Mesopotamia Flashcards
Mesopotamia:
“land between two rivers” and “cradle of civilization”
2 rivers Mesopotamia is between
Tigris and Euphrates
What brought silt that made the ideal land for farming?
Annual flooding
Fertile Crescent
an area of rich farmland extending from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea and into Egypt’s Nile delta.
Mesopotamia is located mostly in present-day…
Iraq
Why is land so fertile?
Contains silt
Farmers used what to control the flow of water from the rivers?
canals, dikes, and dams
Irrigation
A way of supplying water to an area of land
Canals
Human-made waterways
Surplus
An overabundance of food is called a
Farmers grew what?
grain (wheat), barley, and dates
Division of Labor
Specialization where people had skilled and/or specialized jobs
Who helped contribute to the economic success of the city-state?
Merchants, artisans, and traders
Sumerians developed the world’s…
first civilization.
Sumer was made up of many political units called?
city-states.
A city-state
a political unit that consists of a walled city with rural areas of land (farms) on the outskirts of the walls.
What played a huge role in their civilization?
Religion
Sumerians were…
Polytheistic which means they believed in many gods
Priests had a high social status because…
they performed religious ceremonies to gain the gods favor
A ziggurat is?
a temple tower, rose above each city and was the focal point of the city-state.
City State Characteristics
Large walls surround it, farmland outside of wall, developed armies to protect
Sumerians developed…
Wheels, Sailboat, Sanitation, Chariot, Medicine, Number 60 system (time) mathematics, Roads, Cuneiform - first writing system
Wheels
Used for carts and wagon, plow for farming, Potter’s wheel
Sanitation
Sewer systems
