City-States in Mesopotamia

NAME: Leah Baratz

City-States in Mesopotamia enter most careers and could own property, but KEY IDEA The first civilization in the world there were some limits on them. arose in Mesopotamia. It took the form of city- The people of Sumer invented the sail, states the wheel, and the plow. They were the first to There is an arc of rich land in Southwest Asia use bronze. They also developed the first writing that is called the Fertile Crescent. Two of its system—on clay tablets. They invented rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, flow arithmetic and geometry, which they used to help southeastward toward the Persian Gulf. Each them build large structures. spring the snow in nearby Turkish mountains Centuries of fighting between the city- melts, swelling the rivers. This flooding leaves states made the Sumerians weak. In 2350 B.C., rich mud in the plain between the rivers. Because the conqueror Sargon defeated Sumer and of this, many thousands of years ago humans captured other cities to the north. By bringing began to settle in that plain, known as together many different groups, he made the Mesopotamia. They grew wheat and barley. It world’s first empire. It spread the culture of was here that the first civilization began. Sumer to a wider area. A few hundred years About 3500 B.C., the Sumerians moved later, a different group of people conquered the into this region and settled. They faced three Sumerian region. These people were led by a problems. First, the floods were not regular. One king named Hammurabi, who is famous for his year they would come in April, and the next year code of laws. It was a harsh code that punished they might come in June. Once the flood passed, people for wrongdoing. However, it also made it the hot sun quickly baked the land into clay. clear that the government had some Second, the small farming villages had no responsibility for taking care of its people. protection against enemies. Third, the area QUESTIONS: lacked stone, wood, and metal to use for tools. 1. What attracted people to settle in The Sumerians solved these problems. Mesopotamia? They dug ditches from the river to their fields so The yearly floods that made the soil rich in they could bring water to their crops. They built water, was a main reason that people wanted walls of baked mud around their villages for to settle in Mesopotamia. Because of this defense. Because they could grow more food resource, farming was a lot easier. Fertile than they needed, they traded the extra for stone, land wood, and metal from other lands. 2. What was one of the problems the Several large city-states were at the early settlers of Mesopotamia faced? center of the Sumerian world. These cities had One of the problems that the early settlers of control over a surrounding area and could act Mesopotamia faced was the lacking of stone, independently much like a country does today. wood, and metal, to use for tools. Slowly some people rose to power in many of 3. What was one solution to a problem? the city-states. They became rulers, as did their Sumerians traded the surplus of their children after them. Rule of an area by the same agriculture to other countries. They traded family is called a dynasty. for stone, metal, and wood. The Sumerians believed in many gods, 4. What kind of government was there? each of whom had power over different forces The government was controlled by each of nature or parts of their lives. People, they city-state. Monarchy, theocracy thought, were just the servants of the gods. They 5. What was one aspect of the Sumerian believed that the souls of the dead went to a religion? joyless place under the earth’s crust. These views They believed in all g-ds, which had spread to other areas and shaped the ideas of different forces or natures. Also, they other peoples. believed in an afterlife. Nature g-ds. Society was divided into social classes. 6. What were two of the inventions At the top were the priests and kings, after whom from Sumer? came wealthy merchants. Next were ordinary The wheel, plow, and sail Sumerian workers in fields and workshops. 7. Who was the most famous ruler of Slaves made up the lowest level. Women could the region and what was he famous for? (next page) King Hammurabi was most famous for making his harsh codes (Hammurabi Code). Theses laws punished people for wrongdoing.