Mesopotamia 8 Flashcards
Mesopotamia means…
-“land between two rivers”(Greek)
-“cradle of civilzations”(Greek)
What two rivers is mesopotamia in between?
Tigris and Eupharates
Why was land so fertile?
annual flooding brought silt that made the ideal land to farm
silt
small particles of rich soil and tiny rocks good for growing crops
Fertile Cresent
an area of rich farmland extending from the Perisan Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea and into Egypt’s Nile delta
Mesopotamia is located in present-day…
Iraq
What was used to control the flow of water from the rivers?
canals, dikes, dams
Irrigation
a way of supplying water to an area of land
Canals
human-made waterways
Surplus
an overbundance of food
Most popular crops for farmers to grow
grain, wheat, barley ,and dates
Sumer Civilzation
-developed the world’s first civilzation
-made up of city-states
-religion played a huge role
-Sumerians were polytheistic
-Ziggurats were the focal point of the city-state
City-State
a political unit that consists of a walled city with rural areas of land on the outskirts of the walls
Polytheistic
the belief of many gods
Ziggurat
a temple tower which rose above each city and was the focal point
Priests significance
they performed religious ceremonies to gain the gods favor
City-State Characteristics
-large
-walls around it
-farmland outside of wall
-developed armies to protect
Sumerians Developed
-wheels
-sailboats
-sanitation
-chariot
-medicine
-Number 60 system mathmatics
-roads
-cuneiform
Wheel purpose
-used for carts and wagon
-plow for farming
-potter’s wheel
Sanitatoin purpose
-sewer systems
Medience purpose
develpoed medience for treating for wounds/illness
Cuneiform
-use symbols called pictographs
-they used clay tablets and a stylus
Scribes
writers, who kept track of items people traded and wrote down government records.
Epics
long poems that tell the stories of heroes