We will Locate The Fertile Crescent, where Ancient Middle Eastern civilizations developed.

Mesopotamia“The Land Between

Two Rivers”

Vocabulary

• Silt – soil from the river bottom; flooding caused it to cover the land; good for farming

• Fertile Crescent – a region in Southwest Asia; site of first civilizations

• Scribe – a professional writer

Rivers of Life and Death

• The Tigris and Euphrates were the source of life.– Melting snow from the

mountains flooded the land.

– The flood left the silt on the plains below.

– Farmers grew crops.– Rivers supplied fish, clay

for building, and reeds for boats.

• The rivers brought sorrow.– Floods did not happen at

the same time each year.– Floods raced down

without warning, sweeping away people, houses, crops, and animals.

– Survivors would rebuild and hope the next time it would be better.

Timeline ©WSU, 1993

World Cultures Home Page

©1996, Richard Hooker Updated 9-12-97

Change to . . .

6500 B.C., people began to settle.

• Plows were used.• They built canals.• Made pottery from clay• Houses were made from mud.• Wheel – caused growth in the area

Uruk

Towns grew into cities.The cities grew larger. A new

invention helped cities grow. Itwas the wheel. Using wheels,people could ride in wagons.

They could travel farther.They no longer had to carryeverything on their backs.The wheel is said to have

been invented in Uruk (OOruk).It may be the reason that

so many people moved there.As many as 50,000 people mayhave lived in the city of Uruk.

• Mesopotamian religion was basically characterized by polytheism.

• Mesopotamian mythology provides evidence of a number of gods and goddesses.

• The Gods represented places and powers in ancient Mesopotamia.

• Priests were an important part of the Mesopotamian social structure.

• Temples, or ziggurats, could be found anywhere in the city.• An was the primary god of Mesopotamians who was the god of

heavens.

The main Sumerian gods are:• Anu: god of heaven• Enlil: god of the air • Enki: god of freshwater, fertility and knowledge• Ereshkigal: goddess of the underworld• Inanna: goddess of warfare and love; matron deity of Uruk• Ninhursag: goddess of the earth• Nanna: god of the moon; one of the patron deities of Ur• Ninurta: god of war, agriculture, one of the Sumerian wind

gods;• Utu: god of the sun

Uruk

• Uruk was one of the first major cities in the history of the world. • It reached its peak around 2900 BC when it had an estimated

population of over 50,000 people, making it the largest city in the world.

• Uruk was located in southern Mesopotamia along the banks of the Euphrates River.

• It was the center of the Sumerian civilization. • It was able to grow so large because of advanced farming and

irrigation techniques. • The surplus of food made the city rich.

• The most famous king of Uruk was Gilgamesh. He was later turned into a mythical hero through the tales of his exploits and superhuman strength in the Epic of Gilgamesh.

Mesopotamia in the News

• Ancient tablet reveals lost chapter of "Epic of Gilgamesh" A new chapter in the ancient "Epic of Gilgamesh" has been found within a set of clay tablets the Sulaymaniyah Museum in Iraq bought from a smuggler. The tablet describes in more detail a forest for the gods and also provides fresh insight into the tales' heroes' inner conflict. The 20 new lines have been fully translated, and the tablet is on display at the museum. LiveScience.com (10/2)

Akkad

• The city of Akkad was the center of the world's first empire, the Akkadian Empire.

• The people of Akkad, under the leadership of Sargon the Great, conquered many of the Sumerian city-states and took control of Mesopotamia.

• The Akkadian language took the place of Sumerian and continued to be the primary language of the region into the Babylonian and Assyrian Empires.

• Archeologists still haven't found the city of Akkad and are unsure where it is located. It was likely located in southern Mesopotamia just east of the Tigris River.

Babylon • Babylon was the capital city and center of the

Babylonian Empire. • During its peak, Babylon was the largest city in the

world with populations exceeding 200,000 people. • It was home to kings such as Hammurabi and

Nebuchadnezzar as well as the fabled Hanging Gardens of Babylon, which are one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

• Babylon is located in central Mesopotamia along the banks of the Euphrates River.

• Today the ruins of the city can be found around 50 miles south of Baghdad, Iraq.

• Babylon is mentioned several times in the Bible.