Mr.

Hughes’ Study Sheet on Mesopotamia

The Fertile Crescent The Sumerians were
polytheistic, which means
Civilization developed slowly in different parts
they believed in many gods.
of the world. People began to settle in areas with
They worshiped their gods at
abundant natural resources. A section of the Middle
huge temples in the center of
East is called the Fertile Crescent. The Fertile Crescent
their cities called ziggurats.
is a rich food-growing area in a part of the world where
Each ziggurat was dedicated
most of the land is too dry for farming. The Fertile
to a specific god, whom the Sumerians believed ruled
Crescent is a crescent shaped region that extends from
over their city. When one city was conquered, the
the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian
invaders would force the conquered people to accept
Gulf.
their gods.
Some of the best farmland of the Fertile
Crescent is on a narrow strip of land between the Tigris
and Euphrates Rivers. The Greeks later called this Civilization
region Mesopotamia, which means “between the rivers.” There are many ways to define a civilization, but
Many different civilizations developed in this small most scholars agree that when a society begins to form
region. First came the Sumerians, who were replaced in cities, it becomes a civilization. Most civilizations have
turn by the Assyrians and the Babylonians. Today this the following elements:
land is known as Iraq and is the place where many U.S. • Centralized government. This is a government
soldiers are fighting for democracy in that land. that controls all aspects of a civilization
• Division of Labor. This is splitting all the jobs of a
The Sumerians civilization among many workers. (usually ones
The Sumerians moved to the Tigris and you are good at)
Euphrates Rivers about 3500BC, but we do not know • Organized religion. This is usually when you have
where they came from. They were probably nomads a structure for your religious beliefs that is observed
who discovered the fertile land between the rivers. throughout your civilization
Nomads travel in small groups until they have eaten the • Art, Architecture and public Works- this
food that grows wild and hunted the animals in the area. includes buildings, literature and public work
When food is no longer plentiful, they move to a new projects to keep a steady supply of food. Eg.
area. Some people continue to live like this in remote Irrigation of land and controlling of the floods.
parts of the world to this day. • Writing. This allowed societies to keep records
Eventually the Sumerians developed a and communicate.
civilization. They learned that by planting seeds and
plowing their land, they were able to grow crops. They Numbering Years
learned to domesticate, or tame animals to help them In ancient calendars, years were generally
plow their lands. The Sumerians learned to use numbered according to the year of a ruler's reign, for
irrigation, or a system of watering crops, to grow more example, the third year of Hammurabi’s rule. About
food. The Sumerians also made a very important AD525, a monk named Dionysius suggested that years be
invention--the wheel. The invention of the wheel made counted from the birth of Christ. Today we live in 2006,
it possible to pull heavy loads. which is sometimes written AD2006. AD refers to the term
Sumeria was composed of several city-states, or anno Domini, or “the year of the Lord.” The years
nations the size of cities. Walls around each city-state before the birth of Christ are numbered backward from
protected the citizens from outside invaders. Farmland his birth. The year before AD1 was 1 BC, or one year
was usually outside the city walls, and people would “before Christ.”
seek protection from the walls of the
city when under attack. Waterfront living
Most people live near water. If you look at any large city, you'll
probably find water nearby. People need the water for drink, cooking, cleaning
and transportation.
Mesopotamia, the "land between the rivers" is an obvious place for a
civilization. The Sumerians took an important step in changing their physical
environment by controlling the flooding of the rivers and building levees and
Ziggurat canals so they could irrigate their fields.
Writing Gilgamesh
Ancient Sumerian record keepers Gilgamesh is an ancient poem written in Mesopotamia more
marked pictographic symbols in soft pieces of than four thousand years ago. The poem tells of a great flood that
clay with a pointed reed. The clay tablets were covers the earth many years earlier, making it similar to the story of
then baked to make them hard. We call the Noah in the Old Testament of the Jewish and Christian holy books.
Sumerian’s Modern science has discovered that there was a marked
writing system increase in the sea levels about 6,000 years ago as the last ice age
cuneiform. ended. The melting ice drained to the oceans causing the sea level to
Cuneiform means rise more than ten feet in one century.
wedged shaped,
because the marks
in the clay were wedges. in stone and placed in a public location for everyone to
The first pictographs were simple. A writer see. Hammurabi required that people be responsible for
would draw an object like a fish or a broom to their actions. Some of Hammurabi’s laws were based on
communicate to others. This system worked well in a the principle “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.”
simple society, but it would be difficult to describe This means that whoever commits an injury should be
abstract concepts such as justice or liberty in punished in the same manner as that injury. If someone
pictographs. Many Chinese people continue to use a put out another person’s eye, their eye would be put out
pictographic system today, but the government has in return. Hammurabi’s Code may seem cruel today, but
endorsed the Pinyin system of phonetic writing. it was an early attempt at law. Laws are rules that are
Eventually, most cultures developed phonetic known to people.
writing systems where a symbol represents a sound
rather than an object. English speaking people, agree
that the symbols D-O-G refer to an animal
The Assyrians
Writing allowed civilization to
The Assyrians lived upstream on the Tigris
develop. River from the Babylonians. The people of the region
• Writing allowed people to keep records of their did not know how to
transactions. read, but about 1350BC,
• People could send messages with couriers to far they managed to
away lands without traveling. conquer all of
• Writing allowed people to pass on their accumulated Mesopotamia and
knowledge to future generations. build an empire that
reached as far as Egypt. The Assyrians developed
Hammurabi powerful armies with iron weapons. They dammed the
rivers leading into Babylon. This deprived the
Hammurabi was the king of the Babylonians of water. The Assyrians also used chariots,
city-state of Babylon. About 1800BC, which allowed them to move quickly, and battering
Hammurabi conquered the rams, heavy logs carried by many men to break down
nearby city-states and created the city walls. In time, the Medes and the Persians
kingdom of Babylonia. He recorded a conquered the Assyrians, The Medes and the Persians
system of laws called the Code of were two powerful civilizations east of Mesopotamia in
Hammurabi. The 282 laws were engraved land we now call Iran.