sumerian city
Post on 19-Aug-2015
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- 1. The Rise of Sumerian City-States
- 2. Mesopotamia: The land between the rivers Tigris & Euphrates Rivers Modern-day Iraq 1st cities appear In Sumer LINK: Interactive Timeline & Map
- 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
- 4. 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. Food Shortages By 5000 BCE there is not enough land in the foothills to grow enough food for everyone Q: Why did people move to the plains? 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
- 6. 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. Euphrates river canal
- 8. 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. Village Town City
- 10. 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. Was Ancient Sumer a Civilization? CivilizationWriting Technology Stable Food Supply Social Structure Government Religion The Arts
- 12. Sumerian Civilization SUMERCuneiform Wheel Plow Social Class King Ziggurat Music
- 13. 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 worlds first civilizations
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