard and fresh green lettuce. By the time Sumer was succeeded by Babylon a special delicacy had been discovered that was dispatched to the royal palace by the basketful. Truffles. Everyday meals probably consisted of barley paste or barleycake, accompanied by onions or a handful of beans and washed down with barley ale, but the fish that swarmed in the rivers of Mesopotamia were a not-too-rare luxury. Over fifty different types are mentioned in texts dating before 2300 BC, and although the number of types had diminished in Babylonian times, the fried-fish vendors still did a thriving trade in the narrow, winding streets of Ur. Onions, cucumbers, freshly grilled goat, mutton and pork (not yet taboo in the Near East) were to be had from other food stalls. Meat was commoner in the cities than in the more sparsley populated countryside, since it spoiled so quickly in the heat, but beef and veal were everywhere popular with people who could afford them...although most beef is likely to have been tough and stringy. Cattle were not usually slaughtered until the end of their working lives...Probably tenderer and certainly more common was mutton. The incomers who had first put the Sumerian state on its feet were originally sheep herders..." ---Food in History, Reay Tannahill

7. Shelter Homes Rectangular mud brick homes Flat roofs
Mud is a good insulator
What type of homes did they live in? Most people lived in mud brick homes. They were rectangular in shape and had two to three levels. The roofs were flat and people would often sleep on the roofs during the hot summers. The mud brick worked as a good insulator and helped to keep the homes a bit cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter.

8. Brick Making All you need is mud, molds, and sun.
Unfortunately bricks can break down.
To waterproof them you need Bitumen

9. Bitumen Naturally occurring asphalt (tar)
Found along the hillside of the Euphrates River
It worked to seal, cement, and waterproof
It is sticky, black, smelly, and has the viscosity of cold molasses.

10. Clothing Sheep skin or wool
Men wore kilt like skirts and women wore dresses.
Jewelry was often worn.
Women braided their hair and men often had beards
Both wore makeup
Clothing was typically made from sheepskin or wool. The men wore kilt-like skirts and the women wore longer dresses. They enjoyed wearing jewelry, especially rings. The women braided their long hair, while the men had long hair and beards. Both men and women wore makeup. Used looms to make clothing

11. Making Fabric Sheer the Sheep Wash the wool Card the wool
Spin the wool
Weave the threads
Create clothing
Some of the clay tablets from Sumer speak of the many women who worked at the looms.

12. Entertainment Fun Storytellers Festivals Music Board Games Dice
Jump ropes
Tops
Art
Poetry
We know from carvings and depictions in artwork that the Mesopotamians competed with boxing and wrestling.

13. Game of UR

14. Lyre Made with animal gut strings Tuning pegs at the top
Wooden soundbox covered in silver

15. Religion Each City-state had its own God. Polytheistic
Priests would make sacrifices
Interesting Facts About Mesopotamian Religion
The Sumerian gods often had human characteristics in that they were sometimes good and sometimes bad.
Although Anu was an important Mesopotamian god, archeologists have yet to find a picture of him.
They also believed in genies, demons, and evil spirits.
They believed that the Earth floated on an ocean of fresh water.
The Sumerian word for universe is an-ki, which refers to the god An and the goddess Ki. Their son was Enlil, the air god. They believed that Enlil was the most powerful god. He was the chief god of the Pantheon, equivalent to the Greek god Zeus and the Roman god Jupiter.
Sumerian Gods Some of the Sumerian gods and goddesses included:
Anu - Sometimes called An, Anu was the god of the heavens and king of the gods. God of Ur.
Enlil - The god of air, wind, and storms, Enlil held the Tablets of Destiny. These tablets gave him control over the fate of man and made him very powerful. He wore a crown with horns. He was associated with the city of Nippur.
Enki - Enki was the shaper of the world as well as god of wisdom, intellect, and magic. He invented the plough and was responsible for making plants grow. He is drawn holding Zu, the storm bird. He was god of the city of Eridu.
Utu - The god of the sun as well as justice and the law, Utu is drawn holding a saw like instrument. Mythology says that Utu travels across the world each day in a chariot.
Inanna - Inanna was the goddess of love and war. Her symbol is a star with eight points. Her primary city was Uruk, but she was also prominent in the city of Babylon.
Nanna - Nanna was also called Sin. He was god of the moon. His home was the city of Ur.

