1. Mesopotamia “The Land Between Two Rivers”
We will Locate The Fertile Crescent, where Ancient Middle Eastern civilizations developed.
Mesopotamia
“The Land Between Two Rivers”

2. Vocabulary
Silt – soil from the river bottom; flooding caused it to cover the land; good for farming
Fertile Crescent – a region in Southwest Asia; site of first civilizations
Scribe – a professional writer

8. Rivers of Life and Death
The Tigris and Euphrates were the source of life.
Melting snow from the mountains flooded the land.
The flood left the silt on the plains below.
Farmers grew crops.
Rivers supplied fish, clay for building, and reeds for boats.
The rivers brought sorrow.
Floods did not happen at the same time each year.
Floods raced down without warning, sweeping away people, houses, crops, and animals.
Survivors would rebuild and hope the next time it would be better.

9. World Cultures Home Page ©1996, Richard Hooker Updated 9-12-97
Timeline ©WSU, 1993
World Cultures Home Page ©1996, Richard Hooker Updated

10. 6500 B.C., people began to settle.
Plows were used.
They built canals.
Made pottery from clay
Houses were made from mud.
Wheel – caused growth in the area

11. The cities grew larger. A new invention helped cities grow. It
Uruk
Towns grew into cities.
The cities grew larger. A new
invention helped cities grow. It
was the wheel. Using wheels,
people could ride in wagons.
They could travel farther.
They no longer had to carry
everything on their backs.
The wheel is said to have
been invented in Uruk (OOruk).
It may be the reason that
so many people moved there.
As many as 50,000 people may
have lived in the city of Uruk.

13. Mesopotamian religion was basically characterized by polytheism.
Mesopotamian mythology provides evidence of a number of gods and goddesses.
The Gods represented places and powers in ancient Mesopotamia.
Priests were an important part of the Mesopotamian social structure.
Temples, or ziggurats, could be found anywhere in the city.
An was the primary god of Mesopotamians who was the god of heavens.

14. The main Sumerian gods are:
Anu: god of heaven
Enlil: god of the air
Enki: god of freshwater, fertility and knowledge
Ereshkigal: goddess of the underworld
Inanna: goddess of warfare and love; matron deity of Uruk
Ninhursag: goddess of the earth
Nanna: god of the moon; one of the patron deities of Ur
Ninurta: god of war, agriculture, one of the Sumerian wind gods;
Utu: god of the sun

15. Uruk
Uruk was one of the first major cities in the history of the world.
It reached its peak around 2900 BC when it had an estimated population of over 50,000 people, making it the largest city in the world.
Uruk was located in southern Mesopotamia along the banks of the Euphrates River.
It was the center of the Sumerian civilization.
It was able to grow so large because of advanced farming and irrigation techniques.
The surplus of food made the city rich.
The most famous king of Uruk was Gilgamesh. He was later turned into a mythical hero through the tales of his exploits and superhuman strength in the Epic of Gilgamesh.

16. Mesopotamia in the News
Ancient tablet reveals lost chapter of "Epic of Gilgamesh" A new chapter in the ancient "Epic of Gilgamesh" has been found within a set of clay tablets the Sulaymaniyah Museum in Iraq bought from a smuggler. The tablet describes in more detail a forest for the gods and also provides fresh insight into the tales' heroes' inner conflict. The 20 new lines have been fully translated, and the tablet is on display at the museum. LiveScience.com (10/2)

17. Akkad
The city of Akkad was the center of the world's first empire, the Akkadian Empire.
The people of Akkad, under the leadership of Sargon the Great, conquered many of the Sumerian city-states and took control of Mesopotamia.
The Akkadian language took the place of Sumerian and continued to be the primary language of the region into the Babylonian and Assyrian Empires.
Archeologists still haven't found the city of Akkad and are unsure where it is located. It was likely located in southern Mesopotamia just east of the Tigris River.

18. Babylon
Babylon was the capital city and center of the Babylonian Empire.
During its peak, Babylon was the largest city in the world with populations exceeding 200,000 people.
It was home to kings such as Hammurabi and Nebuchadnezzar as well as the fabled Hanging Gardens of Babylon, which are one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
Babylon is located in central Mesopotamia along the banks of the Euphrates River.
Today the ruins of the city can be found around 50 miles south of Baghdad, Iraq.
Babylon is mentioned several times in the Bible.