Ch4 5lecture
- 1. CHAPTER 4: The Rise of Sumerian City-States 1
- 2. Mesopotamia: The land between the rivers • Tigris & Euphrates Rivers • Modern-day Iraq • 1st cities appear In Sumer LINK: Interactive Timeline & Map 2
- 3. City-States • Earliest cities date back to 3500 BCE • Each city was like a small, independent country • Each had its own ruler • Each had its own farmlands 3
- 4. Southern Mesopotamia was NOT an easy place to live! • A lot of sun = VERY HOT • Very little rain = not enough water • Rivers would flood • Soil was hard and dry • Few trees • Stones were scarce (very few) • Few natural barriers 4
- 5. A Difficult Environment Mesopotamians were farmers Farms need water 4 Key Problems: 1. Food shortages in the hills 2. Uncontrolled water supply on the plains 3. Difficulties building and maintaining irrigation systems to serve several villages at once 4. Attacks by neighboring communities Q: What might neighbors fight over? 5
- 6. Food Shortages By 5000 BCE there is not enough land in the foothills to grow enough food for everyone Climate: Foothills: mild weather, plentiful rain, timber for building Plains: dry, little rain, no trees or stones for building, rivers that flood The plains were called Sumer and the people who lived there were called Sumerians Q: Why did people move to the plains? 6
- 7. Uncontrolled Water Supply in the River Valley • Spring: rain and melted snow from the mountains flood the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers • Rest of the year: sunbaked soil, dry, hard as stone • Either too much water or not enough • Sumerians built levees&dams 7
- 9. Building and Maintaining a Complex Irrigation System • Canals bring water from the river • Irrigation passed through many villages • Silt clogs canals • Working together helped communities grow SILT VERY FINE MUD 9
- 10. Village Town City 10
- 11. Attacks by Neighboring Communities • Cities fought over the right to use water. • The plains offer no natural barriers for protection. • Sumerians build walls to protect their cities. 11
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- 13. Was Ancient Sumer a Civilization? Social Structure Stable Food Government Supply Technology Religion Writing Civilization The Arts 13
- 14. Sumerian Civilization Social Plow Class King Wheel Ziggurat Cuneiform SUMER Music 14
- 15. Summary 1. The people of Mesopotamia solved problems in order to live successfully in their environment 2. Their solutions led to building large walled city states 3. Sumer had a complex social structure, government, religion, and culture 4. Sumer was one of the world’s first civilizations 15