16. The Ziggurats
The Ziggurat
At the center of each major city in Mesopotamia was a large structure called a ziggurat. The ziggurat was built to honor the main god of the city. The tradition of building a ziggurat was started by the Sumerians, but other civilizations of Mesopotamia such as the Akkadians, the Babylonians, and the Assyrians also built ziggurats The Ziggurat of the city of Ur
What did they look like? Ziggurats looked like step pyramids. They would have anywhere from 2 to 7 levels or steps. Each level would be smaller than the one before. Typically the ziggurat would be square in shape at the base. How big did they get? Some ziggurats are believed to have been huge. Perhaps the largest ziggurat was the one at Babylon. Recorded dimensions show that it had seven levels and reached a height of nearly 300 feet. It was also 300 feet by 300 feet square at its base. Why did they build them? The ziggurat was a temple to the main god of the city. Each city in Mesopotamia had a primary god. For example, Murdock was the god of Babylon, Enki was the god of Eridu, and Ishtar was the goddess of Nineveh. The ziggurat showed that the city was dedicated to that god. At the top of the ziggurat was a shrine to the god. The priests would perform sacrifices and other rituals here. They built them high because they wanted the shrine to be as close to the heavens as possible. Are there any ziggurats left? Many of the ziggurats have been destroyed over the past several thousands of years. The famous huge ziggurat of Babylon was said to have been in ruins by the time Alexander the Great conquered the city in 330 BC. The ziggurat at Chogha Zanbil is one of the last surviving ziggurats. Some ziggurats have been reconstructed or rebuilt. The ziggurat at the city Ur is one that has been somewhat rebuilt. Interesting Facts About Ziggurats
The ziggurat at Babylon was named Etemenanki. This meant "Foundation of heaven and Earth" in Sumerian.
The tall height of the ziggurat may have also been useful during the seasonal flooding.
There were generally only a few ramps leading up to the top of the ziggurat. This made the top easy to guard and helped keep the priest's rituals private, if they wanted.
The early Egyptian pyramids were step pyramids similar to the ziggurat.
The Mayans and Aztecs built stepped pyramids to their gods as well. This was thousands of years later and on a completely different continent.
According to Herodotus, at the top of each ziggurat was a shrine, although none of these shrines has survived.1 One practical function of the ziggurats was a high place on which the priests could escape rising water that annually inundated lowlands and occasionally flooded for hundreds of miles, as for example the 1967 flood.5 Another practical function of the ziggurat was for security. Since the shrine was accessible only by way of three stairways,6 a small number of guards could prevent non-priests from spying on the rituals at the shrine on top of the ziggurat, such as cooking of sacrificial food and burning of carcasses of sacrificial animals. Each ziggurat was part of a temple complex that included a courtyard, storage rooms, bathrooms, and living quarters, around which a city was built.7

17. Assignments Map, Report, Net, and Questionaire
Week 1 Map Work
Please label all bodies of water and rivers, mountain ranges, deserts,  color it to be geographically accurate.
Place map in clear plastic sleeve and use a permenant marker to mark modern country boundaries and major cities.
Week 1 Questionaire
Fill in any questions on the questionaire that you might have missed.
Mini Report/Technical Writing
A visual aid is a great thing.  It can be a picture, diagram, shadowbox, lego, minecraft, sketchup or anything you like.
Short 1-2 page technical writing on your topic.
I drew the pieces of paper out of the bowl in this order so here are the assignments for each child:
Short Technical Writing on this item and how it is made, used, or played etc.
A visual effect for you to show when you speak next week.  Let's make this super fun and exciting.
Music of the Lyre, Clothing, laying out an ancient Mesopotamian City, Foods of Ancient Mesopotamia (maybe making flat bread or something like that)  We can also use Greek yogurt with honey?, Brick Homes and Brick Making, Bitumen, Reed Houses, Irrigation, Ziggurat, Game of Ur
Next week we mention Gilgamesh so if you can get a copy and start on it great.  You guys rock!  So glad you are all in this adventure with us.  Remember to check you tube for help with the how to part of the assignment.  Can't wait to see what the kids come up with.  Remember this is FUN!
Make your fishing net. Use the Youtube link on the Resources Pages.